Although no longer available for public use, the Baths of Caracella were, at one point around the period of the 1st century, the second-largest public baths in the city of Rome. Indeed, the ruins are immense even by today’s standards, and you can spend hours wandering around the cavernous spaces. Although the baths had fallen into disrepair by the 530s, they continued to serve as inspiration for other famed buildings such as the Baths of Diocletian, and ones as current as the Chicago Union Station.

You can almost close your eyes and imagine its former splendor, which the Romans themselves would have been used to enjoying. Communal bathing was an important activity for the ancient Romans, who used it to maintain their hygiene and their social relations simultaneously. You could move between the cold pool, the lukewarm pool and the hot pool, talking to friends and strangers alike. This experience may be lost today, but a visit to the Baths of Caracella will bring you right back to ancient times.