Rome
Where do I begin? Trevi Fountain? Pantheon? Colosseum? St. Peter’s Basilica or Square, the Forum, Palatine Hill, Capital Hill, Monument of Vittorio Emanuele 2nd, Arch of Constantine, Spanish Steps, Area Sacra, National Museum of Rome, Piazza Navona, Campo di Fiori, Egyptian Obelisks, Columns, Palaces, Castles, Fountains, tons of other buildings and ruins, all of these and more I could describe but I just don’t have the time.
Highlights is where I will have to start. The “big ones” where the Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill and Midnight Mass at St Peter’s Basilica. We went to all of these on the same day!
The Colosseum was first. We bypassed the large line waiting to get tickets to get in because we had the “Roma Pass”. We got this at the train station and it was worth it to pass all those people and just go right in. Some things about the Colosseum that impressed me were…
1. The Colosseum gladitorial floor where the gladiators fought all those years ago. The floor itself was once wood and has long since eroded with time. Underneath this wood floor are many hallways and at least 2 floors. All of these were easily seen. Just imagine tigers, lions, elephants, gladiators all going through these passages before being unleashed against each other “on stage”, live, for the masses like an ancient thriller, action movie of the past.
2. The walls of the Colosseum were once over 5 floors high. Their size of “floor” isn’t like ours. They were about 20 feet high verses our 8 or 9 or 10 feet. It was big. Many of the stairs were eroded a long time ago and you just see traces of them today.
3. The actual floor of the Colosseum (the gladiator floor) is about the size of a Hockey rink. It was not the size of the Football, super size, field in the “Gladiator” movie. The people in the stands were much closer to the “action” on the field.
Okay, on to the Forum and Palatine Hill. Walking under the Tito Arch, you are confronted with Ancient buildings, ruins, pillars, big stones, bumpy roads, temples, and much more. You can’t take it all in. The Augustine Basilican ruins are to the right. HUGE! The Temple of Saturns steps and columns, The House of the Vestal Virgins with a small pool and a round temple with columns still standing, an ancient roman square, and much more buildings for senators, lawyers, priests, and all the rest of the important people of the time. Looming over all of this is Palatine Hill. Caligula’s palace-a.k.a. the palace of Tiberius, is just one of the many palaces on this hill which seem all hooked together with above ground walks and below ground halls, shrines, fountains and what all. I began to wonder if there was actually a hill here before the Palaces where here or if the hill was nothing but a palace….and the Hill was BIG. This is, without doubt, the biggest castle ruins I have ever seen! After all, Palatine Hill was the origin of the word “palace” anyway. And I can see the reason behind it being the origìn.
We took a nap after all this so we would be ready and awake for our “pilgrammage” to midnight mass at St Peter’s. We waited in line to get in from about 7 pm to about 10:30 pm. We had great talks with the people waiting around us. We needed a ticket to get in, which we had to get secured in advance in October. The ticket didn’t cost anything, there is just limited seating in St Peter’s…only 9000 people can get in. It was huge and awesome just as everyone says it is. We saw the Pope as he said mass. We sat way in back and he was just a small, tiny figure in the distance of this huge building. Even their huge organ sounded somewhat quiet because the sound couldn’t fill the space. We wonder if they somehow “toned down” the sound but it didn’t seem like it since it was Christmas, one of the biggest Holidays of the year. Why would they “hold back”?
We eventually got home about 3:30 in the morning.
What a day!
Write more later,
Dan
Tags: Europe, Forum, Palatine Hill, Rome
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