Tag: rome
All the articles with the tag "rome".
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The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill: How to Read a Pile of Ruins as a City
Published:• 13 min readThe Roman Forum is a half-buried timeline of the city that ran the western world for eight hundred years. A Roman Forum audio guide reading the ruins in sequence from the Capitoline to the Palatine.
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The Vatican Museums: How to Walk Four Miles Without Missing the Good Parts
Published:• 11 min readThe Vatican Museums are a four-mile corridor of one-way traffic ending at the Sistine Chapel. A Vatican Museums audio guide to the four rooms that matter and how to walk the route without losing them in the crowd.
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The Colosseum: How Rome Built a Stadium That Could Empty Fifty Thousand People in Fifteen Minutes
Published:• 9 min readThe Colosseum could empty fifty thousand spectators in fifteen minutes and flood its own floor for naval battles. A look at the most efficient stadium ever built.
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Pompeii: The City That Vesuvius Buried, and Then Preserved
Published:• 9 min readPompeii was buried alive in a single afternoon in 79 AD. The ash that killed the city is also what saved it. A walk through what the volcano left behind.
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The Pantheon Dome: How Rome Cast a Concrete Sky That Has Not Fallen in 1,900 Years
Published:• 12 min readThe Pantheon dome is still, after nineteen hundred years, the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth. How the Romans cast it -- and why it has not fallen.
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Who Built the Pantheon: The Three Names Behind a Two-Thousand-Year-Old Roof
Published:• 10 min readWho built the Pantheon? Agrippa's name is on it, Hadrian actually built it, and Apollodorus of Damascus probably designed the dome. Here is how all three fit.
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Raphael's Famous Work and the Tomb in the Pantheon: Why a Painter Got Buried with Gods
Published:• 11 min readRaphael's most famous work earned him a burial slot in the Pantheon in 1520 -- a reading of the paintings that made him, and the epitaph that closes them.
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Pantheon History: How a Pagan Temple Became the Oldest Continuously Used Building in Rome
Published:• 11 min readThe full pantheon history -- Agrippa's lost temple, the fire, Hadrian's rebuild, the conversion to Santa Maria ad Martyres, and the pope who stripped the bronze.
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Where to See Caravaggio in Rome: A Walking Guide to Every Painting
Published:• 20 min readA walking guide to every surviving Caravaggio painting in the city of Rome -- seven churches and museums, and the fastest route between them.
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Why Michelangelo Signed the Pietà and Never Signed Again
Published:• 12 min readWhy Michelangelo signed the Pietà: he overheard pilgrims crediting a rival for his masterpiece, and never signed another work for life.