Visit to Rome - A memoir

Now it is 2.5 months after that visit. I have some photographs, few recordings, a map of Rome and some fainting memories to fuel this post. I deeply regret that, i thought to have a post for this, so late.

"Rome was not built in one day." - John Heywood, English Playwright and Poet, 1497-1580.
That was a different story.

When John Heywood quoted that, he might not have thought about another possibility with the subject. Here it goes...

"Rome can be seen in one day." - this one is mine, ;)

[Flash Back: It was all planned hastily when one in our group got pissed off with the routine desk job we all used to do. Well, good one!, every one was interested.. wonder why not!
We were lucky to get tickets in a Ryanair(that one is cheapest here) Boeing 737-800 flight on 1st Sept 2007.]

ROME: A Highlight

The legend says that the city of Rome was found by the twins Romulus and Remus. Nevertheless, centuries of wisdom was involved in the formulation of Rome.
Here, I would like to highlight some key places which always had attracted attention in the roman history.

The Colosseum:

One of the masterpiece of roman engineering, the Flavian Amphitheatre (Officially) was a project flagged off by the roman emperor Vespasian.

Facts:
Colosseum was built by prisoners, mainly jews in a mere 5 years span. At any moment it had the capacity for entry or exit of 10,000 people through its state of art design. Can you imagine a sea battle being held in this structure?

Yes, impossible is nothing.



One another fact which i thought worth mentioning here is the cross someone has installed in the stands of the Colosseum.

It is said that the cross has been installed for the memory of christians who were killed in the colosseum combats. But, there has been no historical evidence of christians been killed here.

[Img: The cross inside the Colosseum]




The Pantheon:

Pantheon aka 'The temple of all gods', was
dedicated to the roman gods by emperor Trajan.

The structure was converted to a christian church from a pagan temple with the help of the
Byzantine emperor Foca.

The amazing part of this structure is that its huge concrete dome is not reinforced!
[Img: The Pantheon]



The Roman Forums:

The Roman forums were the famous amongst many other forums in Rome.
Roman forums consisted of vast line of structures involving temples, basilicas and arches.

Most of them were dedicated to emperors and gods.

[Img: Roman Forums]

One of the structures found worth mentioning here is the temple of vesta.
It housed the sacred eternal flame which was the symbol of the eternal life of Rome.
The flame was guarded by the Vestal virgins, six girls who were chosen at age of 6 to serve the next 30 years of their life as virgin .

Fact: 10 girls was buried alive in the history of Vesta... they broke the rule.
[Img: House of vestal virgins]



The Vatican City:

The smallest independent country of the world houses the famous arts of artists like Bernini
and Michelangelo.

Never miss the Vatican museums if you visit the Vatican.

Fact:
The military of Vatican city involves the Swiss Guards. It does not have army.



~Varia~

Planning a visit? Here are some things that you need to take care of:

Accommodation:
Book a hotel room well in advance of your trip. It will be quite difficult to stay in railway station or streets :)

Safety:
They says... in streets, never carry your backpack at your back! It should be rather used as a frontpack ;)..

Transport in Rome:
Rome has 2 metro lines. Each stop will be having one/more monuments in that place. No worries about searching a place :) .
Get a map of Rome from any store there. Everything will be there that map.
And yes.. get a day pass for the metro :)

Places to visit:
I found that the following were my favorites after my visit.
a. The Vatican Museum and Church.
b. The Colosseum and The Roman Forums
c. The Isola(The Tiber Island, Island between two bridges)
d. The Castle of Saint Angelo
e. The Trevi fountain
f. The arch of Titus(Near Roman Forum)
g. The piazza del popolo(The Obelisk from Heliopolis, Egypt is an attraction here.)

Ps: Make sure that you go for a guided tour in Colosseum. The guides will associate the Roman Forum tour together with the Colosseum tour. It is really worth to pay for a guided tour here... if you are interested in history of Colosseum and Roman forums.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bought a sculpture at the Rome airport - as a token of my visit of Rome.
In it, it was written - La Pieta Di Michelangelo - The sculpture by Michelangelo which shows Mary holding the body of Jesus after he was taken down from cross.