Most people walk Rome forwards. The smart way is backwards — start with Sunday in Trastevere, drift into the medieval lanes, end at the Pantheon's oculus.
Most people walk Rome forwards: arrive at the Colosseum, do antiquity, move on to the Renaissance, end with a Baroque fountain. The smart way to walk Rome is backwards — start where the modern city actually lives (Trastevere on a Sunday morning, the Roman Jewish ghetto for lunch), drift into the medieval lanes, end up at the Pantheon when the late-afternoon light comes through the oculus, and only then descend the marble steps into the Forum. By then you understand what "still standing" actually means. The Pantheon is 1,898 years old and is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.
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