We saw it for the first time walking back to the apartment after our traditional seafood Christmas Eve dinner at Ristorante iClementini. It was around 10:30 pm. Lite up with yellow lights against the dark sky, the Colosseum stood there. Solemn. Impressive. Beautiful. Airy with open rounded arches stacked on top of each other to form the three lower stories. Inspired by the Greeks semi-circled amphitheaters, Romans added the other half to the structure. The result was a 160 feet high, 280 feet long, and 165 feet wide oval shaped monument that could accommodate 50,000 people. The construction of the Colosseum and its 40 feet deep concrete foundation started in…

I am sent early to get in line before the crowds descend on the Pantheon. No more than a dozen people are ahead of me. While I look for my family, I cannot help but admire the Pantheon. This monument has seen so much history. The Pantheon, initially built in 27 B.C. and rebuilt around 120 A.D., was dedicated to all the Roman gods. It is built on a circular foundation and mostly made up of bricks with a concrete shell as a surface creating 20 feet thick walls. I cannot see the dome from where I stand. But I can see columns. There are sixteen of them. Each one…

While in Rome, I visited the Pantheon for the first time. It was a humbling experience walking into this 2000 years old monument that boasts the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. The Romans are credited for inventing concrete, which allowed them to build their empire. As such, I want to talk about concrete before talking about the Pantheon. I will not be offended if you skip this post. It is a bit technical. But if you are interested, let’s make concrete. To make concrete, we first need to make cement. The process starts by collecting rocks. Not any type of rocks. We need limestone, which contains calcium carbonate,…

Buongiorno. Un caffè per favore. I picked up those Italian words pretty rapidly. The almost-tuxedo-dressed-server immediately puts a little saucer and a little spoon on the no-stool-bar countertop. He adds a container with sugar envelopes and a small glass of water. He turns around and moves toward the massive espresso machine. An instant later he puts a tiny-half-full espresso cup (or half-empty depending on your perspective of life) on the saucer. Are you kidding me? That’s all? I take the cup and taste the black liquid: hot and a little bitter. That’s yummy and waking me up! While I slowly drink the four-sip-maximum-caffè (caffè in Italy is an espresso here)…