080 dieci ragioni di visitare l'Italia

Mmmm, gelato, anyone? In a country of many culinary treats, this is the best - cheap, portable, and abundant, with millions of flavors to try.

I could have used some gelato yesterday, as I finally made it out to the beach. It's about a 30 minute train ride from my office, and total transit time from my house is about an hour. Nothing spectacular, just sand and water, and cool breezes. Everyone says to go during the week because it's miserably crowded on the weekends, and it was indeed nice.

070 pantheon

M AGRIPPA LF COS TERTIUM FECIT means, "Agrippa made this". This is not exactly true, since the Pantheon has had significant changes over its 1800 year history. For example, did you know that it was not originally constructed with an oculus or a dome? Agrippa designed a wood roof with the main beams radiating out from the center.

Anyway, the Pantheon is one of the very best sites in Rome and all over the world. I stop by this Piazza and stroll through the interior about once a week. There are always a lot of people, but it's worth it to be in the cool interior space which is fairly dark, except for the radiant light coming through the oculus. Raffaele is buried here, and I think Vittorio Emanuele is, but I'm not sure. Mostly, I just sit (there are actually benches) and appreciate the space. I keep planning to get up early over the weekends and visit the Pantheon before the crowds hit, but getting up early has never been my strongpoint.

Just like every other pagan structure in Rome, the Catholic church has claimed the Pantheon as "All Saints Church" or something like that. When I was there earlier this week, there was a wedding going on inside, but tourists were still permitted to enter the space. Let's just say that that couple will have strangers showing their wedding pictures all over the globe.

I'm getting way behind on relating stories and images - I have stories waiting to go for the Crypt of the Cappuchin Monks and the interior of the Colosseum, and will hope to get to those next week.

069 piazza della rotunda

GGGRRRR there's a monkey in my head!

068 foti: crypti balbi

Below are several photos from Crypti Balbi that go with the text from yesterday.



This is a cross-section of the Crypti Balbi site, photographed from a display in the museum. On the left you can see the ghost of the imperial structure, and the ghost of the medieval structure above. Underground you can see ghosts from different time periods going about their business. And speaking of ghosts, I just realized that my reflection is faintly visible in the image. Eerie.



Above is an example of the quantity of architectural artifacts. These are just the "leftover" pieces jumbled together in a display case, although in the US each one could probably be its own museum.



This is a diagram of the main wall in the museum, color coded to all the different time periods. The colored lines you see represent structural interventions, most unsuccessful in that they actually hindered the historic material. (We still have a lot to learn.)



And a photo of the crypt itself, showing the way you can wind through all these layers of history on a low-slope ramp.