And Outside The Rain Fell...

Waking up lazily at my convenience hasn't happened at all on this Eurotrip. Waking up fresh, like I've slept forever, especially while travelling, hasn't happened either. Well, finally it did.

In the most peaceful, almost subconscious sleep so far, we woke in the hotel, having cup noodles (yummy) for breakfast, and hopping out rather quickly to be greeted by an Indian sun, warming, bright and blinding.

We had the enormous Roma Forum and Palantine Hill for the day. To imagine Palantine Hill and the Forum in its heydays, it the era of Trajan, was a bewildering experience. The huge pillars and arches that remain are testimony to how massive the place was. The heart of Roman Civilization, Palantine Hill was where, as legend has it; Romulus and Remus were brought up. Where successive generations built the foundations of Rome. Where the kings and nobility erected magnificent villas, banquet halls, temples to Jupiter, baths, private arenas and courtrooms. Each of them, as their foundation reveals, was enormous in their entirety.

Today, alas, most of it lies in ruins. Yet, it isn't difficult to imagine the place in its heydays, to imagine filled courtrooms and the neighbourhood Colosseum teeming with people cheering, to imagine the enormous white marble and granite pillars and kings and generals walking the very roads we were walking now.

Spread over a huge bread, we hardly had time to see it all. And having spent four hours there already, E moved on to the city, looking for the Holy Grail - food.

Finding no pizzeria that was affordable and good, we all settled for shakes at McDonald's, and walking on, soon did find rolled Margaritas.

And then the Pantheon.

A 2000 year old structure. A 40 metre perfectly spherical dome. A dome that was free standing. No one really knows how such a massive, immensely massive dome can remain standing with absolutely no reinforcements, just plain concrete created some 2000 years ago.

Initially a temple to all the pagan gods (and hence the name - Pan and Theo), it was later consecrated by the Church to be a church for St. Joseph. What this did do was save it from pillage and destruction. And thus it still stands. A beautiful example of early Roman architecture, the huge dome and the mighty pillars are an example of how advanced the engineering of those days was.

As I stood there, feeling little, gazing in awe at the pillars, the open dome (the dome has a circular opening from where sunlight streams in), I couldn't help but want to stay there forever. A live choir played there at the back, probably because it was a Sunday. The earthy, eerie tones of the choir echoed in the interiors, with Tards and Bansi and I chatting away about Roman history, of the Papacy, of the church and pagan gods. We spent almost an hour there, in what might appear to be nothing more than a massive room.

Almost time to leave Rome, we walked around the old Pantheon area, which is scattered with several relics of the past. En Route, outside a certain McDonald's, I saw a wonderful street artist, using nothing but cardboard and spray paint to create starkly beautiful, supernatural paintings out of nowhere. Using a few moulds to cover earlier work, she worked with fantastic speed, and amazing, almost careless accuracy. And the paintings never came to life until the very last moment. Brilliant. I wanted one so badly, but we were running out of time and had to rush forth. Some other day. For in my mind, I knew that if there was one city that I was coming back to, if ever, this was it.

Rome. Forever.