Ancient Rome 2018

After visiting Moroccco we came back to Poland and then spontaneously and quickly planned our next travel destination: Rome! Rome is the capital city of Italy and it is one of the most common tourist destinations in the world due to its history, art and culture. The city of Rome was founded in 753 BC. According to the legend Rome was founded by twins Romulus and Remus who lived on the Palatine and were fed by a wolf.

A sculpture that depicts a wolf feeding twin brothers Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.

At the Palatine Hill, the place of the first Roman settlements.

The Palatine Hill is adjacent to the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum). The Roman Forum was a marketplace and here political and social activity was centered in the past. Today, the Roman Forum represents an archeological site, that is composed of ruins of temples, churches, monuments and arches etc. More precisely, if you visit the Roman Forum, you will find there remains of:

the Temple of Saturn (498 BC)
the Temple of Castor and Pollux (495 BC)
the Temple of Antoninus Pius (141 AD)
the Temple of Vespasian and Titus (79 AD)
the Temple of Vesta
the House of the Vestal Virgins; did you know that those Vestals, who lost their virginity, were buried alive?
the Arch of Septimius Severus (203 AD)
the Curia Julia (44 BC)

The Temple of Saturn is the oldest temple in the Forum Romanum. This building was dedicated to Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture, harvest, time and wealth. Did you know that the word Saturday ´´originates´´ from a poem called Saturn's Day that was written by a Latin poet Albius Tibullus?

Just few minutes walk from the Roman Forum you will find the ruins of the majestic Colosseum, an amphitheater, that was built in 72-80 DC. The Colosseum consists of 3 major parts: the arena floor, the seating area and the underground. The latter one includes corridors that could be filled with water and rooms in which animals were kept. In the Colosseum gladiator fights, animal hunts, sea battles and criminal executions were observed by up to 60,000 spectators.

The Roman Colosseum is the world´s largest amphitheatre and it belongs to the 77 most beautiful monuments in the world.

Another Roman building is the Panthenon, which is the best preserved monument of ancient Rome. The Pantheon, originally a temple to all gods, is now a church. The interior contains a tomb of Raphael (artist) and the tombs of the royal family. Interestingly, the building does not have windows, the source of light is the oculus (the eye of the Panthenon), a hole in the Panthenon´s dome.

The Panthenon was built by Agrippa, but it was almost completely destroyed and then rebuilt by Hadrian in 118 AD.