The Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the rest of Rome

Before I get into the massive blog about the Vatican and our visit there, let me regale you with the Roman Forum, Palatine hill and rest of Rome.

Yesterday I left you after we finished touring the Colosseum. From there, we switched tour guides and took off to see the Roman Forum.

The Forum was basically "downtown". All the important government buildings were here, as well as other important buildings that helped develop and control Roman society. The Forum is nestled in the valley between Palatine Hill and Capitoline Hill.

You have to really use your imagination when viewing some of the buildings and the area. Many of the buildings are nothing more than the corner stone and a few half walls left.  As I walked around here I was struck with the fact that people walked here 2000 years ago. Amazing to me.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

 At one point in history the forum was underwater. The tour guide told us of some conquering people who, when they came to the forum underwater, attempted to topple the temple to Faustina. You can see on many of the columns lines at the top where the chains were put to pull it down. They were not successful.


When you enter the Forum you are immediately sent back in time. To the immediate right you see the Arch of Septimius Severus. His name reminded me of a Harry Potter character. The arch is a  triumphal arch dedicated in AD 203 to commemorate the Parthian victories of Emperor Septimius Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, in the two campaigns against the Parthians of 194/195 and 197-199.

To your immediate left is the house of the Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgins were an interesting story to me. They were a group of 6 hand-picked women who held an unparalleled position of status within the city. They had rank and level that most women were not afforded. They were responsible for maintaining the soul of Rome.

There was a cost to be a Vestal Virgin though. Chosen from noble families at a young age - between 6 and 10 - Vestal Virgins had to commit to maintaining their virginity for the duration of their post - at least 30 years.

Temple of Vesta is located directly in front of the house of the Vestal Virgins.

Santa Francesca Romana Church was very well preserved. We didn't go inside as it wasn't part of the tour. The church was built in the second half of the 10th century.

The Arch of Titus was fascinating to me. Arches in general are amusing to me. Built to show their successes in battle and I think to over compensate for something. But that's just my theory.  This arch was built in 82AD.  This arch was used as the model for many other arches around the world...such as the Arch de Triumph in Paris.

Just before the arch, our tour guide, a hotty from Australia, informed us there's this little spring that would be the last option for water for some time.  We got in line to fill our bottles. All the while I was sure it would taste gross, be warm and likely give me dysentery.

None of that was true. The coldest, best tasting water I think I've ever had.  I wished I had the energy and strength to go back and fill my bottle up again after we were done.

Once on Palatine Hill we were given even more history of all the buildings. I lost track pretty quickly once we hit this part of the Forum. My feet hurt, I was hungry, tired, hot and done with walking. Still, there was some interesting points to mention.

The one ruin with the most to see was the Hippodrome of Domitian.  This area looked much like what they called Roman Circus' - the place where games and other shows took place. Our tour guide said its exact purpose is disputed. While it is certain that during the Severan period it was used for sporting events, it was most likely originally built as a stadium-shaped garden.

Thus ends the tour of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. I took many more photos there, but I didn't want to bore you completely.

Once done there, Mom and I hopped on the Hop On/Hop Off bus and who should be on it, but Mike and Bev. Mom kept looking at all the buses all day saying, "I wonder if Mike and Bev are on that one." I, naturally, scoffed at the possibility. And yet, as we sat and waited for our bus to come, Mom said it again.  The bus arrived and we hear, "Well hello there." Sure enough Mike and Bev were on that bus. Again, what are the odds?

This massive building could be seen from just about everywhere in and around the Roman Forum area of Rome.  Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II). And by "massive" I do mean huge. I tried to get a photo of people in front of it so you can gage just how big this building was.

Victor Emmanuel II was the first king of united Italy until his death in 1878. To date, the Vittoriano is the largest monument in white marble Botticino (Brescia) ever created. I would have loved to have time to tour this monster. Next time, maybe.

Eventually it was used by Mussolini to give grand speeches during WWII.

These next photos I have no idea what they are of, but I liked them.

Mom and I eventually hopped off the bus and was in search of lunch.  We found this little café just on the other side of the Termini station (our hotel was supposed to be close by). We plopped ourselves down, ordered ham and cheese sandwiches and water. I ordered a Peroni beer and was shocked to see the size of it when it came out. Mom put her water bottle next to it so we could see just how big it was. I didn't finish it, sadly, I just couldn't. But that ice cold beer hit the spot.

One of the last things we saw in Rome was the famous Spanish steps. Again, us and a thousand of our closest friends were at the steps.  I was bummed that the fountain in front of the steps was being cleaned and restored, so couldn't get the photo I had planned. Oh well, next time.

This was a cathedral located just down from our hotel - Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Mike, Bev and I visited it the morning we were leaving to get on the boat. It was beautiful inside, as many of them are.

Finally, no trip to a foreign city could be complete without a stop in to a grocery store.  Mike and I walked through one and just gawked at all the differences. 

The first thing that caught my eye was their "cold cuts" area was really all prosciutto and what not. That's my kind of cold cut.

Their deli had a different view too. Look at all those prosciutto's hanging there just begging to be bought, sliced and eaten.

Mike and I bought some packaged salamis to have during our happy hours on the boat. They were tasty and I wish I would have bought more. Salami is one of my many downfalls.

Up next, the Vatican.

The Colosseum

The Roman Colosseum is likely one of the most photographed and recognized structures in the world.  It's ancient, it's big and it's full of history. Maybe not "great" history. Or "nice" history, but it has history all the same.

I've stumbled onto multiple ways to spell it (much like Majorca in Spain I found out) but I've decided to stick with Colosseum for now. Blogger doesn't like it. Word doesn't like it. But I really don't care much.

The Roman Colosseum - also known by it's lesser name Flavian Amphitheater - was started in 70AD and completed in 80AD.  It's mainly built of concrete and stone and at one time had some impressive marble on it. The Vatican "recycled" that marble and is now housed at the Vatican on some wall some where.

 

Side note: The Vatican, it turns out, "recycled" a lot of marble from multiple locations throughout Rome and other countries.

The Colosseum was, in it's day, a sporting arena. In fact, the word "arena" comes from the days from which the "games" were played there. The floor was essential covered in sand, "arena" in Latin, and thus the modern word arena is created. We learned about a lot of words we use today that basically came from Latin and back from the ancient times. Fascinating stuff, I tell ya. The Colosseum could hold up to 80,000 spectators and like many things during that time, your station in life, or wealth, dictated where you sat.

This cross shows where the emperor would sit. Essentially 50 yard line on the field. Slaves and others with a lesser lot in life would stand on the top floors. The Colosseum had 4 levels and as you got higher, the less wealthy you were. Not a lot has changed in 2000 years.

The floor is now completely gone. Exposed is the two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages where gladiators and animals were held before the contests began. Eighty vertical shafts provided instant access to the arena for caged animals and the like. They've built a small portion of the floor out to give everyone a better understanding of what it may have looked like back then. I tried to get a photo of the floor with people on it to better show the scale of how large this place was.

The Colosseum is probably most popular for the Christian games they played there.  The tour guide we had didn't go into much detail, but she did recount that it was, at the time, a great spectacle for a Christian to fight either a beast of some sort (usually a lion) or one of the army's best gladiators.  The crowd would often decide if the "contestant" lived or died. Brutal things went on here in the form of entertainment.  Something we really can't comprehend in our time.

They have unearthed several artifacts from the Colosseum and have them on display.  As we walked through the halls (with thousands of our closest friends) I was struck, again, with just how talented and skilled the people in Rome were.  They built masterpieces with their bare hands and had little technology to do so.  It fascinated me to see the beauty in their work.



This piece below had just recently been discovered and put on display.  They aren't quite sure who was riding this horse, or why it was in the Colosseum, but it's another magnificent piece of history.

This photo they had next to it kinda showed the process they went through in digging it out and restoring it.

 The outside of the Colosseum had many statues of important people of the time, Popes, Emperors etc.  These heads were all that were found of those statues.

Misc artifacts that were found throughout the Colosseum during much of the excavation.  At one point the Colosseum was filled with water. One of the emperors wanted a lake and so flooded the area with water and much of the Colosseum and a good part of the forum were under water. In fact, in one of the temples in the forum you can see lines on the columns where chains were put and the conquers (I can't remember who) tried to pull down the temple by toppling the columns. They were unsuccessful.

I don't have any photos of the Colosseum from my trip 28 years ago. I'm really unsure as to why. It seems like even back then a photo of that building would have been important to me. But who knows. I have plenty now.

This little shadow reminded me of Marvin the Martian for some reason. I had to take a shot of it.

Tomorrow I'll regale you with stories and photos of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Lot's of ruins and stories (most of which I don't remember) to share.

Trevi Fountain

28 years ago I took a picture of the Trevi Fountain. Just one. And it really wasn't a good photo. It was an overcast day and I had my Dad's old Pentax with no idea how to use it. The photo is dark and grainy, but someone the beauty of the Trevi Fountain still shines through.

When I last left off on our Roma adventure I left you with us climbing up a huge hill only to discover the fountain was a block or so from where we paid 48EU for beer and water.  Had we had our wits about us we might have heard the noise coming from down the alley way.

I wish I would have taken a photo of the HOARDS of people that were at the fountain that day, but I didn't. I was too tired of people by then and too much in the zone of getting in, getting the photos, and getting out. I really wanted to go back in the evening at some point, but frankly we just didn't have it in us. We were tired, and drained by the end of each day that the thought of hopping in a cab and getting to the fountain was just not something I wanted to entertain.

Next time I go to Rome, it'll be JUST to Rome.

The Trevi fountain is magical to me. The story goes that if you toss a coin in the fountain it'll guarantee you'll return to Rome. I tossed a coin 28 years ago, and sure enough I returned to Rome. It was, however, pointed out to me that I should have paid the  Trevi Fountain more and maybe I would have returned to Rome sooner.  This time I took no chances and gave the fountain a big 2EU coin. Plus, the money is removed every night and given to the Italian Red Cross to help feed the hungry. I felt okay giving my donation to the fountain for such a good cause. They estimate that 3,000EU are tossed in the fountain daily.  That's a lot of moola to feed the hungry.



Tossing my coin in the fountain was an adventure to be sure. The actual act of tossing wasn't, but getting to the fountain was like nothing I've experienced before. Did I mention the HOARDS of people there? Yah, and I might add, not all of them really considerate of the others around them.

I stole this photo from the Internet so you can get an idea of how many people were there. And I still don't think this does it justice.

Photo from MyPostageStamp.com

I sharpened my elbows and worked my way rather rudely to the edge of the fountain. The people around me were doing the same, so I figured, "When in Rome...".

Oh and be sure to notice the hot, tired, sweaty hair.  We had not only traveled the entire night to get to Rome (makes for bad airplane hair), but then it was hot and I was sweaty and gross...which gave to the hot, sweaty, airplane hair. Fashionista I ain't.




Mom, Jack and Suzi had to do the same. And sadly once they got down there they tossed their coins almost immediately. I wasn't ready for them and didn't get the actual tossing of the coin. So I made them do it again and "pretend" to toss the coin so I could capture it on film. 

20 minutes later they got through the crowds and back up on the platform.

Now, about the fountain. It is no doubt likely on of the most photographed fountains in the world.  Just searching for it online and you'll find HUNDREDS if not thousands of photos.  

The fountain was designed by Nicola Salvi and then created by Pietro Bracci. I was sure the fountain was a Bernini design, but I was wrong. What? I can be wrong once in a while. But, in my research I found out that a Pope asked Bernini to draw a sketch of it. That project was killed and Bernini never really did more on it. There are touches of Bernini in the fountain, they say.

This Baroque style fountain is 86ft high and 161ft wide. Legend holds that in 19 BC thirsty Roman soldiers were guided by a young girl to a source of pure water thirteen kilometers from the city of Rome. The discovery of the source led Augustus to commission the construction of a twenty-two kilometer aqueduct leading into the city, which was named Aqua Virgo, or Virgin Waters, in honor of the legendary young girl. The aqueduct served the hot Baths of Agrippa, and Rome, for over four hundred years.  The fountain is at the junction of three roads that were once the aqueducts into Rome.

Well that takes care of day one in Rome. Later today, or perhaps tomorrow I'll enlighten you with my stores of the Colisseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. I know you're waiting with baited breath. I mean, who wouldn't be, right?

The Pantheon

The MomUnit and I are "recovering" a little bit more every day from our marathon trip.  We're still not 100% sure where we went or what we did. In order to combat the loss of anything useful in my noggin (as it applies to this trip anyways), I'm going to go back and start posting photos and elaborating a bit more. Some might be bored with all the history that might come out, but if you've been to Europe you know that history walks right up and smacks you in the face. And how is it that history is WAY more interesting as an adult than it ever was as a kid. The Lieutenant on our trip (my younger sister) said it best I think, "I actually want to learn something now."

The Pantheon was another spot where I can recall somewhat vividly being there. I have just one old photo of this massive structure, and frankly it wasn't a very good photo.

The Pantheon, I'm told, is a structure that was designed to be a temple to "all" the gods. It really is quite impressive and massive. Marcus Agrippa commissioned it in 27 AD to be built for a temple to represent all the Roman Gods. Then Hadrian rebuilt it in 126AD.  Does it amaze anyone else that it's still standing?

As I mentioned the building is massive. Just look at the little people standing out front. Those aren't "Honey-I-Shrunk-The-Kids" kind of people. Those are normal size people.

The Pantheon is circular and has these HUGE pure granite columns our front. Each column is ONE piece of granite. Inside you are greeted with an ominous feeling that this building has some significance. 

The ceiling is a - here's that word again - massive concrete ceiling with a central opening (I think they called it an oculus). It's the only source of light inside.  According to Wikipedia, and Rick Steves, "Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome."

The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same 142 ft.

Once inside there are tombs to ancient Roman's. Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda.".

Outside the Pantheon is a piazza (where in Rome isn't a piazza is a good question.) It's officially called Piazza della Rotonda, though I never refered to it that way. It was always, "where the Pantheon is."

In the center of the piazza is the Fontana del Panthoen - clever name eh? - and has one of many Egyptian obelisks in the center of it. The fountain was built in 1571 and the obelisk was added in 1771. Interesting little tidbit I read in one of the guide books.  Because the piazza is sloped slightly there are two steps on one side of the fountain and five on the other to adjust for this sloping to make the fountain balanced. Those Romans always being smart.

The 20-foot red marble Egyptian obelisk was actually contructed by Pharaoh Ramses II in Eqypt. The Romans stole it - like many others - and brought it back to Rome.

The obelisk was rediscovered in 1375 underneath part of the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

After all the walking around Piazza Navona, then walking to the Pantheon we all needed a break before trekking to the Trevi Fountain.  We found this little café on the corner on one of the many alley like streets and we sat down. Jack, Suzi, the MomUnit and I all ordered a bottle of water and a beer.

As we took our time sipping this ice cold refreshing beer we checked out the map to try to make heads or tails of where the Trevi Fountain was. It is easy to get turned around in Rome in that there are many little alley ways that don't actually show up on the map. So if you're "counting" streets, you're bound to get lost.

We thought we had a plan and were sure we knew where to go. As we sat outside discussing it, Jack went in to pay for the beers. Awfully nice of him, wasn't it?  

He walked back out and he had this very puzzled look on his face, and was a bit pale.  He sat and sighed slightly. Then in a somewhat shocked voice he said, "Those 4 beers and 4 waters cost us 48EU." Let me do the math for you. That's $66.49.  To say we were slightly shocked is putting it mildly.

We finished our expensive beers, and packed our expensive bottle water in our packs and off we went. We were all slightly dumbfounded so just started walking in a straight-ish direction. In front of us was an enormous hill, with about 4 flights of steps at the top. 

We started to climb.

And climb....

And climb....

I reached the top first and noticed that there was no fountain.  I walked back to the steps where the MomUnit, Jack and Suzi were just about to the top. The MomUnit said, "There had BETTER be a fountain at the top of this hill." I didn't have the guts to tell her no at that point.

Once at the top we realized we were by one of the many government buildings in Rome. Not the Trevi Fountain.

I asked the guard in broken Italian, "Dov 'e la Fontana del Trevi?" He pointed BACK down the hill and said in perfect English, "Second right."

BACK down the hill we went. Grumbling and making comments about how stupid the map was, etc.

The second right? Yah, it was the corner our expensive beers lived.  Had we zigged instead of zagged we would have easily found the fountain.

Piazza Navona

Of all my memories of Rome from 28 years ago, Piazza Navona seemed to stand out the most. It's a spacious, oval-esk rectangle-esk square that has three of the most amazing fountains in Rome - in my opinion.  I can remember myself and my school friend wandering the square and marveling at the fountains - well, until we got distracted by gelato. I guess not a lot has changed over the years.

 

 

 

 
 

The piazza was built on the site of the "Stadium of Domitian" in the 1 century AD.  That was a LONG, LONG, LONG time ago and it amazes me it's still standing.  It's said that the Roman's in the 1st century came here to watch the "games" or competitions. I'm assuming this was before the coliseum was built for those purposes. 

 

Piazza Navona is full of Baroque Roman architecture and displays three amazing fountains designed by Bernini.  

 

The center fountain is called Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (The Four Rivers). It features four figures that each represents a river from a different continent: the Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio de la Plata.  These statues sit at the base of a rock that is supporting a huge Egyptian obelisk in the middle.

 

 

There are two other fountains in the piazza as well. At the southern end is the Fontana del Moro (Moor Fountain) that has 4 tritons and was sculpted in 1575. To the north end of the piazza sits the Fontana del Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune). Both fountains were scuplted by Giacomo della Porta.

A nun sitting in front of the Fontana del Moro

One of the four tritons

Fontana del Nettuno

Mom, Suzi and I in front of the Fontana del Nettuno

The piazza was crowed the day we arrived. It's a local hang out for school kids when they've finished the day of studies. I mean who wouldn't want to hang out in this piazza and eat gelato.

Home Sweet Home

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

It's always nice to go on vacation, and it's even nicer to come home.

We love our homes. Our beds. Our cats. Our toilets. Our food. Everything is familiar and because of that we are drawn to come home.

Though, admittedly in a couple of our stops if a rich, handsome Italian who wanted a voluptuous, well socialized, witty, charming American woman in her mid-40's - who can cook to stay in his expensive villa and be catered too all day had asked me to stay, I might have arranged to have the demons and Sparky shipped over.

This vacation was nothing short of a full on marathon. It was 15 days of nonstop action and adventure.  It went by soo fast - as I thought it might - and now I'm left wondering what the hell happened.

I need a week or so to at least process where we were, what we saw, what we ate, etc. It isn't so much processing the big stuff, right. We know where we went, what we saw etc. But it's about processing the small stuff. The smells, the sounds, the attitudes, the little things that make a city unique. THOSE are the things I want to spend some time thinking about and documenting. THOSE are the things that make the trip more of a reality. I know, at the end of the day, it was a trip of a lifetime and one I'll not soon forget - as long as I write out all that stuff or I will forget.

I took 2038 photos and have processed them down to about a thousand. From those I'll process them down a bit more.  Less than I expected, but I really feel good about the photos I got. I have a blog percolating about taking photos under what I now call "extreme travel conditions". There were so many things I hadn't anticipated and because of that I wasn't on my game as much as I had hoped.

So over the next couple of posts I'll be posting more photos and adding some running commentary on the history or what not. It's helpful to me to post those details with the photos, so you may get some repeat from previous blogs. But you'll deal with it just fine.