Italy Part 13: Rome - Aqueducts!

Our last day in Rome, I went to the Park of the Aqueducts!


It was a beautiful day, perfect for a walk in the park. To get there, I had to walk from Campo dei Fiori to the bus stop, take the bus from Via Argentina to the Termini train station, and then from there take the Metro something like 12 stops southeast. Then I walked a few blocks and was greeted with this view:

Acqua Felice

And a bit further into the park, I found what I *really* came to see:

Acqua Claudia
This aqueduct was built at the direction of Caligula,
with the work beginning in AD 38 and ending in in AD 52.

There were several shorter segments of it still standing, in addition to the longer sections.

The wildflowers were beautiful!

According to the Italian Wikipedia article about this aqueduct, the height varies from 55' to 89',
the columns are 10 - 11' deep, and they are spaced about 18' apart.


See the people?

Because it is near Cinecitta, the Roman film studio,
this section of the aqueduct is often used as a filming location and
can be seen in many movies and TV series (I'm looking at you, "Rome"!).

Note: Although this post is about our last day in Rome, there's still one more to come: The Vatican, which we saw two days before the aqueducts. I've got nearly 70 "good" pictures to choose from (out of 143 that I took on that tour), so I've been putting it off. :)

Italy Part 12: Rome - Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon

After viewing the Colosseum in Rome, we took the Metro west a few stops and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. When we finished, the sky was starting to cloud up, but we decided to walk back to our apartment, checking out three important sites on the way.

First up was the Piazza di Spagna with its famous Spanish Steps. It was hard to get a good picture due to the hordes of other people with the same idea!

The Steps + The Tourists!

Where's Waldo, er, Gus?
Can you find him? :)

Waiting for interested tourists....

Then we walked in the rain to Trevi Fountain. It was difficult to get it all in one frame, especially when trying not to photograph all of the other tourists!











From there, we walked to the Pantheon:

Outside.

Inside. (Obviously.)
I'm not sure why those alcoves turned out green in this photo.
They were actually giving off a yellow-ish light, as can be seen in the next photo:

It's a very large room with a very large hole in the ceiling!

The oculus.

Italy Part 11: Rome - Colosseum

Our second day in Rome, we visited the Colosseum!

A view of the outside

The underground, with the partially-rebuilt floor at the far end


Same thing, but from higher up!

A closer look at the underground

It was a very large structure - it could hold 50,000+ people

The Emperor's box can be seen on the opposite side, ground level

The outside has been partially cleaned.

Colosseum cat!

The view across the street

Italy Part 10: Rome - Foro Romano

Our first full day in Rome, we went to see the ruins of the Foro Romano. According to the official tourist website of Rome,

"Many honorary monuments were erected in the area of the Forum in the Imperial Age;
the last of which is the column dedicated in 608 AD to emperor Foca.
The Forum was then abandoned and filled in by a thick layer of earth,
becoming a pasture known as Campus Vaccinus.
Some temples were transformed into churches,
allowing their preservation in the course of time.
During the Renaissance the area of the Forum Romanum
was used as a marble and stone quarry."

There were lots of ruins and crumbling arches; not much is left intact.

The Temple of Julius Caesar was built by Augustus on the location of Caesar's funeral pyre
and where Marc Antony gave his eulogy.
Most of the temple is gone; this memorial and a few broken walls are all that remains.

The hill with all the trees is the Palatine Hill, where the rich lived in their palaces.

The Colosseo - along with the Arch of Titus, center foreground - can be seen from the Palatine Hill.

Also located on the Palatine Hill, and recently rediscovered, is Augustus' house. Much of it has yet to be excavated, but we were able to go in parts of it and view several rooms and the restored murals on the walls:

Italy Part 9: Rome - Neighborhoods

We arrived in Rome mid-day on May 22. From the Termini train station, we walked about 50 minutes to our apartment just around the corner from Campo dei Fiori. It wasn't until we'd been there a couple days that we figured out the public transportation system and realized we could've made the journey by bus in maybe 10 minutes. :)

The street our apartment was on

Anyhow, Campo dei Fiori plays host to a huge farmers' market every morning.

A few of the many, many booths with fresh produce

Pasta. Just pasta!

Oils, pastas, pestos, etc....

We wandered up a few side streets and found:

Lovely Gucci ad....

Details of that big fountain in the middle,

the one with the obelisk sticking out of the top.

In the evening, we walked northwest until we came to the river. This view greeted us:

The dome of St. Peter's in the Vatican City

And when we turned slightly to the north, we saw:

Castel Sant'Angelo

I wanted to go in, but I didn't get the chance on this trip.
Next time!

Another evening, we took a walk in Trastevere - a neighborhood to the south of our apartment - and had dinner at a great little restaurant called Vincenzo alla Lungharezza. On the way there, I snapped this photo:

More later....