Modern Rome! Oxymoron?

For a change of pace...modern Rome! This involved some traveling via bus, and we saw some cool things, from a time where man used materials other than solely brick, cement and marble.

Museo Della Civilta Romana, built by/for Mussolini

We didn't stop here to look at the entire museum, but came to see this, a complete model of ancient Rome. A-mazing. Huge. Very Detailed.

Fountains in front of Palazzo dei Congressi

Palazzo Dei Congressi, site of a huge techno music concert, that was 35 euro to attend. Hence, I did not.

"These Romans built/stole so many obelisks. I want one too!" -Mussolini

So, this is his.

Monument to WWII victims at Ardeatina Caves, here are the graves of the victims from the massacre (March 24, 1944) The story goes: some partisans attacked a column of German troops from an SS police battalion, killing 32 immediately, a 33rd would die later. Hitler, hearing of this, ordered that 100 Italians be killed for each German soldier that died. A German police commander in Italy decided that 10 Italians for each German would be sufficient, so they gathered 320 (or so they thought- the actual number was 335) Italians- Jews, prisoners of war, civilians off the street, and some previously captured partisans and brought them to these caves to be killed. Drunk on cognac, the Germans brought the prisoners into the caves and shot them in groups throughout the day, before setting a bomb off in the caves to bury the evidence of the massacre in rock and rubble.

The back wall of the caves, where the people were murdered, the sign reads (rough translation):

Here are the slaughtered victims of a horrible sacrifice- from our sacrifice rises a better native land and long-lasting peace between peoples.

The cave

More of the caves

The monument, heavy and solid, covering the graves (very metaphorical, architecturally)

Museum, showing some things about fascism, and newspaper clippings from the times, way back when

statue in front of the graves

On to less morbid things... We were able to get a tour of the construction site of a new Zaha Hadid building, a contemporary art museum "Maxxi"

ooooo....ahhh...scaffolding!

more concrete and scaffolding!

Brandi and I, under construction! (get it?)

And then onto Renzo Piano's Auditorium Parco Della Musica Roma, here, are some very hip outdoor seating arrangements.

very cool structure holding up the shell of the buildings

While excavating for the auditoriums, they found an ancient Roman domus, and had to build around it.

The auditoriums, I'd have a photo of the insides of the halls for you (EXTREMELY COOL), but we weren't allowed to take photos...

The lobby

some crazy architecture students...

exhausted from a long day...but there is still more to see!

ultra-church, ultra-modern, ultra-white, ultra-Richard Meier.

Very sleek organ in the church

interior wood

exterior, white (specially designed for this building) concrete, as opposed to standard grey.

Afternoon sun beaming through the glass

The end of Modern, stay tuned for post-modern! (kidding)