We then meandered south through the Campo Marzio. In really ancient times, this was a vast field used by the Romans as a boot camp, training their young soldiers to take over the world. As Rome grew, the field shrank, getting covered with temples, houses and shops. When the barbarians finally put an end to the empire and sacked Rome, they also cut the aqueducts, stopping the flow of water to the city. The few thousand people left to wander around the defeated city eventually congregated in this area, in a bend in the Tiber river, so they could at least have access to some water. For hundreds of years, this small village of survivors, plus the pope and his retinue, was all that was left of Rome, and it remains the heart of residential Rome even now.



Its most famous landmark is the Pantheon, the best preserved Roman ruin in the world. It was built around 100 AD as part of a huge entertainment complex, but only this temple survives. It was converted into a church around 600, which explains why it was allowed to stand rather than get ripped down for building material. Incidentally, the small piazza in front of the pantheon, though tourist central, is very pretty and a nice place to stop for an espresso.