On the boat ride back from Delos to Mykonos I thought it would be fun to recall all of the other ancient sites that I have visited and assemble a near perfect virtual ancient city.
Posted in Croatia, dubrovnik, Europe, France, History, Literature, Morocco, Spain, Travel, United Kingdom, World Heritage
Tagged Arles, Athens, Colosseum, Didyma Turkey, Ephesus, Hierapolis, Mérida, Rome, Volubilis
On 4th March 2020 I was enjoying my last day of a week’s holiday to Cyprus. I was visiting the archaeological site at Paphos and I got to thinking about designing my very own ancient city…
Posted in Africa, Europe, France, History, Morocco, Spain, Travel, Turkey, World Heritage
Tagged Arles, Athens, Colosseum, Didyma Turkey, Ephesus, Hadrian's Wall, Hierapolis, Mérida, Rome, Volubilis
I have visited the city of Pula twice, the first time in 2007 and then again in 2011.
Here are some pictures…
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Croatia, Europe, History, Literature, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Amphitheatre, Colosseum, El Djem, Gladiators, Istria World Heritage Croatia, Pula, Roman Empire, Roman Games, Roman Gladiator
It was a long tedious drive from Ephesus to Pamukkale and thinking about the Ephesus experience I thought it would be fun to recall all of the other ancient sites that I have visited and assemble a near perfect virtual ancient city.
Approaching the city the first thing to be seen would be the aqueduct bringing fresh water to the citizens. The finest aqueduct must surely be that in Segovia in central Spain. It was built at the end of first to early second century AD by the Romans to bring water from the Río Frío about eighteen kilometres away and requiring an elevated section in its final kilometre from the Sierra de Guadarrama to the walls of the old town.
This is supported by an engineering achievement of one hundred and sixty-six arches and one hundred and twenty pillars constructed on two levels. It is twenty eight metres high and constructed with over twenty thousand large granite blocks, which are joined without mortar or clamps and have remained in place for two thousand years.
After passing through the arches of the aqueduct the road would lead to a Palace – Diocletian’s Palace from Split in Croatia. The palace was built as a Roman military fortress with walls two hundred metres long and twenty metres high, enclosing an area of thirty-eight thousand square metres and it is one of the best preserved Roman palaces in existence because after the fall of the Romans within the defensive walls it effectively became the city of Spalatum which eventually evolved and became the modern city of Split.
Inside the city walls there would be the houses of the people who lived in the city, the houses of Herculaneum near Pompeii in Italy that was destroyed in the same Vesuvius eruption. But in a different way because where Pompeii was buried in ash, Herculaneum was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow which is a ground-hugging avalanche of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments, and volcanic gas that rushes down the side of a volcano. Although it killed all of the inhabitants this flow did little damage to the structures, instead slowly filling them from the bottom up and preserving them perfectly without destroying them altogether.
After passing through the residential area there would be a magnificent triumphal arch marking the entrance to the civic and public areas. I think it would be very much like the arch at Voloubilis in Morocco.
Volubilis was the Roman capital of the Province of Mauritania and was founded in the third century B.C., it became an important outpost of the Roman Empire and was graced with many fine buildings. Extensive remains of these survive in the archaeological site, located in the middle of this fertile agricultural area. The city continued to be occupied long after the Romans had gone and at some point converted to Islam and Volubilis was later briefly to become the capital of Idris I, founder of the Idrisid dynasty, who is buried at nearby Moulay Idris. It is now of course a UNESCO World Heritage Site, admitted to the list in 1997.
Once through the Arch into the Forum which for the Romans was the centre of political, commercial and judicial life. This has to be the Forum in Rome.
According to the playwright Plautus the area ‘teemed with lawyers and litigants, bankers and brokers, shopkeepers and strumpets’. As the city grew successive Emperors increasingly extended the Forum and in turn built bigger temples, larger basilicas, higher triumphal columns and more lavish commemorative arches. Here is the Temple of Romulus and the house of the Vestal Virgins and then the Temple of Julius Caesar erected on the very spot that he was cremated following his assassination in 44 BC.
Every ancient city needs a theatre and at the end of the forum in this virtual city is the theatre of Hierapolis at Pamukkale in Turkey, a restored ancient theatre that surely has to be amongst the best that I have ever seen and that includes Segesta in Sicily and Merida in Spain and also (again in my opinion) the ruins that we had visited at Ephesus.
Next to the Theatre is the Temple and I am happy to include in this virtual city the Temple of Apollo in Didyma just down the road from Ephesus. This place would have been huge, one hundred and twenty columns, fifteen metres high and each taking an estimated twenty thousand man days to cut and erect. It was never completely finished because during the construction process the money kept running out but if it had been then it is said that this would have been one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in precedence over the Temple of Artemis at nearby Ephesus.
Finally there would be an Amphitheatre and whilst it may seem like madness not to include the Colosseum in Rome I am going to overlook it and include instead the Amphitheatre at Arles in Southern France. It could also have been the the Amphitheatre in Pula in Croatia or,Mérida in Spain but there is something majestic about about Arles which just fascinates me.
No one can be absolutely sure about which was the largest in terms of capacity and it is generally agreed that this was the Colosseum but we can be more certain about physical size and there was a plaque nearby that claimed that this was the twelfth largest in the Roman Empire. Interestingly using this criteria the plaque only listed the Colosseum as second largest but it’s like I have always said size isn’t the most important thing!
Finally when my city is put together, I will need a wall to protect it and what better choice could I make than Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England
So there it is, my virtual Ancient City, just my personal choices and I would be more than happy to consider any alternative suggestions for inclusion.
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My blogging pal Will sent me this in an email and I am delighted to add it to my city…
… thought I would share this picture of the colonnaded street and forum at Jerash. It would definitely be in my fantasy Roman city!
Check out Will’s blog here … Wilbur’s Travels
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Related Posts:
The Roman Amphitheatre at Pula
The Greek and Roman Ruins at Empuria, Catalonia
The Palace of Knossos in Crete
The Acropolis Museum in Athens
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Posted in Africa, Croatia, Europe, France, Greece, Greek islands, History, Italy, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Arles, Athens, Colosseum, Didyma Turkey, Ephesus, Hierapolis, Mérida, Rome, Volubilis
“From the dome of St. Peter’s one can see every notable object in Rome… a panorama that is varied, extensive, beautiful to the eye, and more illustrious in history than any other in Europe.” Mark Twain – The Innocents Abroad
On the way to the Vatican we walked past the Castel Sant’Angelo and into the busy square outside the Basilica where a long queue of people snaked forever around the perimeter waiting for their turn to go inside. We joined the back of it and were pleased to find that it moved quite quickly towards the main doors and soon we were inside the biggest and the tallest church in the World that has room for sixty-thousand worshippers at one kneeling.
It was busy inside but not uncomfortable and we soaked up the information from the guide’s commentary as we passed by chapels with precious holy relics, the tombs of dead Popes and rooms with glass cases full of religious artefacts.
After the tour was finished we paid for an optional extra and took the five hundred and fifty-one steps to the top of the dome which involved an awful lot of stairs and a tight squeeze at the very top but we were rewarded with wonderful views across the city all the way back to the Colosseum.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Italy, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Colosseum, Life, Photography, Rome, St Peter's Basilica, Vatican, Weekly Photo Challenge
It was a long tedious drive from Ephesus to Pamukkale and thinking about the Ephesus experience I thought it would be fun to recall all of the other ancient sites that I have visited and assemble a near perfect virtual ancient city.
Approaching the city the first thing to be seen would be the aqueduct bringing fresh water to the citizens. The finest aqueduct must surely be that in Segovia in central Spain. It was built at the end of first to early second century AD by the Romans to bring water from the Río Frío about eighteen kilometres away and requiring an elevated section in its final kilometre from the Sierra de Guadarrama to the walls of the old town.
This is supported by an engineering achievement of one hundred and sixty-six arches and one hundred and twenty pillars constructed on two levels. It is twenty eight metres high and constructed with over twenty thousand large granite blocks, which are joined without mortar or clamps and have remained in place for two thousand years.
After passing through the arches of the aqueduct the road would lead to a Palace – Diocletian’s Palace from Split in Croatia. The palace was built as a Roman military fortress with walls two hundred metres long and twenty metres high, enclosing an area of thirty-eight thousand square metres and it is one of the best preserved Roman palaces in existence because after the fall of the Romans within the defensive walls it effectively became the city of Spalatum which eventually evolved and became the modern city of Split.
Inside the city walls there would be the houses of the people who lived in the city, the houses of Herculaneum near Pompeii in Italy that was destroyed in the same Vesuvius eruption. But in a different way because where Pompeii was buried in ash, Herculaneum was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow which is a ground-hugging avalanche of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments, and volcanic gas that rushes down the side of a volcano. Although it killed all of the inhabitants this flow did little damage to the structures, instead slowly filling them from the bottom up and preserving them perfectly without destroying them altogether.
After passing through the residential area there would be a magnificent triumphal arch marking the entrance to the civic and public areas. I think it would be very much like the arch at Voloubilis in Morocco.
Volubilis was the Roman capital of the Province of Mauritania and was founded in the third century B.C., it became an important outpost of the Roman Empire and was graced with many fine buildings. Extensive remains of these survive in the archaeological site, located in the middle of this fertile agricultural area. The city continued to be occupied long after the Romans had gone and at some point converted to Islam and Volubilis was later briefly to become the capital of Idris I, founder of the Idrisid dynasty, who is buried at nearby Moulay Idris. It is now of course a UNESCO World Heritage Site, admitted to the list in 1997.
Once through the Arch into the Forum which for the Romans was the centre of political, commercial and judicial life. This has to be the Forum in Rome.
According to the playwright Plautus the area ‘teemed with lawyers and litigants, bankers and brokers, shopkeepers and strumpets’. As the city grew successive Emperors increasingly extended the Forum and in turn built bigger temples, larger basilicas, higher triumphal columns and more lavish commemorative arches. Here is the Temple of Romulus and the house of the Vestal Virgins and then the Temple of Julius Caesar erected on the very spot that he was cremated following his assassination in 44 BC.
Every ancient city needs a theatre and at the end of the forum in this virtual city is the theatre of Hierapolis at Pamukkale in Turkey, a restored ancient theatre that surely has to be amongst the best that I have ever seen and that includes Segesta in Sicily and Merida in Spain and also (again in my opinion) the ruins that we had visited yesterday at Ephesus.
Next to the Theatre is the Temple and I am happy to include in this virtual city the Temple of Apollo in Didyma just down the road from Ephesus. This place would have been huge, one hundred and twenty columns, fifteen metres high and each taking an estimated twenty thousand man days to cut and erect. It was never completely finished because during the construction process the money kept running out but if it had been then it is said that this would have been one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in precedence over the Temple of Artemis at nearby Ephesus.
Finally there would be an Amphitheatre and whilst it may seem like madness not to include the Colosseum in Rome I am going to overlook it and include instead the Amphitheatre at Arles in Southern France. It could also have been the the Amphitheatre in Pula in Croatia or,Mérida in Spain but there is something majestic about about Arles which just fascinates me. No one can be absolutely sure about which was the largest in terms of capacity and it is generally agreed that this was the Colosseum but we can be more certain about physical size and there was a plaque nearby that claimed that this was the twelfth largest in the Roman Empire. Interestingly using this criteria the plaque only listed the Colosseum as second largest but it’s like I have always said size isn’t the most important thing!
So there it is, my virtual Ancient City, just my personal choices and I would be more than happy to consider any alternative suggestions for inclusion.
____________________________________
Related Posts:
The Roman Amphitheatre at Pula
The Greek and Roman Ruins at Empuria, Catalonia
The Palace of Knossos in Crete
The Acropolis Museum in Athens
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There are lots of things that I would like to see and I imagine the thrill of seeing the Pyramids, The Kremlin or the Great Wall of China for example would be heart stopping moments but when viewed for the first time the Colosseum ranks with these and others as a genuine draw dropping, knee buckling event. I can remember that experience in 1976 but even now, on my fourth visit to Rome, it still produced a moment of wonderment and awe as we emerged from the narrow streets into the Piazza del Colosseo.
Two thousand years previously this had been the largest amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire and was capable of seating sixty-thousand spectators (some estimates say eighty thousand but most agree that this is unlikely) at gladiatorial combat events. I am always stunned by the size and magnificence of the place and even though there are substantial parts of it now missing I find the scale of the place simply breathtaking. We were going to make this our first place to visit and we were disappointed to see a long slow moving queue but we were quickly picked out as potential easy pickings by a girl selling guided tours which promised a speedy entrance and the services of an expert guide so we agreed to this and paid up. Suckers!
We had to wait now to be assigned a tour leader and it was just our luck to get a head-case! Silvio was a theatrical extrovert with a dramatic style and with arms flailing and occasionally getting over excited and spitting into his beard he gave us an extravagant introduction to the construction of the magnificent building and the gladiatorial combats and the shows that were staged inside. This was all really helpful background information but it did seem to drag on longer than expected and all around people began to get fidgety as individual patience tanks one by one began to run dry.
Finally it was time to push through the lines of waiting people and within just a few minutes we were inside the underground passages below the auditorium where we followed the designated route up a flight of steps where it was interesting to imagine that these had been used previously by thousands of Romans attending the games and we now were following in their footsteps. We emerged into the interior of the amphitheatre where once there were seats, now long since pillaged and removed for recycling in medieval building projects, and into the bright sunshine where we circumnavigated the arena stopping frequently to admire the views and to imagine what it might have been like to be at this very place two-thousand years ago or so in a noisy and unruly crowd being entertained by bloodthirsty and barbaric games.
Inside the Colosseum it is huge but there isn’t really a lot to see, no statues, no paintings, no exhibits, just an elliptical arena surrounded by ancient brick and concrete, so once a full circuit has been completed, although it feels as though you should stay longer, there is not a lot to hang around for. This doesn’t mean that the visit experience is in any way disappointing or less wonderful just that it seems to me that there are two types of sightseeing, the first is where we go to admire the statues, the paintings and the exhibits and the second where the experience is simply about being there, in a place that has played such a pivotal role in world history and the development of civilisation and for me the Colosseum is one of the latter.
The day was getting hotter now and it was easy to understand why inside the arena the Roman crowds were protected by giant shades made of Egyptian cotton or why even today the most expensive seats at a bullfight are those in the shade and protected from the sun. We left the amphitheatre and bought some expensive food from a street stall and competed with everyone else to find some shade while we waited for Silvio to return at two o’clock to take us on the second part of the tour up to the Palatine Hill and into the Roman Forum.
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Related Articles:
The Roman Amphitheatre at Pula
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Posted in History, Italy, World Heritage
Tagged Archaeology, Colosseum, Gladiators, Life, Photography, Rome, Spartacus, Travel
Shopping Arcade – Trajan’s Market, Rome
Because there were so many things to see so was the pace of our sightseeing and after the Colosseum we passed by the Constantine Arch and through the south entrance and into the old Roman Forum and walked on old Roman roads past the spot of Julius Ceaser’s murder and the sites of the Senate and other civic buildings. To the west was the Palace of Augustus and over the Via Dei Fori Imperialli to the east was Trajan’s Market a soaring column in his memory and after an hour or so we left the Forum by the north entrance after passing through the Arch of Septimus Severus.
Tagged Colosseum, Life, Pantheon, Photography, Piazza Navona, postaday, Rome, Travel
In July 2003 taking advantage of some of the earliest Ryanair 1p flights I visited Rome with my son Jonathan. Rome Campino airport is quite a way out of the city so we took a coach to the main train station and then an unnecessary metro train to the station Colosseo. Unnecessary because we could easily have walked there instead and saved the fare and not suffered the oppressive underground heat.
The exit to the station is close to the site of the ancient city and as we emerged blinking into the sunlight I was immediately overawed by my first sight of the Colosseum which has to rate as one of the world’s genuine knee buckling experiences! Although this was my second visit to Rome (the first was in 1976) the sight of the amphitheatre felt just as exciting and dramatic as the first time.
It had been hot in the tunnels of the Metro and I had had a severe perspiration problem so the first thing to do was to have a cold drink and a change of shirt at an adjacent bar on the Piazza del Colosseo before walking the short distance to our hotel, The Romano, on Largo Corrado Ricci, which was conveniently close to the Forum.
Our first stop in Rome was the Colosseum itself which, two thousand years before, had been the largest amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire* and was capable of seating sixty-thousand spectators at gladiatorial combat events. I was stunned by the size and magnificence of the place and even though there are substantial parts of it now missing I found the scale of the place simply breathtaking.
And because there were so many things to see so was the pace of our sightseeing and after the Colosseum we passed by the Constantine Arch and through the south entrance and into the old Roman Forum and walked on old Roman roads past the spot of Julius Ceasar’s murder and the sites of the Senate and other civic buildings. To the west was the Palace of Augustus and over the Via Dei Fori Imperialli to the east was Trajan’s Market a soaring column in his memory and after an hour or so we left the Forum by the north entrance after passing through the Arch of Septimus Severus.
In just a little over ninety minutes we had covered about a thousand years of history and as we passed by the Victor Emmanuel National Monument erected to commemorate the nineteenth century unification of Italy we walked along Via Del Corso and into the areas that are predominantly Renaissance and Baroque in architectural character.
At the Spanish Steps and saw the house where John Keats lived and died and then the famous Trevi Fountain where thirty years ago, on my first visit, people were still allowed to sit on the monument and cool their feet off in the water but that has been stopped now.
There is a tradition of throwing three coins in the fountain guarantees that you will return one day to Rome. These days’ tourists with a desire to return to the Eternal City deposit an average of €3,000 a day in the fountain and this is collected up every night and is used to fund social projects for the poor of the city. That’s probably why people aren’t allowed to paddle in it anymore and there are lots of police on duty to make sure they don’t.
Next, we visited the Pantheon, which is one of the best preserved ancient Roman buildings, originally built as a pagan temple but later converted into a Christian Church and is the burial place of the ex kings of Italy and other important Italians including the artist Raphael and after that it was the Baroque Piazza Navona.
I liked all of these sights but I was intrigued by something much more mundane. All of the manhole covers displayed the Roman symbol SPQR which, I learned later, is the motto of the city and appears in the city’s coat of arms, as well as on many of the civic buildings. SPQR comes from the Latin phrase, Senātus Populusque Rōmānus (The Senate and the People of Rome), referring to the government of the ancient Republic. It appeared on coins, at the end of public documents, in dedications of monuments and public works, and was the symbol on the standards of the Roman legions.
By mid afternoon when we crossed the River Tiber over the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II we had completed the ancient, the medieval, and the modern and now it was time to do the religious. Rome is the most important holy city in Christendom and St Peter’s Basilica at the heart of the Vatican City is the headquarters of the Catholic Church. A Basilica by the way is a sort of double Cathedral because it has two naves.
We walked past the Castel Sant’Angelo and into the busy square outside the Basilica where a long queue of people snaked forever around the perimeter waiting for their turn to go inside. We joined the back of it and were pleased to find that it moved quite quickly towards the main doors and soon we were inside the biggest and the tallest church in the World that has room for sixty-thousand worshippers at one sitting. It was busy inside but not uncomfortable and we soaked up the information from the guide’s commentary as we passed by chapels with precious holy relics, the tombs of dead Popes and rooms with glass cases full of religious artefacts.
After the tour was finished we paid for an optional extra and took the stairs to the top of the dome which involved an awful lot of steps and a tight squeeze at the very top but we were rewarded with panoramic views across the city all the way back to the Colosseum.
After a final look around the outside of the Basilica we concluded that we were unlikely to see Pope John Paul II today, most likely because at eighty-four years old he probably liked a lie down in the afternoon, so we left St Peter’s to return to the hotel.
* Although I came across an information board at Arles in France that claimed that the Flavian Amphitheatre at Pouzzouli near Naples was ever so slightly larger in dimensions but not in seating capacity.
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Related Articles:
The Roman Amphitheatre at Pula
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Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Italy, World Heritage
Tagged Colosseum, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Rome, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Victor Emmanuelle National Monument
It was about a two hundred and fifty kilometre drive to Rome which took just over three hours and with a full day to pack in the coach picked us up before breakfast so we collected food parcels and set off for the Italian capital, which is the third most visited European city after London and Paris. The coach took the road towards Naples and then swung around the base of Vesuvius and picked up the A1 Autostrada that runs all the way from Naples to Rome and then on to Milan.
It was still early morning as we carved through the flat agricultural landscape of Campania, past the vineyards, the olive groves and the citrus orchards and on towards the region of Lazio in central Italy. Somewhere north of Naples the motorway picked up the route of the Roman road, the Appian Way and as we might have expected the road simply rolled out in a long strait Roman line. We passed the city of Capua that once had the second largest Roman amphitheatre before it was demolished by invading armies and it was where Spartacus fought as a gladiator and where he was eventually crucified nearby after leading his insurrection of the slaves. The road continued over the Pontine Marshes that by all accounts were once a dreadful place until they were drained and reclaimed by Mussolini and then the route became less monotonous as we reached the Alban Hills and then began our final approach into Rome where we arrived in the mid morning as the sun was shining and the city was beginning to heat up.
The coach dropped us off near the site of the ancient city and I was immediately overawed by my first sight of the Colosseum. I had studied history for the last six years but this was the first time that I had visited any of the exciting places that I had delighted in reading about. Our first stop in Rome was the Colosseum itself which, two thousand years before, had been the largest amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire and was capable of seating sixty-thousand spectators at gladiatorial combat events. I was stunned by the size and magnificence of the place and even though there are substantial parts of it now missing I found the scale of the place simply breathtaking.
And because there were so many things to see so was the pace of our sightseeing and after the Colosseum we passed by the Arch of Constantine and joined an official city guide who took us through the south entrance and into the old Roman Forum and walked on old Roman roads past the spot of Julius Ceaser’s murder and the sites of the Senate and other civic buildings. To the west was the Palace of Augustus and over the Via Dei Fori Imperialli to the east was Trajan’s Market and his personal column in his memory and after an hour or so we left the Forum by the north entrance after passing through the Arch of Septimius Severus.
In just a little over ninety minutes we had covered about a thousand years of history and as we passed by the Victor Emmanuel National Monument erected to commemorate the nineteenth century unification of Italy we walked along Via Del Corso and into the areas that were predominantly Renaissance and Baroque in architectural character. Rome was of the few major European cities that escaped World-War-Two relatively unscathed and so most of the buildings and monuments are completely original. We visited the Spanish Steps and saw the house where John Keats died and then the famous Trevi Fountain where thirty years ago people were still allowed to sit on the monument and cool their feet off in the water but that has been stopped now.
We visited the Pantheon, which is one of the best preserved ancient Roman buildings, originally built as a pagan temple but later converted into a Christian Church and is the burial place of the ex kings of Italy and other important Italians like the artist Raphael. Next it was the Baroque Piazza Navona and it was all becoming a bit overwhelming.
By mid afternoon when we crossed the River Tiber over the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II we had completed the ancient, the medieval, and the modern and now it was time to do the religious.
Rome is the most important holy city in Christendom and St Peter’s Basilica at the heart of the Vatican City is the headquarters of the Catholic Church. We walked past the Castel Sant’Angelo and into the busy square outside the Basilica where a long queue of people snaked forever around the perimeter waiting for their turn to go inside. Joining the back of it we were pleased to find that it moved quite quickly towards the main doors and soon we were inside the biggest and the tallest church in the World that has room for sixty-thousand worshippers at one sitting. It was busy inside but not uncomfortable and we soaked up the information from the guide’s commentary as we passed by chapels with precious holy relics, the tombs of dead Popes and rooms with glass cases full of religious artifacts.
After a final look around the outside of the Basilica we concluded that we were unlikely to see Pope Paul VI today, most likely because at seventy-nine years old he probably liked a lie down in the afternoon, so we left St Peter’s to return to the coach. Before leaving the city the driver did a whistle stop drive around some of the sights that we had missed earlier in the day including the window from where the dictator Mussolini used to deliver his animated speeches.
We had been in the city for about eight hours which was a long day but simply not long enough to see everything that we wanted to and I knew that one day I would come back and spend more time there but I had to wait nearly thirty years before I achieved that ambition. On the way back, shortly out of the city, we stopped at a pasta restaurant for early evening meal of authentic pizza and jugs of cheap Italian wine.
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Related Articles:
The Roman Amphitheatre at Pula
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Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Italy, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Rome, Spanish Steps, St Peter's Basilica, Trevi Fountain, Vatican, Victor Emmanuel Monument
Have Bag, Will Travel 