The last one is amazing and unbelievably awesome, like the Pantheon. So often we see drawings of ancient Roman buildings, but to see the actual building with almost all its glitter and color and original glamour right in front of out faces, brings home exactly how truly great (even by today's standards) these buildings were and continue to be, thousands of years after their construction. Those monuments of beauty, truly were built for the ages!!
@@toldinstone Hi Gareth, I'd like to ask how much is from the roman period inside Santa Maria? Is it just the columns or the red marble panels as well?
No, 200 years old buildings aren't considered new, they are considered prestige buildings, considering how architecture went to shit from the 1960's onward.
@@kayharker712 I'm from Montreal and in the 50's (or maybe the 40's) the mayor had two little round Roman temples built in Atwater Square - urinals they were - but in Roman lettering around the domes of each it read VESPANIENNE - after Vespasian, a great builder of public comfort stations I gather.
My grandmother is from Formia, just north of Naples, and lived down the street from a Roman amphitheater that was transformed into apartments throughout the centuries; there are also ancient stone walls and arches that she’d hide under with her family during the German and Allied raids during WWII. The apartments are still there and still inhabited, too! It’s called Teatro Romano di Formia a Castellone.
@@toldinstone Can you please kindly do a video on the "Temple of Manly Virtue" AKA Portunus (formerly known as Fortuna Virilis)?? This is one that holds many significant secrets. www.atlasobscura.com/places/temple-of-portunus
@@toldinstone have archaeologists done any excavation between the modern floor and the roman one? and do you know if it's a hollow space (supported by columns maybe?) or if it's totally filled in? Always been fascinated by thid building, and eagerly looking forwars to a full tour :)
@@rblossey The Roman floor (which was apparently prone to flooding) was simply covered with dirt. To the best of my knowledge, the floor of the Renaissance church has never been taken up for excavation. Glad to hear it - I look forward to making that video!
@@toldinstone The original Egyptian granite collumns in the interior still seem to be sitting atop their original column bases, which appears at the modern ground level. How do they work with the original Roman floors of the bath beneath?
Please do a video of the Roman ruins in Trier, Germany. This is where I fell in LOVE with Roman history as a young child. I lived near Trier between the ages of 4 and 8 because my father was US Air Force. We always went there.
@Frank Thinnes Same with me!!!! My father would tell me stories of the Imperial Roman Armies and the fights and "throwing" Christians to the lions in the Roman amphitheater. I wanted to become an archeologist but I never did. BUT I did study history in college. I focused on early modern English and Colonial USA history, Roman and Greek architecture. I LOVED history so much that I became a history teacher in a Chicago high school. I can remember living in Germany but I was young and I lived there from 1952 to 1956. I also have very fond memories of Germany.
@@jilledmondson6894 Wow you must have a vast knowledge of history, being in Germany just after ww2, studying the birth of the USA, and now ancient Rome and Greece. That's incredible, I hope to gain as much experience and knowledge as you have. I am drawn to both ww2 history and ancient roman/greek/persian stories/ruins as well!
There is lots to explore in Trier (Augusta Treverorum)! Churches are impressive, e.g. underground tours in St. Maximin, Trier Cathedral. In St. Matthias is the grave of Apostle Matthew. A guided tour in Germanys oldest wine cellar with wine tasting at "Stiftungsweingut Vereinigte Hospitien" is very interesting and tasty! Cheers!
Grazie mille. One of my favorite memories of Roma is walking the Appian Way at twilight with all the ghosts. Personal note: Your voice is calming and easy to listen to.
I've always wanted to walk the section beyond the Tomb of Caecilia Metella at dusk. The closest I managed was a long walk in the rain a few years ago. Glad you enjoyed the narration !
There are other channels that take you around Italy and show you the ancient world, but they don't really know anything about them. They tell you what it is and how wonderful they are but they can't tell you anything else. They dress the channel up by Italian music that has zero to do with antiquity. This channel is the jewel in the crown, it's the meat to the others potatoes.
These videos are really interesting. Roman buildings that are still in use are is a fascinating subject, but it's quite hard to search for (if you google you usually just get a bunch of generic lists with same structures such as the Pantheon, tower of hercules, some bridges etc). So it's great that someone like you can shine a light on the more obscure stuff.
I visited Santa Maria de la Angeli on the one occasion that I visited Rome. As described, from the outside it looks like nothing, a rather insignificant old ruin, walking inside it is magnificent. In one of the photos shown here... my son was marveling at the beautiful bluish/green columns thinking they were actual columns, I said "Brian, that's a painting"...his eyes went wide. Really this is true and inescapable of all of Italy, the architecture and artwork is simply magnificent.
Great video, thanks! It's worth noting that the modern floor level of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which you noted is higher than the ancient level, required that the Egyptian granite columns have artificial bases "collared" around them to make them look like they stop at the modern floor level; but they actually go below it... which explains that visibly disproportionate "fatness" of those columns. Looking forward to your video on that church!
10:11 thank’s for talking about Santa Costanza, it’s in front of my house and I love to look at it from my window. There are even some catacombs under the church
I love how you often use the etching prints of Giovanni Battista Piranesi for the descriptions of the ancient status of the monuments. I use to collect original Piranesi prints from 1700, he was a genius in graphics and one of the first "modern" archeologist.
My wife and I did a driving tour of the UK a few years back and walked along Hadrian's Wall, a fantastic experience. But a little bonus was waiting for us at the tiny hotel we stayed at, in the countryside outside the nearby town of Carlisle. The owner had marked off an odd little section of hallway near the entrance, with a little iron fence surrounding a hole in the floor, lit by a small spotlight. The owner said it was a well dating back to the Romans and whomever had built the house had built right over it, probably to use it as an "indoor" water source. At some point it was covered over and forgotten, and the most recent owner had discovered it during a renovation and turned it into his own in-house tourist attraction.
These revealing videos are fantastic. It's refreshing to know there is a scholar highlighting these ancient structures nestled within the modern city expanse. More please.
My family and I recently visited Rome and we spent a few hours one day exploring the Appian Way on rented bikes. It was such a lovely afternoon riding in out in the peaceful countryside visiting the Catacombs di San Sebastiano and many roadside tombs and monuments. Highly recommended!
When you hear from a PHD there are literally thousands I immediately think there's 10,000+ partially completed buildings being used. Love your work keep it up
Thank you so much, Garrett! These videos are basically like crack to me. Currently writing a book featuring Domitian and so I have taken a few lengthy visits of Rome and environs in the past few years, having had the pleasure of visiting some of the sites. For those going to Napoli, I highly recommend a tour of the underground (Napoli Sottorenea). At the conclusion of that tour, they take you inside the neighboring above ground buildings that include vestiges of the great theatre featured in this video. A visit into Santa Maria degli Angeli, within a portion of the Baths of Diocletian was revelatory. You really do get that sense of lost grandeur and there are many extraordinary details worth the visit alone. The coolest thing is a Renaissance era meridian line inlaid in the marble floor. A pin prick hole in the high corner of the church channels a thin shaft of sunlight that crosses the meridian at noon. Noon at the time was not fixed to GMT but to the midpoint of sunrise and sunset. Thus we were able to calculate the midpoint for that particular day and, lo and behold, to the minute, the beam crossed in the appropriate place. Amazing.
You're very welcome! I did one of the tours during my very first visit to Naples, and proceeded to lose all of the pictures I took during a hard drive crash.
There's a complete Saxon church where I live (Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK ) that was unknown as such, and was used for various purposes for many hundreds of years. It's origins were only realised in the 20th century. It had been subsumed by additions over the years. It's now returned to pretty much it's original condition. It's very Roman in appearance. There must be many more bits of architectural history that we pass unknowingly every day. Thanks.
Your videos make me want to visit Italy again. I've only been once, about 14 years ago, but those were among the most memorable two weeks of my life. I want to see Rome again, and Venice. I want to go to the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii. I want to visit Cinque Terre. I've become a fan of the UK's most famous gardener, Monty Don, and he has whole 1-hour videos on the Gardens of Italy. According to his professional experience, the most beautiful garden in the world is in Italy, between Naples and Rome. It's called the garden at Ninfa. I want to see all of these beautiful gardens. You, sir, are biting me with the travel bug again...
The passion of people to build on that scale. No cost cutting. Everything is about the dollar today. When you walk into one of those Roman buildings and look up, its so humbling. You have to stand in the middle and just look around you --and blow your mind.
Santa Maria degli Angeli is definitely one of the coolest unappreciated structures in Rome. I was making my way towards the National Museum at the Baths of Diocletian and decided to take a quick detour inside what seemed like a relatively unassuming entrance. Wow, what a spectacular sight to see. I didn't quite realize what I was looking at until I tried to leave out one of the back entrances and saw the massive ruins of the baths were actually part of the same wall to the space I was just inside of. Of course, I had to go back in to take another look at that point. Rome is such a wonderful city with many layers of history.
Picked these videos out to try to fall asleep to, ended up finding them way too enjoyable to fall asleep to and staying up until 4am watching them. Well done professor!
Thank-you for these videos, having been a visitor to Rome for the past 35years, my favourite Roman building since my very first visit has always been the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e Martiri and I look forward to seeing your video on this when released. Many thanks.
OMG, I passed the Baths of Diocletian all the time when I was in Rome--they're really closed to the train station and my hotel was near the train station. Damn. I should've gone INSIDE the entrance. I saw the entrance of Santa Maria degli Angeli all the time. I just figured it was some weird, modern church with a modern interior I did not come to Rome to see (i.e. they kept the plain brick interiors for the church, like at the Baths of Caracalla and some such). I was not aware that it still had the interiors of an actual Roman bath. Damn...
Never thought I would be so interested in ancient buildings and civilizations but your videos are all so interesting and wonderful. It’s really mind-boggling how these ancient people could design and construct these magnificent places.
If you haven't seen it, you might be interested in my video on "The 5 Greatest Roman Buildings Demolished during the Renaissance," which uses quite a few old drawings.
Hi, very interesting videos. I'm originally from South Italy. Two towns you should visit is Capua and Santa Maria Capua Vetere, which are very close to each other and not far from Naples. Full of Roman ruins. Also another city in the area is Caserta, regional capital, which hots the biggest Royal Palace in the world.
I lived close to Bearsden (near Glasgow Scotland) and used to enjoy walking in Roman Road because I knew it led to the remains of the Antonine Wall. What I really wanted was to visit Hadrian's Wall in North Tyneside because I saw pictures of it, knew it ran for 80 miles, and it looked beautiful.
Thanks for the video. I stumbled on sant'urbano while casually walking inside the Caffarella Park in Rome. It just looked like another church in Rome in a state of decay, with a rusty collapsed fence around it a old steel gate blocked by a tree stump. Understanding it's history really made me look at it in a different way.
I lived in Rome for over three years and most living there have no idea of the history they walk in every day. It truly is wonderful. I also was able to experience Greece’s treasures and Petra. In Canada our cement isn’t even cured.
If at all possible, if this topic could be a regular segment, perhaps once a month (or even more frequent 😬) I would have so much to do and see when in Italy next. Thanks for the great information!
Looking forward to seeing whatever can be published as well as seeing the in depth item on Santa Maria degli angeli. I’m wondering how the floor today is significantly higher than the original building, while the columns supporting the roof are fully visible. Perhaps they stood on high pedestals originally.
@@rickb3078 The floor was filled in because it was prone to flooding (not surprising, since the level of the surrounding streets had risen considerably). The real column bases are buried; the ones visible now were added during the Renaissance conversion.
it is so sad to see only shadows of some of the greatest works of architecture of Ancient Rome. I hope you can do a video of Palestrina and how it would have looked at its best. I saw sketchings of that and Pergamum that were made during the late 19th and early 20th century and they looked magnificent
Thank you for making these videos, I am really enjoying them. I see absolutely no reason why your channel can't get as big as Mark Felton. He does similarly styled videos on WW2. I have liked, subscribed, and I am really looking forward to future segments. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for these videos. Had to watch them again as I plan my week in Rome in May. It will be my third trip to Rome and I want to see some of the less visited sites.
Great sequel. When the book is ready, I'll buy it for sure, as I plan to travel to Italy again as soon as pandemic requirements settle. Though I'm not too fond of Rome, I like visiting Naples, Florence, Venice or Sesto Calente near the French border, and anything in between.
So interesting; thanks for sharing. And thanks for not accompanying your video with music and for not talking non-stop so we can absorb fully all the great information you have included.
He doesn’t look Roman at all, most Romans spoke fast because of the fewer syllables in Latin. This guy on the other hand sounds like a Natural English speaker, I hope he has the Vowels and Syllables right of either French, Spanish, or Italian or he might just sound incredibly funny to Ancient Roman or Modern Latin Speaker when speaking Latin.
I absolutely love your videos. I’m going to go through your books as I am Sure they are as interesting As your videos are. Great job. Lots of information for people who love the Roman culture. Thank you for what you do. You’re 🤩
Excellent commentary...per usual. 🌿🏛🌿 just fascinating, the pull of the ancient world is laughing and living right along with us. A true reconstituted Memory
I know very well most of those places you have mentioned! That church you mentioned that is in Via Appia but it was closed the last time I visited but somehow it is typical of Rome to let many of the precious temples and monuments closed and badly kept by sheer indifference and sloppiness. But you have have barely mentioned Terracina because it is a very interesting town where the Roman forum was and still has Bizantine walls which you can still walk on it, a late Roman gate and a suspected Longobard "Palace" among other things! I think it is one of the most underrated town together with Fondi going to Formia..
Yes, there is so much more to say about Terracina (I've only been there once, but I was very impressed). Every time I make one of these videos, time constraints force me to pass by many wonderful places. Hopefully, I'll be able to say more in future videos.
It's just remarkable how these things survive so long, and in constant use. It's hard to put in to words how it makes me feel but I would say awe is pretty close. The baths of Diocletian must have been spectacular when intact. The Las Vegas of the ancient world!
Thanks for your guiding and showing also vVia Appia and Constantins mosaics and ending your tour in ancient Rome with Santa Maria Angelis chathedrale as I remeber having seen.
Hopefully in the future this special one Sant'Urbano alla Caffarella will me more open to tourists, the beautiful yet insufficient drawing of the interior only made me more desperate to visit Italy ahahaha! Santa Costanza's mosaics reminded me of the Galla Placidia Mausoleum, one of my all time favorites from roman architecture classes in college. I don't know yet if you have a video on it cause I'm new to the channel but I'm sure it would be an awesome one
I visited Ravenna back in 2007 (when I was an undergraduate spending a semester in Rome) and unfortunately haven't been back since. When I return - hopefully this summer - I will definitely make a video about that city's wonderful mosaics.
Another really wonderful video, thank you. That last entry is particularly dazzling - I think I struggle to imagine how big and how grand some of the buildings could be, seeing the Pantheon as an outlier (it is among my favourites). I guess my brain sees these brick buildings without marble facing and assumes that the Roman world must have been large, but rudimentary. That image of the baths was mind-boggling. As a follow-up, have you ever been to Chieti? I did my year abroad there for university and it has some lovely Roman buildings, and close to zero tourism
You're very welcome. Santa Maria degli Angeli really is dazzling - one of those rare Roman buildings that preserves some semblance of its original grandeur. I've never visited Chieti. Some quick Googling, however, confirms what you say about the city's Roman ruins. Perhaps I can work one of those buildings into the third installment...
I had to freeze the video at the mosaics of Santa Costanza. The world they show and the accuracy took my breath away. Constantine's daughter is wearing silk. Many of the guys are carrying a curved stick. Wagons had solid wheels and leather tires. Oxen were yoked at the neck like most of the world and not by the horns like in France and Spain. The birds are European goldfinches. There's a mounted and armored knight. No stirrups. Grape-crushing vats had tile roofs and were somewhat like theaters and the workers dance. You can see their happiness. One ox team is young and is being led by a man with halter leads. Not nose rings. The oxen seem hesitant. Flamenco dancers. A winged Mercury. Lots of naked guys climbing in the grape vines. They aren't children or cherubs, they are grown ups. My first thought was they represent caterpillars on the vines. Or guys who pruned vines didn't wear clothes but guys stomping grapes wore underwear. A lot of the naked guys are reaching for grapevines with the curved sticks. So now I want to know what grape trellises looked like in Constantine's empire. I've never heard that the way to care for grapes is to get naked and reach for the vines with curved sticks. (Marijuana maybe) The lady in the portrait was supposed to recognize everything depicted. This is a snapshot of a busy, normal world of her time and place.
KUDOS! I'm Italian and a Roman, born and bred... it's the first time I find such an accurate descriptions of those monuments. THANK YOU ❤
You’re very welcome!
The last one is amazing and unbelievably awesome, like the Pantheon. So often we see drawings of ancient Roman buildings, but to see the actual building with almost all its glitter and color and original glamour right in front of out faces, brings home exactly how truly great (even by today's standards) these buildings were and continue to be, thousands of years after their construction. Those monuments of beauty, truly were built for the ages!!
Santa Maria degli Angeli deserves to be as well known as the Pantheon and the Baths of Caracalla.
@@toldinstone Hi Gareth, I'd like to ask how much is from the roman period inside Santa Maria? Is it just the columns or the red marble panels as well?
In the states, something two hundred years old is ancient, but in Rome, two hundred years is new! Amazing architecture!
No, 200 years old buildings aren't considered new, they are considered prestige buildings, considering how architecture went to shit from the 1960's onward.
In Europe, something that is 2000 years old is considered ancient. Something that is 1000 years old is considered old
my hometown of ~3000 people in Finland turned 450 years old a couple of years back...
@@viggo1149 a little older than my town but not much. New York turned 400 years old in 2009 or 2013 depending on which story you go with.
I've never seen anyone claiming something two hundred years old being ancient in the states.
What's your source for this ?
Imagine going out for a hike in the woods and coming across an almost intact roman ruin
Welcome to southern europe and france.
And england
@@Neilos-sd6ti can't relate, I live in the americas. Most of the buildings you come across aren't that old.
@@kayharker712 I'm from Montreal and in the 50's (or maybe the 40's) the mayor had two little round Roman temples built in Atwater Square - urinals they were - but in Roman lettering around the domes of each it read VESPANIENNE - after Vespasian, a great builder of public comfort stations I gather.
@@kayharker712 The temples at Stowe are not Roman, though, except in style. They were built in the 18th century.
The previous video was fascinating and this one continues the same excellent theme
My grandmother is from Formia, just north of Naples, and lived down the street from a Roman amphitheater that was transformed into apartments throughout the centuries; there are also ancient stone walls and arches that she’d hide under with her family during the German and Allied raids during WWII. The apartments are still there and still inhabited, too! It’s called Teatro Romano di Formia a Castellone.
Thank you. I've never visited Formia, but I just did some quick Googling on the theater. Those are some impressive ruins.
Thanks for the info!
@@toldinstone Can you please kindly do a video on the "Temple of Manly Virtue" AKA Portunus (formerly known as Fortuna Virilis)?? This is one that holds many significant secrets. www.atlasobscura.com/places/temple-of-portunus
@@victoriamarie35 Thank you! I have some good pictures of that temple from my last trip to Rome. I'll put it on the list.
@@toldinstone Thank you Sir! I will def look forward.
The last one is simply spectacular.
No other words needed.
It's one of my favorite buildings anywhere
@@toldinstone have archaeologists done any excavation between the modern floor and the roman one? and do you know if it's a hollow space (supported by columns maybe?) or if it's totally filled in?
Always been fascinated by thid building, and eagerly looking forwars to a full tour :)
@@rblossey The Roman floor (which was apparently prone to flooding) was simply covered with dirt. To the best of my knowledge, the floor of the Renaissance church has never been taken up for excavation.
Glad to hear it - I look forward to making that video!
@@toldinstone The original Egyptian granite collumns in the interior still seem to be sitting atop their original column bases, which appears at the modern ground level. How do they work with the original Roman floors of the bath beneath?
@@My-nl6sg Those bases are Renaissance copies. The real bases are on the original floor, two meters or so underground.
Please do a video of the Roman ruins in Trier, Germany. This is where I fell in LOVE with Roman history as a young child. I lived near Trier between the ages of 4 and 8 because my father was US Air Force. We always went there.
I hope to do a video on Trier...stay tuned!
@@toldinstone IWILL!!!!!! I can not wait.
@Frank Thinnes Same with me!!!! My father would tell me stories of the Imperial Roman Armies and the fights and "throwing" Christians to the lions in the Roman amphitheater. I wanted to become an archeologist but I never did. BUT I did study history in college. I focused on early modern English and Colonial USA history, Roman and Greek architecture. I LOVED history so much that I became a history teacher in a Chicago high school. I can remember living in Germany but I was young and I lived there from 1952 to 1956. I also have very fond memories of Germany.
@@jilledmondson6894 Wow you must have a vast knowledge of history, being in Germany just after ww2, studying the birth of the USA, and now ancient Rome and Greece. That's incredible, I hope to gain as much experience and knowledge as you have. I am drawn to both ww2 history and ancient roman/greek/persian stories/ruins as well!
There is lots to explore in Trier (Augusta Treverorum)!
Churches are impressive, e.g. underground tours in St. Maximin, Trier Cathedral. In St. Matthias is the grave of Apostle Matthew.
A guided tour in Germanys oldest wine cellar with wine tasting at "Stiftungsweingut Vereinigte Hospitien" is very interesting and tasty!
Cheers!
Grazie mille. One of my favorite memories of Roma is walking the Appian Way at twilight with all the ghosts. Personal note: Your voice is calming and easy to listen to.
I've always wanted to walk the section beyond the Tomb of Caecilia Metella at dusk. The closest I managed was a long walk in the rain a few years ago.
Glad you enjoyed the narration !
12:55 When I saw the grandeur of the baths of Diocletian I had goosebumps ! It would be great to visit them when they were intact.
My jaw dropped when I saw it, if I could go back in time and visit just one place that would be it
There are other channels that take you around Italy and show you the ancient world, but they don't really know anything about them. They tell you what it is and how wonderful they are but they can't tell you anything else. They dress the channel up by Italian music that has zero to do with antiquity. This channel is the jewel in the crown, it's the meat to the others potatoes.
These videos are really interesting. Roman buildings that are still in use are is a fascinating subject, but it's quite hard to search for (if you google you usually just get a bunch of generic lists with same structures such as the Pantheon, tower of hercules, some bridges etc). So it's great that someone like you can shine a light on the more obscure stuff.
Thank you! I try to focus on topics that aren't often covered (especially on TH-cam).
I visited Santa Maria de la Angeli on the one occasion that I visited Rome. As described, from the outside it looks like nothing, a rather insignificant old ruin, walking inside it is magnificent. In one of the photos shown here... my son was marveling at the beautiful bluish/green columns thinking they were actual columns, I said "Brian, that's a painting"...his eyes went wide.
Really this is true and inescapable of all of Italy, the architecture and artwork is simply magnificent.
I'm roman, and I find your videos very interesting and informative. Grazie but better still: Gratias maximas!
I'm very glad to hear it. Prego, et libenter
Great video, thanks! It's worth noting that the modern floor level of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which you noted is higher than the ancient level, required that the Egyptian granite columns have artificial bases "collared" around them to make them look like they stop at the modern floor level; but they actually go below it... which explains that visibly disproportionate "fatness" of those columns. Looking forward to your video on that church!
You're very welcome! (And you're right, of course, about those columns.) Hopefully, you won't have to wait long for that full-length video...
@@toldinstone What type of ship was used to transport the Egyptian granite?
@@RinoRemover a big one
10:11 thank’s for talking about Santa Costanza, it’s in front of my house and I love to look at it from my window.
There are even some catacombs under the church
You're very welcome
Very neat
Ooooh sppooooooky!
I love how you often use the etching prints of Giovanni Battista Piranesi for the descriptions of the ancient status of the monuments. I use to collect original Piranesi prints from 1700, he was a genius in graphics and one of the first "modern" archeologist.
I’ve always been a fan of Piranesi’s prints. No artist has better captured the grandeur and mystery of Roman ruins.
Videos like this are the reason TH-cam exists
My wife and I did a driving tour of the UK a few years back and walked along Hadrian's Wall, a fantastic experience. But a little bonus was waiting for us at the tiny hotel we stayed at, in the countryside outside the nearby town of Carlisle. The owner had marked off an odd little section of hallway near the entrance, with a little iron fence surrounding a hole in the floor, lit by a small spotlight. The owner said it was a well dating back to the Romans and whomever had built the house had built right over it, probably to use it as an "indoor" water source. At some point it was covered over and forgotten, and the most recent owner had discovered it during a renovation and turned it into his own in-house tourist attraction.
These revealing videos are fantastic. It's refreshing to know there is a scholar highlighting these ancient structures nestled within the modern city expanse. More please.
Very glad you enjoyed the videos! I plan to make more.
“Hi, I’m the told in stone guy” - best intro thus far, you should keep it
stone cold truth
Told In Stone Guy is his legal name from birth; it's just a coincidence for his occupation.
(joke)
My family and I recently visited Rome and we spent a few hours one day exploring the Appian Way on rented bikes. It was such a lovely afternoon riding in out in the peaceful countryside visiting the Catacombs di San Sebastiano and many roadside tombs and monuments. Highly recommended!
So amazing!
When you hear from a PHD there are literally thousands I immediately think there's 10,000+ partially completed buildings being used. Love your work keep it up
Thank you so much, Garrett! These videos are basically like crack to me. Currently writing a book featuring Domitian and so I have taken a few lengthy visits of Rome and environs in the past few years, having had the pleasure of visiting some of the sites.
For those going to Napoli, I highly recommend a tour of the underground (Napoli Sottorenea). At the conclusion of that tour, they take you inside the neighboring above ground buildings that include vestiges of the great theatre featured in this video.
A visit into Santa Maria degli Angeli, within a portion of the Baths of Diocletian was revelatory. You really do get that sense of lost grandeur and there are many extraordinary details worth the visit alone. The coolest thing is a Renaissance era meridian line inlaid in the marble floor. A pin prick hole in the high corner of the church channels a thin shaft of sunlight that crosses the meridian at noon. Noon at the time was not fixed to GMT but to the midpoint of sunrise and sunset. Thus we were able to calculate the midpoint for that particular day and, lo and behold, to the minute, the beam crossed in the appropriate place. Amazing.
You're very welcome! I did one of the tours during my very first visit to Naples, and proceeded to lose all of the pictures I took during a hard drive crash.
@@toldinstone backups
There's a complete Saxon church where I live (Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK ) that was unknown as such, and was used for various purposes for many hundreds of years. It's origins were only realised in the 20th century. It had been subsumed by additions over the years. It's now returned to pretty much it's original condition. It's very Roman in appearance.
There must be many more bits of architectural history that we pass unknowingly every day.
Thanks.
You're very welcome. History really is hidden everywhere.
Your videos make me want to visit Italy again. I've only been once, about 14 years ago, but those were among the most memorable two weeks of my life. I want to see Rome again, and Venice. I want to go to the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii. I want to visit Cinque Terre. I've become a fan of the UK's most famous gardener, Monty Don, and he has whole 1-hour videos on the Gardens of Italy. According to his professional experience, the most beautiful garden in the world is in Italy, between Naples and Rome. It's called the garden at Ninfa. I want to see all of these beautiful gardens. You, sir, are biting me with the travel bug again...
Making these videos has me wanting to return myself...
I can’t wait for you to do an actual virtual tour where you find other hidden gems in Rome! Awesome video!
Glad you enjoyed it! I can't wait either.
Not a virtual tour but a real tour that would be really cool
@@adornjewellers I hope to visit Rome this summer and do a few "on location" videos.
The passion of people to build on that scale. No cost cutting. Everything is about the dollar today. When you walk into one of those Roman buildings and look up, its so humbling. You have to stand in the middle and just look around you --and blow your mind.
Santa Maria degli Angeli is definitely one of the coolest unappreciated structures in Rome. I was making my way towards the National Museum at the Baths of Diocletian and decided to take a quick detour inside what seemed like a relatively unassuming entrance. Wow, what a spectacular sight to see. I didn't quite realize what I was looking at until I tried to leave out one of the back entrances and saw the massive ruins of the baths were actually part of the same wall to the space I was just inside of. Of course, I had to go back in to take another look at that point. Rome is such a wonderful city with many layers of history.
I love these videos! Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you!
The Santa Casanta looks exactly like the "Basilika" in my home town Trier in Germany. Same building style/window size etc
Picked these videos out to try to fall asleep to, ended up finding them way too enjoyable to fall asleep to and staying up until 4am watching them. Well done professor!
Thank-you for these videos, having been a visitor to Rome for the past 35years, my favourite Roman building since my very first visit has always been the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e Martiri and I look forward to seeing your video on this when released. Many thanks.
You’re very welcome
I hope in due course you will be able to add Roman theatres, aqueducts and surviving Roman baths. Thoroughly enjoyed what I have seen so far.
I think you'll enjoy my next video. Stay tuned!
Every time you post one of these vids I just want to pack my suitcase and go. Been to Rome just 3 times, feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
I learn something new about the city every time I make one of these videos.
@@OKuusava Exactly what I said when I was there. Hope to return there soon....
OMG, I passed the Baths of Diocletian all the time when I was in Rome--they're really closed to the train station and my hotel was near the train station. Damn. I should've gone INSIDE the entrance. I saw the entrance of Santa Maria degli Angeli all the time. I just figured it was some weird, modern church with a modern interior I did not come to Rome to see (i.e. they kept the plain brick interiors for the church, like at the Baths of Caracalla and some such). I was not aware that it still had the interiors of an actual Roman bath. Damn...
Never thought I would be so interested in ancient buildings and civilizations but your videos are all so interesting and wonderful. It’s really mind-boggling how these ancient people could design and construct these magnificent places.
Thank you! It never ceases to amaze me
I like to see these old drawings from the renaissance period of how the ruins looked like then. Would be cool a video on these drawings
If you haven't seen it, you might be interested in my video on "The 5 Greatest Roman Buildings Demolished during the Renaissance," which uses quite a few old drawings.
@@toldinstone i loved that video
Hi, very interesting videos. I'm originally from South Italy. Two towns you should visit is Capua and Santa Maria Capua Vetere, which are very close to each other and not far from Naples. Full of Roman ruins. Also another city in the area is Caserta, regional capital, which hots the biggest Royal Palace in the world.
Thank you!
This channel needs to go viral so that you have the funds to visit all these sites and make your fabulous videos I’m sharing this
I couldn't agree more...
Thank you!
I lived close to Bearsden (near Glasgow Scotland) and used to enjoy walking in Roman Road because I knew it led to the remains of the Antonine Wall.
What I really wanted was to visit Hadrian's Wall in North Tyneside because I saw pictures of it, knew it ran for 80 miles, and it looked beautiful.
Ill be in Rome and Naples in October 2021. Cant wait. Want to try to find some of these. Thanks
You're very welcome!
Lovely video and I'm in love with your laid back way of teaching and informing us about history. Never stop making content pleaseeee
Thanks for the video. I stumbled on sant'urbano while casually walking inside the Caffarella Park in Rome. It just looked like another church in Rome in a state of decay, with a rusty collapsed fence around it a old steel gate blocked by a tree stump. Understanding it's history really made me look at it in a different way.
My pleasure. Yes, until you see those columns embedded in the façade, it just looks like another medieval building.
I lived in Rome for over three years and most living there have no idea of the history they walk in every day. It truly is wonderful. I also was able to experience Greece’s treasures and Petra. In Canada our cement isn’t even cured.
Your videos are a nice reprieve from studying for finals, I’m studying nursing but I love ancient civilizations too
Delighted to hear it! Don't let me distract you from your finals, though...
Thanks! Just a slight distraction from anatomy is all I need 😂
Woohoo, another hidden buildings video already! I wish all my wishes came true this quickly.
Well, I do what I can...
while you're on your good luck streak, could you also wish for a full, swift excavation of the Villa Of The Papyri? ;)
@@rblossey tell me moreeeee
Just received your book. Looking forward to reading it.
Thank you for the “Armchair Travelogues of Ancient Rome” so good.
😊
Keep up the great work. 🤙🏻
Thank you!
A glimpse into a grand world. Nice work!
Glad you enjoyed it!
If at all possible, if this topic could be a regular segment, perhaps once a month (or even more frequent 😬) I would have so much to do and see when in Italy next. Thanks for the great information!
You're very welcome!
I do hope to do more of these, though I worry about burning through my stock of "hidden buildings" too quickly.
Looking forward to seeing whatever can be published as well as seeing the in depth item on Santa Maria degli angeli. I’m wondering how the floor today is significantly higher than the original building, while the columns supporting the roof are fully visible. Perhaps they stood on high pedestals originally.
@@rickb3078 The floor was filled in because it was prone to flooding (not surprising, since the level of the surrounding streets had risen considerably). The real column bases are buried; the ones visible now were added during the Renaissance conversion.
@@rickb3078 k
Clear. That makes a lot of sense.
I am so excited to have found this channel! You are such an incredible teacher:)
I'm very glad to hear it! Thank you
Santa Maria degli Angelo ….. I Remember this very vividly. Thank you for this amazing program!
it is so sad to see only shadows of some of the greatest works of architecture of Ancient Rome. I hope you can do a video of Palestrina and how it would have looked at its best. I saw sketchings of that and Pergamum that were made during the late 19th and early 20th century and they looked magnificent
Thank you for making these videos, I am really enjoying them. I see absolutely no reason why your channel can't get as big as Mark Felton. He does similarly styled videos on WW2. I have liked, subscribed, and I am really looking forward to future segments. Keep up the great work!
You're very welcome. Thanks for liking and subscribing - and I'll cross my fingers about the channel's future!
Thanks for these videos. Had to watch them again as I plan my week in Rome in May. It will be my third trip to Rome and I want to see some of the less visited sites.
Thank you for the tour!
Thank you for the always informative videos.
Great sequel. When the book is ready, I'll buy it for sure, as I plan to travel to Italy again as soon as pandemic requirements settle. Though I'm not too fond of Rome, I like visiting Naples, Florence, Venice or Sesto Calente near the French border, and anything in between.
Thank you!
You Garrett Ryan are a rare gem! As is your channel toldinstone. Thank you for this fascinating video. I am subscribed
Thank you, and welcome aboard!
Fantastic... I had no idea so many things remained hidden everywhere... Thank you for these wonderful videos!
You're very welcome!
I find your videos fascinating, I can’t wait to see more... and to visit Italy again!
Thank you - I can't wait to get back to Italy myself!
I found your channel, within 48 hours I'd watched everything you've made. Fascinating stuff, won't miss a video.
I wish I had more viewers with your dedication. Thank you very much!
So interesting; thanks for sharing. And thanks for not accompanying your video with music and for not talking non-stop so we can absorb fully all the great information you have included.
You're very welcome
Found your channel about a week ago and haven't stopped watching. Great content, thank you!
You're very welcome!
Lovely tour !! Nice narration.
Excellent video! I have been to Rome twice. There is so much to see there.
New to your channel,love your username. Beautiful work!
You have such a pleasant voice! I would listen to any audiobook featuring you- regardless of topic
Delighted to hear it! Unfortunately, however, someone else is narrating the audio version of my book.
Your work is impressive. I have followed it closely, and appreciate it a lot.
this is an awesome channel
Glad to hear it!
THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORT .
MUCH APPRECIATED .
STAY WELL
:)
You're very welcome!
Thank you for posting this video very enjoyable I am a big fan
Always enjoy your videos. Thanks.
Bravo, this was really well done. I love these old building and Rome is a fabulous place.
Very glad you enjoyed the video!
He looks roman :) and very well-spoken. Love his articulate voice - most people talk too fast and don’t enunciate clearly.
He doesn’t look Roman at all, most Romans spoke fast because of the fewer syllables in Latin. This guy on the other hand sounds like a Natural English speaker, I hope he has the Vowels and Syllables right of either French, Spanish, or Italian or he might just sound incredibly funny to Ancient Roman or Modern Latin Speaker when speaking Latin.
@@spacemanapeinc7202 I was just trying to be nice 😂
@@feywerfolevado6286 I guess I sounded to aggressive 😆
@@spacemanapeinc7202 Hahaha no worries xD
I absolutely love your videos. I’m going to go through your books as I am Sure they are as interesting As your videos are. Great job. Lots of information for people who love the Roman culture. Thank you for what you do. You’re 🤩
Thank you! That's very kind of you to say.
Excellent commentary...per usual. 🌿🏛🌿 just fascinating, the pull of the ancient world is laughing and living right along with us. A true reconstituted Memory
Thank you. I like that..."laughing and living right along with us"
I know very well most of those places you have mentioned! That church you mentioned that is in Via Appia but it was closed the last time I visited but somehow it is typical of Rome to let many of the precious temples and monuments closed and badly kept by sheer indifference and sloppiness. But you have have barely mentioned Terracina because it is a very interesting town where the Roman forum was and still has Bizantine walls which you can still walk on it, a late Roman gate and a suspected Longobard "Palace" among other things! I think it is one of the most underrated town together with Fondi going to Formia..
Yes, there is so much more to say about Terracina (I've only been there once, but I was very impressed). Every time I make one of these videos, time constraints force me to pass by many wonderful places. Hopefully, I'll be able to say more in future videos.
It's just remarkable how these things survive so long, and in constant use. It's hard to put in to words how it makes me feel but I would say awe is pretty close. The baths of Diocletian must have been spectacular when intact. The Las Vegas of the ancient world!
Wonderful video. Your descriptive narrative is first rate. Thank you!
You’re very welcome!
Thanks again for a great tour.
Brilliant video, sir. Many many thanks! 😎👍🏻😎👍🏻
This is very high quality content, thanks for making it available.
My pleasure!
Thanks for your guiding and showing also vVia Appia and Constantins mosaics and ending your tour in ancient Rome with Santa Maria Angelis chathedrale as I remeber having seen.
You're welcome
Hopefully in the future this special one Sant'Urbano alla Caffarella will me more open to tourists, the beautiful yet insufficient drawing of the interior only made me more desperate to visit Italy ahahaha! Santa Costanza's mosaics reminded me of the Galla Placidia Mausoleum, one of my all time favorites from roman architecture classes in college. I don't know yet if you have a video on it cause I'm new to the channel but I'm sure it would be an awesome one
I visited Ravenna back in 2007 (when I was an undergraduate spending a semester in Rome) and unfortunately haven't been back since. When I return - hopefully this summer - I will definitely make a video about that city's wonderful mosaics.
These videos are a treat, thank you so much for making them :)
You're very welcome
Thank you for exposing me to the bathes of Diocletian - that was impressive. Those columns of Egyptian marble. A step back in time.
Great job!
Thank you!
Interesting as usual. Subscribed.
Wonderful videos !! Ty!🍎
I'm so happy you're doing these videos
Very glad you enjoy them!
I was in the Via Appia many years ago, hope to go back soon and visit some beautiful parks/ villa. TY for your videos!
You’re very welcome!
What a most interesting topic, I would have never thought to do a report on that
As always, quite excellent!
Another really wonderful video, thank you. That last entry is particularly dazzling - I think I struggle to imagine how big and how grand some of the buildings could be, seeing the Pantheon as an outlier (it is among my favourites). I guess my brain sees these brick buildings without marble facing and assumes that the Roman world must have been large, but rudimentary. That image of the baths was mind-boggling.
As a follow-up, have you ever been to Chieti? I did my year abroad there for university and it has some lovely Roman buildings, and close to zero tourism
You're very welcome. Santa Maria degli Angeli really is dazzling - one of those rare Roman buildings that preserves some semblance of its original grandeur.
I've never visited Chieti. Some quick Googling, however, confirms what you say about the city's Roman ruins. Perhaps I can work one of those buildings into the third installment...
I had to freeze the video at the mosaics of Santa Costanza. The world they show and the accuracy took my breath away. Constantine's daughter is wearing silk. Many of the guys are carrying a curved stick. Wagons had solid wheels and leather tires. Oxen were yoked at the neck like most of the world and not by the horns like in France and Spain. The birds are European goldfinches. There's a mounted and armored knight. No stirrups. Grape-crushing vats had tile roofs and were somewhat like theaters and the workers dance. You can see their happiness. One ox team is young and is being led by a man with halter leads. Not nose rings. The oxen seem hesitant. Flamenco dancers. A winged Mercury. Lots of naked guys climbing in the grape vines. They aren't children or cherubs, they are grown ups. My first thought was they represent caterpillars on the vines. Or guys who pruned vines didn't wear clothes but guys stomping grapes wore underwear. A lot of the naked guys are reaching for grapevines with the curved sticks. So now I want to know what grape trellises looked like in Constantine's empire. I've never heard that the way to care for grapes is to get naked and reach for the vines with curved sticks. (Marijuana maybe) The lady in the portrait was supposed to recognize everything depicted. This is a snapshot of a busy, normal world of her time and place.
Thanks for sharing all your awesome knowledge with us!!
Great videos.
You’re very welcome!
Seeing the majesty of some of these ruins, I can understand why the Romans felt that they were superior to their Celtic and Germanic neighbours
Everyone feels superior to the people next door lol. But I think these kinds of buildings would have been somewhat rare.