Rome Sweet Home

Oh, Rome, what a city. I've been to Rome twice, once in 2001 with my family and again in 2010 with one of my best friends from college, Emily. I was lucky enough to go again, with work, at the beginning of this past week. I was so excited for this trip, as I love the city, but it started off a little shaky. After a nice long run on Sunday I returned home and started packing. Around 4 pm a fever hit that stayed with me all Sunday night and throughout Monday. Luckily, by Tuesday morning I was feeling so much better.

Emily & Me in Rome 2010

For lunch Tuesday, we went to a small Taverna near the center. Walking to lunch we passed the Fontana di Trevi, which is the largest Baroque fountain in Rome. The fountain is over 85 feet tall and 160 feet large and each day 2,824,800 cubic feet of water spills into the fountain! The location of Fontana di Trevi marks the end of one of the Roman Aqueducts. Beginning in the early Renaissance, Popes began to build extravagantly decorated fountains at the end of the aqueducts they restored. In the 1730s, Nicola Salvi, an architect, designed the fountain and construction soon began. Years later, on Sunday May 22, 1762 it was officially completed and inaugurated. Today, tradition states that if a visitor throws a coin into the fountain they will one day return.

Fontana di Trevi

From the fountain we passed the Pantheon. The Roman Temple, built between A.D. 118 and 125, is dedicated to all of the Gods of pagan Rome. The Pantheon's architecture is amazing. The Pantheon is composed of a series of interesecting arches which rest on 8 piers. The Pantheon's 43 meter high dome is supported by a second set of arches that run horizontally. The Romans had perfected the use of arches and often used them to support their buildings. They also decreased the width of the Pantheon and used lighter building materials towards the top in order to relieve the building of large amounts of weight and stress.

The Pantheon

Lastly, no stop in Italy would be complete without gelato! Gelato is made with milk, cream and sugar and is absolutely delicious. Gelato is different than ice cream: it is made with less butterfat and has a higher density than ice cream due to the small amount of air added during the production process. My favorite flavor is Stracciatella, but this time I decided to go with fragola...and it was delicious!

Enjoying my gelato