Doh......RUINS means they are in ruins!

31.05.2015

My first bus ride into Rome took me 20 minutes into what is considered the centre of Rome, the Piazza Venezia. It took me past hundreds of apartment buildings, many with shops on the ground floor, and many with signs of a city that has given up on dealing with crude graffiti, which together with some areas looking run-down and unloved, made me wonder "where was the eternal city of Rome". It wasn't in the overcrowded suburbs. The next day my judgemental stance had softened as I realised my preconceptions about the splendour and glory of Rome could not survive in the 21st century. Rome just is what it is, and it isn't Hollywood Rome. Getting off the bus I'm confronted with what some Roman's call the Wedding Cake, the National Monument to Victor Emmanual ( the first king of a unified Italy). It is a grand statement in gleaming white marble, which was built into the side of the Capitoline Hill, in 1920. In 1921 the Tomb of the unknown soldier with an eternal guard and flames, was added to the front of the monument. In the Monument are several displays and a museum devoted to the Italian Armed forces. After spending an hour or so looking around I decided to join the hundreds of tourists heading in the midday sun down past the Roman forum ruins to the Colosseum. I walked past enclosed areas of ruins on either side, which may have held more value if I had paid to go on a guided tour with someone who knew their history, but it wasn't until I got into the shadow of the Colosseum, that I really felt that I was somewhere special. I mean this place had been built by the year 80 AD, and that makes it really ancient. Ther was about a 2 hour queue to pay to go inside so I headed back in the hope of finding my way to the Pantheon. It was a real mission and I got lost a couple of times , and then I turned a corner and there it was. The Pantheon is a circular building, finished by the emperor Hadrian in 126 AD, and almost 2000 years after it was built it is still the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome. The first thing that you notice when you walk inside is the central circular opening to the sky through which sunlight streams through to shine brightly on and reveal a section of the interior wall leaving the rest of the space in semi darkness by contrast. Since the 7th century it has been used as a church, which continues to hold services even as the tourists walk around taking photos. It is a truly impressive place, and it is one of the very few buildings of that age in the world that are still standing. From there I wound my weary way home for a glass of my favourite Pata Negra 3 euro a bottle red wine and a lie down. Rome had worn me out....

monument to Victor Emmanuel