Where in the world will u find a modern city built ard archeological excavations of a buried past. In rome of course! With its rich ancient historical past, its no wonder that to this day, archeology is still an on-going activity in this enchanting city. (There are new finds and discoveries to this day as i was told!) As i went through the digital images i managed to capture on my camera, i find myself mesmerized still, by the memory of amazing sights of the city. I had less than a day's grace to explore the place,and it wasnt time enough of course. But hey, it was sufficient sneak preview to leave me wanting to go back for more. The city is populated with remains of it's great ancient civilization- temples, forums, tombs, columns.. The architectural prowess of the past is just awe-inspiring.

I have a penchant for historical objects, things made in the days of yore. Objects with a history or story never fail to intrigue me. For some reason, sometimes unknown to myself, i revel in the fact that someone who had lived in the past had touched and made the object i was holding or touching in the present. i try to imagine the events which the object had 'witnessed', its glorious past or its turbulent 'sufferings'. I went berserk in rome. Every gigantic column i see i go ga-ga & screamish, walking spell-bounded by its magnificance, i would linger around the object and place my hands on them carefully. ' ancient vibrations' i will whisper to sussana. i went mad, molesting every gate, coloumn, stone, statue, fountain. It was most embarassing for my dear guide and her lovely brother( who studies in rome.)
Sussana was a dear italian friend i met in my days of delft. We hung out, gossiped and cycled to school together. It was some years ago that we last saw each other, so when she heard in my email that i will be dropping by in rome she decided to make a trip to rome for a nice get-together.
It was unexpected for me though cause the email arrangement was informal and uncertain but when i called her on a pay-phone i am pleasantly surprised ( and very touched actually) that she is already waiting in the city for my call! =)
oh man i missed her, was so glad to see her by the stairs where we met.

pic on left: the past looking over the present, an ancient fountain overlooks the modern day carpark and a street brimming with tourists.

we started our walk-about by first visting the exterior of the tomb of the unknown soilder. we didnt really go in as i was more anxious about making it to the colosseum before it closes at five.

we chatted and walked and as we past the giant musei capitolini. ( second left pic from top) Susussna's brother was explaining to me that the locals have a disdain for this building. They think its hideous. looks totally glorious to me, i protested. To me its exotic, almost magical. hahah sussana says it will be the same for them if they go over to asia things that i might find hedious they would totally love.
interesting thought, maybe in all of us there is a curiousity for that which we are not familiar with. for me its the culture and rich history of europe at that instant.

But then again, if im in beijing i will be intrigued by the great
wall and the palaces too..but THEN AGAIN im born and
bred in sunny singapore, a young modern nation with little heritage. no wonder i get hysterically awe-stricken in places with a long historical tale.
pic on right: sussanna and bro watcing my ga-ga cukooness.

pic left:
me in roma!









Having no time to lose we made our pilgramage to the colossuem. The place where gladiators fought and lose battles.

The site where ancient audiences get to decide if the loser of the battle
lives or dies. ( if the crowd wants the losing gladiator to be killed, they wave their hankerchiefs or they put their thumb i their fists) And these gruelling form of entertainment went for free in the past for anyone who has the stomach to watch them. well many had! The gladiators are usually slaves trained to fight each other. They sometimes fight animals sometimes they fight each other. Ancient roma is a great civilization but it was great because of its conquests, because of its invasions & battles. Some theories speculated that the fall of the roman empire is due to its lack of more wealth to acquire since there were not many more areas to conquer. Others sited bad economical management of its ruling system as a reason. And serfdom, how cruel.

pic right: me with a panlini in front of the great colosseum.




pic right: the colosseum swarming with eager
tourists.

imagine the magnificent structure in the picture without the ugly iron fences sticking out like alien sore thumbs and no annoying colorful tourists. Imagine chariots zoomming towards this site , horns going off in the background to warn everyone that a game is about to start. just.. breath-taking.

The queue to the colosseum was simply crazy, well everyone will like to have a peak inside. I would have loved to go in there but there was simply not enough time. so the idea was abandoned for practical reasons. sorry to dissapoint you readers, but the next time i'll try again.

As we proceeded to the palantine and the forum, we
chanced upon a street artist doing side profile cuttings in black paper. in the picture on the left he was doing the cutting for sussana. What do you think? does it look a tad bit like her? pretty good i will say.

I had a go at it too.
the speed at which he completed his art was amazing.
the end result was this..

pic bottom right:
me in cut out. i really like the hair*
yup and so it is.
it was a lot of fun.
we continued our walk about the ancient ruins. Sussana's brother finds it appalling that sussana and me will call them ruins, so i corrected myself to say 'relics' instead. its too bad he didnt really undestand the word relics otherwise im sure he will be more pleased =)

pic left:
an ancient door.
door to where?
*shrug*






pic right:

roman coloumns dating a longer wayback then the church theybuilt within it.gorgeous pictures.
Need to get a guide book to rome need to get a guide book to rome.
oh i do learn. i managed to get a travel adapter and solved the problem of dead battries ( its not to put em in the camera after its fully charged)
gotta love em roman columns. It is said that the proportions used to build roman colums are carefully devised and designed to be harmonious . Andrea palladio (1508-1580) an architect who believed that the principals of beauty is simple. formulating a set of ideal proportions to govern the aspect of buildings. he said builders made use of musical ratios.
the height of the coloumn, is nine times its diameter,the capital at the top of each column should bt equal in height the diameter of the column . the archittrave whichb reara on top of the columns should be one fifth of the column's heights. distance between the columns should be twice the diameter of each coloumn.this will ensure that the rows of columns have the immediate rightness and ease of a musical harmony. theory of beauty.
we'll see how true that is.
pic right:
beautiful columns.







































the panteon concluded my vist to rome in april.
i hope to go back again for more.
for those of you with the fortune to travel- you lucky bastards! i am very envious.
there are just so mnay more cities in italy which are amazing. pompeii, capri, to name a couple.
there are just so many places on the planet and so little time. Soooo much to learn.

next on the agenda, birmingham and accra.