ROME, ITALY
29th May 2002 to 6th June 2002
When in Rome, do as the Romans do...or pay through the nose....
ALL TOGETHER NOW:......
" wheeeeeen the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...that's amoreeeeeee"
Well well well.. can you believe that we have finally arrived in Rome? I certainly couldn't, but as soon as we stepped off the train, this train station felt different...it had a great vibe, a certain air about it.... Rome was going to be GREAT!
Before the greatness of Rome could reveal itself though, we had to find ourselves some accommodation first. We were accosted by the usual touts, but Rob was very firm with them.. no CNN, no deal...go away!
Finally this guy came up to us and told us that he had this fantastic hotel
right next to the Collosseum for a mere 75 Euro per night...
"Does it have CNN?" asked Rob,
The guy shook his head in befuddlement
"Well, then we don't want it" said Rob
The guy again said ..."But... its NEAR the Collosseum"..
"I don't care" said Rob "I want CNN"
"But.. but.. it's the Collosseum" the guy said once again incredulously.
He just couldn't understand how anyone would give up great views of the Collosseum for CNN...ahhhhhh ... that's my Rob though.. got his priorities all right:)
Anyway, this guy was persistent. He made us follow him with the promise of finding us a hotel, in our price range AND with CNN. After backtracking a few times and about a dozen calls later, this guy finally took us to a place close to the station, Pensione Kenzo, that was run by Japanese people. It turns out that it serves as both a hostel and a hotel. Our price was 80 Euro a night but we got free internet in the deal. Now we had not come across this before....free internet??? There had to be a catch somewhere...
We walked into our room which was slightly on the small side but very nicely decorated and quite homey, and right in front of the huge queen size bed was a computer....yip.. a whole computer system. This was ours to use 24 hrs a day at no extra charge!!! WOW!!! too good to be true...and you know the saying.. if something is too good to be true.. it usually is. I think Rob must have asked the people about 10 times if we had to pay for using the computer... but no...all free.
Rob was in Roman heaven.. the first thing he did was log on to Nasdaq and the ASX to find out stock prices, he then opened up the CNN browser and checked the news out.. he then flopped onto the bed with this silly grin on his face.....Rome was going to be great!:)
As you an imagine, we didn't do much on the first day other than get some food and sit on the 'puter. In fact, Rob sat up till 11.30pm to watch Nasdaq close, he then set the alarm clock for 2am to watch the Ozzie market open and then again for 7am to watch it close. I think he must have got about 3hrs sleep that night. :)
Great Rome links and here and here
I'm happy to tell you that the next day Rob jumped out of bed ready for our first day of sightseeing. We went across the road to the train station and armed ourselves with a great book on Rome and a good street map.
Now, it is impossible to see the whole of Rome in a week's time. By the time you have seen all the churches, the museums, art galleries, archaeological sites, ruins, palaces, tombs, piazzas, fountains, parks, statues, parks etc etc, a year would have probably past...and that is not including the outskirts of Rome:)
Our book had divided the city into segments, so we though that the best thing to do was find the things that interested us most in each section and start from there... Truthfully though, it's like asking a kid in a candy store to choose only one sweet....:(
Great link on the Roman Empire
Our first day saw us covering not only distance but variety as well. We started with a church called Santa Maria Maggiore which is one of the more famous churches in Rome. Myth has it that snow fell miraculously in August (height of summer) of 352 AD and the pope of the time outlined the area of the church in the snow. Although this is not the original church built back then, a lot of the decorations have been restored and up kept in the modern restorations.
Just in case you guys were thinking that I am going to talk about every single church that we see along the way.. YOU MUST BE JOKING!!! unless of course you guys are not nice to me and THEN I will bore you to tears with the 800 churches that we have passed so far.. hehehehe
Seriously though, most of these churches are famous for some reason or another and have a lot of history and often myth associated with them. I'll supply links and if you're interested, feel free to surf a bit more and find out for yourselves.... otherwise I'll only comment on things that tickle MY fancy:)
The other bit of info I'll give you, just to set the scene is: If there is a church you will usually find a piazza named after the church too.
So after ogling our first church in Rome, taking snappies and walking around the piazza, we headed towards an obscure ruin on the map called Templo Di Minerva. This was close to the train station and turned out to be a mass of rocks that seemed fused together.
Not keeping us amused for too long, we made our way towards our goal for the day... the Via Appia.. or The famous Appian Way. This was the main road in Roman times that led out of the city. Can't tell you anymore about it though as we have not reached the end of it yet:)
We slowly made our way southwards finding the
Porta Maggiore along the way. "Porta"
means gate way and these are often still connected to the bits of ancient Roman
wall that runs throughout Rome. -
More Porta Maggiore (also called Porta Prenestina)
We also saw the church of
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme -
More Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and its
interior.
The one thing that has struck me about Rome is it's similarity to Melbourne. Melbourne has successfuly managed to blend it's old buildings next to it's modern ones.. well, Rome has managed to build modern buildings right next to archaeological sites and ancient structures. It is not odd to find a major highway going through the "Porta Maggiore" which dates back to 2BC. This is the same through out the whole city. There are houses that have been built on the back of an ancient Roman villas and whose back yards consist of columns and ruins. It almost seems natural to wander amongst thousands of years of history whilst at the same time being in the year 2002.. it's a bit surreal sometimes:)
We saw the Church of San Giovanni in Laterno with it's spectacular facade and piazza surrounding it. As well as the Egyptian obelisk in the centre of it that dates back to 15th Century BC called the Lateran Obelisk at San Giovanni Di Laterano and more of the Obelisk.
The other "true" 26 obelisks in the world are here
Rome has a lot of obelisks and our mission was of course, to see them all.:) 1 down... about 7 to go...
Right opposite San Giovanni, in an obscured cornice was an painted archway with stairs leading up to it. With a bit of research we found that this was called the Scala Santa...meaning the sacred stairway. Myth has it that these were the stairs that Jesus climbed when he was sent to be judged by Pontius Pilot before he was crucified. Thousands of people actually climb the stairs on their knees every year...pretty awesome huh?:)
With the above fact in mind, you might now realise how weird it is to be walking around Rome. If you forget for a moment that it is a modern city in the year 2002, this is the place that we have learnt about in our bible studies, our history and language studies. I mean .. this is the place of the "Asterix and Obelixs" comics.. of Julius Caesar, Nero fiddling on the roof and the rest of the Brady bunch.
It's a bit like the twilight zone if you think about it too much.. u definitely wouldn't want to be stoned.. that's for sure :)
Anyway, we carried on walking down trying to find the Appian way. I was explaining to Rob why it was so important to history and to myself. I studied Latin at school and our teacher would often have us dress up in togas and pretend we were Romans. We used to ride our carriages on the Via Appia and also sell our wares in our plays at school... it was like going down memory lane.
We passed Porta San Sebastiano which dates back to the 2nd century and forms a lovely illusion of "fusing" of the archways together if you view it from a distance. As well as the church of San Sebastian on the side. This is the entrance to the Via Appia.
Now I don't know what I was expecting exactly but getting to the Via Appia proved a bit disappointing. Instead of being preserved and sectioned off it actually forms part of a new modern road that we almost got run over on...go figure:)
Rob hitch hiking down Via Appia
It is also said that this was the road that Jesus appeared to Peter on just before he was crucified. If I remember correctly, at the last supper Jesus told his disciples that he had been betrayed by someone and that he was going to be crucified. Peter ran away in fear of having the same fate. As Peter was walking Jesus appeared before him and Peter asked "Domine... Quo Vadis" (Lord .. where are you going) This made Peter go back and the rest is history..:) More Via Appia Antica
There is a tiny church of Domine Quo Vadis built on the site of this supposed vision and further down the via are various catacombs, mausoleums and tombs of various famous and sacred people. Rob and I decided not to walk further down as we were too scared of becoming road kill to the hundreds of cars that were coming past ( there was no pave way to walk on).
We then made our way to the famous Terme Di Caracalla (the baths of Caracalla), these were Roman baths that were built by the emperor Caraculla. Now, no matter how much you read up on these things or how many pictures you see... you just cannot imagine what these buildings used to look like. Today they are just a jumble of rock-like structures that jut out everywhere and cover a great distance. I'm sure though that they were spectacular in their day with all the marble and mosaic that was used to decorate them. Some things just require too much imagination and in the hot afternoon sun, just viewing them from the outside was good enough:)
One of our main sites for the day was the Collosseum and we started making our way there towards lunch time. We went through the Arch of Constantine, which was not as large as the Arc de Triomph in Paris but a lot more impressive in its decorations and sculptings. These arches are dedicated to important people and momentous events and the decorations usually depict these events and victories. More Arco Di Constatino
The Colosseum is situated just behind the arch... yea.. right.. like you could miss it...but before taking on the colossal task of venturing into the playground of "Gladiator", we decided to have a quick bite to eat from a food van just outside the entrance. After a massive 19Euro (A$35) for two sandwiches and coke, we braved the queues and went in. They certainly saw us coming....
The Colloseum
Now this was impressive! Even if it is in ruin now, it must have been magnificent in its time. Part of the external wall has fallen down over the centuries but most of the internal walls still remain in their original shape and form. The walls are connected to each other via tunnels and walkways and they have excavated underneath it as well so one can see where all the gladiator, animal and prisoner rooms used to be. It used to be called the "Amphiteatrum Flavium" before Nero came along and put a colossal statue of himself, as the sun god, at the entrance. Hence it's name colosseum. I now want to watch "Gladiator" again ..oh ...an put Rob in one of those cute skirt things:) hehehehe More Colosseum and more and even more
After spending about an hour wondering around the colosseum (it offers spectacular views of Rome as well), we started making our way home. Our path led us through a garden, Parco Oppio, which just happened to be the place where Nero built his palace. Not much is left of the palace but it is said to have been not only magnificent and opulent but extensive in size as well, apparently about 30 time the size of the Collosseum...about the same size as a small suburb...wow!!!! Story has it, that certain rooms in Domus Aurea Di Nerone (Neros' house) had paneled ceilings from which rose petals and perfumes were showered down on guests as they walked in. There was also a room that supposedly revolved with the movements of the earth. In fact, his estate was that large that it used to also cover the area that the Colosseum stands in now before it was built, if memory serves me, the Colosseum area used to be a huge lake :) More Parco Oppio and Domus Aurea Di Nerone
The park was pretty enough but lacking the splendor of Kensington gardens. There was an interesting but dirty ancient fountain whose main attraction was its amphoras (urns) feature but other than that, it made a nice shady area to walk home. We have hit summer in earnest now and those days of rain and cold seem so far away. Rob and I have rather interesting tan marks now.. hehehe... pity the rest of our bodies are as white as snow ;(
Rob once again spent most of the night on the computer and I in our nice comfy bed.
ALL TOGETHER NOW....
" Wheeeeeen the stars start to shine like you've had to much wine you're in luuuurve".."bells will ring ..tingalingaling ..tingalingaling .. vitabellaaaaa.."
oops...sorry.. got carried away. I like that song:)
Friday saw us exploring the Palatine and Capitoline hills and the Roman forums.
Rob, map reader and navigator extraordinaire, finally got us there after taking us not via the front entrance like most normal people, but through the back. So our first essence of Roman forum was one of hurried blur and sweat. We finally made it to the entrance of the Palatine hill by 12.00pm (our colosseum ticket of the previous day also covered entrance fee to Palatine before 1.30pm).
Rome has been built on and around 7 hills, the Palatine and Capitoline hills are the most important. The Palatine Hill is the most famous and retains the earliest evidence of the old city. In fact, this is where the first groups of huts were built before the city spread further down the hill. Later on, this hill became the "humble" abode of the rulers of the time.
Palatine Hill - pictures and general description and more general and detailed thesis
It was Domitian who built his grandiose palace on the hill in 92AD and whose ruins are in evidence today. His palace must have been spectacular and it covers a huge distance. You have to wonder how these people actually got around their homes? I mean, If you look at where his dining room was supposed to be, you'd need messengers to communicate with your dinner guests. But then again, the Romans did not have your normal dinners now did they? Have you guys heard of the "Pucatoreums" (read Puke - atoreums)? When the emperors had dinner parties and they casually lounged on their sofas whilst being fed by slaves, they had these rooms where they would go and "purge" themselves if they got too full. This way they could continue eating:) cool huh...
Kat at the remnant of a statue at Palatine Hills...and stop looking down her top ;)
Anyway, his palace was called Domus Augustana and had it's own stadium on the one side, fantastic fountains in between and overlooked the Circus Maximus on the other side. There was definitely no scrimping here, that's for sure! The Circus Maximus could apparently hold 250,000 people...puts today's stadiums to shame...
On the other side of the Palatine hill, overlooking the Roman forum is Domus Tiberius. There is not much of it around as a lot of it was covered by a garden called Horti Farnesiani in the 16th century. They are excavating it though and are finding lots of interesting artifacts. Just from the ruins that have been excavated it seems that it must have been impressive in it's own right. Domus Tiberius thesis.
We walked down the hill and through the Arch of Titus (dedicated to Titus or Tit-ius as Rob fondly calls him:) and into the Roman forums which are situated in the depression of the Palatine and Capitoline hills. It is hard to believe that this area was once a swampy, inhospitable area and that the Romans created drainage and aqueducts to reclaim the land. This are then became a place for trade, barter and worship. it consisted of many shops, a market square, many temples and places of worship as well as a legislative area. More Roman Forums and more.
It is pretty incredible walking around these ruins. There is even an original walkway that still exists today called the Via Sacra. It is made of heavy cobbled stones and leads to the main parts of the Forum. If you close your eyes, you can imagine the scenes you see in many movies. Our book was fantastic and explained what each ruin was and what it meant. We saw the temple dedicated to Romulus, the supposed founder of Rome. The myth says that there were these two twin boys that were brought up by a she-wolf - Romulus and Renus. Romulus ended up killing his brother and founded Rome.
We also saw the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. The Emperor Antonius dedicated it to his wife Faustina and then the public dedicated it to him as well when he died. What is particularly interesting about this church is that it has been built solidly of thick marble. (Most buildings and temples were built with brick and wood and then marble paneling would be used for the facades. That is why a lot of the ruins that we see today are brick only, all the marble has been looted). Anyway, it is believed that one of the Popes wanted to tear down the church and use the marble for his church or house. They couldn't tear the marble down though and you can see the grooves in the marble columns caused by the rope tied to them to bring them down.
The one ruin and piece of history that really took Rob's fancy was the Temple of Vesta and the House of the Vestal Virgins.. (wonder why)...:) The Vestal Virgins used to tend the fire at the Temple of Vesta. If this eternal flame ever went out, it bode bad tidings for the people of Rome. The Virgins almost had godly status and were revered by the people of Rome, they used to get the best seats in the house at shows e.g. Colosseum and they could often move about with no restrictions at all...what a life huh:)
House of the Vestal Virgins....hey! is that one coming to me now????
Further down were the remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux and also the Temple of Divus Julius. Now this was the place were Julius Caesar was cremated after being stabbed to death by Brutus on the Ides of March. One of the Emperors decided to deify (give godly status) to Caesar and this was the first temple dedicated to an emperor. People still put flowers today at the site of his cremation even though only the base of the temple remains and not much more. He was known as the father of the country.
To the left was the Basilica Julia which took it's name from Julius Caesar and consisted mainly of various market shops. To the right was Basilica Aemilia which was used for economic, political and judiciary functions. It gave the dignitaries an area to continue with their functions when bad weather made it impossible to carry on in the open forum. This is also the place where the Shrine of Venus Cloacina can be found. Now you may wonder what in the hell is a "Venus Cloacina" that it should deserve a shrine? well... It is actually a shrine dedicated to the Goddess Cloacina (who later turned out to be Venus) who supposedly cleansed the waters of the Cloaca Maxima that entered the Roman forum at this spot... but the real interest is in the fact that Virginia was killed here by her father in the attempt to preserve her honour from the lecherous advances of Appius Claudius...so.. now you know:)
Now the other thing that Rome has a lot of is.. yip.. arches.. and here we went through another one called the Arch of Septimius Severus, who was the father of Caraculla (remember the baths mentioned in the first day?).. just making sure you guys are still paying attention:)..I will be testing you when we get back to Melbourne! Caraculla also had a brother called Geta, but Caraculla killed him in the fight for power and his name has been removed from all monuments in Rome.. talk about being erased from history...
Kat at the Roman Forums and Arch Septimus Serverus
We then saw the Base de Decennalia and the very well preserved columns of the Temple of Saturn which is one of the oldest temples in Rome and dates back to 497 BC.
After having spent a good 5 hours wondering around old ruins we made our way up some steps to Capitoline hill. Here we were to find the famous Piazza del Campidoglio that was designed by Michelangelo. The piazza is surrounded by various palazzos (palaces) that have been turned into museums and form the background to the piazza. The piazza itself is quite stunning and very aesthetically pleasing to the eye. It is made of grey and white marble set intricately in a geographical design. When one looks at it from the front you see a staircase leading up to the piazza. At the bottom of the staircase are two lion fountains. As one reaches the top of the stairs, one is greeted by the flanking statues of the Dioscuri and in the centre there is a bronze statue of Marcus Aureleus. At the back an amazing fountain featuring the statue of Minerva and the facade of the Palazzo Senatorio. More Piazza del Campidoglio and Facade of Palazzo Senetor and Statues of Dioscuri
Just round the corner is the massive and surprisingly stunning monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II. The Italians fondly call it "The typewriter" because it's design kinda resembles and old fashioned type writer. In reality though, the only reason they do such a comparison is because there are hundreds of stairs that lead to the top that resemble the keyboard of a typewriter:) It is truly a spectacular monument with lots of symbolism and meaning.. I'll let the picture do the talking:)... More Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II
We finally made our way up to the infamous Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain).... ok.. go on... say it... "what is the Trevi fountain?".. well oh fellow thespians, the Trevi fountain has been featured in many movies and also in the movie called "Two coins in a fountain" (song by the same name) which stared George Peppard if memory serves me correctly. This is the fountain that you throw a coin over your left shoulder, whilst looking away, and this will ensure that you will come back to Rome one day. You can then throw another coin in to make a wish:)
Kat at Trevi Fountain
The fountain took me a bit by surprise, as I was expecting it to be in a nice piazza with lots of tratorias around it, romantic mood etc etc. It is actually between these narrow little streets and kinda just "happens" upon you. The fountain is beautifully designed though and Rob and I joined the masses and looked into the gurgling waters for a good hour or so:).. it was romantic, even if there were thousands of people around..:)
Feeling quite exhausted and a slight short circuiting of the brain coming on we made our way to our final destination of the day... the Piazza del Quirinale. The only thing of interest (for us that is) was the Quirinale Obelisk. The Piazza itself has great historical and artistic significance but for us ..we were on the Obelisk hunt...
Excellent.. two down who knows how many more to go? With that thought in mind, we made our way to our hotel and to restful night's sleep.
Now as Rome was not built in a day, we'll see you in a few days with days 3 and 4:).. oh ok.. I won't sing anymore of that bloody song as Rob ends up singing and whistling it all day.. damn!
kissies
xxxxxxxxxx
That's amore ( The real song words - just in case u were interested:)
When the moon hits your eye
like a big pizza pie, that's amore,
when the stars seem to shine
like you've had too much wine, that's amore
Bells will ring, ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
and you'll sing vita bella
hearts will play, tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
like a gay tarantella. (Lucky fella!)
When the stars make you drool
just like pasta fasul,
that's amore,
when you dance down the street
with a cloud at your feet, you're in love!
When you walk in a dream,
but you know you're not dreaming, senora,
scusa me but you see back in old Napoli, that's amore!
When the moon hits your eye
like a big pizza pie, that's amore,
that's amore... That's amore!
ahhhhhhh, I know we are not in good 'ole Napoli yet but Rome kinda give you
the same feelings too.. so it's good enough:)
yes... I know I promised not to sing the song anymore.. but then again I also promised not to write any more long emails... hehehe ... guess I fooled you both times:)
No seriously.. no more song... we'll see about the emails though. I'm sure when we head for the Greek isles my sore head from the night before will not allow me to write more than a few paragraphs at a time... what will you do then? clamor for more?.. yell out in protest? ... sooo I might as well take advantage of your time now..;) I know you'll thank me later.. tee hee
I swear we must walk at least 100kms a day sometimes. I wish my shoes had that rolly thing on it just to measure the distance we have walked so far ...sure would be interesting.
Now.. where were we... ahhh yes.. day 3.
Day 3 - Saturday 1st June - saw us walking a few more kilometers and adding several more obelisks to our "collection". Just a bit of trivia: out of the 26 standing (outdoor) obelisks world wide there are 13 obelisks in Rome alone.. Egypt has only 6 ... bloody conquering Romans!!
Our first stop for the day was the Ludus Magnus which is an excavation site just across the road from the colosseum. This used to be the most famous barracks and training ground for the gladiators. More Ludus Magnum
We then started making our way...to guess what? A Pyramid.. Yip!! there is a pyramid in Rome called the Pyramid of Caius Cestius. This is probably the last thing we expected to see here ... but then again.. considering that they have most of Egypt's obelisks...why not a pyramid huh?:) Anyway, our route led us past an obelisk that we had seen the previous day and per chance saw it on the news on CNN recently. This is the Obelisk de Axum and belongs to Ethiopia. It was looted by Mussolini's men in 1937 and the poor Ethiopians have been trying for years to get their obelisk back but Rome won't give it to them.. hehehe.. It was struck by lightning a little while ago and was slightly damaged at the top. The Ethiopians are making a ruckus that Rome can't look after the Obelisk and they should return it at once...:)
After taking some photos for our obelisk collection (we are worse than the Romans) and snickering quite loudly, we quickly covered the kilometres to Porta San Paolo and the Pyramid of Caius Cestius. Porta San Paolo is one of the best preserved of Rome's city gates and dates back to about 306 AD... More Porta San Paolo
The pyramid, which is not as tall as I expected but quite impressive none the less, can be seen jutting out from behind the Porta. It is built right next to it, serves as the funeral monument of Caius Cestius and dates back to about 30 BC.
Having seen our pyramid in Rome...(shake head in disbelief) we made our way back towards the city and to a church called Santa Maria in Cosmedin
Not for our interest in churches however, but for the very unique and mythical Bocca Della Verita.... Is your interest piqued yet??... Well the Bocca della Verita is this huge, round, stone disk that has been formed in the shape of a face. It has eyes, nose and mouth cavities and myth has it that if you put your right hand into its mouth, it will snap shut on those who lie or are of impure thought and mind. In reality, this was found to be but a mere drain cover with an ornamental feature to it....but if you see the size of it though, you wonder about the size of the drains back then.. yikes! huge!
Bocca Del Verita, Rome
Rob and I both put our hands in of course and we're happy to report that our hands are still where they're supposed to be :)
Right across the road from the church runs the river Tiber. A small island has been sectioned off and is known as the Isola Tiberina. Myth has it that the island sprung from some grain that was thrown into the river after the last Etruscan king was expelled from Rome... but of course!! It can't just be as simple as a piece of land broke away from the mainland and formed an island.. nooooooo...... it has to be a huge grain epic of all things!!
Anyway, the first thing that was built on the island was a temple dedicated to the god Aesculapius, who was the god of healing and medicine and thus had a medical wing as well. The medical tradition of the island continued through to the middle ages, as it was pretty isolated from the inhabitants of the mainland. Many miraculous healings have been attributed here and there is still a hospital there today.. the Hospital of the Fatebenefratelli... go on.. say that quickly.. I dare you! More Isola Tiberina (island in Tiber river) and great picture.
There were two bridges that connected the island to the mainland, the Pons Fabricus (which still exists today) and the Pons Cestius. The new bridges that have been built to connect the island, actually USE the pillars from the old bridge that was built by the Romans back then.. Imagine how good their architecture and structure was.!!
There are also the ruins of a bridge dating back to 179 BC called the Ponte Rotto that still stands today. It is hard to believe that it was built back then and we are looking at it in the year 2002. Some our our modern buildings don't last that long... puts us to shame I think.
The only problem with walking along the Tiber river are the trees. I'm not sure what kind of trees they are but they let loose these tiny spores that resemble carpet fluff and they get up your nose and into your eyes and make you sneeze and blubber for a long time after:(
So sniveling and sneezing, we made our way to our next famous spot - the Spanish steps. We passed the Area Sacra Di Largo Argentina on our way. This is a relatively new excavation of various temples and provides some well preserved columns as well as some marble paving. More Area Sacra Di Largo Argentina
Before we could get ti the Spanish steps, we had to pass the Piazza Del Popolo which had a third obelisk for our collection. This obelisk is known as the Flamian obelisk and dates back to 1200 BC. (now that's impressive)...It is situated in the centre of the piazza and is set off by two fountains on either side of it. The one fountain represents Neptune and the Tritons and the other represents Rome between the Tiber and the Aniene rivers, both fountains are quite stunning and really draw focus to the obelisk.
As you have gathered by now, we are more interested in fountains and obelisks than churches and museums:) We finally made our way towards the Piazza di Spagna and the infamous Spanish steps. The piazza is famous not only for it's steps but also for the illustrious people who used to frequent it in the past. From Casanova, who mentions the square in his "Memoirs" to the poet Keats, whose house has been transformed into a museum. The piazza was also the hunting ground for artists and all the most beautiful men and women would gather around it in the hope that they would be chosen as the next famous artist model:)
In the middle of the piazza is a strikingly beautiful fountain called the Fontana della Barcaccia which is in the shape of a leaking boat. It's an extremely "fun" fountain .. if one can call a fountain fun..:) and people gather around it on a hot day to plunge their feet in its depths and to spray each other with water.
Behind the fountain are the Spanish steps, which are famous for no other reason than their theatrical effect that they give the piazza and which lead to the Piazza di Trinita where we found our next obelisk...the Sallustian Obelisk. More Spanish Steps of Trinita Die Monti
That gives us 4 obelisks...9 more to go.. whooo boy!
The day before, as we were making our way home, we passed the Piazza della Republica where we spotted a Village cinema. Now I have to tell you that watching an English movie in Europe is virtually impossible. They translate all the movies, including the programs on TV into their local language. It is rather funny watching Bruce Lee talking Italian:) Anyway, the only movie that was in its original soundtrack was Star Wars 2..soooo being starved for an English movie and being Star Wars fans.. we were in heaven. As we did not have enough time the day before, we decided to watch the movie tonight. Picture of Piazza Della Republica
The Piazza itself has a lovely fountain in the middle called the Fountain of the Naiads created in 1885 by Alessandro Guerrieri and shows 4 bronze nymphs with Glaucus struggling with a fish as its centre piece. There was also another obelisk in the park next to the piazza that had caught our eye:) (We could not find the name of said obelisk so we'll go with what the locals call it the Terme Obelisk.. meaning the obelisk close to the train terminal)
After having a surprisingly excellent McDonalds for dinner, we went and saw our movie Star Wars 2. It was excellent!! What a perfect way to top the day:)
Went straight to bed after the movie as we had an early start the next day. It was some kind of a republic holiday for Italy on Sunday and there was supposed to be a whole lot of people marching for the Italian Republic Day.. police, army, navy etc.
We woke up at the ungodly hour of 6.45am to get there by 8.30 so that we could get front row seats.. (Rob's idea) before we could go though ,we had to withdraw some money from an ATM... well wadda ya know? No ATM in our vicinity was working. Not wanting to carry credit card with us.. we power walked the pavements for a good hour trying to find one that worked. Typically, not one could be found, so we returned to the hotel, got our stuff (camera etc) and made our way to the piazza. By then hoards of people had amassed and blew all our chances of getting a good view.. forget about seats;(
We walked around, stood on some ruins, and finally found a spot that was not too bad. Unfortunately though, the tanks had gone past by then and poor Rob did not get to look at them close up. He did take a hundred photos though of various uniforms, planes, marching bands, cadets, marines, US Soldiers, Greek soldiers, helicopters, ..need I go on?
Please note that it was now after 1.00pm and we had still not even had a coffee! Energy depleted, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and only see a few things in the vicinity.
We headed for
Piazza Novona which was nearby to see another fountain and of
course, the obligatory obelisk:) We found an excellent little pizza shop
that sold pizza by the kilo... nooooo, we did not eat a kilo of pizza, but
it was definitely the yummiest pizza I've ever had. Feeling energised again
after our healthy meal (which included coke), we made our way to the piazza,
saw the
Fontana dei fuma (fountain of the four rivers), which served as the
base for our
next obelisk.
It was a hot, steamy day; fountain, piazza and obelisk beautiful... took photos, bought some stuff from vendors whilst trying to sneak by police.. ( these vendors sell goods illegally and you often see them trying to evade the police when they see them coming) and trudged our way to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a massive round temple that was first erected in 27 BC, It was destroyed by various fires and rebuilt. but the form we see today is from 128 AD. When you first enter the Pantheon it seems like just another tall round building, but then you get bombarded with this intense bright light that seems magnified a hundred fold and blinds you.
Trying to figure out what is causing this, you look up only to be confronted with this huge dome that has a hole in the middle. The sunlight gets concentrated though this hole and gets focused into the Pantheon below. No other light is used in the church. The dome is where the ingenuity in architecture lies. The height at the top of the dome is precisely that of its diameter (43.30 meters) which makes it a perfect sphere. It is the widest masonry dome ever raised and was cast in a single operation over an enormous wooden frame.
It definitely gives you something to think about. We consider ourselves modern wizards in our technological advancements, but if you think back to the time period when all of this was build, you realise that we pale in significance at the moment....ohh...and there is also an obelisk standing in front of the Panthenon :)
We oowed and aaahed for a while and then took to the pavements agin. Few more things to get past before we could call it a day;(
The one thing that is really great about Rome is all the drinking fountains along the way. These are a godsend on sweltering days when the only thing that quenches your thirst is water. Buying bottles of water will slowly send you broke so the best thing to do is carry a bottle with you and refill it as needed. The water is sweet and cold and believe it or not, the water is actually supplied to the taps by the aqueducts that were built by the Romans thousands of years ago... that's how good they were:)
Off to the the Piazza della Minerva to see another obelisk, the Minerva Obelisk. This turned out to be rather cute as it's base is in the form of a gorgeous elephant that was designed by Bernini. The elephant is a symbol of " a robust intellect capable of supporting great wisdom (the obelisk)".. it was really cute and a bit different from the normal obelisk/fountain monuments that we'd seen. Posed, took piccies and on the road again....
Almost there.. one more friggin obelisk to go for the day ....Piazza di Montecitorio ... here we come...Boring piazza, great buildings.. fantastic obelisk....Obelisk of Psammetychus II dating back to 594 BC. Why the hell couldn't these people just have normal names like John or Mark or Ockert even.. noooooooo.. it has to be Psammetychus II...!
Well, finally made our way home at around 4pm...so much for a nice and easy one.... The rest of the day was spent snoozing, catching up on emails and just flexing out. Monday came and unfortunately we had to do what all travelers must do at some point in time.. wash clothes. Now why on earth can't they develop self washing clothes, or clothes that are treated with a non-stick ingredient so that dirt and dust and sweat just drops off? Now THAT would be ingenious!
Washing took up most of the morning and the rest of the day was spent relaxing a little bit more. You have to take some time out once in a while 'cause it all gets a bit much sometimes and your brain overloads. Believe it or not.. a holiday can get tiring. In fact I think I've reached the stage where I am tired of walking and look forward to just vegging in the sand being burnt to a crisp by the sun:)..hehehe