Not sure if anyone saw this (I didn't see another thread) but this is unfortunate!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8595636.stm

I was really disappointed to read that -- we never made it to the Domus Aurea and were planning on visiting it in September.

Collapse or no collapse, it would not have been open in September. It was only scheduled to reopen in 2011.

Now, sadly extended for another 3yrs (2014).

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/Eng...218349118.html OR http://tinyurl.com/3o2wluy

And wonderful research by the reporter, I guess he just took the 1st cool photo that he found in a "domus aurea" search .

That is the exhedra from the "Baths of Trajan" built 36+yrs later on top of the *buried* Domus Aurea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileomusAurea.jpg
Regards, Walter

The size of their task is hard to believe!

Far from all of it was accessible when we went, back in 2000, during a brief spell when it was open...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/domus

Peter

Peter, I'm sure we weren't allowed to take photos in late 2001. How lucky you are to have those great pics!

I was fortunate to also visit in 2000 (don't think I was in the same group as you Peter!) and don't recall any issues with taking photos - mine, however, are still on ye-olde-timey film, haven't converted them to digital yet. Thanks for the refresher images!

Those were slides, rephotographed with a digital camera...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/slidecopy

Not perfect, but nor were the originals!

Peter

There was no ban on picture taking when I toured the Domus Aurea in 2002. Hard to take good photos in there though, if I recall. I do feel fortunate to have been able to visit.

We were impressed all right, but imagine how it must have seemed when rediscovered in the 15th century?

Artists on the Grand Tour would have themselves lowered on ropes through holes in the roof to study and copy the decorations by the light of flickering lanterns....

Its delapidated state lead to the popular "grottesco" (grotesque) style; if in Florence, watch out for this - in the Boboli gardens behind the Pitti Palace...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/136271369

But then, as the paintings were understood more, they became fashionable - for instance at Castel Sant'Angelo...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/rome1109&page=2

Art imitating art - and 50 years or so before Pompei was unearthed!

Peter

Think I ran out of fingers with my sums... carry over two thumbs, and that should perhaps have been more like 250 years?

Peter

Hmmm. I'll have to drag out my old-timey photo album from that trip to see if I have any pics of the excavation. It could be that mine were so gawd-awful that I've forgotten about them.

"Think I ran out of fingers with my sums... carry over two thumbs, and that should perhaps have been more like 250 years?

Peter"

That made me chuckle.

Sorry to stray a wee bit off topic, but I loved the cheeky Australian advertisement before the video.

I was able to visit in 2000 also. I took an English speaking tour with an archeologist. It was interesting and we could take picuturse, but there wasn't that much to take pictures of.

Nero wasn't a popular guy and Trajan (if I remember correctly) did his best to obliterate all trace of him. All the good stuff, art, sculptures was carried off before they buried the palace. I have a picture of some remaining frescos and a large, broken alabaster vessel (still beautiful). I didn't take much more than that.

I do feel very fortunate to have seen it when I did.

Peter, great photos.

I went when it 1st opened and recall no photos were allowed and revisited it either 1 or 2 yrs later and again photos weren't allowed, so it seems like the photo prohibition was an on/again-off/again policy.

The Domus Aurea was not just this site but stretched from Nero's Palace on the Palatine Hill to this site (~1mi) and possibly beyond.

His entire complex almost went full circle/square from his Palace to definitely the base of the Caelian Hill and almost definitely he would have incorporated the unfinished Temple of Claudius on this Hill into this complex.

All he would need to completely enclose this complex now would be the eastern slope of the Palatine and the street area at its base, after all the hi-end land he's confiscated this would be a minor section and I'm very certain it was burnt-out in the 64 Fire.

This thread is about the recently discovered Domus Aurea's (so-called) 'Rotating Dining Room' on the Palatine Hill and also has some info on the site we are discussing that might be of interest.

http://www.historykb.com/Uwe/Forum.a...uet-Hall-Found OR
http://tinyurl.com/5spzvhl
Regards, Walter