Vacation Reviews
·
Visited
the
FORO ROMANO
(Roman Forum). This was the civic heart of Republican Rome. Although it is
today no more than a series of isolated marble fragments, columns, and
arches, it once was filled with magnificent temples, palaces, and shops -
and with people from all parts of the world. It embraces the ruins of almost
900 years, from about 500 BC to AD 400, and making sense of it is not
easy; you may want just to wander, letting your imagination dwell on Cicero,
Julius Caesar, and Mark Anthony, who delivered the funeral address in
Caesar's honor from the rostrum just left of the
Arco di Settimio Severo
(Arch of Septimius Severus).
-
Visited
the
PANTHEON.
This one-time pagan temple, a marvel of architectural harmony and
proportion, is the best preserved monument of Imperial Rome. The Pantheon was
built in 27 BC by Augustus's general Agrippa, totally rebuilt by Hadrian in
the 2nd century AD, and consecrated as a church in the Middle Ages. Note the
bronze doors, the originals, and note the equal proportions of the height of
the dome and the diameter of the building's circular walls. In earlier times
the dome was gilded; legend has it that this gold was pilfered to gild the
baldachin over the altar in St. Peter's.
-
Visited
The Arch of Titus: this
arch at the eastern end of the Roman Forum was erected in AD 81 by the
emperor Domitian, to commemorate military victories in
Judea under Titus and Vespacian. The single archway, noted for
its fine proportions, contains relief sculptures of Roman victory
celebrations.
·
Visited
the
Mamertine Prison,
located beneath the church
of S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami.
It consists of two chambers, one above the other. The lower, known as the
Tullianum, was probably built
originally as a cistern. The
Tullianum is a circular chamber, partly excavated from the rock, and partly
built of tufa blocks, each layer of masonry projecting a little over that
immediately below so as to form a conical vault. When the upper chamber was
constructed, the top of the cone was probably cut off, and the present roof,
consisting of a flat arch of tufa blocks, substituted. The upper chamber is an
irregular quadrilateral, and contains an inscription recording a restoration
made in
A.D.
21. The two chambers are at present connected by a stairway, but originally
there was no means of communication between them save a hole in the floor of the
upper chamber. The name Mamertine Prison is medieval, and is probably derived
from the temple
of Mars Ultor in the
vicinity. The medieval "Itinerary" of Einsiedeln alludes to the "fountain of St.
Peter, where also is his prison".
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