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Rome in 70 pictures (© Vecais Sakarnis 2008)

8K views 23 replies 19 participants last post by  Janis_LV 
#1 ·

Rome in facts
Founded: 753 BC
Population: 2,705,603 in city (4th in EU), 4,013,057 in urban area
Area: 1285 km2
Tourism: 26 mio tourists every year (3rd in EU)

On 7-12 November I made my this year's last trip (most likely), this time to "eternal city" Rome. This time I was lucky with weather - it was a trip back to the summer (just as I expected), +20C, sunny most of the time with clear blue skies. Rome differs from other European key cities where I have been (London, Paris, Berlin) very much. Rome as a much older and world wars escaped city holds large historical heritage from ancient times when it was metropolis even by modern standards (historicists say that in Rome was at least 1-2 million people in ancient times). You can see it on every step - city center is full of ancient ruins appearing here and there - between the buildings, in the middle of parks, even besides the railway lines. I got impression that Romans have built their city through centuries in conformity to these ancient relics, maybe that's why dominant colours are brown, dark red and dark yellow, and even in newer appartment houses far from the city centre they tries to comply with these rules. That makes Rome looking very coherent but also a bit stagnating - creates the feeling it's the city with rich past but without the future. Definitely, this is not the place for talented architect to experiment with his ideas - Rome hasn't almost any modern architecture and it hasn't almost any highrises too. But it's all belonging to the feeling of Rome - old, authentic stuff which hates antything new and progressive. Rome doesn't need skyscrapers to overawe - the imperial history and it's relics does it much stronger.
Buildings' maintenance mostly is in bad or medium condition, but the city is quite clean compared to other large cities. Tourists in Rome are everywhere, bearing in mind that November isn't considered as tourism season there, I wonder how the city looks in summer. Sadly, the beggars also are everywhere - haven't been in city with so many beggars before. Traffic is just crazy, noone pay much attention to the signal lights - neither drivers nor walkers. The good thing is that there are many panda crossings. I didn't see traffic jams too. Regarding to public transport, Rome has only 2 metro lines and trains are always full of people, because they goes through Termini central station. The transport with main (Fiumicino) airport is very good, express trains leaves every 30 minutes. Fiumicino airport itself is great organized - although very large, it is intelligible. People in Rome are nice but maybe not as kind as in other countries where I've been.
In overall, Rome is a very great city which provides many both impressive, and charming places, lovely weather (especially in October-November) and just a glimpse of the Western civilization roots. Strongly recommended!

Vecais Sakarnis' classing by points. ROME.

Amount of must-see places: 5/5
Historical architecture: 5/5
Modern architecture: 1/5
Nature: 3/5
Parks: 4/5
Safety: 4/5
Public transport system: 4/5
Walking comfort, traffic: 3/5
Eating: 3/5
Weather: 4/5
People: 4/5
Maintenance of buildings: 3/5
Cleanness of streets: 4/5
Overall feeling: 13/15

Total points: 60 of 80

Let's go with the pictures.

















Termini station building is aproximately 1 km long:























Rome has large park area close to centre called Villa Borghese. It's in size of Riga's Mežaparks, and like in Mežaparks, the zoological garden is situated there, but in contrast to Mežaparks, the park itself is not just a forest but great man-made landscape:





Art museum is located near Villa Borghese:





Villas of wealthier people are located on excellent places - on top of hills, close to green areas and with beautiful view over the city:



















Colosseum:











Vittorio Emanuele monument, built for memory of Italian soldiers died in WW1:











Vatican





St Peter's church interior:



Other churches:







Cityscenes:











































 
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#7 · (Edited)

(historicists say that in Rome was at least 1-2 million people in ancient times).
Thanks very interesting photo album.
http://www.unrv.com/empire/roman-population.php
At the height of Roman power in the mid 2nd century AD, conservative opinion is that the Empire was comprised of some 65 million people. Assuming that the world population was still roughly about 300 million people this would mean that the Roman population was approximately 21% of the world's total. However, less conservative estimates have added far more people living within the official borders of the Empire, perhaps as much as doubling the figure. With this in mind, the population of the Empire may have approached 130 million people or perhaps over 40% of the world's total! However, as these numbers for the ancient period are widely divergent and imprecise, it could be assumed that either number or any in between has the potential to be correct. Still the increase from 45 to 65 million in about a century is believable and can be credited to the conquests of Britannia and Dacia, and several annexations of client kingdoms dating from the time of Augustus. (mostly by Claudius)

Breaking down the 65 million population estimate, some additional assumptions can be made:

* 500,000 soldiers (legionaries totalling 150,000 and auxilia making up the rest)
* Approximately 600 Senators made up the elite of the elite.
* Perhaps up to 30,000 men filled the roles of Equestrians (knights), or the second tier of the aristocracy.
* 10 to 30% or 6 million to 19 million people lived in the cities, leaving the vast majority of some 46 to 59 million people to live in the country as independent and mostly tenant farmers.
* Rome itself was made up of over 1 million people and, though it would shrink remarkably after the fall of the west, no city would surpass that number until the great urban population booms of the industrial age, 1,500 years or more later.
* The slave population of Rome approached 500,000 on its own, probably half of which were owned by the 600 men of the Senate. Additional estimates have suggested that of the total 65 million people, 2 to 10 million may have been slaves.

After the plagues of the 160's to 170's AD, and the wars of Marcus Aurelius, the population of the empire fell from its previous high, likely down to about 40 million in total. By the beginning of the 4th century, and the reign of Constantine, civil wars and foreign incursions had taken their toll. The number had grown again, likely to somewhere around 55 million, but the rate of growth had obviously slowed considerably. By this time too, a major shift in imperial power was taking place from the west to the east. The population of Rome was in decline and Byzantium (or Constantinople) was on the rise. The west likely made up about 40% of the Empires total population with the remainder in the east. By the mid 6th century, wars, disease and emigration brought the population of Rome perhaps as low as 30 thousand to 100 thousand people; a far cry from its height just a few hundred years earlier. By contrast, in the same period, Constantinople may have numbered somewhere between 750,000 to 1 million people itself in the time of Justinian.
 
#16 ·
it's almost true:

  • most of medieval and renaissance buildings were made reusing old Roman marbles (you can actually see Roman columns in most medieval churches).
  • most residential buildings were built reusing roman structures. Most of the roman Thaters and Amphiteater are still there, just repainted and transformed in private houses.
  • until 1870, there was no need to create other settlements outside the city walls. During that time, around Rome's city Walls there was a 10-km uninhabited zone. As a result, the dialect spoken in rome is quite different from the dialect spoken in the rest of the Region.
 
#13 ·
Romans built remarkably well and with in mind the endurance of their buildings. The road network of the romans is still largely in place after 2000 years (let's see how our modern highweays will look after 2000 years of neglect) and so many other public buildings (thermal baths for example).
 
#15 ·
I saw this thread last week, at about the same time and I didn't like the pictures for some reason. BUT, BUT, BUT, may be i was drunk or something, cause i don't know how I could not like them.
well u get my drift. i changed my mind! Grazi senor!
btw, what did u like the most about the city, in general? i mean which area?
 
#19 ·
Probably the best place was the place of which I didn't take good photo - my camera battery was discharged. It's that hill from where one can see the area between Vittorio Emanuele and Colosseum, all these ancient ruins looked so fantastic in afternoon sun with blue skies in background... 2 artists made their paintings there. On the next morning before going back to airport I returned there but then the sun was gone and the sky was grey and it didn't look as half as impressive anymore.
 
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