Michelle and Mindy gave us some background information on The Five Good Emperors of Rome before we crossed the bridge to the Forum.
Crossing the bridge into the forum. Market buildings in the back.
Trajan’s Column. We learned that originally a statue of Trajan sat at the top of the column, but now a statue of Saint Peter is in its place. Many Romans believed that one could achieve immortality as long as he or she was remembered by the living. In this sense, we could say that Trajan is immortal as we still admire and study his contributions to
The carvings on the column are of extremely high quality and still in very good condition, unlike much of what’s left of ancient
Can you pick out Trajan?
(He is slightly right of center)
The Pantheon!
Michelle giving her presentation. Notice the square and circle patterns on the floor. The Pantheon is a great example of the combination of the heavenly sphere and earthly square in its design.
The 9 meter wide oculus in the ceiling is open to the sky and is surrounded by coffers. The coffers reduce the weight of the concrete ceiling and were originally plated with bronze so that much more light was reflected. They also contribute to the great acoustics of the building and, in combination with the light coming in from the oculus, it acts as a sundial.
Gathered around Raphael’s tomb
Before we reached the Pantheon, we were offered a choice between coffee and gelato. Guess what we chose…. Gelato, of course! As promised, we walked a couple blocks to Giolitti after leaving the Pantheon.
Mark and Melissa might be able to tell you about the difficulties of eating gelato in such hot weather.
Gelato--A great way to end a great day.
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