Roaming around historic Rome

Rome, Italy is known as the Eternal City with so many sights and sounds that it would take more than a lifetime to see it all.

There are multiple tours in the Vatican City, but the best ones, in my opinion, are definitely the tours of below St. Peter’s Basilica and the tour of the Sistine Chapel. The tour below the Basilica takes visitors through the necropolis where hundreds of people were buried. The best part of the tour comes at the end however, when people can actually see the real bones of the apostle Peter. Surrounding his tomb is a room that is filled with the tombs of other past popes.

The Museum at the Sistine Chapel is quite the grandiose building both on the outside and on the inside. Every wall in the chapel is completely covered in art from the Renaissance period. Some of it was even painted on by both Michelangelo and Raphael like the famous painting, School of Athens. After getting inside the actual chapel part, one can see the painting, Creation of Adam.  That is the famous painting that shows Adam touching the hand of God. The room has a “No Camera” rule, so it really allows visitors to soak in all the detail and beauty of the room. Getting to see some of the most famous art in history can give off a real powerful feeling.

The Roman Forum is another place to visit that was the old center of the city of Rome. It holds the ruins of many old government buildings and ancient marketplaces. The Forum also contains the Arch of Titus, which was a monument to commemorate the victories of Titus when he was emperor.

Less than half a mile from the Forum, visitors can see the biggest and one of the most impressive structures from ancient Rome, the Colosseum. The Colosseum started construction in 72 AD, and took eight years to complete. The amphitheater was built to put on a show for the people of Rome. The shows were free to go to and were paid for by the emperor. Because of this, shows were held only five or six times in a year. When the shows were held, they were quite over the top, the romans would even sometimes flood the arena and re-enact naval battles.

It would take more than a lifetime to explore all of Rome, but there still some other impressive sights to see. The Pantheon was a Roman pagan temple that was converted to a Christian church in 609 AD. The Pantheon also holds the tomb of the artist, Raphael. Another place to visit that is quite famous is the Trevi Fountain. The fountain was made is 1762 and is the biggest fountain in the city standing 26.3 meters high. The Circus Maximus was where the Romans used to have chariot races. It had an impressive size of 621 meters long and 118 meters wide. The stands that are no longer there were able to accommodate over 150,000 spectators.