Rome, Italy
Rome, the Eternal City
Colleen and I had talked about going to Rome several times but had never found the right circumstances. This time we did. We had the time and I found some really cheap tickets, so off we went!
July 1, 2010
We left the apartment in plenty of time to get to the airport. On the bus ride out, we were checked by the ticket inspectors. I showed them a copy of my passport ans, because I’m over 70 and don’t have to buy a ticket, I had no problem. Colleen, on the other hand, had forgotten to validate her ticket. Problem! Her three month pass had run out the week before and she had decided to buy single ride tickets for the two weeks she would be in the country before returning to the US. She bought a ticket and had it with her, but an unvalidated ticket is no ticket at all. So she got a fine and would have to go to some office somewhere to pay the fine in the time she had left before leaving the country. Something else to worry about. A single ride ticket costs 18 Czech Crowns. The fine was 950 crowns. Lesson learned. Buy a Ticket!
The flight to Rome was uneventful. At the airport, we got a city map and made our way to the train by following the signs. The train took us to the Termini Station which is very near our hotel. I never cease to marvel at the efficiency of mass transportation systems in Europe. A schedule is posted showing arrival and departure times of the trains and which track they will be on. You buy a ticket, validate it by slipping it into a machine that stamps the date and time, and you get on the train. Someone may or may not check your ticket. We rode into town and didn’t have to show our tickets to anyone.
At the Termini Station, we exited the train and followed the directions the hotel had given us. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow them exactly and we ended up at the wrong end of the station. We backtracked, found the right exit and walk about 60 yards to our hotel. We stayed in the Hotel Marghera and I recommend it highly. The location is excellent, near the train station, the metro and origination site of the city bus tours. The people are nice, breakfast is included and the price is reasonable, compared to other hotels. After settling in and resting a bit, we set out to explore.
Rome is an old city built on a ancient city. Little if any modern architecture is in evidence. Ancient ruins, some unmarked and unnamed, are sprinkled among old churches and monuments. We saw the remnants of a huge, towering wall, perhaps a tiny segment of the wall that once enclosed the city, or maybe the side of a church or temple, but there was no indication of its history. We had dinner in the Piazza Repubblica, overpriced pizza and beer. Food is incredibly expensive in Rome and something I hate to spend money on. I will pay for ambiance or an unbelievably delicious meal, but I’d rather have McDonalds than overpriced pizza.
We walked to the Trevi Fountain. You know, “Three Coins in a Fountain”, “Roman Holiday”, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. The Trevi Fountain is Rome’s largest and I believe it. It is enormous. The fountain was designed by Nicoli Salvi and completed in 1762. It marks the terminal point of an aqueduct built by the Romans to bring water to the city. It is so large that it serves as the facade for one side of a palace. Water gushes out around statues and sculptures against the building and fills a semi-circular pool. In the center, against the wall is a huge statue of Neptune, ruling over the seas. To the left, a Triton (a person) trying to control an unruly horse, and tho the right, a Triton leading a gentle horse. These are meant to represent the extremes of weather in the sea. Other statues and large rocks of marble complete the setting. The fountain is sunken and a series of steps form an amphitheater filled with people taking pictures, resting and enjoying the view.
Legend has it that if you toss a coin into the fountain, you will return to Rome. It seemed that everyone wanted to return. Would love to have all the coins ever thrown into the fountain. Since the legend doesn’t indicate a particular denomination, I threw in the smallest coin I had.
July 2, 2010
Got up early and had a very nice breakfast at the hotel, cold cuts of ham and salami, cheese, croissants and hard boiled eggs. Some of the croissants had a rich, chocolate spread inside and there were three different types of cakes. Evidently, the Italians like very sweet things for breakfast. Left the hotel in plenty of time to get to the Vatican Museum at 10:30. We had bought tickets on line to avoid the wait to get in, a very good idea. Bought our metro tickets and headed underground. You must understand that there are several entrances to each metro station and the entrance may not be near where the train actually runs. Also, when two lines serve the same station, one is usually above the other and you may have to walk through the Blue line station to get down to the Red line station. Such was our case. We walked and walked and kept taking escalators down and down. We went through the Blue line station and were almost at the Red line station when we were confronted by a young guy explaining (in Italian) that the Red line train was not running at the moment. There had been no sign, no warning, nothing to tell us not to buy a ticket. And we had already validated our ticket. It was now worthless. Our only option was to get back above ground and take a taxi.
Outside, we stood in line with others who had the same problem. We got a lady taxi driver who didn’t speak English. “Vatican,” I said, using as few words as possible. She gave me a blank look and responded, “I don’t speak English.” “Vatican City. Vatican.” I tried. She just looked at me and then a light came on. “Vati-CAHN-O?” she asked. “Si, si, Vati-CAHN-O,” I said. How she could not have understood “Vatican” spoken by a tourist in Rome, I have no idea. She gave us a running commentary and pointed at building as she drove. Unfortunately, her commentary was in Italian and I understood nothing. We drove by a long, long line of people waiting to get into the Vatican Museum. Luckily, we had our tickets thanks to Colleen’s foresight. The taxi driver dropped us off at the entrance and we went right in. The taxi cost 15 Euros, somewhat more than the 1 Euro we had paid for the metro ticket.
The Vatican Museum is just that, a museum, with artifacts covering the centuries. They give you a map showing the different ares to visit starting with Egyptian. But it’s more a list than a map and the areas aren’t clearly labeled within the museum so that I was never sure where we were in the museum or in relation to the other areas. The only thing that was clearly marked was the Sistine Chapel, the crowning gem of the museum. There were signs everywhere pointing the way.
We wandered through each section, overwhelmed by the quantity and size of the artifacts in each room. The Egyptian section even had a mummy. There were statues everywhere, busts, vases, items of furniture, all grouped according to period – Egyptian, Etruscan, etc. Interesting but too much to take in during a single visit. There was a long gallery of tapestries and one of maps drawn on cloth. There were maps of Europe, Africa and the east coast of North and South America, but not the west coast. There was an area which had frescoes by Raphael, in cluing his famous “School of Athens” in which he included a self portrait discretely off to one side. There were frescoes on the floor and all the walls and ceilings had paintings. Everywhere you looked there was something to please the eye. It was truly remarkable and you could spend hours and hours studying these items from the past but the crowd keeps moving you along.
But, as I said, the Sistine Chapel is the crowning jewel. We were swept into the room by the throng trying to get in and urged to keep moving by security guards. My immediate impression was that the room was smaller than I expected. (I felt the same about the Mona Lisa). From the pictures I had seen, I expected a huge room the length of a football field. Not so. It is a chapel, a large chapel, but a chapel. That should have been a clue for me. The Sistine Chapel is maybe 50 feet by 100 feet and totally decorated, not just the ceiling but the walls. Every inch is decorated in some way. As a result, the room seems dark. I don’t remember any windows. We entered next to the alter and, trying to find space to climbed the three steps onto the alter which was behind us as we looked at the ceiling. The guards quickly moved us down to the main floor. I pulled out my camera and focused on the ceiling. I heard a voice in the distance that got louder and louder as I aimed at the ceiling. Finally, as I snapped my picture, I realized that the voice was directed at me and I recognized the words, “NO PICTURES!” I sheepishly put my camera in my pocket, but I had a picture.
The ceiling of the chapel was painted between 1508 an 1512 by a young Michelangelo on instructions of Pope Julius II. Remember the movie with Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison? There are nine major panels in the ceiling, three depicting the creation of the earth, three showing the creation of man (the most famous), the creation of Eve and the Original Sin, and the last three show Noah, the flood and Noah’s drunkenness, which reveals the wretchedness of human nature. (This last from the guidebook or I would never have figured it out). The central panels are flanked on one side by prophets from the Old Testament, Sibyls, and the ancestors of Christ. All the figures are separated by what looks like wooden frames or marble columns, but it’s all just paint on a flat surface. The Sibyls were classical creatures said to have foreseen the coming of Christ. To understand and appreciate this complex work it’s best, make that essential, to have an audio guide or a guide book.
Michelangelo also painted “The Last Judgment” on the wall behind the alter, but much later, between 1535 and 1541. This work was commissioned by Pope Paul III. It includes some three hundred figures and shows souls rising from the grave to be judged by Christ. Some ascend into Heaven and the evil are cast into Hell. Charon and Minos, shown throwing people into Hell, are characters from Dante’s “Inferno”.
The walls of the chapel were painted earlier than Michelangelo’s ceiling and were done by some of the famous artiste of the time, including Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo’s master, and Botticelli. Unfortunately, the walls are hardly noticed. Everyone is looking up.
After the chapel, we had lunch, wrote postcards, mailed them and headed for St. Peter’s Basilica. Unfortunately, since we didn’t have a guide book (I had decided it was too heavy to carry all day – dumb!), we didn’t see the Vatican art gallery. We kept seeing signs for “pinoteca” but I didn’t know what that meant. So we missed examples of art through the centuries including Raphael, Leonardo and Caravaggio. I should have known the Vatican would have an excellent art collection and I should have looked for it. Guess I was overwhelmed by what I had already seen.
We entered St. Peter’s Square from the side. Its a huge open area where the faithful gather when the pope speaks. My first thought was, “Boy, this is big!” In the center of the square is an obelisk from the 13th Century BC. It stands 25 meters high and was brought from the ruins of the Circus of Nero. Encircling the obelisk are bar-relief sculptures on the ground representing the the different wind directions. The “west wind” was featured in the movie “Angels and Demons” as were many other statues and monuments in Rome. On each side of the obelisk, spaced some distance away, are fountains
St. Peter’s Square is not really a square but rather a huge oval. It was designed by Bernini between 1656 and 1667. Two huge colonnades encircle the square like “the arms of the Roman Catholic Church reaching out to welcome its communicants.” The colonnade consists of the three rows of concentric columns supporting a roof which forms a shaded walkway around the square. There are 284 columns and 88 pillars in the colonnade. The roof of the colonnade is adorned with 140 statues of the saints all designed by Bernini. Sadly they are high on the roof and not easily viewed. This is true of so many works of art in Europe.
After going through security, we entered St. Peter’s. It has been a church since the 4th century, originally built by Emperor Constantine. The present structure was begun in 1506 and completed in 1626 and is the largest church in the world. It is magnificent and huge and can hold as many as 60,000 worshipers at one time. Though big and grandiose with statues, sculptures and paintings everywhere, there is a warmth and a welcoming feeling unlike many churches that are overcrowded with ornamentation. There is enough empty space that you don’t feel crowded and the various colors of marble lend a soft glow to the interior. All the chapels and niches are filled with sculptures and paintings.
On entry, immediately to the right is the Pieta by Michelangelo, created in 1499 when he was only 25. It was carved from a single block of marble and deserves all the praise it receives. Everywhere you look there are huge statues marking the tombs of long dead popes. The tomb of Pope Alexander VII was designed by Bernini. The Baldacchino, a four poster canopy over the main alter was also designed by Bernini. It was built in 1624 and features four enormous ornate columns twisting upward over the alter and beneath the dome. The alter is directly above the tomb of St. Peter one floor below. In front of the alter is a stairway leading down to the tomb. On the rail of the stairway, ninety-nine lamps burn day and night. This was the scene of the climax of “Angels and Demons.”
I truly cannot adequately describe St. Peter’s. It must be seen to be fully appreciated. It’s more than you can absorb in a single visit. We wandered through the Basilica taking pictures, then went below to see the tombs of other popes, including St. Peter. No, we couldn’t use the staircase in front of the alter but had to go outside and around to a side entrance. Interestingly enough, John Paul I, who was pope for only one month, and John Paul II, who succeeded him, have very simple white, marble tombs, whereas popes I’ve never heard of have tombs adorned with larger than life statues and sculptures.
Leaving St. Peter’s on a hot, July day, we decided to stop for gelato, the Italian ice cream. You can get takeaway or at a table which costs more. We opted to enjoy some air-conditioning. Colleen had a medium dish and I had a small. Unfortunately, we didn’t inquire about the price beforehand. The bill came to 25 Euros. 25 Euros for ice cream! Our complaints bounced off the waiter. Another lesson learned, make that repeated. I know to be careful in tourist areas but I always forget.
July 3, 2010
After breakfast, we went to the Colosseum, a chance to ride the blue metro. There are only two metro lines in Rome. We asked and the explanation was that every time they try to dig under the city, they run into a 2,000 year old building, an architectural find that has to be preserved and excavated.
The Colosseum is impressive, as you might expect, huge, enormous very big. We decided to hire a guide to get a little history. It was worth it. She gave us a brief lecture before we went inside. The Colosseum, commissioned by Emperor Vespasian, was built between 72 and 80 AD and was originally known as the Amphitheater Flavian (the name is still on the wall). The current name came much later. Someone said “Man, that’s big. That’s colossal.” and it stuck. It holds 50,000 spectators seated and another 20,000 standing. There are 80 arched entrances, each numbered, just like football stadiums of today. They claim that everyone could bet in or out in about twenty minutes. Spectators sat in three different levels according to their social rank with the plebes, the lowest class, seated farthest from the action. One of the most interesting bits of information was that the Colosseum had a canopy which could be extended or retracted to protect spectators from the sun or rain. It took 80 sailors to stretch the sailcloth across the top.
Our guide asked us if we knew what Rome was called before it was simply Rome. She pointed to a manhole cover with the initials SPQR. Senatus Populus Quo Romanus, Senate and People of Rome,” I said. Thank you, Mrs. Smith, Latin class 1955-1957. Sadly, that’s about the only thing I remember from the class. (Not her fault).
Gladiatorial fights and other spectacles were staged in the Colosseum to entertain the people. There was an expression in ancient Rome, “Bread and Circus”. The Senate felt that if they kept the people fed and entertained, they wouldn’t complain or revolt. It worked. Not all gladiators died, even the losers. You know, thumbs up or thumbs down. The people indicated their preference but the Emperor had the final say. In his absence, the Vestal Virgins would determine the gladiator’s fate.
The word gladiator came from gladius, the name of the short sword they used. They fought until 476 AD, the date of the end of the Roman Empire. Our guide told us that Christians were not martyred in the Colosseum but in the Circus Maximus a short distance away. However, the story remains and the Pope comes to the Colosseum on Good Friday to remember the Christians slaughtered here.
As you know, the Colosseum is no longer intact. Only one section extends upward to it original height. The damage to the structure was not caused by the ravages of time or natural disasters. It was caused by human hands. Evidently, the historical significance of the structure was lost after the fall of Rome and the descent into the Dark Ages. In the Middle Ages, people saw it as a source of building materials and used it as a quarry, extracting the marble stones to build other structures. Between 1500 and 1600, by order of the Pope, a huge amount of travertine marble was taken to build structures in the Vatican. Consequently, the exterior of today’s Colosseum is partly travertine marble and partly bricks, which were the major building material to be covered by the marble.
The interior of the Colosseum is much the same, incomplete and exposed due to the loss of materials removed. The arena, the flat area in the center where the combats took place, was made of wood and covered with sand. The surface is now gone exposing a labyrinth of rooms and passages where the combatants and animals were kept.
We climbed the stairs to a higher level, a somewhat tricky feat as the step were not deep enough for my entire foot and the fact that they slanted slightly downward so that rain would drain quickly. From the height of the Colosseum, we had a good view of Constantine’s Triumphal Arch and the Roman Forum, our next stop.
The Colosseum is magnificent and well worth a visit. Just like the Pyramids, you wonder how they accomplished the feat of building it 2,000 years ago. Some answers are revealed in the bricks which had been covered by marble. At intervals, there are holes in the bricks into which wooden poles were inserted and used to support horizontal beams on which the workers stood to build the wall upward.
It’s also interesting to ponder why a society would systematically dismantle such marvelous structure and why its history was lost. After a thousand years of neglect, I’m thankful that the Colosseum in now being protected and preserved.
After exploring and photographing the Colosseum, we began the second part of our tour, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Our guide for this part was a Scot and very entertaining. I had always had the impression the the Forum was a place, a stage, where orators spoke to the people. Our guide explained the the Forum was an area full of shops and market that served the same purpose. It was the center of activity where people went to buy and sell and barter and get the news from visitors from foreign lands. Orators would orate and announcements were made and news was read aloud to those who wanted to listen. It was the business and social and gossip hub of the city. The Roman Forum was the oldest and lay at the foot of Palatine Hill next to the Colosseum, but other forums were built by later Emperors.
Our first stop was the Arch of Constantine, a triumphal arch, one of three remaining of the original forty-five in the forum. It is the best preserved because Constantine was considered a Christian Emperor and the arch was not defaced. The arch was built in 315 AD to celebrate the victory of Constantine, Emperor of the Eastern Empire, over Maxentius, Emperor of the Western Empire. Constantine fear the break-up of the Empire due to the large number of religious factions. Roman citizens came from all over the world and brought their religions with them. Thus, he issued the Edict of Toleration in 313 AD.According to our guide, Constantine came to Rome only once.
The second arch we saw the Arch of Titus erected in 81 AD. It celebrated his victory in Jerusalem and the fact that he brought 30,000 Jewish slaves to Rome.
The guide asked us to remember the scene in “Cleopatra” when Elizabeth Taylor enters Rome on a huge throne pulled by hundreds of slaves with throngs lining the street cheering her entrance. “Well,” he said “that was the road you are now standing on.” We looked down at the rough cobble stoned street beneath our feet that was no more than twelve feet wide. Way to go, CB.
He told us that the Forum was where Marc Anthony made his famous speech at the funeral of Caesar. “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” Then he pointed out that, of course, those are not the words of Marc Anthony. They belong to Shakespeare. He told us that Marc was a very poor public speaker, though how he knew that I have no idea.
Caesar rose from the lower class of nobility to become dictator and the “Dictator for Life.” His murder resulted in 13 years of Civil War until Caesar’s grand nephew, Caius Octavius defeated Marc Anthony and became the first Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus.
The third arch was that of Septimius Severus, an African who was Emperor from 193 to 211 AD. Our guide said that, evidently, there was no racism in Rome. It was never an issue. Romans were citizens of the world. What went wrong? How did that concept slip away from us?
We wandered through the forum taking pictures of ruins of temples and houses. Major structures of interest were the Basilica of Aemilia and the Basilica of Constantine. These were building that housed moneylenders, businessmen, and tax collectors. Temples included that of Vesta, Castor and Pollux and Saturn. Mostly ruins but you could see what they must have been 2,000 years ago.
Our guide told us that Theodosius, Emperor from 379 to 395 AD and the last Emperor of both the East and West Empires, outlawed paganism in Rome in 391 AD. He transformed pagan holidays into Christian holidays. Thus the Festival of Saturn in December, during which schools were closed and gifts were exchanged, became the Christian Christmas. He listed transformations as well, but too quickly for me to write down. Actually, it was a very logical thing to do.
We climbed Palatine Hill, a residential area next tot the forum where the Emperors built their palaces. Not really much to see there and it was very hot and we were tired so we headed back to the hotel.
July 4, 2010
Decided to take the hop-on, hop-off bus tour to what we had missed so far. Rode the entire route and then, on the second circuit, chose the spots we wanted to explore. The first stop was the Piazza Venezia, a large plaza overlooked by the monument to Victor Emmanuel, the first king of unified Italy. It’s an enormous white building gleams in the sun and is covered with sculptures. The statue of Victor riding a horse is so large that, according to the bus tour, twenty men can stand in the belly of the horse. I’ll admit, it is big. From the roof of the building you have good views of Rome, especially of Trajan’s Forum which is right beside it. Took pictures of the forum from above and then walked across the street for a better look. The forum was built in 107 AD and is mostly ruins but Trajan’s column still stands. The column stands 98 feet high and has detailed carvings spiraling upward like a ribbon wrapped around it. The carvings depict events of his successful campaign in Dacia (Romania). The planning and workmanship that went into the construction of the column is truly amazing. I had seen pictures and was very excited to see it in person.
Adjacent to the Monument to Victor Emmanuel is the Piazza del Campidiglio. To get there you have to climb a long steep stairway designed by Michelangelo. We took a picture but didn’t go up. Big mistake. Actually there are two stairways. The Aracoeli Stairway was completed in 1348 to commemorate the end of the plague and leads to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli which has 15th century frescoes. Michelangelo’s stairway takes you to the Piazza, designed by the Master himself, and to the Capitoline Museums. There is a large statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the center of the Piazza. By not going to the Capitoline museums, we missed seeing many famous Greek and Roman sculptures and paintings by Veronese, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Van Dyke and Titian. We just didn’t know it was there. In future, I’ll always carry the guidebook with me, no matter how heavy it is.
Our next stop was the Castel de Sant Angelo, a huge walled fortress. It was originally designed as a tomb by and for the Emperor Hadrian in 123 AD. The present structure, the Castel, was built in the 12th century over the ruins of the original. The bridge in front of the Castel which crosses the Tiber was also designed by Hadrian and features beautiful statues of angels along its length.
We stopped at the Piazza del Popolo in order to get pictures in the daylight and to into a church, Santa Maria del Popolo, which houses paintings by Raphael and Caravaggio. Unfortunately, the church was closed. So, we headed back to the hotel.
July 5, 2010
Our last day in Rome, but the plane didn’t leave til late afternoon so we had time for more sightseeing. Caught a bus and went looking for the Pantheon. It’s not on a major thoroughfare but in the midst of a tangle of narrow, winding streets. You round a corner and there it is, a big, round, domed building. I assume the facade has fallen away with age as the exterior is rough, brown bricks. Maybe it never had a marble facade. Some of the buildings that took decades to finish were never completed. One of the largest churches in Florence still has a rough exterior though the interior is magnificent. Michelangelo had designed a facade but it was never added.
The Pantheon, as we see it today, was originally a pagan temple designed by Hadrian in 80 AD. It was converted to a Christian church in 609 by Pope Boniface IV. In the 17th century, Pope Urban VIII ordered that the bronze of the ceiling be removed to be used by Bernini to make the Baldacchino (the canopy over the alter) in St. Peter’s. The Pantheon is the final resting place for some of Italy’s most famous kings and painters. Probably the most famous is Raphael, the rival of Da Vinci and Michelangelo but who died at the age of 37. A great loss. The dome of the Pantheon is spectacular. A large opening in the top allowed a large beam of light to enter like a giant, slanted column of white marble.
Next we went to the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of France). It’s a small, unassuming church but it has three paintings by Caravaggio, “The Calling of St. Matthew”, “Martyrdom of St. Matthew”, and “St. Matthew and the Angel.” It’s amazing that paintings if that value and importance can be kept in an out-of-the-way church with no apparent climate control. They should be in a museum. And there are not prominently displayed. The paintings are on three walls of a small chapel in a corner of the church. Only “Martyrdom of St. Matthew” can be viewed from the front. The others are viewed obliquely as you can’t enter the little chapel but have to stand at the rail and look in. The paintings are featured in my art history and I found them by chance hidden away in this church. Amazing!
Two blocks away was the Piazza Navona, a long, rectangular plaza where they used to be a circus where they had chariot races in the 1st century. In the center is the Fountain of the Four Rivers designed by Bernini. The four figures on the fountain represent the four major rivers of the world at that time, the Nile, the Ganges, the Danube and the Plate (Don’t know where the hell the last on is. Certainly not the Platte in the western USA). The figures are sitting on rocks below an obelisk in the center. Rome is filled with obelisks, mostly taken from Egypt.
We went back to the hotel, collected our bags and made one more stop, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The church was founded on 420 and features a magnificent mosaics from the 5th to the 13th centuries. It’s a beautiful church. The current main claim to fame is that it has pieces of Jesus’ cradle kept in a reliquary shaped like a cradle. I thought that was very original. Seems like every church in Europe has pieces of the True Cross, but pieces of the True Cradle! That was forward thinking! And that was our last stop before heading home.
Rome is an amazing city. There is so much to see, it would take several visits to see the things you really wanted to see. And I will go back. I now have three favorite cities, Paris, Prague and Rome. (Not necessarily in the order).
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