Mom and I just returned from a trip to Italy, where I attended a workshop on high-performance computing in Cagliari (south end of Sardinia Island), after which we went to Rome for five days, with a one-day side trip to Pompeii (about 150 miles south).
Rome is an unforgettable experience. You haven’t lived until you have walked through the ancient Roman forum on the same stones that Julius Caesar once walked on, and then enjoyed some of the greatest art collections anywhere at the Vatican Museum (to mention just one of Rome’s great art galleries).
And yet even as we enjoyed the sights, we came to realize how what we see today in Rome is just a faint glimmer of its former glory. Most the historical sights were long ago looted and stripped of their original marble and artwork. And we barely scratched the surface of the many art galleries and sumptuous palaces.
Here are just a few photos that we took.
The Pantheon (temple to all gods). Note the many holes where the surface marble was once attached.
Bernini’s “Four Rivers” sculpture.
The Roman forum.
St. Peter’s Basilica, in Vatican City.
View of St. Peter’s Square from the top of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica (yes Mom and I hiked up to the top).
The Coliseum.
The Capitoline Venus is a 1st-century AD Roman copy of a 2nd-century BC Greek original.
Statue of Giordano Bruno, the 16th century philosopher who was burned alive at this spot for his heretical theories that the universe is infinite, and the sun is just one of many stars.
There are more than three coins in this fountain!
Mom poses by the statue of the she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. It makes a good story…
Pre-Christian Roman archaeological dig at Largo Argentina, near our hotel. Julius Caesar was probably assassinated here.
The Appian Way, with the original basalt rock pavement.
An Italian wedding.
Pompeii’s central forum, with Vesuvius in the background.
Artwork inside Pompeii room.
Poignant plaster cast of the remains of a pregnant woman despairing as she is smothered in ash.