Roman Holiday

September 19, 2006

Yesterday, before I left Rome on the train for Naples, I took a tour around the center of the historic city, snapping photos. Since I did not have much time, most of the photos are of a "hit and run" nature. Still, it was nice to just walk about and take in some of the tourist sights.

Photos below of are the Forum.

Reader advisory:

If you go to Rome, make sure that your visit to the Forum and the adjoining areas takes place in the afternoon. In the morning, the sun is in the wrong location for photos of everything.

Okay, let's see ...

My next stop was the Pantheon. Originally raised as a temple to all gods -- in Greek, pan + theon -- the Pantheon later became a Catholic Church (as it remains today, I believe) and, subsequently, a major tourist attraction. It was mobbed. I would have liked to have spent more time inside, but the crowds were really just making me nervous.

The photos:

Nearby the Pantheon is this little square with an elephant carrying an Egyptian obelisk. I tried to find out what exactly this monument was, but my guidebook does not mention it.

I thought it was cute, though.

Photos here, plus one of someone's dog.

I also took some pretty good photos of the Campidoglio and the Piazza Navona ... However, I just discovered that I did not resize them correctly after I took them out of the camera. I'll do that here in a bit and put them up the next time I post an entry.

-- Aaron