hai le’s photography

When traveling to Europe, I often get jetlagged in my first few days here.  That meant being sleepy in the afternoon and waking up early in the morning. It allowed me to wake up at 4:30 am and showed up at tourist traps like the Patheon, the Trevi Fountain, and St. Peter Basilica in Vatican City before everyone else.  For me, it was the best way to tour Rome. 

Rome reminded me of Saigon, a city that I often visited when I was little.  Maybe it was the humidity, the sewage smell, the bustling streets, the aromas of food, spices, the motorbikes, and the people.  It was hard to describe why I felt as such, and being back here years after would leave me with the same feeling.   

The Pantheon

The Pantheon, built around 126 AD as a Roman temple for the gods, is now a Catholic Church (Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres).  It is famous for its cylindrical-shaped, a large circular dome.  

Each of the 16 granite Corinthian columns at the entrance of the Patheon weighs 60 tons.  The journey of those massive granite columns is impressive.  They were quarried in Egypt, made a 100km trip to the Nile, and made their way across the Mediterranean Sea to the port of Ostia, pulled up the Tiber to Rome.  

"When you're inside, look up!" a good friend of mine told me when hearing that I was going to visit the Pantheon. Indeed, looking up to the ceiling of the Pantheon was a spectacular experience.  The oculus - The Eye of the Patheon - is the 8.2m opening in the center of the dome. For a long time, it was the only source of light for the Pantheon. 

The Pantheon dome is about 142 feet (43m) in diameter, unreinforced.  Two thousand years later, it is still the largest unreinforced dome in the world.   The best times to visit the Pantheon are early in the morning when it is quiet, or at noon when the light column is vertically shining down the middle of the building. 

Many years later, Brunelleschi, the famous Renaissance architect that built the Duomo in Florence, studied the dome carefully during his three years trip to Rome.  He would climb up to the dome to observe it and came up with a solution to how to add a dome (cupola) to the Duomo.  

Here lie the tombs of many famous people. Among them is Raphael, the famous Renaissance painter.  Buried next to Raphael is his fiancée, Maria Bibbiena.  It sounded like a beautiful love story, but in fact, it was a tragedy.  Raphael engaged to Maria in 1514 but put off the marriage for six years because he was in a love affair with another girl.  Maria died before they were married, and Raphael died soon after. 

The Latin inscription on the tomb of the famous painter translates to "Here lies Raphael, by who nature herself feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he dies, feared that she herself would die." 

Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) and the fountains of Rome

Trevi Fountain is the most famous fountain in Rome, the city with more than 1300 fountains.  It was at the junction of three streets (tre vie), and therefore it was called Trevi Fountain - the Three Street Fountain. 

I got here in the middle of the day, after my visit to the Patheon.  It was busy and overcrowded.  Tourists were busy taking selfies, throwing coins into the fountain, or trying to squeeze their way to have a closer look at the fountain.  

It collects more than €700,000 per year from all the coin tourists tossed into the fountain.  Legend has it that throwing a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain ensures a return to Rome.  And who would not want to come back to this city?  Whoever invented this idea is brilliant — it is a perfect way to tax tourists, like how the lottery system to tax the poor.

Capitoline hill 

After taking a long afternoon nap, I took the metro from Roma Termini to Colosseo station. 

The Colosseum in the afternoon was full of tourists.  I decided to take a walk to Capitoline Hill and watch the Roman Forum turning gold in the sunset. 

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