Rome has been a city that I have passed through hundreds of times, but this past summer I was thrust into the heart of the city and experienced it in a way that I haven't before.

In school, I learned about the Roman Empire, about the Vestal Virgins, about the magnificent architecture of the Pantheon, which remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. All of these things fascinated me in the past, now I was about to see them in person.

On the first night, I walked less than a mile from our apartment to visit St. Peter's Square and Basilica. The bright lights of the illuminated Basilica, columns, and fountains reflect off of the cobblestones of the ground and the lights shine so brightly that everywhere you look there is a permanent sparkle. The lights, the stones, the fading pastels of the sky, the hope that the pope will appear in one of the windows, all make it seem surreal and dreamy, and literally, out of this world.

Silvia Cavalieri

The Pantheon stands proudly and casually in the Piazza Della Rotonda. After I pass through the crowds of tourists and make my way inside, I walk to the center and stand directly below the dome. I realize the antiquity of the place. I can imagine ancients like Raphael and Brunelleschi passing through and admiring the architecture of the place and the ancients, just as I was at that moment.

Silvia Cavalieri

A visit to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill across the street transports you back in time to the thriving Roman Empire. As you go around and around the Colosseum, and peer closely down below, you can almost hear the crowd of Romans around you, roaring at the events occurring below. Passing by ruins of churches, houses, and shops, in the Roman Forum, you see the skeleton of a city that once was. You can almost hear the chants of the Vestal Virgins, the steady march of gladiators as they pass by you, the excited buzz of a crowd gathered to watch chariot racing. As you climb the Palatine Hill and walk through the Palace, you feel the relief of a few winds that somehow feel ancient. You circle each statue and observe it closely down to every last detail. You walk up and up and up until you see it: suddenly the whole of Rome is laid out before you.

Silvia Cavalieri

Rome is synonymous with Italian life and culture. It seems the whole world is passing through. When you walk the streets of Rome you are bombarded with a unique mix of tourists from all over the world and local Romans taking a scroll on their lunch breaks and riding Vespas. The Eternal City, a city that captures the essence of both the past and the present, and maybe, even the future. Sought after and appreciated by all. A place that represents the beautiful and the ugly of human nature, and a place that completely has my heart, and one day will have yours too.