Waking up to church bells as opposed to the call to prayer was altogether quite displacing, (although they do share similarities) until I recalled that I was now in Rome!
This city percolates with its sublime and illustrious past. The sheer size of the buildings and monuments is testament to the empire that it once was, the architecture being monolithic.
The splendour! And the excess…information gleaned that in the Colosseum’s (completed 80 AD) first 100 days of its opening ‘games’, there were 5000 animals and 2000 humans slaughtered….
The dimensions of this amphitheatre, too, befuddle the brain with its enormity and the mathematical genius it took to to design and construct it…And what you see above ground isn’t all of it, by a long stretch, with excavations revealing more and more underground constructions ongoingly.
There are relics aplenty, but also even the more recent of the architecture makes apparent a resplendent past.
The Romans were heavily reliant on water, for reasons both practical and cosmetic. They were the foremost constructors of aqueducts and drainage systems, and many of these remain to this day. Not to mention the fountains…
Rome is indeed a city to visit, as is the country it inhabits. I’m sorry I didn’t allow myself more time to appreciate its myriad of delights….
Travel Tales 