When I was in Rome last summer, I learned that during the centuries when the Colosseum was all but abandoned, so many species of vegetation grew in it that Domenico Panaroli cataloged them.
According to some writers and chroniclers, all of those herbs and other plants created micro-climates within the Colosseum's walls. I don't find that so difficult to believe: Different parts felt hotter or cooler, depending on the sun, shade and wind, during my visit there.
My commute this morning got met to thinking about the possibility of Colosseum "microclimates". For one thing, the lane I ride to the Randall's Island Connector winds underneath the tracks on which Acela trains shuttle between New York and Boston. Those tracks run on a viaduct supported by stone arches that would not look out of place in Rome, or the ancient parts of many other cities in the Old World.
But, more important, I think I rode into a microclimate:
The remanants of yesterday's storm dripped, and rays of sunlight flickered, through the tracks above. And I pedaled through the "rainbow" you see in the photo. I didn't see another rainbow anywhere else, nor did any rain fall. And the sky grew brighter as I neared the college.
According to some writers and chroniclers, all of those herbs and other plants created micro-climates within the Colosseum's walls. I don't find that so difficult to believe: Different parts felt hotter or cooler, depending on the sun, shade and wind, during my visit there.
My commute this morning got met to thinking about the possibility of Colosseum "microclimates". For one thing, the lane I ride to the Randall's Island Connector winds underneath the tracks on which Acela trains shuttle between New York and Boston. Those tracks run on a viaduct supported by stone arches that would not look out of place in Rome, or the ancient parts of many other cities in the Old World.
But, more important, I think I rode into a microclimate:
The remanants of yesterday's storm dripped, and rays of sunlight flickered, through the tracks above. And I pedaled through the "rainbow" you see in the photo. I didn't see another rainbow anywhere else, nor did any rain fall. And the sky grew brighter as I neared the college.
