Flying over Rome en-route to Leonardo da Vinci airport, I watched three millennia of history unfold before me and wondered why I had waited so long to visit this bastion of civilization.

It was once said that all roads lead to Rome. Over the past six years I have traversed these roads many times. Walking along the ancient streets of Efes, Turkey looking at the ruins of a once thriving Roman city. Driving by an aqueduct in Aquincum, Budapest. Staring at beautiful mosaic floors from Roman villa left below farmland in England for over a millennium.

As the Pantheon and the Colosseum came into view, I felt the mortality of our own civilization. Would we follow the same model as the Roman Empire to an inevitable decline and fall? How long will our monuments to modernity stand to the unyielding march of time?

The Romans were master builders and the fact that so many ruins are left is a testament to them and their building acumen. For centuries these structures stood unprotected. Buildings were destroyed or Christianized or more often used as quarries for marble, bronze, and iron.

At first I found Rome overwhelming because of its extraordinary past dating back to the Etruscans. You could spend months -- even years -- exploring every nook and cranny. Some archeologists have spent a lifetime I'm sure.

I only had four and a half days, out of a twelve-day trip to Italy, to devote to the Eternal City. My companion (and trip photographer) and I decided to break our Roman holiday in half with two days in the beginning and two days at the end of our trip.

Rome by Streetlight

After a long flight from Washington, DC via London, we arrived at our hotel near the Termini at 5 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon just as our reservation was about to expire. We didn't stay long, quickly leaving to explore the city before nightfall.

Our destination was the Spanish Steps. After wondering off our route and consulting the map a number of times, we arrived at the top of the elegant steps cascading down one of Rome's famous seven hills. The Steps look like they should be the grand staircase in an elegant mansion or Opera House rather than standing outside facing the harsh elements.

In the piazza at the top stands one of the many obelisks the Romans brought back as pillage from Egypt. The city is almost littered with them. I spent the trip wondering if there are any obelisks left in Egypt.

Tourists and Romans alike congregate at the Piazza Di Spagna at the base of the steps where one of Rome's many fountains stands spouting water.

A man picturesquely roasted Chestnuts on the corner and sold them by the 100 gram. This is a sight that can be seen in piazzas and street corners throughout Rome.

By this time it was 7:30 and restaurants were just starting to open for dinner. We found a small restaurant about a half-mile from the steps and enjoyed our first meal in Italy - melon with proscutto (interesting but not compelling), bread, cannelloni (excellent), and pizza (interesting with egg on it), and tirimisu (the first of many pastries to be devoured on the trip).

Walking back to our hotel we passed yards with orange trees bearing huge oranges glistening under the streetlights and fragments from Roman buildings lying haphazardly. I wondered if they had been dragged there or if they merely lay where they fell a thousand or more years ago.

The Ancient City - Day One

The next morning we started our "real" tour of the city. From our hotel we walked to the Colosseum along the Via Cavour. Instead of following it all the way to the Forum we turned a block early, so the first Roman ruin we saw was the massive Colosseum dwarfing its surroundings.

It stands 161 feet high (the equivalent of 16 stories) and seated 50,000 spectators. Rome does not have any skyscrapers so the imposing structures of Roman and Renaissance times still have the ability to awe us with their majesty.

By the entrance, men dressed in Roman garb stood on podiums and waited for tourists to pay to have their pictures taken with them.

We arrived at the Colosseum just in time to go on an English speaking tour. As we walked around the Colosseum, I could almost hear the roar of the crowd watching gladiators battle one another or exotic animals brought from Africa.

The wooden floor has long since rotted away exposing the passages and dressing rooms under the stage. Most of the marble fade and travertine blocks have been carted away and absorbed over the centuries into the city's other structures. The understructure of cement and brick lies exposed, but it does not take much imagination to visualize the grandeur this building once possessed.
Nearby stands the Roman Forum. This is where history was made and a government ruled an empire spanning three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. History books are filled with the intrigue and betrayals that occurred at this spot in this most famous city. Much of it as torrid as the daytime soap operas.

So I meandered among the fallen columns and rebuilt the city in my mind.
I finally tore myself away from my daydreaming and moved on to the other Roman site that I longed to see, the Pantheon.

The ornamentation has long since been removed from the interior and exterior, but what is left is still a perfect building.

There are many things that I find incredible about the Pantheon, the main one being that it is not a ruin. It was built between 118 and 125 AD and it is still standing 1900 years later - not just a column or an arch but the entire structure. The other is that it is enormous. The dome is 144 feet in diameter with a 30-foot oculus in the center to let light in. Like with the pyramids, you have to wonder how they physically accomplished this feat of engineering. It was over 1,000 years before a structure as magnificent was erected in Rome.

The Vatican - Day 2

The Vatican's debt to ancient Rome is evident at almost every corner from the obelisk in the center of the square to the colonnade and the dome itself.

St. Peter's beauty owes much to the Pantheon, not only in design inspiration but also in materials. Bernini's gilded bronze ballacchino (canopy covered columns) that covers the altar is made from the bronze that once lined the dome of the Pantheon.

Entering the Basilica of St. Peter is a breathtaking experience. There is so much too see -- the architecture, the sculpture, the frescoes, the history. After wandering around for about fifteen minutes somewhat stupefied, we went to the Visitors Center where an array of books on the Basilica are available in many languages.

We discovered that there was an English language tour at 2 p.m. that day and were relieved that someone could hand feed us the information we desired. The tour was lead by two seminarians from the American Seminary in Rome.

It was wonderful to have them tell us about the art and the history of the Basilica and the early church. After the tour we took the elevator to the base of the dome. Looking down into the Basilica gives you an entirely different perspective of its scale.

From there we climbed to the lantern (top) of the dome which provides an incredible view of the city.

Saying Goodbye

The next day we were off to Florence and Venice. Fortunately we had visited the major sights that we had come to Rome to see, because when we returned to the city my companion was bedridden with a fever.

I've never been sick when traveling nor have I been with anyone sick, so I wasn't quite sure what to do. I hadn't even packed a thermometer on this trip -- usually I have a great first aid kit.

I found the number for the American Embassy in Let's Go and called for a list of English speaking doctors in the city. I got the name and number of an American doctor before learning from the front desk at the hotel about a service for international travelers where a doctor would come to the room.

Our last night I hoped that Mike would feel well enough to go out to eat at a nice restaurant, but he stayed in bed resting for the trip home that would begin at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. So I went out once again to forage for food finding a restaurant around the corner from our hotel and ordering a pizza to go.

Waiting for the pizza, I ate dessert and sipped a cappuccino while reflecting on the journey. In the morning I would be gone like so many others before me. For millennia Rome has been a Mecca for travelers. When the cement was still setting in the Colosseum and the Pantheon, visitors from the vast regions of the Empire converged on the city and were awed by its opulence. And the lure of the city's history and beauty are certain to lure millions of travelers to the city each year for
millennia to come.

Clare Higgins is a featured travel columinist for jetStream of Worldtravelcenter.com. She lives and works in Washington DC.

Photo Credits: Mike Morton