A six-foot deep sinkhole opened up in front of the Pantheon in Rome, revealing ancient paving below the modern level. The ancient Travertine blocks were part of the original paving, put in place when the Pantheon was constructed in 27 BC.

If you stand at the back of the square in front of the Pantheon you'll notice that the whole square slopes towards the Pantheon. Over the centuries the level of Rome has risen. New buildings were built on top of older structures. Streets were repaired and improved by building on top of older streets. The slope is evidence of this rise, leading from the modern level at the rear of the square down to the ancient level near the entry to the Pantheon.

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A six-foot deep sinkhole opened up in front of the Pantheon in Rome, revealing ancient paving below the modern level. The ancient Travertine blocks were part of the original paving, put in place when the Pantheon was constructed in 27 BC.

If you stand at the back of the square in front of the Pantheon you'll notice that the whole square slopes towards the Pantheon. Over the centuries the level of Rome has risen. New buildings were built on top of older structures. Streets were repaired and improved by building on top of older streets. The slope is evidence of this rise, leading from the modern level at the rear of the square down to the ancient level near the entry to the Pantheon.

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The Scuderie del Quirinale museum in Rome is honoring Leonardo da Vinci on the 500th anniversary of his death with a special exhibition. Running through the end of June, the exhibit La Scienza prima della scienza (science before science) features pieces focusing on da Vinci's technical and mechanical genius in everything from agriculture to flight to war machines.

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One of my favorite off-the-radar sites in Rome, Largo di Torre Argentina, will open to the public in 2021. Right now you can only view the ruins from the street above, but thanks to funding provided by fashion company Bulgari the ground level of the site will soon be accessible.

I love taking my tour groups past this site which, to the casual tourist, just looks like a big hole in the ground with some broken bits of stone. There are tons of these in Rome, but there are two things that make Largo Argentina special: it's home to some of the oldest ruins in Rome, with four temples dating to around 200 BC; and it's adjacent to the ruins of the portico of the Theater of Pompey – the place where Julius Caesar was assassinated. If you stand in the right spot, near the tram stop, you are actually standing on top of the site where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators.

OK, there is a third reason I like bringing groups here. This is also where you can get a look at an ancient Roman toilet – the flat stone with the keyhole cut-out at the top of the picture is a section of the seats, which used to sit over the deep trench below. Keep in mind that this whole thing was in an enclosed building. A large volume of water would have been flowing through the deep trench, above which there was a long bench with fifty or so keyhole-shaped cutouts. Sitting cheek to cheek, there was no privacy inside.

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Tradition says that a coin tossed into the Trevi Fountain will guarantee your return to Rome. It seems to work for me, as I faithfully toss a coin in each and every time I visit.

Tossing coins in the fountain is extremely popular – in fact so many tourists gather around the fountain at all hours of day and night, that there have even been fights over the best location to stand. Each year the City of Rome collects more than $1.7 million worth of coins from the fountain.

Well, now the city government is in a dispute over what happens to all that money. In the past the money has been donated to Caritas, which provides aid to the poor around the world. The Rome city council recently decided to grab the money for itself, supposedly to be used to repair the city's crumbling infrastructure. Given the history of Rome's finances – and government use of money in general – this sounds like a lose-lose proposition.

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