More Rome Pics

I've been home for a week now, and am enjoying kicking back and sleeping in my own bed...that will probably last for about a month, then I'll start getting itchy feet.  Thought I'd blog some more pix...the photos loaded quite slowly in many places overseas so I didn't post as many as I intended.  This pic was taken my first day in Rome at the Piazza del Popolo.  It's only two blocks from my apartment and is a great spot to people watch and take in the scene.  The obelisk in the piazza was brought to Rome from Egypt by Augustus around 27 BC after he defeated Antony and Cleopatra and broke up their relationship.  Actually they both committed suicide...Augustus didn't give them much choice.  Augustus preferred to be a benign, wise, just ruler, especially in his later years; but he had nooo trouble being a hardass if that was necessary.

A closeup of the obelisk.  History does have a different dimension in Italy than in the US...here something a couple hundred years old is considered ancient, especially in the west.  In Italy of course, many landmarks have been around for two thousand years!  The Romans plundered Egypt, which was one of the richest spots in the ancient world.  There are Egyptian obelisks scattered all over Rome.

The Tiber River, Rome's historic artery.  Now a spot for houseboat residents and rowers.

An exterior view of the Pantheon, erected by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC under Augustus.  It's still one of the largest unsupported concrete domes in the world.

The famous Trevi fountain.  On a warm Saturday evening, thronged with tourons. 

Sitting on the Spanish Steps with most of the tourons who were not at the Trevi fountain.  All the spots in the previous pix were within easy walking distance of my apartment, which was in a really fine location in the Tridente section.  Tons of good restaurants and upscale shops in the 'hood.

Terme de Caracalla.  The emperor Caracalla built the world's first shopping mall/waterpark 1800 years ago, in the early third century AD.  There were swimming pools, hot and cold baths, stores, restaurants, etc.  It's still a huge complex, some of the most prominent ruins in Rome.  As you can see, quite a bit of the original tile still exists.

The baths originally had three floors...the upper two have long since collapsed.  Pieces of their floor tile remain, with many fancy designs worked into the tile.

The complex is huge...compare the ruins with the people among them.  The water for the baths was heated by slaves maintaining fires in underground ovens, then distributed into the various pools.  In addition to building these baths, accessible to everyone in Rome, Caracalla did another PR stunt during his term as emperor by making almost all free residents of the empire Roman citizens...previously only Italians and prestigious people elsewhere had that right.  But the emperor was no humanitarian...he was merely trying to raise more revenue, as only citizens paid taxes.  Caracalla eventually fell out with the army and they whacked him in 217 AD after a reign of only six years.

While I visited the Baths of Caracalla, thunder rumbled among the ruins, echoing through the brick walls.  Eventually the rain came down in buckets, causing street flooding.  This was at the end of September; like most of California, Rome has a Mediterranean climate with dry summers, but the dry season is much shorter than in the Golden State.  It's normal in Italy for the rains to start in September, at least a month earlier than in Cali.

The next morning, I climbed the stairs out of the Piazza Del Popolo and visited the Villa Borghese, Rome's equivalent of Golden Gate, Central, or Balboa Parks in SF, NYC, and San Diego.  The Villa is a vast expanse of woods, gardens, paths, restaurants, and museums that is an oasis of greenery and tranquility in the heart of the bustling Eternal City.  It's a fine place for a morning stroll, which can easily pass by a spot selling cappuccino and croissants.  Here some equestrians are exercising their steeds...most of the guys had police uniforms on, so they must be members of a mounted patrol.

St Peters, in the Vatican, viewed from the Villa Borghese.