Rome’s Nickname

Rome's nickname.
Source: http://www.hackedarcadegames.com/online-game/2492/Pizza-City.html

Welcome to Rome - a.k.a. Pizza City - where they happen to have 8-bit arcade games named after life in the city.

Ok, I admit it.  I'm lying.  Some respectable nerd art historian who I happen to know pretty well told me Rome's nickname is "The Eternal City".  Now raise your hand if I had you going even for a second.  Thanks for being honest.

I was having a light snack of a black plum then some fresh bread which I happily dipped in some of the freshest tasting olive oil I have ever had.  While eating, I began pondering what "The Eternal City" really means.  Why is it considered eternal?  Then I remembered a recent morning where my expert and I went to Rome's Ghetto just to walk around and see what the area had to offer.  About 5 minutes into our walk, I knew exactly why this ancient city had that nickname.  I saw this:

Loved this photo.  The Temple of Apollo Medico.

I had stepped onto grounds that were occupied since before the year 0.  That's right.  Zero.  

Welcome to the Theater of Marcellus and the Temple of Apollo Medico. If you want to get really specific about age, the columns shown belonged to the temple which was built in 433 BC!  From what my expert tells me, the theater which lies to the right of the columns was started about 12 B.C.!!!!  In case you didn't catch that considering how many exclamation points I added, to me, these are astounding thoughts.  

I know one of you doesn't really care if it's old or not.  I can imagine someone reading this right now and has these thoughts with a snarky tone to it. "Big whoop?  Some dudes lived there a while ago."  For some reason, I can easily imagine Sylvester Stallone saying that in his classic voice.  

"Big whoop?"
Source: http://www.celebitchy.com/70321/is_sylvester_stallones_face_melting/

Well to me, Sir Snarkiness, it's impressive seeing even those columns because I imagine trying to build insanely large temples or theaters with huge columns like these and arches as supporting structures for ceilings and not having a crane, an elevator, electricity, wide format plans to review, etc to help make the project complete.  That's a serious endeavor!

Can anyone explain to me why it's called the Temple of Apollo Medico?  Most of us hopefully remember that Apollo is a deity from the ancient Greek religion.  It's not because it's his last name.  A quick fun fact from my expert about the Temple.  Often, Romans made more than one temple for the same deity and this particular one is dedicated to Apollo as a healer, hence the Medico addition.  

It should be noted that in the picture below, the arches on the right side of the center path are the originals.  Notice how they are reddish, almost of brick color?  The connected "outer" wall has the newer, marble-look to it because that part was added in the 16th century. Crazy to think that this place is over 2,000 years old and what's just as noteworthy is that it was planned by none other than the infamous Julius Caesar.

Theatre of Marcellus.  

After a visit to the past, we head back through the ghetto and see a monumental synagogue.  

A gorgeous front entrance.

And then we pass by various shops, restaurants and random piazze to finish our day out.  Some photos are definitely worthy of just VASGO.

This is actually a door to a restaurant which our books say has a cult following.  I thought the look was so unique.

Nice face on the fountain.  

Space is limited, so why not make your building over the street?  Problem solved!

Ciao from Pizza City!