Good day, beachcombers. Welcome to this week’s Sunday postcard. By request of Ms. Flynny, we are travelling to Rome to visit the classical monuments and architecture symbolic of one of the greatest civilizations of the past.

Unlike some of the other places we’ve visited, there is no lack of photo galleries of Roman ruins. A good place to start is Alan Zeleznikar’s Rome Travel Page. Scroll down to the green ‘Rome’ section. Mr. Zeleznikar has done a very thorough job of detailing what a tourist to Rome’s ruins can expect.

A trip to Rome to see the ruins would not be complete without visiting certain, quintessential landmarks, most of which are mapped out in this useful Ruins Map. While we could probably spend weeks on the details and minutia, we’re going to stick to the most popular and well-known spots for this postcard. One of the most-known of the most-known spots, of course, is the Roman Coliseum. Professor Felix Just of Loyola Marymont University offers us a nice gallery of the Roman Coliseum. He also hosts a gallery for one of the other most-known of the most-known spots, the Roman Forum.

Virtual Tours of Architecture provides a great tour of the Pantheon. We start, logically, by seeing the beauty of the Pantheon’s exterior. The Pantheon’s interior is equally spectacular.

Other locations that we can not miss while we are touring ancient Rome are the Mausoleum of Augustus, courtesy of Yong-Ling Ow, the Theater of Marcellus, brought to us by the University at Buffalo, and of course, Circus Maximus, gallery courtesy of Virtual Travels. The University of Buffalo also offers this fabulous gallery featuring the Arch of Titus – a gallery I sought out especially for Titus (who needs to get around to blogging more).

While it is a bit slow to load, Druid’s Den brings us 3-D panoramic tours of the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps (not ancient, just old), Palazzo della Civilta, Piazza Navona, Piazza Farnese, Trevi Fountain, and Parliament.

Next stop on our ancient Rome tour are the Baths of Caracalla, gallery courtesy of the University of California San Francisco. UCSF not only offers great images of the Baths, they also provide a detailed description of a typical day at the Baths for your average Roman. Do any resorts exist like these today? I would sure love a day at a place like the Baths of Caracalla.

We’re about to wrap this trip up, but not before visiting the Trevi Fountain. Adriolo.com’s nighttime gallery of the Fountain really captures the beauty of this ancient fixture. Legend says that we must face away from the fountain and toss a coin in or we will never return to Rome. So let’s toss our coins in to ensure we come back because I have really loved this tour. Thanks, Ms. Flynny, for suggesting it.

This has been a lovely visit to ancient Rome. Until next week…ciao!