My feet hurt from walking

We are now on the final stretch of our journey here in Rome. It is getting hard to keep the days straight and when I try looking back the days seem to blur together. With that said I will try to give a little recap of my weekend.

Pantheon

On Saturday we met up around 9 AM and headed out to the Pantheon. I was extremely excited to see this building because I had heard so many amazing things about it and it was also what I had to research for my presentation. As we were walking to the Pantheon we came around the corner of a street that opened up into a piazza and I am pretty sure my mouth dropped open from the view. I could have never imagined the size of this building from just seeing it in pictures. Seeing the Pantheon kind of through me off before my presentation because I was speechless at how amazing this building is in real life. 

Oculus

The Pantheon is one of the most well preserved buildings from ancient Rome and was constructed in 125 AD by the emperor Hadrian. The original purpose of the Pantheon is still unknown but it was a temple dedicated to all of the Gods (Pantheon is Latin means "all gods"). The reason the building is so well kept is because in 608 AD it was given to the Pope and he turned it into the church Sancta Maria Dei Martiri. Since it was a church it was not destroyed like many of the other ancient Roman buildings. As I said before the structure of the Pantheon is amazing. The pillars in the porch area are each 39 feet high and 5 feet in diameter. Each pillar weighs 60 tons and they were all imported from Egypt. The thing that makes the Pantheon so incredible is its freestanding concrete dome with an oculus in the center. The dome is massive and it is 150 Roman feet in diameter. This means that you could place a perfect sphere of 150 feet inside and it would match up perfectly. The dome is constructed of several different materials ranging from concrete to pumis and gradually gets thinner as you get closer to the oculus. The oculus is the open center of the dome which is 30 feet across and is the only source of light for the building. It is truly amazing how the Romans could built such an architecturally complicated building and have it last for nearly 2000 years.

Oculus

I really enjoyed the Pantheon and it is definitely up there as one of the top sites from the trip so far.

Baths of Caracalla

After the Pantheon we saw the column of Marcus Aurelius and then were done for the day. The next day we headed out and went to the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of of Diocletian which are now a church. The baths of Caracalla were amazing and once again surprised me with how massive they were. It was really cool to see what a major Roman bath would have looked like and to imagine what it must have been like to go there in its prime. At the Baths of Diocletian it was a totally different experience. As you enter you can see the outer structure of the baths but once you go through the doors you are overwhelmed with the sight of a beautiful church that was originally designed by Michelangelo.  The church's name is Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. It was interesting to have to try and imagine a bath complex while standing in a beautiful church.

Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

This weekend flew by and I am sure the next few days will as well. My time in Rome is winding down and I am going to try to soak up all that I can the final few days I am here! 

Ciao!