Mike's Travel Adventures
Rome
Acqua Paola Fountain
The Faro di Roma Lighthouse
Belvedere del Giancolo
One of Rome’s most beautiful (and least crowded!) fountains, the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola, sits atop the Gianicolo, a hill west of the historic center of Rome. The fountain’s name, literally “The Fountain of the Paulian Water” speaks of its creator: Pope Paul V.
aro di Roma, also known as the Rome Lighthouse, is a historic lighthouse located on the coast of Fiumicino in Rome, Italy. It was built in the 1920s and stands at a height of 33 meters, providing guidance and navigation for ships entering the port of Rome. The lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction, offering stunning views of the surrounding coastline and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
It stands on the right bank of the Tiber River and climbs the hill of the same name, dotted with sycamore trees. It is the Belvedere on the Janiculum Hill, one of the most beautiful views in the entire capital.
The Colosseum
The Colosseum is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world, despite its age.
Roman Forum and Palantine Hill
The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum, is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum. The Palatine Hill, which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the center, is one of the most ancient parts of the city; it has been called "the first nucleus of the Roman Empire".
Pantheon
It stands today as the most well-preserved structure from Ancient Rome, having survived floods and earthquakes, and staying relatively untouched for over 2000 years – it is still made up of the original marble and granite from thousands of years ago.
The Arch of Constantine
The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312.
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762 and several others. Standing 86 ft high and 161.3 ft wide, it is the largest fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world.
Fontana di Santa Maria
The Fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere is a fountain located in the square in front of the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. It is believed to be the oldest fountain in Rome, dating back, according to some sources, to the 8th century.
Forum of the Peace
The Temple of Peace, also known as the Forum of Vespasian, was built in Rome in 71 AD under Emperor Vespasian in honor to Pax, the Roman goddess of peace.
Mouth of Truth
The Mouth of Truth is an ancient Roman marble mask which stands against the left wall of the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church, at the Piazza della Bocca della Verità, the site of the ancient Forum Boarium. In the Middle Ages, the Mouth of Truth myth was born: it was said that liars who placed their hand inside the sculpture would immediately lose it. Supposedly, Medieval Romans saw the sculpture as a lie detector for those who committed acts like adultery and perjury.
St. Angelo Bridge
Ponte Sant'Angelo, originally the Aelian Bridge or Pons Aelius, was completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber from the city center to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the towering Castel Sant'Angelo.
Temple of Portunus
The Temple of Portunus is an ancient Roman temple built beside the Forum Boarium, the Roman cattle market associated with Hercules, which was adjacent to Rome's oldest river port and the oldest stone bridge across the Tiber River, the Pons Aemilius.
Fontana del Moro
Fontana del Moro is a fountain located at the southern end of the Piazza Navona. It depicts a nautical scene with tritons, dolphins, and a conch shell.
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a public open space built on the site of the 1st century AD Stadium of Domitian and follows the form of the open space of the stadium in an elongated oval. The ancient Romans went there to watch the agones, and hence it was known as "Circus Agonalis".
Mamertine Prison
The enemies and traitors of the Roman people and state prisoners were locked up and executed in the monument. Among the many historical figures condemned to death by strangulation or beheading in the Mamertine Prison, Jugurtha, king of Numidia, in 104 BC, and Vercingetorix, king of the Gauls, in 46 BC.
Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.
Arch of Janus
The Arch of Janus is the only triumphal arch preserved in Rome. It was set up in the early 4th century AD at a crossroads at the northeastern limit of the Forum Boarium, close to the Velabrum, over the Cloaca Maxima drain that went from the Forum to the River Tiber.
Forum of Augustus
The Forum of Augustus is one of the Imperial fora built by Augustus. It includes the Temple of Mars Ultor. The incomplete forum and its temple were inaugurated in 2 BC, 40 years after they were first vowed.
Forum of Trajan
The Forum of Trajan was the final, and largest, of Rome’s complex of so-called “Imperial fora”—dubbed by at least one ancient writer as “a construction unique under the heavens”
Ponte Sisto Bridge
Ponte Sisto is a bridge in the historic center, spanning the river Tiber. It connects Via dei Pettinari in the Rione of Regola to Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere.
Temple of Hadrian
The Temple of Hadrian (Templum Divus Hadrianus, also Hadrianeum) is an ancient structure on the Campus Martius dedicated to the deified emperor Hadrian by his adoptive son and successor Antoninus Pius in 145 bc. This temple was previously known as the Basilica of Neptune.
Trajans Column and Forum
Trajan's Column is a triumphal column that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It is located in Trajan's Forum, north of the Roman Forum.
Fountain of Neptune
At the northern end of Piazza Navona, which it shares with the Fountain of the Four Rivers and the Moor Fountain, was once known as the “Calderari fountain”, because it was located close to a small alley full of shops of pots and pans’ makers and sellers.
Portico of Octavia
The colonnaded walks of the portico enclosed the Temples of Juno Regina and Jupiter Stator, as well as a library. The structure was used as a fish market from the medieval period up to the end of the 19th century.
Baths of Caracalla
The baths followed the "great Imperial baths" blueprint for Roman baths. They were more a leisure center than just a series of baths. Besides being used for bathing, the complex also offered facilities for taking walks, reading, studying, exercise and body care.
Fontana della Barcaccia
The Fontana della Barcaccia is a Baroque-style fountain found at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome's Piazza di Spagna. Pope Urban VIII commissioned Pietro Bernini in 1623 to build the fountain as part of a prior Papal project to erect a fountain in every major piazza in Rome.
Campitelli Forum
Located between the Roman Forum and the Campidoglio Hill, the 10th rione of Rome is the best known and vital in the city. The numerous archaeological and museum sites occupy over 60% of its territory.
Forum of Nerva
Forum of Nerva is an ancient structure chronologically the next to the last of the Imperial fora built. Because this forum was built within the narrow space between two other forums, the Forum of Nerva was the smallest of the great six forums of Rome. Nevertheless, for almost four centuries, this busy forum was an interconnecting hub between several other forums.
Fountain of Ponte Sisto
The grand Fontanone di Ponte Sisto stands in Piazza Trilussa, facing the south end of the Ponte Sisto river. The fountain, which was also known as the Fontanone dei Cento Preti (Grand Fountain of a Hundred Priests), originally stood on the other side of the river, where it was part of the facade of the Collegio Ecclesiastico.
Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II
Ponte Vittorio is spread over three masonry arches and is 110 meters long, and 20 wide. It has a grand sculptural decoration with four marble groups and four Victories on its pillars and headboards.
Temple of Hercules Victor
The Temple of Hercules is the only surviving sacred structure in that was made of Greek marble. Located in the Forum Boarium on the eastern bank of the Tiber, it is one of the oldest buildings in the city.
Lungotevere Castello and Ponte Umberto
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, also known as Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering rotunda in Parco Adriano. The popes later used the building as a fortress and castle, and it is now a museum.
Fountain of the Four Rivers
The Fountain of the Four Rivers depicts the Gods of the four great rivers in the four continents as then recognized by the Renaissance geographers: the Nile in Africa, the Ganges in Asia, the Danube in Europe, and the Río de la Plata in America.
Colosseum Arena and Underground
The underground was the domain of the animals, props, lifts and ramps that made the special effects of the games. It is also where most of the gladiators entered the colosseum through an underground passage linked to their barracks and training area.
Pyramid of Caius Cestius
Inspired by Egyptian models, one of those who chose a pyramid as a tomb was Caius Cestius, a praetor, a tribune of the plebs, and a member of the Septemviri Epulones, magistrates who organized banquets in honor of the most prominent deities, as can be seen on one of the inscriptions on the facade. Another inscription tells us that the construction works had to last no more than 330 days. The family members would have lost their inheritance.
Out and About
Pictures taken around the city as I was wondering around or going from place to place. Buildings, streets, transportation, etc.
Florence
Palazzo Vecchio
Piazza del doumo
Santa Croce Basilica Complex
The Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) is one of the most famous symbols of the city of Florence. Palazzo Vecchio was built in the form of a castle and with a tower of 94 meters high between 1299 and 1314. Its function was to become the residence and workplace of the officials of the republic, so it has several rooms, each with a unique personality.
Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) is located in the heart of the historic center of Florence. It is one of the most visited places in Europe and the world and the most visited area of the city. The square contains Florence Cathedral with the Cupola del Brunelleschi, the Giotto's Campanile, the Florence Baptistery, the Loggia del Bigallo, the Opera del Duomo Museum, and the Arcivescovile and Canonici's palace.
The basilica is the largest franciscan church in the world. Its most notable features are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its tombs and cenotaphs. Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St Francis himself.
Michelangelo David Gallery
The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze (Gallery of the Academy of Florence), is an art museum best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture David. It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a large collection of paintings by Florentine artists, mostly from the period 1300–1600.
Uffizi Gallery
The Gallery entirely occupies the first and second floors of the large building constructed between 1560 and 1580 and designed by Giorgio Vasari. It is famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings (from the Middle Ages to the Modern period).
Giardino di Boboli
The Boboli Gardens are considered one of the most important and beautiful Italian style gardens in the world and have influenced Italian garden and landscape architecture through their unique blend of fountains, caves, streets, buildings, small woods, statues, and ponds.
Out and About
Pictures taken around the city as I was wondering around or going from place to place. Buildings, streets, transportation, etc.
Venice
Doges Palace
The Doge's Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Republic of Venice. It was built in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries.
Leonardo Da Vinci Museum
This museum houses a collection of machines made based on Leonardo da Vinci projects, built in full size. All machines work and many can be tested. Inside the museum there are also educational projections about the life and works of the Great Genius, as well as a reproduction of the main pictorial works of the artist and some of his main anatomical studies.
St. Marks Basillica
The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, commonly known as St Mark's Basilica, is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cathedral of San Pietro di Castello.
Out and About
Pictures taken around the city as I was wondering around or going from place to place. Buildings, streets, transportation, etc.
La Fenice Opera House
Teatro La Fenice is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theater" and in the history of opera as a whole.
Verona
Arco dei Gavi
The Arco dei Gavi well-known as the Gavi Arch is an ancient monument in Verona, northern Italy. It was initially built at the Via Postumia the Roman road leading to the city by the Gens Gavia, a noble Roman family who had their hometown in Verona. During the Middle Ages, it was used as a gate in the walls. It was built to honor several members of the famous Gens Gavia family that is believed to have been of Veronese origin in the first century A.D. because of a sign engraved in its stone for centuries. The sign also marked the new expansion of Verona outside the city walls in the early 1st century A.D.
Casa di Romeo
One of the most visited landmarks in Verona is Juliet’s Balcony, located inside what is called the “House of Juliet,” but is actually just the former residence of a local noble family. Similarly, visitors can find the “House of Romeo” not far from his lover’s home. This 14th-century palace is located on a narrow road in the center of Verona and belonged to Cagnolo Nogarola, a Veronese noble of French descent. It’s a typical medieval residence decorated with Ghibelline-style merlons and fortifications, complete with a large internal courtyard.
