Feeling of the Day: Time is a fuzzy thing. The mind does not remember every single thing, just moments. When those same moments are connected to emotions there is a skewing of events as they happened. Add changes made to the environment or people or things over time and what was solid in your head becomes murky when revisited in person. It is an odd feeling to have.
Full Day’s Events: It is nice vacationing with a lazy schedule where you can shift what you want to do based on your current interest, or in this case…the weather. The day was predicted to be sunny so with our initial sunscreen armour applied, but lacking a cappuccino and pastry as a second breakfast, we decided to start with a familiar place nearby. The Pantheon!
Until Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore had their dome built by Brunelleschi, the dome of the Pantheon was the biggest. Built around 126 CE, the Pantheon dome is still the largest unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world thanks to the idea of taking away square chunks equally around the inside. The hole in the centre is to lighten the load in the middle and provide light.
We arrived earlier than it opened, about tenth in line at 915am in the “I don’t have an advance ticket or Romapass and am paying cash” line, and were glad we did. Last time we were here there was no cost to enter and people could just wander in and out. Back then we had encountered it at night, while walking to Piazza Nerone, and it was magical to be among the few who were there. Fast forward 11 years and by 0930 the lineups were long and folks were trundling up to the attendants to ask them which line was which. If the signage was just a few feet higher, with a larger font, it would be so much easier for everybody.
Opening time arrived. I bought our tickets and easing into the structure we slowly split apart as our eyes tried to take it all in again. The only barrier were the huge amounts of people, whom the attendants limited to a certain number. Personally, I thought the number was “murmuring mob” size, but I lived with it.
Memories of the past began to move up into the present. It is such a marvellous place that makes you relaxed and take a moment to wonder at the minds of long dead people who push the boundaries of what is possible. A part of me really likes to dip my toes in history, but I realize the root of that feeling is this appreciation for those before me who chose to make something better.
A place further South called to us, but we required sustenance of the liquid and caffeinated kind. We passed by Frullati Pascucci, a place on my list, and had a soul charging cappuccino. I also picked up a little box of Leone lemon flavoured candies while eyeing the sandwiches. In particular, the ones made fresh by the Nonna behind the counter made with zucchini flowers and anchovies attracted me. The sandwiches, not the Nonna. Alas, a sandwich would be had another day because the circus was calling.
Circus Maximus was the original track way back in the old kingdom days of Rome and was most likely just a flat area for the games held during special religious festivals, or ludi. As Rome grew so did the embellishments and events until, at the height of the Roman Empire, 137 days were dedicated to ludi where there would be religious processions, beast hunts, horse racing, and other festivities. It is the biggest circus that the Roman Empire made and it was still empty after 14 years.
I remember the disappointment I had when I saw it back then as an oval sunken area with some tufts of grass and a few overgrown stone stands exposed to the South East, with its medieval tower. Today, they were taking apart temporary structures used for Sunday’s marathon as this was the start and end line for that event. I did see, by the overgrown stones, a sectioned off area for a museum with virtual reality being offered. I didn’t need it, having read and researched more since then and knew what kind of grandiose structure could have been here before locals took the stones for other purposes. The important thing here was that in this place people gathered, reconnected with friends and family, joined in adoration and prayer, and watched strange animals from taken over lands being hunted and killed. Time to clean my thoughts with a bath, further to the South East, at a place we had not been before.
The Baths of Emperor Caracalla, finished in 216 CE, were the largest in Rome and in ancient times. A special aqueduct was built just to provide the water here. They had cold, warm, and hot pools in separate areas with slaves selling food and scraping the sweat from your pores. These were the kind of places where up to 1600 citizens could get clean, meet friends, and make business/political deals at the same time. For over three hundred years this occurred until 537 CE when King Vitiges of the Visigoths destroyed the aqueduct that provided water here and then an earthquake in 847 tumbled down large parts of all the structures. There is still enough here standing that makes it easy to imagine what was here. It astonishes me, as it still did at the Pantheon, the scale of everything. The room and ceiling heights were so grand and cavernous that I had to pause during several moments of our walk around the grounds. Fortunately, they placed a modern infinity pool, in the centre of the Bath’s gardens with deck chairs all around, that made for a calming experience in the midst of the giant walls.
The day is continued in part b
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