Bam! It was a quick walk to the Colosseum, and the guidebook proved its worth by recommending going to the Palatine/Roman Forum first as the only ticket is combined and the lines at the latter nearly nonexistent. Thanks, Lonely Planet.
Emperors are fans of victory arches. There are no less than three monumental ones within a mile of each other in Rome.
The Palatine was cool, especially for two closet archaeology and history nerds. It was hard to imagine how everything must have looked back in the day. Wikipedia has a nice picture of what this area was like in the Imperial era:
Things are pretty thoroughly ruined.
Especially the Circus Maximus.
It's crazy to think how advanced the planning and infrastructure was. Quite the engineers. And like most old European cities, the original plan and scope of Rome have been obfuscated by centuries of history.
The Colosseum was originally covered in shining marble. And they could hold mock naval battles inside. And the opening ceremony back in 80 A.D. lasted 100 days, and conservative estimates place the number of animals killed during that period at 6,000.
The Catholic Church has tried to make the Colosseum somewhat a symbol to Christian martyrdom, although apparently no systematic killing of Christians has been documented there. One Christian who was most definitely (or not) martyred there was Saint Telemachus who, in 404 A.D., rushed onto the field during an event, imploring people to stop. The enraged crowd stoned him to death. Lesson: don't do that.
After that, we went to the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli to see Michelangelo's Moses.
Moses was originally part of what was supposed to be a much larger tomb decoration for Pope Julius II, but then they ran out of money. Michelangelo depicted him with two horns, which is based on the Biblical translation of Moses descending from Mount Sinai ("horns" are probably more accurately "rays of light", which is how Moses is often depicted in painting, or even simply "haloed"). Horns were a symbol of power back in the day, so that probably helped too.
This church also has the chains in which Saint Peter was supposedly bound.
From there, we walked around to try to get a good view of the Colosseum as the sun began to set.
We walked down to the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, which is one of the most garish monuments imaginable.
I like his hat plume.
Nearby is the Capitoline Hill, whose present configuration is thanks to Michelangelo.
The only reason this statue of Marcus Aurelius survived medieval Christian destroyathons is that people used to think it depicted Constantine. Because of that, it's the only intact bronze statue of a pre-Christian Roman emperor. Lucky break!
We continued along the road to the Teatro di Marcello, which is very impressive.
These ruins were incorporated into a church wall. Better than nothing, I suppose.
From there, we found the synagogue in what is now a very nice looking part of town.
And close to there is the Bocca della Verita, which will bite off your hand if for some reason you decide to tell a lie while placing your hand in its mouth.
We crossed the river into the Trastevere neighborhood to find some dinner.
After that was a long search for a particular gelateria, but it was so worth it because they had rice flavors. Rome is a nice city for night strolling anyway.
The following morning confirmed that I had a little cold, but there's no time for that in Rome. Thankfully, with some vitamin I, it would only last a day or two. This was our day for the Vatican (thank you, pre-booked tickets), so we took the metro over there after a quick and increasingly normal-feeling Italian breakfast at a nearby cafe.
The Vatican museums have so much stuff, it's a little crazy. At least someone was saving a tiny fraction of ancient art and sculpture.
The buildings themselves are beautiful.
Laocoön and His Sons, getting owned.
The Belvedere Torso.
Paganism pushed aside. Metaphor for Rome, hmm?
Lots of frescoes by Raphael, who is an absolute beast. Michelangelo is a good painter too, don't get me wrong, but there's a clear first place here. Besides, I'm sure that Michelangelo was a better painter than Raphael would have been sculpting.
The School of Athens.
Haha, Botero. Yes, they have some modern stuff too.
The Sistine Chapel is pretty breathtaking. Absolutely every surface is covered with a different story. Michelangelo overall paints like a sculptor, with people tending to look like muscly sacks of potatoes. He may be playing some anatomical games as well; I can't see anything but a brain now in The Creation of Adam.
There's good ol' Moses with rays of light instead of horns.
After the museums, we went to St. Peter's Square and his Basilica, which are both impressive. The square was adorned with remembrances from Pope John Paul II's life, and throughout our trip we saw lots of homages to the former pope. The current pope, not as much.
Michelangelo's Pieta.
This is a very large building.
We could have spent another hour waiting in line to climb the dome, but we were hungry and had other things to do.
We walked by the Castel Sant'Angelo on the way to lunch. Its first use was as Hadrian's mausoleum. We got some groceries and ate in Piazza Navona, where the Fountain of Neptune and Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers are, among others.
From there, we hunted down some Raphaels and Caravaggios in the nearby Basilica di Sant'Agostino. I didn't know anything about Caravaggio before this trip and can say that he was a good find.
There are numerous paintings throughout this trip that must have a great story behind them:
Following the Caravaggio vein, we went to Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesci for three additional paintings. The Calling of St Matthew might be my favorite.
At that point, we went to the Pantheon, which is a pretty incredible building. Thankfully, I suppose, it was Christianized at some point, which is why it still exists.
Then it was over to the Piazza della Minerva for Bernini's adorable little Elefantino.
Finally, we went to the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva for Michelangelo's Christ with the Cross.
With that, we went back to the hostel where I rested for a bit and Amanda got some laundry done. We went for dinner nearby, which helped to rejuvenate me, and had a bit of limoncello afterward. We went for a nice stroll with some gelato (because what else are Italian nights for?) before turning in for the night. Whew.
The following day we were out and about early again because we had to get all the way to the south of Rome for Via Appia Antica, one of the oldest roads still in use. It took a little bit to find since we didn't have a map of the area, but we passed through the Porta San Sebastiano to exit the 3rd century Aurelian Wall of Rome and kept going.
We found the Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis along the way, which is built at the spot where St. Peter, fleeing Rome, had a vision of Jesus walking in the opposite direction. Peter asked Jesus where he was going, and Jesus responded that he was going to Rome to be crucified again. Peter decided to turn around and return to Rome, where he was promptly killed.
He was not killed in a friendly fashion.
These are Jesus's footprints.
Further down the road, we came across the Catacombs of San Callisto, which were really cool. They were the first all-Christian catacombs outside Rome, although apparently the stories of secret meetings there are myths: Rome knew where they were and wanted them to bury their dead, just not worship. Something like 500,000 people are buried in Rome's catacombs.
The catacombs are immense and deep. They've also been built into each other as they've expanded in all directions. A lot of early Christian art has been found in them, and it was interesting to learn that originally they would have been substantially better lit than today by means of light shafts, most of which have been closed to better preserve the catacombs. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos.
It was a very pretty area and a great place for a picnic lunch. From there, we walked back toward town and swung by the Terme di Caracalla, an enormous public baths complex from the 3rd century.
Again, it's hard to imagine how different it looked during its heyday. Multiple floors, sculptures in every niche, mosaic floors, complex hydraulics, and enough capacity to serve 6,000 people a day.
After that, we got back into the city.
We stumbled across what turned out to be a very important church, the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. This is the Pope's seat in Rome and is one of four Papal Basilicas.
Jonah wants out of that whale.
Nearby is the Sancta Sanctorum and the Scala Santa, which are supposedly the steps from Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem that Jesus once climbed. Somehow the turned up in the 4th century and were brought to Rome, according to legend. Miraculous!
You get points from the Catholic Church for climbing them on your knees.
We then took the metro to find the Capuchin monks' Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, which is one of the strangest places you'll ever be. Again, no photos allowed, so have fun Google imaging it, but here's a sneak peak:
Someone thought it would be a great idea to decorate the crypt, containing 4,000 friars, with the friars' bones. The bones are sorted by type and arranged to make intricate patterns throughout six rooms, and here and there are skeletons still in their monk garb just hanging out.
The Catholic Church insists that it's not meant to be macabre, but I have a hard time believing that a well-balanced group of individuals thought that this would be a good and godly idea.
After that experience, we walked over to the Spanish Steps. They were preparing for some sort of performance, so there wasn't as much to see, but it was a good point to relax. Coca-Cola, I don't know what it is, but a Coke can be just about the most refreshing thing possible.
From there, we walked down through the edge of the Villa Borghese down to the Piazza del Popolo, which features another nice obelisk.
The nearby Chiesa di Santa Maria in Popolo had two very nice Caravaggios, including The Conversion on the Way to Damascus.
We strolled down the Via del Corso, with lots of shops and performers.
There was a very intricate column that used to hold Marcus Aurelius but appears to have been Christianized.
And from there we went to the Fontana di Trevi, which is enormous and very impressive.
We had dinner off of the Piazza del Parlamento, which was delicious.
The place was owned by a guy who had lived in California for a while before returning to Rome. We finished it off with gelato from Gelateria Giolitti, which is apparently the Pope's favorite.
And with that, we finished off Rome with a lovely walk back to the hostel, stopping of course at a fruit stand. Clearly, Rome could take up weeks, but I'd say we did a very good job with the time we had.
1 comments:
FINE. I'll go. Quit making me so jealous.
Post a Comment