As we transitioned to the second era of world domination in the heart of Rome, we were quickly able to notice the differences. With large-scale buildings like the Colosseum, Rome took on concepts used in ancient Greece to make their own massive construction projects to demonstrate their power. Pillars were made similar to the Greeks with dowels in between to allow for movement from earthquakes, lead was filled in the cracks. But the major difference was Rome adopted the Macedonian method of arches for artistic look and sturdiness in a stadium that mounts 187 feet in height. While the Greek masterpieces portrayed an elegance and scale that respects human dignity as they say, the Roman empire built things as if they were meant for gods. From the Colosseum we traveled over to the Roman Forum, the most powerful acreage in world history. This is a bold statement but by the looks of old pictures portraying the masterful marble-coated empire did not disappoint. We could see only a slight resemblance of the old empire, but just being at the sight and hearing the rich history from our tour guide put things into perspective. Whether it was during the era of the republic, the era of emperors, or popes, this was quite literally the center of the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. Wars were won, cities were conquered, and all its spoiled were brought right to the center of the world in the Roman Forum. We ended our tour of these two remarkable places with quite literally one of the best sandwiches I have had before (picture shown below).
Visiting the Sistine Chapel for the second time in my life was just as sweet. I remember as a young kid wanting to stay as long as I could to gaze at the masterful work of Michael Angelo I learned about in school, but the tour guide insisted we get moving. “30 seconds on the greatest ceiling art in the world?” I thought. This time I made sure to spend many minutes staring at the symbolic imagery and its theological significance. It was pretty crazy to see what existed within the walls of a Catholic establishment that is considered its own country. The construction of St. Peters Bastillica is magnificent. This church that boasts the tallest cathedral in the world makes it hard to believe it was constructed before they had cranes and large machinery. Its interior carving and gold plating is magnificent. Its hard to struggle to see the elegance, power, and significance of the Roman Empire at that time.
We stumbled around the streets and subway system to cover a decent portion of Rome and all its glory as well as buying handcrafted Italian leather and silk ties, eating fantastic pizza and pastas, and enjoying cheap but tasty wine. Rome was really quite the experience.
