Ew take a Bath

Bath was such a beautiful city to visit. It was definitely one of my favorite excursions of the trip. Having tea in London is already such a cool experience, but to have it in Bath in the same room as Jane Austin was just something that I will never get over. The tea and scones were delicious! Though Bath does have wonderful tea, it also has such rich history. The Roman Baths were unreal. I have heard so much about them, but to get so close and walk on the same floors as the Romans was such an exciting experience, even though I did slip and almost fall on my face. One part of the Roman Baths that I found to be enticing was the heated floor system. Heated floors these days are considered a luxury, and not many people have them in their houses or bathrooms. I learned that the floors were very common in the area of the Baths. The system that heats the floor is called a hypocaust. The Romans would use a furnace to generate hot air in a hollow space beneath the floor. The floor was raised by stacks of stones and tiles. The stacks were known as Pilae. They were anywhere from one to two feet high, depending on the size of the room. The air not only heated the tiles but also the room. This was done by strategically placed vents that allowed the hot air to escape into the room. There were also vents placed near the ceilings that allowed air to flow into the rooms. These floors were not only placed in the sauna area, but also in the massage and changing rooms. In the saunas or ‘hot rooms’ as they were called during Roman times, there were no air vents for the hot air to escape, which is what trapped the heat in. I think it is so interesting how, as a society, we have evolved so much, but also not at all, as we still use many of the same practices the Romans did at their baths.