Places in Rome Worth Visiting
Whether you like museums or not, be advised that there are many other places in Rome worth visiting.
Wikitravel's guide to Rome contains
a great deal of information about Rome's attractions as well as practical information about how to get around the city. Here
we have selected the places we have enjoyed visiting and would visit again.
St. Peter's Basilica and square in the Vatican: It
is historic, huge, and ornately beautiful, as our photos indicate. Michaelangelo designed its dome. His most famous marble
Pieta is on view in a chapel. In addition, St.Peters has many architectural features and sculptures designed by the sculptor,
Bernini. His amazing baldechin over the high altar is a 90 foot high, very ornate bronze four post structure
that stands under the dome. The Apostle, St. Peter himself is entombed in the basilica. Upon entering the church, many
people either kiss or rub the toes of a foot on a bronze statue of him that stands in the nave . Whatever the effect of
the touching for the people who do it, one effect of the rubbing is that St. Peter's foot has lost most of its toes. The
coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor was held there in 800 AD. The spot is marked with a round marble
inlay. In general, there are not many Cathedrals that have such an opulent interior as St. Peters Basilica. In addition
to our photos you can see many more on the Sacred Travels website. Get to the Cathedral early. We arrived at 10 am and there
was no wait to enter.(photo) By 11 am when we left, the line was very long. (Photos from middle of line forward to
the front and then to the back of the line.
The Roman Imperial Forum (Web site): The archeological site of ancient Rome's
city center where Romans went to market, to conduct city business, to worship and to hear speeches by their elected officials
and politicians. The area is filled with the ruins of the public and sacred buildings and monuments that existed during the Roman
Imperial period.
The Roman Colosseum: This ampitheater, which seated between 50,000 and 70,000 Romans, is where gladiators did
their stuff--fought each other or wild animals to the death. Of special interest are the areas beneath the arena floor, and
the system used to hoist canvas shades above the extremely large diameter of the arena to provide shade to gladiators and spectators.
The
Pantheon is ancient Rome's best preserved building, built in 125 AD. It is a large, circular building with a portico
held up by Corinthian columns in its front. An amazing part of the building is that the domed roof consists of coffered
concrete. We had no idea that the Romans had mastered the technique of building with concrete to the degree that enables the
construction of such a huge dome that has lasted so long.
The Spanish Steps: "......the longest and widest in all of Europe" ,
and beautiful. They were built to connect two piazzas (squares) on two levels, so that people in the Spanish Embassy on
the the lower level could attend a French church on the upper, thus linking the Spanish to the Holy See. The Keats Shelley
House is adjacent.
The Fountains of Rome: No visit to Rome would be complete without visiting at least one fountain.
There are 280 of them. You can view
photos of many of them. Leading the list of the major ones is the
Trevi. It
is drop-dead ostentatious and not to be missed. Toss a coin in, and your return to Rome is guaranteed. It says here.
