End of the line...

The last few days I did not get a lot of good shots.  I spent the last weekend of the trip at a hotel in Rome to get a night of air-conditioning (temperatures for the six weeks I have been here have not been below 90 degrees F) and on the way home Sunday I was pickpocketed on the subway.  The thief got my passport and credit cards (no cash though), but I had to scramble to get a new passport.  That cut into sightseeing a little bit.

After a surprisingly pain-free visit to the US Embassy, I got a replacement passport with enough time to catch the group at Santa Maria Maggiore, the biggest of the churches dedicated to Mary in Rome.  The church was built in the 400's AD and follows a classic basilica floor plan.

This column outside the church was taken from the Basilica of Maxentius in the Forum.

 The interior of Santa Maria Maggiore.

 Underneath the church are remnants of a Claudian-era home.  Here is a piece of mosaic floor.

 Wall fresco

 Marble wainscoting.

 More mosaic floor.

 An enormous fresco that originally depicted the Roman calendar, with agricultural scenes that corresponded to what would take place in the countryside.

 A wall fresco

 Another decorative wall fresco

 The private bath

 Notice the under floor space.  This was used to heat the room.

Santa Praesedde, another 400s era church

St. Stefano Rotundo, a church built in the 400s.

 On our last day we traveled to St. Paul's.  This too was built in the 400s.  While this part is new, the church follows the original floor plan.

 These are the original column capitals.  They were taken from a building built during the Several dynasty (early 200s).

  We then went to a museum and saw some incredible mosaics that were found in Ostia.  The floor...

 A wall...

 An incredible marble mosaic, depicting lions pulling down prey.  The veins in the marble pieces make the mosaic particularly eye catching.

That's it...A few more meetings and then I head for home.  It's been an awesome experience.  Thanks for reading along!

Appian Way

Today we traveled along the Appian Way.  Our first stop was the Villa of the Quintilii.  It was built by the Quinitlius brothers (Sextus Q. Maximus and Sextus Q. Condianus in the 2nd Century AD.  It's a pretty sumptuous place, with its own aqueduct and its own chariot racing track.

Some of the original mosaic and marble floors are still in place.

As well as some of the wall frescoes.

More mosaics floors

Out towards the "playing fields" where the race track was. 

 Marble flooring

The commode 

 Marble wainscoting.  Note the inlaid maroon stripe.

 Part of the upper level.

 Their own home theater.

 After visiting the Quintilii, we drove down the road to the Villa of Maxentius.  Not much remains, but it was big enough to have its own stadium as well.  This is one of the towers at the corner.

 Here's another

 The stadium--hard to see in this shot, I know.

 Adjacent, Maxentius built a mausoleum for his son Romulus and his family.  It is circular, supported by a central column.

Surrounding the mausoleum was a portico.  The outside wall remains. 

 The exterior of the mausoleum.  Hard to see that it's circular.  Take my word for it

 Just down the street is another circular tomb, the tomb of Caecelia Metella.  

 The inside.

 We continued our stroll down the Appian Way and came to Aurelian's Wall.  Aurelian was a terrific emperor, reuniting the empire (it had split into three parts) and winning important victories over the Goths and the Parthians.  Sadly, he was assassinated.  While emperor, he decreed that this defensive wall be constructed.

 Just inside the wall was one of the aqueducts.  This arch carried the water over the Appian Way.

 A little bit further on, we visited the Tomb of the Scipios.  The Cornelius Scipio family was one of the most powerful and influential in ancient Rome.  Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy by crossing the Alps.  These are wall frescoes.

 We ended our journey at the Baths of Caracalla.  Caracalla was the son of Septimius Severus.  Septimius hoped his two sons could share the throne.  Immediately after Septimius died, Caracalla killed his brother Gaeta.  Caracalla was not a popular emperor, for he extended Roman citizenship to all the provinces.  In order to curry favor, he built this enormous public bath complex.  Many of the most beautiful statues (Farnese Bull, Farnese Hercules) were decorations in this bath complex.

 It's hard to tell from the photos, but this place is enormous.  The walls tower above the landscape.

 Some mosaic floors survive.

 One of the pools.

 Lots of domed spaces.

 The mosaics were even on the ceiling.  These chunks fell down in an earthquake.

With the Baths, that ended our trip down the Appian Way.