Rome is like no other city in Europe. It was unbelievable to walk around Rome among
ruins dating back to 400 BC yet have a coffee shop next door. There are so many ruins scattered
throughout the city. You can touch/walk
on many of the same stones from the Roman Era 2000 years ago. It puts your life in perspective and also makes
you realize how young the United States really is.
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| Ruins |
I would definitely recommend a Rome Pass if you ever
go. You get free transportation and free
entrance to two sites of your choice (one being the Colosseum).
Our free walking tour:
We started at the Spanish steps, located in the Spanish
square that contains the Spanish embassy.
In the beginning, the square was the Spanish and the French square but
apparently that name was too long so France got the boot and it became known as
the Spanish square. Ironically, it was
the French who funded the steps and therefore they weren’t too happy with the
name. In Rome you can get free water
almost anywhere. Our guide claimed that
all fountains have potable water and the trusting people we are, we filled our
water bottles from the famous fountain that sits at the base of the Spanish
steps. This fountain was designed by
Bernini, who carved it in the shape of a boat to commemorate the infamous flood
in the Spanish square. Valentino must
love Italy because after seeing his house on the coast of Capri, we saw another
one of his houses, a mansion actually, close to one of the biggest fashion
streets in Italy. Down the street from
Valentino’s present house was the site where Bernini lived and died. Then, out of no where, we arrived at Trevi
Fountain!
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| Spanish steps |
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| Bernini Fountain |
Trevi Fountain: the main statue is Poseidon because the
fountains in Rome represent the power and glory of water, lakes, rivers,
etc. I.e Poseidon, God of the sea. There are two statues of horses that
represent the two faces of the sea: the calm and the wild. There’s also two
women, one of which holding fruit, the other holding a snake. They represent glory and abundance. The fountain was commissioned by the pope of
the time, who lived in the building adjacent to the fountain. One interesting story: On the right side of
the fountain you will see a small shop, one of many, with a statue built infront
of it blocking the view of the Trevi Fountain.
At the time, it was a barbershop owned by a barber who
did not like the look of this fountain. Hence,
the statue, which still stands today.
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Barber shop turned Shoe store |
Normally tour guides have great pride for their city. Ours did as well, except for one large
building, which he claimed no Italians liked.
Not knowing the real name of the building, we referred to it as the
cupcake building. It was a bright white
marble completed relatively recently (in 1911) and does not match any of the
other ruins surrounding it. The worst
thing about the building however, is that an ancient monastery that was part
of the Roman forum dating back to 300 AD was knocked down in order to build
this palace.
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| Cupcake Building |
Capitale Hill. It is not named because Rome is the
capital of the country, in fact, the Italian name for the hill is Capitale. On Capitale hill there were two fountains,
representing the Tiber and the Nile. The
former fountain was adorned with Remus and Romulus and a
cornucopia and the latter is seen with a sphinx.
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| Remus, Romulus, and a cornucopia |
The Roman Forum was the original Roman Empire that existed
in Rome. The main street that passes
through it today connects Capitale Hill to the Colosseum, which passes through
the Victory Arch, the most preserved arch in Rome.
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| Roman Forum |
Free walking tour round two!
Rome is really that large. We
started again at the Spanish steps but then took a different route through
Rome. Walking down the aforementioned famous fashion street, our guide pointed
out a very expensive famous coffee shop that opened in 1760.
Many famous writers such as Casanova, Goethe, and Lord Byron, took some hopeful sips of
coffee there in order to break their writer's block.
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| Antico Caffè Greco |
Via del Corso connected the north of Rome to the south and
was biggest street around! You can find a Via del Corso in almost every large
Italian city.
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| Via del Corso: the "Main Street" of Europe |
I haven’t told you this yet but one of the most exciting
things about Rome is that the current Rome sits 7 feet above the ancient
city. Therefore, everywhere you walk in
Rome, you are walking on top of the ancient city. The column we saw next was created in 20 AD
and is still relatively intact. The
carvings on the bottom half are more worn because it was buried underground
when they built the city 7 feet above.
They have obviously dug it up and changed the statue that sits
atop. On top of this lovely structure
St Peter stands. He has his hand raised,
pointing, and his purpose was to show the arriving pilgrims the direction of
the Vatican.
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| St Peter |
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| Close up of the column |
Pantheon (not Parthenon) is the
best well preserved ancient temple they have because it was given to the Pope
as a gift. The Pope made it into a
church and therefore it was not torn apart at the time all the others were
stripped of their marble, columns, and other materials. Amazingly, the only part of the building that
has disappeared since the early AD was the bronze leafs that covered the dome
and designs on the front.
The dome has been studied for years
in order to build other domes around Europe including the Duomo in Naples. While it is the same size as the dome in the
Duomo of Naples, walking in was breathtaking.
The dome was so much closer to the ground so I was amazed by the immense
size of it.
The only source of light in the
Pantheon is a large hole in the center of the dome. If you are lucky enough to visit the dome around
13:30h you can see the light come straight down as a beam to the floor. There are only a few small drains in the center
of the floor for the rainwater.
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| Dome |
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| Slight drains |
Inside, are the tombs of Rafael, a
great Renaissance artist, and a former King and his son. The Vatican owns all the churches in Rome
except for the Pantheon because it has a King and his son buried there. It is a church/monument combination and is
the only church where tourists can enter without their shoulders covered.
Next stop….Piazza Navona! Originally,
the area was a stadium in the ancient Roman days. So when they built Rome up 7 feet, they kept
the same shape for the square. Now, you
can see artists selling their original elaborate oil paintings, sketches,
prints, or the annoying squishy 1 euro balls that kids convince their parents
to buy. In the center of the piazza,
you’ll see a large fountain made by Bernini.
Smack dab in the middle is another obelisk but it is not one of the
original 9. There are Amazonian
creatures surrounding the fountain but seeing as Bernini never had a chance to
visit the Amazon and photography wasn’t invented yet, he was basing his sculptures
on descriptions and sketches. Therefore,
the animals looked a little funny, except for the horses, they had plenty of
those.
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| Fountain with faux Amazonian animals |
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| You can see that part of this arch is underground showing how much higher the current city is from the ancient one. |
Castel San Angelo. Originally the tomb of Emperor Hadrian, it
was transformed into a fortress for the popes.
There was a secret passage way connecting the fortress to St. Peter’s
Basilica.
Next up…St Peter’s square! The new pope, Pope Francis, who was
inaugurated in March can be seen everywhere around the Vatican. Posters, calendars, stamps, postcards, and
many more trinkets display his smiling face giving the thumbs up. During the selection of the new pope, I was in
Igualada living with a Catholic family.
It was so interesting to watch the whole process on Spanish TV. The time finally came when the smoke turned
white, indicating that the new pope had finally been chosen from the cardinals around the world. My
host mom was very excited that the new pope was from America, South America
that is, because she felt it would connect Catholics all over the globe. The media portrays him as a very humble guy,
always happy, who did not upgrade his lifestyle when he became surrounded by
the immense wealth of the Vatican. Our
tour guide even said that he chose not the live in the large palace adjacent to
the Vatican where the popes normally live.
He instead chose to live in a smaller apartment.
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| Pope Francis |
I will definitely miss the markets that line the
streets in European cities. The ones in
Rome were filled with herbs, jewelry, clothes, fruits, vegetables, fish,
etc.
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| Markets |
We were told at the beginning of our time in Rome
that we needed to see the Trevi fountain twice: once during the day and once at
night. So we made our way down to the
lit fountain, gelato in hand and threw our coins over our right shoulder for
good luck. On our way back, two
customers sitting at an outside table at a restaurant began singing opera, then
had CD’s to sell post performance. After our gelato, we split a profiterole and a cannoli, two sweets on our list to
try and both very tasty.
The Colosseum displays three periods of architecture,
which can be seen on the columns. The
entire Colosseum was covered with marble at one time with each window arch containing
its own marble statue. The marble
however was used for other projects over the years, so the inner structure is
what we see today.
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| A good example of the Colosseum: then and now. |
Walking in we were
greeted by an enormous head that was either Nero (to represent the one originally stood outside the Colosseum who reigned in 54 AD) or Constantine (who made Christianity the dominant religion of the Roman Empire during his reign in the early 300 ADs). Why I can't find the true origin of this head is beyond me. Because of the enormity of the Colosseum, most assume that its name
derived from colossus, meaning colossal. While that is the original derivation of the name, it referred to the statue of Emperor Nero that stood outside the Colosseum, not the actual Colosseum itself. Originally, the Colosseum was named the Flavian Ampitheater and was next to the statue of Emperor Nero, which was often referred to as the Colossus of Nero.
The stage inside the Colosseum was made of wood,
covered with sand. Similar to Disney
World, the magic happens below that floor, as gladiators prepared to risk their
lives for fame and glory against man and beast alike. Throughout the performance as royalty,
judges, and commoners watched, gladiators jumped up through the trap doors
hidden beneath the sand to face their fate. While the original wood stage no
longer exists, remnants of the underground tunnels can be seen. Thanks to a bit of vandalism, historians know
a considerate amount about the gladiators because fans would etch their
favorite fighter with names and dates onto the walls. Their tools used to do this were found in the
drains below the Colosseum. They also
found quite a few animal bones, allowing historians to identify the wide
variety of animals used to fight the gladiators. Among this list were: ostriches, cats,
griffins, bears, and horses. Legend has
it that the best gladiators decapitated the ostriches with one arrow. Normally, gladiators did not rise to glory
and fame by their own free will. It was
a very dangerous profession and usually only consisted of slaves, POWs, and
criminals. If two gladiators were
fighting against one another, their armors were of opposing peoples and they
used both offensive and defensive weapons. After gaining fame, gladiators were
hired as bodyguards for the wealthy. The
blood of the not so lucky was collected and drunk. At the time, blood was considered to have
many healing properties, including preventing epilepsy.
When watching Disney on ice, I was always
impressed that it was in the same stadium as the symphony just a few weeks
earlier. This transformation pales in
comparison to what the Romans did thousands of years previously. For special events, they filled the entire
Collosseum with water, allowing for naval battles. This tradition didn’t last long, as the
transformation was complex and arduous, but the fact that it could exist at all
was impressive nonetheless.
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| Inside the Colosseum |
If I were to do it again, I would
have brought along a Rick Steve guide to the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill
because I think we would have gotten much more out of it. We did see some nice ruins,
some more
preserved than others. Some have really
served the test of time, somehow surviving longer than Christianity has
existed.
Some things you can’t plan. As we
were meandering around the squares one night, Brittany, Alexa (Brittany’s
friend from school), and I came across an enormous rehearsal for a music
festival that would start that weekend.
The songs were alright as were the dancers. What made it epic however was the 4 foot tall
dancing penguin that stole the stage.
His dance moves weren’t “Dancing with the Stars” worthy, but his little
wing flapping to the beat held the attention of the camera.
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| What is necessary for a dancing penguin? A stylish P necklace obviously |
Audioguides can be a hit or miss, but
the one at the Vatican was definitely worth it.
Walking in, you arrive at this massive ornate door. This is the Holy Door, Porta Sancta, that only opens every 25 years for the pope’s jubilee. Once inside, you’ll see an immense hallway
lined with statues, mosaics, and elaborate engravings covered in gold leaf.
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| Holy Door |
The stones in the mosaic are small
enough to make the art look like a painting.
Even standing 3 meters away we did not realize they were mosaics. This mosaic shows a pope’s last communion,
demonstrating his suffering during his last days.
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| A painting? Nope. A mosaic! |
On the right of this picture you’ll
see a sculptor of St. Peter. He holds
the keys to heaven that Jesus granted him “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" Matthew 16:19. People pay homage to him by going up to his
foot and rubbing it. It is a wooden and
bronze sculpture and to this day, no one knows who carved it.
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| St. Peter next to the main altar |
The large altar, St Peter's Baldachin, that welcomes all
visitors to the church is unique and brilliant.
Designed by Bernini in the early 17th century, it stands over St Peter's tomb.
Many of the sculptures seen
throughout the Vatican are sculpted with open arms: ones of popes and Jesus,
ready to accept those who believe and want to give themselves to God.
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| This particular sculpture shows how dedicated this pope was to prayer and shows him kneeling in front of Jesus' open arms. Peter on his left is holding the keys to heaven and Paul on his right is grasping a sword. |
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| Pope Pius VII sits in the center surrounded by the angel of Time on his right and the angel of History on his left. The standing women represent Wisdom and Might. |
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| Pope Papae X is standing with open arms. He was the first to allow children to take communion, explaining that all people young and old are children of God. Below him, you can see a depiction of the pope offering communion to children. |
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| This is the first papal tomb to show a live and dead pope. It's a depiction of a pope with the three theological virtues (faith, hope and love) above him and the 4 cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) surrounding him. |
We made our way up the 551 stairs into the cupola (dome) of the Vatican. The entire inside of the dome was made up of tiny stones, creating beautiful mosaics
that covered its entirety. We continued
the stairs up to the roof and got a view of the entire city, including the
outside of the Vatican and the Vatican museum.
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| I'm standing straight! The walls are slanted because we're walking to the top of the dome! |
The twists and turns in the Vatican
museum led to the masterpiece of Michaelangelo, the Sistine Chapel. Along the way we saw:
After a full day of history, we
walked over to a park full of dogs, couples, segways, horses, and bicycle/golf
cart combos, and found a nice area of grass to take a nap. Wanting to see the penguin once more, we went
to the music festival that night joined by thousands more people.
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| Such a strange sight we took a picture. |
We left the great country of Italy to head to Greece! On to Athens!
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