{"id":1959,"date":"2016-04-10T23:54:51","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T05:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2016-04-10T23:54:51","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T05:54:51","slug":"everywhere-we-turn-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1959","title":{"rendered":"Everywhere We Turn in Rome . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"
there are breathtaking plazas and beautifully-hued, colorful Italian buildings.\u00a0 We started our second touring day (Saturday) with a 3-hour walking tour beginning at the gate that Julius Caesar entered Rome after conquering the French. \u00a0This important gate is located at the “Porta del Popolo” Piazza meaning The People’s Square. \u00a0The Piazza (Plaza) also contains one of 3 original Egyptian\u00a0obelisks that the Romans brought home. \u00a0It is one of the largest public squares that we have visited so far in our travels. We continued wandering the narrow streets stopping at Augustus Caesar’s memorial (he is considered the greatest of the\u00a0emperors as he “turned Rome from a city of clay to a city of marble” with his extensive building projects and 100 years of peace). \u00a0This mausoleum looks very unkept and we were told that it was once home to a vast colony of cats in the 1980’s. \u00a0Although we saw no signs of renovation, apparently, this mausoleum is now being restored.<\/div>\n
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We then proceeded to The Pantheon which is absolutely an amazing construction feat. \u00a0The large round hall’s roof is an engineering masterpiece since it contains no visible supports and has a large center opening in the ceiling. \u00a0It is the largest brick dome in the history of architecture. \u00a0While strolling over to the The Piazza Navona, we came across the Fiumi fountain (Fountain of the Four Rivers) which represents the 4 most significant rivers of the 4 continents at the time of its construction.\u00a0\u00a0The marble that was used to create these impressive four river gods even has small veins in it. \u00a0They actually look like the blood veins of the statues! We passed by some ancient Roman baths on the way to Castel Sant’Angelo. \u00a0The interesting fact about the baths is that there was an army of hundreds of slaves, that were kept out of sight of bathers but scurried along the tunnels feeding sometimes 50 ovens with tons of wood a day to heat water surging through a network of underground channels that arrived via an aqueduct from a source 60+ miles away. \u00a0The slaves had to continually keep the appropriate heat for the spas hot; so, they spent lengthy hours underground.<\/div>\n
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Our last stop on our walking tour was the Castel Sant’Angelo. \u00a0It was originally commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. \u00a0This rotunda-type building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle and is now a museum. \u00a0It was surprising to find out that the Castle was once the tallest building in Rome!<\/div>\n
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We finished the day with a walk along some of Rome’s most prestigious high-end shopping areas near the Spanish Steps. \u00a0The crowds were massive but many more looky-loos than shoppers. \u00a0There are numerous revitalization projects within Rome and many large buildings are draped in\u00a0scaffolding\u00a0and cloth to hide the work. \u00a0The one\u00a0consistency\u00a0was the Samsung Galaxy 7 billboards on these buildings-so historical!<\/div>\n
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\"Piazza<\/a>
Piazza Popolo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Egyptian<\/a>
Egyptian Obelisk captured by the Romans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"OLYMPUS<\/a>
Plaza Popolo with the Samsung ad on the building being renovated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Neighborhood<\/a>
Neighborhood Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pantheon\"<\/a>
Pantheon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pantheon<\/a>
Pantheon amazing engineering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Inside<\/a>
Inside the Pantheon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"4<\/a>
4 Rivers Fountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"He<\/a>
He represents the Nile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of the many pilgrimages to the Vatican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dior\"<\/a>
Dior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shopping<\/a>
Shopping Crowds on Saturday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Always<\/a>
Always interesting window displays<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Riverfront<\/a>
Riverfront living at its best!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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there are breathtaking plazas and beautifully-hued, colorful Italian buildings.\u00a0 We started our second touring day (Saturday) with a 3-hour walking tour beginning at the gate that Julius Caesar entered Rome after conquering the French. \u00a0This important gate is located at the “Porta del Popolo” Piazza meaning The People’s Square. \u00a0The Piazza (Plaza) also contains one … Continue reading Everywhere We Turn in Rome . . .<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-vB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1976,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}