Baths of Caracalla

[lightsleeper]

Arriving Rome on Monday where lots of places closed.Anyone visit the baths at caracelle. Would like your opinion. Have been to the Vatican and Colosseum on previous trip.

[cruisemom42]

The Baths of Caracalla (Caracalla was a Roman emperor of the late 2nd / early 3rd c. AD) are a wonderful place to visit. Together with the Colosseum and Pantheon, it's one of the best preserved sites in Rome. If you visit it, you will get a really good idea of what Roman Imperial baths were like. I have visited a lot of Roman baths around the Mediterranean and these are without doubt the most evocative.

 

There is a very good audioguide there, so if you go I recommend you use it, unless you have a good guide book. There is some signage, but not a lot of explanation.

 

Don't miss the underground area -- today it's where a lot of the decorative elements are displayed but in ancient times it was the nerve center of the baths and the place where the work took place. (Also, there is a mithraeum, which may or may not be open.)

[lightsleeper]

thanks cruisemom42

 

Will head to the baths after we drop our luggage off at hotel

[Gracie115]

Arriving Rome on Monday where lots of places closed.Anyone visit the baths at caracelle. Would like your opinion. Have been to the Vatican and Colosseum on previous trip.

 

I agree with everything cruisemom said...we visited there this past April...very interesting

[Host Bonjour]

I always enjoy/appreciate cruisemom's historic addendums and accounts - she has ventured so far beyond most of the "centro storico" of most cities, it's always fun to hear about.

 

In more recent times, I'm reminded of the concert that was held at Caracalla, bringing together three of the greatest tenors to welcome back Jose Carreras to the stage after his successful battle against leukemia; the three tenors donated their box office revenue for the evening to cancer charities.

 

This concert started a "tenors" trend that caught on and continues today that has helped move opera more into the mainstream than it had ever been and launched many new singing careers. No doubt the atmospheric setting in Caracalla, coming on the heals of the World Cup Soccer championship (in which Italy was a fierce competitor, as always finishing 3rd - Pavarotti's heart "was bleeding") helped make the concert especially magical and "priceless" causing the tickets to be more in demand than tickets to the World Cup matches! Music and history dominated sport in this instance ;)

 

Read about the concert here:

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/09/arts/rome-is-big-enough-for-3-tenors.html

 

Enjoy these precious, preserved places of importance!

[marazul]

I always enjoy/appreciate cruisemom's historic addendums and accounts - she has ventured so far beyond most of the "centro storico" of most cities, it's always fun to hear about.

 

Enjoy these precious, preserved places of importance!

 

Bonjour, Bonjour,

 

You might also want to change the title of the thread to Baths of Caracalla.