Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City

Excellent fiveweek online course on Rome from University of Reading and FutureLearn using a 3D virtual reconstruction of the Roman city to tell its story. 

I loved the format of this course with interesting videos, articles and walk throughs of the 3D model to look at the history of the city, political and religious architecture, everyday life and death and the role of entertainment. The videos were particularly good as they made for a welcome tour of the city in these times of lockdown. I didn’t get on very well with the self-guided tours of the model as I wasn’t very good at controlling it smoothly and got a bit seasick but the filmed ones were excellent. 

The course was led by Matthew Nicholls who has also built the virtual city. He had an easy approachable style yet the content felt rich as it incorporated use of coins and literature as forms of evidence. I thought I knew the city quite well but I am now desperate to go back to see more such as the tomb of the baker which was covered in some detail and the walls of a theatre which have now been converted into flats!


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