Rome
Here is a city with a history that dates back so far some books I have read say one will never fully understand the history of this city.
It seems with each trip ro Rome we stumble over some new area we have not seen or some interesting piece of history is explained or referenced. Often what we find something new is simply because we turned right, rather than left, at a corner and within a block we found something we had never seen with an interesting history..
Rome dates back to around 1,000 BC and by around 750 BC history books are referencing the various kings that claimed, stayed or conquered the city. To get rid of the rule of Kings, Rome eventually became a Republic with Brutus as the first Consul of Rome. Now this point on a senate would rule the city.
By about 270 BC Rome ruled all of Italy and over the next couple of hundred of years its reach spread out across to many other areas of the world.
It was in 44 BC, on the 15th of March, that Julius Caesar attended a meeting of the Senate which was being held at the temporary quarters in a theater built by Pompey the Great. The meetings were being held here as the Senate was being rebuilt because of a fire.
We have walked by the Curia, today called the Largo Argentina.
Here, sixty conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Brutus Albinus, and Gaius Trebonius, came to the meeting with daggers concealed in their togas and stabbed Caesar 23 times.
It is historical events like this that have happened in so many locations in Rome, that it is like walking through a history book.
In about 27 BC Augustus ended the Republic and became the sole ruler of Rome. With this, Rome moved from the Republic Era to an Imperial Era. The population of Rome probably hit a million people. Forums, temples, roads and aqueducts were all built. What a time!
Important monuments such as the Colosseum, the Flavian Amphitheatre, were built, with the Colosseum being built around 72 AD.
The shell of the structure still stands. The Popes took much of the travertine exterior to be used for other buildings such as the Palazzo Venezia and the Palazzo Barberinie as well as some bridges but the structure that remains is still very much something to see.
On our first trips to Rome there were no tickets, no lines, we just walked up to the Colosseum and walked in. Now, it is a different process. It is one of the most visited sites in Rome. Be prepared for waiting lines and crowds of people, but it is still worth it.
In 275 AD Aurelian built the Aurelian Wall. This is considered one of the greatest walls ever built in Europe. It was 19 km long and had at one time 383 towers. I must admit, on our taxi rides into the Rome we see parts of the wall and really don't give it the appreciation we should.
Constantine the Great was the first Emperor to fully emrace Christianity. He moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330.
But good times turned to bad times and in the 400s there was a series of attacks on Rome by warriors with names that evoke pictures in your head -- Alaric the Goth or Geiseric the Vandal. At the end of this, depending on what you ready, everyone left Rome and it had a population as little as 10,000.
I take it for a while it was mainly the Popes that kept Rome alive butRome was only a shadow of its former size.
In 880, Theodora seized the Castle Sant'Angelo and she and her daughter ruled Rome for a couple of decades. Kind of gives you an idea of how fragile the city was at that time.
When we visited the Castel Sant'Angelo I never appreciated the power that this one castle had in terms of its strategic position in the city.
While the Popes may have been the only source of grouped rule in the city, the Popes did have their problems and often in the 13th Century they were leaving Rome and going to Viterbo. Then in 1309 the Popes left Rome completely and moved to Avignon. Rome was ruled by their representatives.
After this, there was a stretch of rough times for Rome. Again the number of people remaining fell to a very low population, around 15,000. Here is a city of almost a 1 million on the Romans and now reduced to a smaller stature.
Pope Nicholas V, however, around 1447 emerged to restore rule over Rome. By the 1500s things were happening. A rebuilding of St Peter's was underway. Julius II has his architect Bramante tear down much of medieval Rome and a new city emerged. New grand streets were built. New piazzas such as the Piazza del Popolo were built to signify the new Rome.
A significant building spree was underway. Many buildings that had existed from the Roman times were stripped of their marble or demolished for new structures. I have read numerous articles where the outcome could be summarized that the Popes in their plan to rebuild the city destroyed much more than Alaric the Goth or Geiseric the Vandal back in the dark ages every destroyed.
The Popes had power and tried to use it in their relations with France and Spain. This did not work out that well and in 1527 Spain sacked Rome and the army occupied the city and destroyed much inthe city.
By 1650 architect Berni designed the Piazza Navona fountain. The Piazza Navona is the of regular stops on just about every trip we make to Rome.
In fact, when a group of us arranged to all meet in Rome and then travel to the Amalfi Coast we had a plan that at 7:00 pm we all enter the Piazza from a different entrance and meet at the Bernini Fountain. Well a rain storm that night, and too much time in the bar during the afternoon, changed the plan somewhat, but we did meet and had a great trip, our 2005 Amalfi Event..
But back to Rome's history, it was also around this time that the grand Colonnade for St Peter's was built.
In the latter part of the 1800 the French took control over Rome. Napoleon had a garrison in Rome to look after the Pope.
The Italian army marched intoi the Rome to take over the city, and then Rome joined the New Italian Kingdom.
The Popes are now locked up in the Vatican and it was not until Mussolini's Concordat in 1929 that the Pope's agreed to recognize the new Italian State.
In 1871 the parliament was moved from Florence to Rome.
The Court used the Palazzo del Quirinale as its residence. The Senate the Palazzo Madama. I must admit that of some of our first trips to Rome we would walk by the Palazzo del Quirinale and not really appreciate the significance of the palace.
In 1878 King Victor Emmanuel II died and Parliament initiates the construction of the Monument to King Victor Emmanuel II. Work began in 1885.
We have been to Rome many times before we visited the monument. It is impressive. There are solid marble walls and the size of the momument is significant. Go to the top, to the Terrazza della Quadrighe, the Terrace of the Chariots, and from there you have great views of Rome.
In the 1920 Mussolini uses the Piazza Venezia as his personal theatre. From the balcony he would make his speeches. It is said that he left a light on in the rooms all night so that Italians would think he was working! During his time the Piazza was renamed: Forum of the Fascist Empire.
Of course, Novelli Pen is just up the Via Del Corso which runs from the Piazza, and to the right!
The URO, is an area to the south of Rome. Mussolini created this area for the hosting of a world exhibition in 1942. Fascist-classical architecture his one of his legacies. It was never finished because of the war. Later work was done to complete much and that are a number of museums in the area.
