Rome blog for Bed & Breakfast Chaplin Hostel

This Rome blog article is written for the tourists staying at the Hostel Chaplin Bed & Breakfast Rome and the B&B Little Italy.

Maurizio Anastasi, of the Rome Superintendency for Archeology, at an international art meeting in Ferrara, has announced plans to restore the Trajan Column, one of Rome’s most famous monuments, to its original splendor by using the innovative technique of “painting” the column with light beams.

The Trajan Column is one of Rome’s most famous and most visible artworks, standing almost 100 feet tall. Its spiral relief sculpture winds 23 times around the column and depicts the story of the emperor Trajan’s triumphs in Dacia (in what is now Romania).

It was erected in 113 A.D. and is made completely of marble, which used to be painted, like many Roman statues of antiquity, in many bright colors.

One of the best preserved of all Roman artworks, the monument has however lost what might have been it most distinctive feature — color. The city of Rome will now try to recreate these original colors, without causing damage to the monument.

This Rome information blog article is written for the guests of the Hostel Chaplin Bed and Breakfast in Rome.

Rome’s “long-noses”

Everywhere you go in Rome you will see water fountains in the streets. The water from these “long-noses” as the Romans call them is perfectly drinkable and even in mid-summer, when the temperatures are very high, so fresh that it would seem to come straight from the fridge.

The acqueducts

What most visitors to Rome are not aware of is that this is thanks to the aqueduct system invented by the Romans more than 2000 years ago.

The ancient Roman canalization system (260 miles, except for 35 of these, mostly subterranean) was built and maintained by a legion of workers (a legion, during emperor Augustus’ reignin the 1^st century B.C., consisting of more than 5000 men), under the supervision of the curator aquarum.

The aqueducts were ingeniously built, with possible repairs already in mind, by installing ways of access (with marble covers) at always the same distances from each other.

Rome’s oldest acqueduct

The oldest aqueduct is the Acqua Appia and dates from 312 BC. It is 16 kilometers long, nothing compared to the Acqua Claudia, which, with its 68 kilometers, is the longest acqueduct. Like most of the acqueducts, it passes by Porta Maggiore.

Hello Rene,

We are the Bolivians that were in the Chaplin last July. We want to thank you because we felt really good at the Chaplin, you were also very kind to our two year old child and you even took the time to help us fix his push-chair. If we ever have the chance to visit Rome again, we hope to stay at the Chaplin.

Best Regards,

Gabriela and Boris