 All right, sorry here, H-of-Roam Live. We are here, we're gonna take a walk from the Spanish steps, we're gonna go all the way to, I just wanna thank everyone who's tuning in. Thank you so much. We have achieved our phenomenally, with a difficult goal of that matching challenge grant to raise $35,000, matching the pledge of $35,000. We have done it thanks to you, all of you that are tuning in, all of you that subscribe to our newsletter at hromelive.org. And right now, as a way of thanking you, we're gonna take you on a little walk in the northern campus marshes, to see some of the lights, to see some of the beautiful situation, the panoramic views of Rome today. We'll start here with this column of Cipollino Marble. It was found in the 1700s, and it was erected here in the 1850s, and it's celebrating that kickoff moment of the calendar, the Catholic calendar of Rome and of the Catholic Church. And the pope was here on December 8th. I filmed it on December 8th, the fireman placed a wreath in the hand, the extended hand of Mary. Let's go take a look. So it's Christmas season, Christmas season starts right here. And it's not the only column that gets a wreath, you can go to Lecce, you can go to a couple of cities, and who is putting that wreath is gonna be the fire department. So let's come around here. We can see lots of, we can see lots of flowers. Just come over here and take a look at the wreaths that are right here at the base. And we can see here that a lot of people are placing at the base here flowers, but it's up at the top. If we pan up to the top, we'll get a view as we walk back further. We're gonna walk over to Piazza Espana, but there in the outstretched hand of Mary is the new garland. It's placed there by a fireman. He goes up a fire truck ladder. It's a great spectacle. It's something really wonderful to behold. And I'll also say as we walk around here, I'm gonna also remind you that if you did reach our goal, you can still contribute any amount. And we have another donor who will match that any amount. So please, no donation is too small. Everything that you're contributing is going to really incredible, unique educational videos. We're gonna be filming the Dacian video in Jose de Le Terni. We're gonna be filming many extraordinary sites and exhibits. And so what we're gonna do is we are going to walk down here. We're walking past the Spanish Embassy. And that's why we have down the street here the Spanish Steps. So you can see that a lot of people are out and the weather's not that cold. I'm probably a little overdressed. Let's walk over to look at the Spanish Steps. And we can see also that the light is shining bright over lots of stairs, including the streets and boobies, we know. So if you have seen Rome on holiday, the Valentino building right here was where Gregory Peck was going to get his check. So we have lots of history here and the streets of Rome. Of course, a lot of history isn't just ancient, although our favorite topic of Rome is ancient Rome. But we can see everyone's out and about. The weather is quite, I'd say mild, and it was actually quite warm. It wasn't very sunny. We had a downpour rain yesterday. And now here we are approaching the stairs of the Spanish Steps. At the top of the Spanish Steps, there's the famous Republican Villa of Lucullus. One of the early rivals to pop is great, ultimately superseded by Julius Caesar. But Lucullus had a beautiful, magnificent, sprawling villa right on top of this hill. And now it's replaced by Tainty Monty Church. And of course, halfway up the Spanish Steps, we can walk up a little bit towards this glorious, glorious tree, I gotta tell ya. I was not a fan of the tree of last year. I like this one very much today. So we can just make our way up and admire the view. I don't know who did it last year, but this one's Dior. So it has a certain amount of bling quality to it, which I think is nice. And as you know, if you've been to Rome, you can't sit down on the steps of the, you can't sit down, but we can certainly admire. Let's go up a little bit. And then we're gonna make our way up. Got to know popular. Look at this, woo! And we'll turn around. Oh my God. Wait a second. You gotta take a look at the crowd down there. Look at that crowd. Oh my God. Look at that. The entire vide conduct, obviously a lot of people are shopping a bouldering today, but it is jam-packed. I haven't seen this just jam-packed in a long time. We're gonna be walking over towards Babuino in just a second, but imagine right here just above, just above the Spanish steps, soft inside there is one of those reservoirs where the water from the aquavergen, the aquavergo, 19 BC, a grippa, it flows right across here still today. I've been in those channels for a number of programs. Those channels still exist. And then underneath these steps, you have some of the reservoirs where the water would disperse into and then go out through pipes. And of course that water still flows to many of the fountains of Rome today, including the Trevi Fountain, which is just down the street. So I can only imagine how crowded that's gonna be today. This is absolutely spectacular. So everyone's out and everyone's ready to celebrate. Yeah, so this is a great, this is the place from the Trenta di Monsi Church, the historic church, and you have children in the neighborhood, including a school up at the top here, and the children come down and bring a lot of those breeds that they put at the base of that statue, and then the column. And it's also a column that's particular to the Roman Catholic history because behind it is the propaganda of the faith building, another historic building, and within all their decisions, they decided to really push the presence, the standing of Mary within the Catholic teachings. And so to get Mary on that, that discovered a chipolino marble column that's about 11 meters in height. So it's a pretty massive structure. Wasn't used in antiquity, it's kind of discarded, and they bring it to a new purpose and a new use as we'll see for the obelisks that are gonna be repurposed throughout the city of Rome. So what a great view, up the top, and up the top. It's a quick little view. So, so very crowded. We're gonna have to get a shot. So this is Rome right now. What a beautiful, beautiful tree. Of course, it was one of the grandest staircases in the world. If you're just joining us here in this Atomome Live, we talk about ancient Rome, we talk about ancient history, we share our videos on YouTube, like we're doing a live. But thank you to you today, you for being a donor, you for being a contributor to supporting our efforts. We've had a fantastic capital drive. We thank all of you for tuning in. We thank all of you for joining. If you get our newsletter at atomomelive.org, you get the access, you get the links to free lectures, at least two free lectures. Occasional live stream per month, in addition to the content we're putting on, the articles we're putting on our website. So you have incredible opportunities, you the teacher, you the students, you the armchair historian, you who want to come and travel. You can also travel with us. I will throw out again that in March, we'll be doing the city and cities for a week and for five days. And we will do also ancient city course in May. We're even doing an architecture program with North Carolina State University in Rome. So you have all these opportunities to come to five day courses in May, one in the southern city. So we're going to be going to these access places. We're going to be going to Pompeii. We're staying in Naples. All the information is on ancientromelive.org. Let's make our way down now to Piazza de España where I'm sure there will be a few people. And what we'll do is I think because it is a crowded place, we'll go over to Babuino. And then once we see an ancient statue, we'll head over to the El Corso. And the El Corso is a really old street going back to 221 BC. Today we call it the El Corso because it is a place kind of like the Palio of Rome. It's a glorious day, folks. The weather is wonderful. Glad to have you with us. We're in Piazza de España. And, of course, this is a great place for people to arrive if they're Italian because you've come all over the city or outside the city. You just take the metro. The metro stop, Piazza de España, is a famous one to get you into the center. It's a great place for people to visit. And, yeah, it doesn't really... It doesn't really feel like winter at this point. A couple days ago with the lighting of the tree, you know, Friday, that was pretty nippy. But today is actually a quite warm day and everyone's out. And we're happy that you're out with us as well. So we're gonna walk down here. Keep in mind we're in the campus. With Marcia's, we are in the flood plain on ancient Roman times. And what we'll do is we'll go over to... We'll go over to the tree Babuina for one more lovely look at the Piazza de España area. There's our solitary column in the distance. So you can see we haven't traveled that far but so much this week. And what we'll do is... We'll leave this area. We're gonna leave at the campus Marcia's area that presses up against the Pinscio Hill. We're gonna weigh down this lovely historic street, which is via Babuino. So we're gonna go down via Babuino. A little bit, I'm gonna show you an ancient statue that gets repurposed. It gives the name to the street. And then we're gonna cut over for maybe the ultimate measurement in our our lighting of the city. It's our big Broad Street, via Lata. It was called in an ancient time. So today we call it Broad Street. I'm gonna be heading over there. And then we'll make our way up to Capit del Popolo. So we'll cross carefully. Always look around when you're crossing the street in Rome. And so many people. This is what tells you Rome is one big pedestrian mall. Guess what it was like in Imperial Roman times? This was a big pedestrian mall. A big pedestrian mall. You didn't go around in a chariot. You didn't go around in a wagon. You walked. So if you come to Rome, if you come and do a program with us in Rome, guess what? We're gonna be walking. Shouldn't be as many people as we have here right now. But here will be people. All right. Everyone's out. I kind of brought the dog today. It would have been something to do. But she'd be licking everybody. It is this is a great street to go shopping on. And up here we have a nice historic cafe coming up. But everyone's out. So even up here, we have the water reaching from the flooding of the typhoon. So underneath this, underneath these street patterns, we have ancient Roman ruins. Are there any questions? If you have any questions, obviously you can type them in. We'll try not to get hit as we answer them. Beautiful lights here. Historic buildings. Occasional car. It's just really impressive how many people are out and about. So we have this really great system of roads that are created in the Renaissance times. In the sense of what we have is three streets that are going to converge on Piazza del Popolo, which is in the distance from the Circus Maximus. So this is via Babuino. Next to it is going to be we're going to cross over to Via del Corso and then there's Via de la Repeta, which is on the river bank. And those three roads will converge up ahead in a couple hundred meters. Let's take a look right here at this little fountain with an ancient statue. We're going to walk right to it. Here it is. On the Popolo we have a couple, it's a great question. It's the northern gate. So you're exiting the city. So once you get to the northern gate, you have tombs. You bury the dead outside the city walls. From the city part of the city walls, they get reconfigured. There's a nice you know, papal era gate. When you have the queen of Sweden visiting, she has a comfort to Catholicism so she gets a nice monumentalized gate. But generally speaking, at that point in the city of ancient Roman times, tombs. Here, let me show you. Look at this guy right here. Get real close. Look at his legs. Not just a naked guy. Look at the legs over here. You can see the legs are bully. But this is a satyr. And we have all these statues that get set up throughout the city. And here's one of them. And it gives the name to the street. What? It's a monkey. It's a monkey. That's the... I'm thinking of a machine gun. This gentleman right here is a satyr and is one of our talking statues that we have in 16th century Rome. What we'll do is... This is Kanova's workshop, studio, but it's also now a great coffee shop. Historic. And you can see some of the cast. Some of the classrooms for this statuary. So it's quite amazing right here to get that kind of history in that collection. It's like being in a museum. That's a great place to have... At this point I'd say, what do you want to have right now? A cappuccino? No, you want to have hot chocolate. Hot chocolate. Or... An appetit divo. Let's cut over to the other corsa. Because I want to show you another set of lights. We're just going to cut over. We're just cutting over here via the greci. And we're going to make our way to the distance. We just follow the lights. And what we're doing is we're cutting over to the second of the three roads that then converge. As they make their way north to Piazza del Popolo. So, this is the historic street I love. It really creates an important the north-south access to the northern gate. Which is in today's Piazza del Popolo. Going straight shot down to a piazza that didn't exist in antiquity. It didn't exist until the unification of Italy. And that's Piazza Venezia. The Piazza Venezia wasn't really big. It was much smaller. You get a number of palaces destroyed. You've got the creation of the altar of the homeland. So, you have that axis that existed already in antiquity. Because the road existed from 221 C. But it becomes something else in the late 19th century. What's going on today? Well, it's where you go and shop. It's where you hang out. It's quite neat. It gets the great light show. It gets the great lights of the city because it is kind of our main thoroughfare for shopping and so forth. It's a place of social life. It's a pedestrian mall. It's fun. So, we're not living in a museum here. We're in the outside atmosphere. So, plants grow. Biological material, moss forms and whatever, and it's periodically clean. That's all you can do. And the thing is, you can't be so invasive that you're cleaning it every day. That would be really bad. You do it periodically. So, all these monuments, these statues and so forth are constantly monitored when the intervention happens in a kind of series. So, let's go. What's your thing with the lights? We're now on via del corso. You can get your roasted Castania nuts right over here. Your roasted chestnuts. This is a great tradition and I do recommend you get them. They are wonderful. As you stroll around, as you stroll around Rome, that's what you eat on your way back from your Appetitivo or on your way to the Appetitivo, but now we're on Broad Street. So, just think, the age of Roman roads were usually about 16 feet. And with, this is massive. And there's massive streets in Syracusa, in Sicily, in ancient Alexandria. They had a road that's 100 feet wide. So, here we have Broad Street of ancient road. Republic and also of the imperial times. And guess what? It never goes out of use. And then the electric company Achea has financed the lighting here, which is pretty awesome. So, we'll make our way here. Yes, this road that we're walking on has always existed from 221 B.C. This has not deviated. So, I'll endre, I'll endre, I'll endre, I'll endre and drink to basta. This road here, we're walking in the Vialdo Corso. So, they call it the Vialdo Corso again because this is the place of the palio, the racehorses of the Renaissance times to the right. So, to the right of where we're walking is the Via Bavarino Road. That's not an ancient road. There was a road along the riverbank which is to the left of this road. And that's the end of that attempt today. So, the three roads were in the center road. The other two roads are converging. So, we're getting this nice uh, trivial, they call it. You know, the three roads coming together like a big triangle. And the end for us is going to be Piazza da Pulpa. Why are we going to Piazza da Pulpa? Traditionally, the city's uh, the city's Christmas tree is in Piazza Venezia. But guess what? There's a huge hole inside of Piazza Venezia because they're going to put that in metro stop in Piazza Venezia. How long will it take if people always ask me oh, when is it going to open? 10 years. When is the mausoleum of Augusta's going to open? I don't know. Hopefully 2024. Fingers crossed. So, Rome wasn't built in a day. These products don't finish in a day. Sometimes even a decade. The lighting here changes every year. This is very beautiful. But everyone in the festive mood. And it's uh, I think they've done a great job this year. It's quite spectacular. I was here for the lighting. So, what they did, we're going to take you to the Christmas tree which this year is in Piazza da Pulpa and for the foreseeable future. So, what they did was we were all in Piazza da Pulpa on Friday. And then they said, you know, let's do countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And they don't like the tree. What they do is they light this entire length. I don't know what it is. 800 meters, about a kilometer. It just came straight through. And when the lights hit the piazza, bam! The Christmas tree lights are gone. And I think you're going to like the Christmas tree. It's quite impressive. And they put it to one side. Because what's in the center? The obelisk. The obelisk that was one of the turning posts of the Circus Maximus. So, we have this incredible ancient Egyptian obelisk that then is brought to Rome as a war trophy by Augustus. It's set up as a turning post in the Circus Maximus. And then it falls over and is brought over here. And we erected in the 16th century, about 1585. And it's not the only one that we know. Rome was filled with obelisk from Egypt. So, let's go take a look at this guy. Because it's very impressive. It's dedicated. We have the inscription. We have all the hieroglyphs, of course. And then we have the inscription from Augustus. He dedicates it as a gift to soul, the god, the sun god. He conquered Egypt. So, straight ahead in the piazza is the obelisk. And we'll see it's the left will be Rome's Christmas tree. Ah, good question. We have for you is how do you like live streaming? We've done a couple. And some of you know me back from Periscope days when I used to do live streams all the time. Do you like live streams? Do you like the formats? Do you like the content? Where would you like us to go? Live streaming, of course, means if we wanted to do it during the day most people in the US I know most of you are tuning in from the US you won't see it live. But you have the reality of this is alive. So, I think the streaming quality is good enough I think the sound quality is good enough things have been improved. So our question to you is would you like to see more of this? Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay, good. So we have so if you do like this and I know I see I appreciate that. I mean for us it's like this if we do a zoom and we do a lecture the quality of the zoom, right it's less. So the best quality resolution, the 4K that we get with our iPhones and so forth and the audio, it's top with the top editor we can give it to you on YouTube. So yes, they're not 45 minutes shorter because the production has a cost to take time and so on and so forth. I really like the live streams with the temperature there currently during the day. Today, what is the 17th region Fahrenheit I'm blanking? It must have been I mean you might have been like 55 but it was actually it must have been 55 but I was out in a T-shirt at a certain point so it was warm so like I said it poured all last night it was cold Friday with the lighting was freezing I mean literally it was literally freezing and so this is winter more live stream? So what I can also suggest what I also say that we'll do besides a live stream at night taking advantage of the beautiful oh yeah of course everywhere we're going we've found that there's research in what's at Lanford Lanford, yeah it went to my alma mater but I don't know anyways it's funny because oh my pleasure thank you, let me tell you something you just need the right clothes we'll tell you guys this if you don't know me I've lived here one in five years or something like that I've had a lot of time here I'm an archaeologist but the greatest thing about being here is being immersed in all this culture and all this history on a daily basis and then sharing with you so Ancient Rome Live it's about sharing this with you in the education side we also want to show you a little bit of that contemporary side because this is an amazing if you don't follow me there already so just Dari, sorry but let's come here to the tree because I think this is the this is the star of the moment and my camera first I haven't seen it live yet so drink it in, look at that look at that glorious space oh my goodness that's a great one you're going to stump me it might have been Karnak maybe Heliopolis but it definitely is I think manufactured I want to say about 1500 BC or something like that so it's been standing around for a lot of time in Egypt and then you bring it back as a trophy yeah we're in Piazza del Popolo and I will tell you this as well we're in the northern gate we are now leaving Rome or we've done a huge trek it's a pilgrim coming all the way from Germany or France as a pilgrim or we're coming in from the provinces and we're entering in and what would we see we would see a number of tombs around here just down the street a couple hundred meters is the mausoleum of Augustus still closed the public will be have great videos taking you inside on ancient Rome live and we have the pincher hill over here in the darkness we have our beautiful view of the Vita Corso maybe walking down Main Street when you came into Rome and it is something quite spectacular now I will tell you this, the Piazza here in the Renaissance times by the 16th century they get this office here but it's kind of actually squarish it wasn't round when did they make this round you have to have our buddy Valenier who reconstructs the Arch of Titus he's the one who gives us the curves he's the one who throws in all those statues of the god he puts in all the sphinxes which are very trendy at the time so it makes a lot of time and a lot of architecture goes into making this into the extraordinary space that it is it wasn't just created once in the 16th century or the 15th century it was literally generations and generations and other contributions so let's come over here we'll come over here and still closer to the tree what is it? it's a pretty nice tree I like it and actually I've got to tell you also if you're in Piazza Venezia where we are traditionally for years and years and years there's all the traffic this is always a pedestrian mall well it's been a pedestrian mall for 23 years or so because I remember when you could drive my scooter right through this place there's no problem the time to change folks it's much more of a pedestrian family area yep now you see some lions over here the lion fountains that are again these are copies of ancient Egyptian lions that are on display on the base of the Capitoline Hill these are just copies but back in the day I would have my kids sit on them and that's what we used to do nowadays you don't sit on them but it was a fun tradition while it lasted are there any questions because this is kind of where you guys today I want to show you some of the magic of Rome this is the eternal city of course and man I tell you we've all got our cities we can complain about the potholes we can complain about the work we can complain about the metro never being finished but this is still Rome and if you have ever contemplated being here in the holiday season this is a wonderful time but everyone enjoys great weather everyone enjoys the holiday time and of course a lot of Roman kids they're occupying the high school so kids aren't even going to school the kids are on a strike so we have a lot of differences cultural differences here in Italy but it's so much fun so much fun to walk with you so please consider making a contribution of any amount to us we're a non-profit we did reach our capital drive thank you so much you guys tuning in I know a lot of you are the rock solid people that have tuned in to all the Zoom lectures and tuned in for live streams and subscribed to the newsletter everyone else please do check out our website and the newsletter and then think where the travel courses that will reiterate just go to hroomlive.org and you can see that we offer one in March we're going to do the Suvian cities we're going to Pompeii, Stavia, Herculaneum we're going to go all through Annapoli and you're going to go with me and my colleagues who are archaeologists, excavating in Pompeii so we're going to get some great access you're going to have an amazing time you're going to get information coming out of your ears and at the same time I guarantee you're going to be thrilled with the experience same thing for Rome, building an ancient Roman city you're going to be in and around Rome for a day or five days and then the week after we have an architecture course with North Carolina State University we've got spots on that if you're really really interested in architecture take that course they're all happening they're all green light so if you're interested write to me directly go to the website we have 2DFs all over the tails everything better than tails and I already guarantee that in the fall as well we're going to be offering something so stay tuned for that thank you guys very very much thank you for your support thank you for joining me on this walk and please subscribe and watch the new videos on youtube if I'm forgetting anything any questions, last questions thank you we'll try to get another live stream for the years out so just stay tuned and we'll see you guys before you come up soon thank you guys very much Merry Christmas, Happy New Year See you soon from Rome