Rome

Ah, Rome.... a huge, magnificent urban jungle peppered with innumerable churches and pleasant piazzas and formidable ancient ruins. Maybe I'm biased since Italy is the land of (some of) my forefathers, but my February trip to the Italian capital has been my favorite excursion yet. As an added bonus, I got some truly fantastic photos while there!

I went with my USC friend Leah, who was visiting me for a week. We had already spent a little time looking around Berlin in the previous days. Then, two days before our flight for Rome, I suddenly came down with a high fever.  I quickly tried to recover, but of course on the eve of our flight I was not 100% healthy, even though I was no longer feverish. Despite the disapproval of my two host parents, we made the call to just go for it and not cancel our Rome trip, as that would have been prohibatively expensive. Luckily, I didn't get any sicker while in Rome, although I also didn't fully recover. I do not recommend traveling sick! However, I survived, and we still managed to go full speed and see all the major sights in two and a half days.

Armed with Rick Steves' guide to Rome, we hit the ground running right after our arrival, starting out at a quintessentially Roman sight - a church in a former ancient Roman bath house!

And here it is – the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The church has been around  ever since the year 1561, which is when Michelangelo helped out with the transformation from ancient bath house to house of God. The structure itself is the former main hall of the Baths of Diocletian, which dates to the fourth century!

The enormous building is 7 stories high and as big as a football field

Check out those huge red granite columns that date back to Roman times

The baths were once much larger and could hold 3,000 bathing Romans at once. The enormous complex also had excercising areas and swimming pools and gardens and libraries and shops and more. This square used to be the main lobby and garden

Next up, the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which houses a famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini statue. Just our luck - the statue was being restored. At least the church is pretty.

The pretty Baroque decoration dates back to the 17th century

On the ceiling, Mary wrestles with Protestant snakes (back then, the Roman Catholic Church was facing a threat in the form of Protestantism)

The Fountain of Moses provided fresh running water to the neighborhood from a long aqueduct

Santa Susanna Church, built in 1603, has the world's earliest Baroque facade. The church itself, though, was closed. Oh well. If there is anything that Rome is short on, it's definitely not churches... on to the next one!

Next, we reached the Church of San Carlo alla Quattro Fontane, built in 1640. This dome seems to float and consists of a complex mix of polygons and crosses. Its oval shape is typical Baroque styling

You might be noticing a theme here – impressive Baroque architecture is everywhere in Rome. Bernini was responsible for much of it, but the church above was done by his erstwhile apprentice turned competitor, Borromini, who later commited suicide by stabbing himself in the chest.

Church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale was up next, and is another typically Baroque structure, also from Bernini

It was all completed in 1661

A big third-century fountain with a big ol' obelisk. The city of Rome hosts 13 obelisks, more than any other city in the world. Some really are from ancient Egypt (taken to Rome to celebrate the Roman conquest of the region), but not this one

Palazzo del Quirinale has been the seat of rulers for nearly 2,000 years. Today, the Italian President resides here in the palace built in 1583 (on the left)

A disappointing discovery awaited us next…

 Dangit! The huge, amazing Trevi Fountain was being restored too! We got to walk right up to it, but it was all covered up like this. I’m ready to go back to Rome sometime just to get some magical pictures of it. It’s also in the Baroque style and dates back to 1762

This little church right by the Trevi Fountain would probably be a major draw in any other city in the world. But here in Rome, it's comparatively unremarkable and not exactly renowned

Another "unremarkable" Roman church

This is the Piazza Colonna, the square on which Italy’s prime minister lives. The big column was erected in the year 193 to honor Marcus Aurelius’ military victories against barbarians. In case you are unfamiliar with giant monumental columns from antiquity, the reliefs show scenes in chronological order, starting at the bottom and ribboning around the column up towards the top

The Piazzi di Pietra hosts the remains of the Temple of Hadrian, who was the emperor who built the Pantheon

1,900 years ago, that down there was ground level

Another church: the Church of Sant'ignazio is another wildly beautiful Baroque creation, built between 1626 and 1650

Up above you can see the false dome, painted on a flat surface

The crazy fresco depicts St. Ignatius Loyola being welcomed into paradise by Christ and the Madonna

And now, time for one of the most famous and revolutionary structures of all time - the Pantheon! The Pantheon was a Roman temple dedicated to all of the gods, hence the name (pan + theos). Hadrian rebuilt it in the 2nd century after fires ruined the original temple, which was built by Agrippa, but Agrippa's name remains in the inscription up top.

The Pantheon’s impressive entrance boasts single-piece 40-foot granite columns, quarried in Egypt

In front of the Pantheon is a fountain from 1575 called Fontana del Pantheon. The fountain was later topped with an obelisk from ancient Egypt that had been built by Pharaoh Ramses II

The Pantheon is considered one of the most influential buildings in all of history because it inspired domes like Michelangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s, the Florence cathedral dome (which helped launch the Renaissance), and even the dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Today, it is still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. This dome is serious business, people.

Our first look at the mathematically perfect dome. A perfect sphere could fit snugly underneath the dome. Thus, the dome is as high as it is wide. It used to be tiled with gold

Ever since the fall of Rome, the Pantheon has served as a church

The honeycomb structure helps reduce the dome's weight. The concrete of the dome itself gets lighter and thinner up towards the top. The oculus is 27 feet wide and open to the elements. The floor is gently sloped and punctured with tiny holes to allow for drainage

This statue of the Madonna and Child sits atop Raphael's tomb

Raphael

This is the tomb of Margherita of Savoy, after whom Margherita Pizza is named!

The tomb of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy

One last look

Moving on to another piazza. This one plays host to the Elephant and Obelisk structure. The elephant was designed by who else but Bernini. The obelisk is another genuine ancient Egyptian piece. The elephant's butt points towards a monastery, as one of the monks there had competed with Bernini for the commission to build a base for the obelisk

Nearby the Pantheon and the elephant is the 16th-century Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Finally, we had found a non-Baroque church - this one is the city's only Gothic church

Cristo della Minerva, or Risen Christ, is a Michelangelo creation. Note how strong and athletic he is compared to his depctions in Medieval Art. A cloth was added during the Baroque period to cover Jesus' privates

Piazza della Rotonda, the square in front of the Pantheon, once more

Piazza della Repubblica, which we saw earlier right after the Baths of Diocletian

We moved on, following a Rick Steves-prescribed route, and hit the Piazza Navona, which was once a racetrack in ancient Rome. This fountain was designed in 1576 and, like all of Rome's fountains, is powered by an aqueduct

The Church of St. Agnes was designed by Borromini, that suicidal artist who went from Bernini's protégée to rival

Speaking of Bernini, here's his most famous fountain, which is right in front of Borromini's church. This is the Four Rivers Fountain, which, naturally, supports an obelisk. Since the Trevi Fountain was a no-go, we spent our time admiring this one instead. Not a bad consolation prize

The Danube River on the right, Uruguay’s Río de la Plata on the left

The Nile River is on the right, the Ganges on the left

Another look at Piazza della Rotonda and the Pantheon

This is the Piazza di Montecitorio, complete with an ancient Egyptian obelisk and a Bernini palace from 1653, which the Italian parliament houses calls home. Naturally, protestors were there too. The obelisk was taken in the sixth-century B.C. as a trophy by Augustus after his victory in Egypt over Mark Antony and Cleopatra

After a strenuous half-day of soaking up Rome (effective sightseeing is hard work, I always say), we were ready to see just one more major landmark before calling it a night. 

And here it is - the Spanish Steps! Named after the nearby Spanish embassy, they were built in 1725. At the top of the steps is another obelisk. This was just a Roman imitation though, and as such, it has spelling mistakes in its hieroglyphics

The view from the top of the steps

And then, the clock struck midnight. Considering how much we had covered our first day, that didn’t even seem that late. We set on the half-hour walk back to the hostel so we could recharge and tackle the city again the next day. Pictures coming up soon!