Scary Entrance To Apartment
This is bound to be my favorite story of the entire trip. Not just because Rome is an amazing place, but also because of the change in my attitude about the ancient city as our visit progressed...
Train ride was to Rome was uneventful. Dorothy really has the Italian trains figured out now that we have the schedule book. We had to transfer from an east west line to a north south line, but everything went according to schedule, until half way to Rome when the train stopped, and the conductor came walking down the isle saying something in Italian. By the looks on everyone's faces I knew we weren't going to make it to Rome on time. Although we couldn't find anyone in our car, or the car behind us that spoke much English, the woman traveling next to us was very helpful. I wrote the Italian word for Cancel, and the word for Delay, and next to delay, I wrote the Italian term for how long. She circled Delay, and wrote a big question mark next to how long. It turns out there was a brush fire along the tracks that delayed us for about an hour. Fortunately we have a mobile phone, and could call ahead to the woman meeting us at the apartment we are renting for the week in Rome.
Once we reached Rome, we had safety on our minds, and headed strait for a taxi to take us to the Apartment. This is the easy if not cheapest way out! The busy, twisty streets of Rome from the back of a cab made us really glad we left the bike in Florence. This is no place for foreigners on bikes, especially not a tandem with a trailer!
The Apartment came with a few of surprises. First was the location. Without anything knowing about the area it seemed a bit scary. The Apartment is tucked around the corner from a plaza, with a little graffiti covered tunnel that connects to yet another plaza just outside the stairway. Fortunately this area is very nice by Roman standards, and stays busy 24 hours a day because the two plazas draw in tons of tourists. Second was that we had to pay up front for the week - and couldn't use a credit card! Fortunately we had brought a bunch of travelers checks otherwise we'd have to make other arrangements, because I'm sure not carrying that much cash around with me in Rome! The third and worst surprise was that the apartment didn't have a phone in it. This is especially bad, because the phone lines the last few places that we stayed had lots of noise on them, which prevented us from using the Internet. Now it appears we'll be another week without connectivity!
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Scary Entrance To Apartment |
After getting settled in we went out to explore a bit. We wondered around the local plazas. At dinner we spoke with 3 other American couples, who had been in Rome for a while and re-assured us that this area is very safe. Although one of us told us his experience of getting his pockets cleaned out at the train station by a young woman carrying a baby, who had 3 little girls with her. Apparently she used the baby, and a piece of paper to distract him, while the little girls went through all his pockets. Fortunately he had everything of value in a wallet under his cloths.
After that we settled in for what turned out to be a hot, very noisy, not too restful first night in Rome. After a weekend of events in the Plaza's the clean up crews spent all Sunday night cleaning up, and banging around, in the plazas under out windows!
Today we wanted to start the day with an overview tour of the city. Rome is so big, and there are sites at every corner. Without getting a good overview it would be easy to get lost in frustration of the traffic, the heat, and get distracted by all the minor sites, and completely miss the things you came here to see.
Dorothy at Roman Forum |
We started out by walking through the crazy streets to the Colosseum, where we picked up a "Stop-and-Go" tour bus that tours the entire city, and gives you the option of jumping out at several stops where you can get back on a later bus. This was a good way to get an overview. From the Colosseum and the ruins of the Roman Forum out to the Catacombs, and back to the Vatican, the entire tour took 2 1/2 hours without getting out to explore anything. But what a great way to figure out what to do for the rest of the week!
John at the Roman Forum |
Dorothy and John at the Capitol Stairs |
After the bus tour, lunch, and a quick trip through the Roman Forum, we returned to the apartment for an afternoon nap. In the evening, we ventured back out to get a bite of food and visit a cyber café to send a couple of emails, and check on BEAS and the rest of the Stock market - it looks like a continuation of Friday's rebound - thankfully! This town is amazing; in a quick trip out for dinner we passed more historic sites than are in all of the western states combined.
Today is a big birthday day back at home. It's my Niece Lauren's 7th birthday. This is Lewis and Eva's oldest daughter. I can't believe she's already 7. It seems like just a short while ago when Lewis and Eva were preparing to have their first daughter, which really made our mom happy, and still provides dad with someone to gloat over. Sadie our dog also turns 9 today, when we picked her out of the litter at 5 weeks old, she fit in the palm of my hand. Now she's 95 pounds, and is getting a gray face, and is starting to slow down. We hope she remembers us when we return, after getting spoiled in her extended visit to Grandma's house with her short visits to "Uncle John and Aunt Beth's".
Hopefully everything is going well back at home. We've been gone a little more than a month, but the last week has seemed like the longest part of the trip. It's been 9 days now since we've been able to connect to the Internet. I'm surprised, but just the little bit of communications with home that email provides helps make it seem like we're not so far away. Without this link, it seems like we're really a long ways away. I've started to hunt for a phone line that I can use, and I'm getting ready to catch a cab to the BEA sales office here in Rome just so I can "get a hit of the network pipe!"
Meanwhile we're starting to settle into this big ancient city. The plaza that our apartment overlooks wasn't nearly so noisy last night. This let us get the good night sleep we needed before making our first trip to the Vatican.
When you first approached the Vatican, the scope of the architecture is just what we expected, overwhelming! The square in front of the Basilica di San Pietro (St. Peter's Basilica) is about the size of the top rows of Mile High Stadium, and the Basilica itself is large enough to hold 60,000 people.
St. Peter's Basillica at the Vatican |
The first thing that we noticed about the Vatican is that they're really good at moving the extremely large numbers of people they are getting this year to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity - The Millennium Jubilee. There was a small army of volunteers wearing blue vests to help guide (herd) you the right direction. It was also their job to play dress code police. They filtered out anyone wearing shorts, skirts that are too short, or anyone with bare shoulders. Fortunately we knew this ahead of time, but we saw one woman who was rather hysterical and crying. Although she spoke something other than English, we think it was because she didn't meet the dress code, and just didn't know what to do. I'm sure that when she settled down, someone pointed out to her that she could go back down the street, and buy a scarf to cover her shoulders, and then she would be allowed to enter.
The Nave at St. Peter's Basillica |
Alter at St. Peter's Basillica |
Inside St. Peters Basilica houses an assortment of fabulous mosaics that are so detailed they look like superb paintings. Sculptures, and spectacularly decorated altars. The first thing that greets you after being 'guided' into St. Peters Basilica is Michelangelo's famous Pietá sculpture which he completed when he was only 25 years old. Unfortunately this wonderful work has been moved back, and protected from the viewers by a thick piece of bulletproof glass because some nut attacked it with a hammer in 1972.
Michelangelo's Pietá |
Charibs at St. Peter's Basillica |
One of most striking things about St. Peters Basilica is all the ornately decorated domes that let light peer though the ceiling to into the giant halls. None of my pictures of these domes turned out, each is full of brightly colored very detailed mosaics. The main dome, which was architected by Michaelangelo, is also stunning. Although he was put on the project late, and disagreed with the overall architecture of the building, he did a wonderful job at constructing a grand dome to pull together this giant church.
Dome at St. Peter's Basilica |
We also took the time to climb on top of the dome for an unprecedented view of the Basilica, St. Peters square, Rome, and Vatican City.
St. Peters Square from Dome |
Rome from Dome of St. Peter's |
Vatican Gardens from Dome of St. Peter's |
Underneath St. Peter's Basilica is the tombs of most of the popes though the ages. Although the sheer number of folks entombed here gets a bit tiring, some of the Moslems are so beautifully that you don't dare miss them.
After spending the day walking around St. Peter's Basilica and the surrounding area, we called it quits and headed back to the apartment to read up on the rest of Vatican city which we plan to visit tomorrow, and to continue searching for connectivity to the internet. I'm sure there is someone nearby who speaks English, and has a telephone line that I can use, I just need to find them…
Today we got up early to head out to the Vatican museums. At 10:00 the pope holds a public audience in St. Peters Basilica for everyone that can squeeze in. Our plan was to enjoy the museum in quiet at this time. However when we got to St. Peters Square, the lure of seeing Pope John Paul II in person in Rome was too strong. We decided to stop and listen, and we were glad we did. Although this is a weekly address that is made to a horde of 60,000 or 70,000 people, it was still pretty cool to hear the Pope speak in 7 languages. He also started out by moving up and down the isles in a pope-mobile (not the bulletproof phone booth version, just a fancy Rover Defender 90 with a place for him to stand) waving to the crowd. Basically he thanked the big groups in the crowd for attending in their native language, and then gave a blessing for the crowd. One of the groups in attendance that got mentioned was from Leadville Colorado. Although Pope John Paul II is very old and isn't in the best of health he spoke in French, Italian, English, Spanish, Polish and something that sounded like Russian (not Polish, yet definitely eastern block sounding). This really drove home that the Catholic Church is one of the original international organizations, which no one can even come close to. I can't imagine any other head of state, or CEO of an international company that would even consider being able to speak as many languages as Pope John Paul II. The mediation of all these cultures, and the ability to blend the best of all of them together is really something special. I wish I could know even part of what the pop has learned from all of these cultures.
Papal Audience |
After listening to the Popes address we headed for the Vatican Museum, which include the Sistine Chapel. Again we were surprised at the efficiency that the Vatican has developed for dealing with crowds. We spoke to a guide who said that the Vatican Museum averages 30,000 visitors per day. Basically you get to choose from a menu of pre-determined one-way courses through the museum. No deviation, no breaks, no bathrooms, enjoy your visit. Although the atmosphere wasn't nearly as conducive to immersing yourself in the works as the Louvre in Paris, or the Uffizi in Florence, we did enjoy several sections of the Museum.
Roman Sculpture at Vatican Museum |
There were some fantastic sculptures. One hall that Dorothy and I enjoyed, was the map room which is a hall that is lined with 10 foot x 10 foot maps from the 1700's with Frescos relating the biblical significance of the areas shown on the maps.
We also enjoyed the Renaissance paintings section that included works by many of the Renaissance masters from all over the Europe. As with most museums, no flashes are allowed, but the lighting is good enough to catch a few good pictures with the right settings. Obviously I'm extremely happy with my Kodak DC280 digital camera. It takes great pictures in low light conditions, and has a setting that allows you to disable the flash as a default.
Fire In The Borgio by Raphael |
Paradise by Peter Wenceslao |
Transfiguration by Raphael which is a gigantic work! |
Of course the crown Jewel of the Museum is the Sistine Chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo near the end of his career. Apparently Michelangelo never want to do this work, because he painting wasn't his best talent. Through the project he was said to be difficult to work with. He even got carried away, and scrapped the original scaffolding, only to redesign a new scaffolding system himself.
Although the room of the Sistine Chapel itself is just a big box with an arched ceiling, no pictures can describe the works on the walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This is a good thing, because no photos or videos are allowed. One wall is dedicated to Michelangelo's depiction of the final judgment. It was fun to compare and contrast this depiction to the one on the ceiling of the Duomo in Florence. Both are masterpieces, but Michelangelo spent more time focusing on characters in sitting in Heaven and sitting in Judgment, where the one in the Duomo in Florence had the wild depiction of the condemned getting dragged into hell by all kinds of demons. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has all the famous Michelangelo depictions including the creation of Adam, which shows God reaching his hand out to Adam. The walls on the sides of the Chapel are also covered with beautiful depictions of biblically significant events that were created by several other renaissance masters after the ceiling was finished.
Tonight at dinner we once again faced the onslaught of folks out doing things to get money. This is the same old stuff that you see in all big tourist towns some of them are performers singers and the likes, and some are selling stuff like flowers. The strange thing here is that these folks circulate through the tables at outside restaurants. Dorothy and I don't mind contributing a few bucks to a street performer who is actually doing something entertaining, but we draw the line when the routine uses young kids. We were especially offended by the little 5-year-old boy with a puppy that walked around asking for money. We couldn't help have distaste for parents that would send or allow there 5 year old to go out with a puppy to collect money on the streets. We wondered what happens when the puppy gets old enough that it's not cute anymore. We bet that the puppy gets put back on the street in exchanged for another cute street puppy. Maybe that's a bit cynical, but a seeing a 5 year old out scamming for money at 10:00pm doesn't leave you in a charitable mood.
Now that we're getting more comfortable with the big city, we decided to wander the city on foot to see some of the museums, and sites. Scott and Wendy Elder know what we mean when we say we wandered the city all day. We spent a weekend with them in San Francisco where Dorothy and I perfected our ability to walk around a city until you simply can't walk anymore. Today was no different; we started at 9:30 day after having our usual breakfast stop at the bar around the corner from our hotel, and finally ended at 10:30pm after finishing a sunset walking tour of the city. Boy did we cover a lot of ground! Just because we left the bike in Florence doesn't mean we're not getting our exercise!
First we walked to the center of Rome to visit the Capitol Museums, which are made up of the Conservators' Palace Museums, and the Capitoloni Museum. These two museums are built in a plaza, Piazza del Campi Doglio, which was designed by Michelangelo but was not constructed until the late 1800's. The Capitoloni Museum has lots of renaissance paintings and some ancient Roman tapestries. The Conservator's Palace Museum Museum mostly houses relics and statues recovered from the archaeological work that is still underway of the Roman Forum and the Imperial Forum.
Sculpture at Capitoloni Museum |
John and Sculpture of Ancient Roman Hand |
Wall of Paintings at Capitoloni Museum |
Next we walked to the Imperial Forum visitor's center and made arrangements to go on a English speaking tour of the Archaeological work going on in the Imperial Forum. Then we stopped for a nice lunch before pressing onward in the heat.
Our next stop was the Colosseum. Here we ran into an American college student who was giving free half-hour tours of the Colosseum to help lure you into taking other paid tours with her company. This was actually very informative. The Colosseum's name is actually the Flavion Amphitheater, the name Colosseum came from the Colossus, which was a giant gilded statue of Niro. This statue is one of the 7 wonders of the world that no longer exists. Since everyone hated Niro and didn't want his image overshadowing everything in Rome, it was torn down soon after his death. The Colosseum is as big as the pictures lead you to think. It's a bit bigger than Mile High stadium, and at one time was covered in pure white marble. The sad thing is that the reason it's just a ruined shell today is that over the years, every new monument in Rome used it as a source for marble. Most of the marble in St. Peters Basilica was taken from the Colosseum. It was also scavenged for Iron, which used to reinforce its structure, which left it week to earthquakes it would have withstood if it weren't raped for materials. One other interesting point that this tour brought out is the sheer brutality of the blood sport games held here. Apparently it wasn't rare for hundreds of lives to be taken in a day at the Colosseum. A day at the games started with man on man fights, then moved to animal against man fights (where 10 unarmed men faced 100 hungry lions), and then ended with a comedy show where invalids, midgets, or other "funny" people were killed in various ways with always with a humorous theme. I was also shocked to find out that the era of these games spanned over 300 years. This wasn't some short-lived perverted indulgence of a brutal ruler. This was part of the Roman culture for longer than Americans have celebrated Independance Day. Since we were running short on time, we had to hurry back to the Imperial Forum for our tour, and had to come back for a visit inside the Colosseum.
Flavion Amphitheater |
After a short walk back to the Imperial Forum, we joined our small guided tour of the Archaeological work that is underway at the Imperial Forum. In Rome there were two Forum areas. One was a market area for the general public known as the Roman Forum. The other is known as the Imperial Forum, which was only for the ruling class to hold governing meetings. This area consisted of several lavish monuments commemorating great victories of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately in Mussolini's time before World War II, this entire area was paved over and street was constructed to symbolize the greatness of the new Rome. Now there is a major Archaeological effort underway to discover, and renovate the ancient buildings that were destroyed and buried, with blatant disregard. This was a very interesting tour because it was given by one of the archeologists working on the project.
Ruins of Forum of Augustus |
After this tour we decided to get a drink from a corner stand, and sit in the lawn in front of the Imperial Forum visitors center. Here we encountered up close our first swarm of thieving young mothers and children. Fortunately we must not have looked like easy targets, because they simply walked right past us after a second of hesitation. I figured that we weren't easy targets because we were sitting down, and we didn't have anything like purses, or backpacks that would be easy to grab. One 12-year-old boy did look like he was going to grab Dorothy's bottle of water just for fun. However when he saw that I was in front of his next step and that I was watching him closely, he didn't bother. Instead I'm sure they just went around the corner to pick on an easier target. Afterwards I thought it was funny that motley little band like this had me so worried. Although I'm sure they could empty my pockets in nothing flat, they didn't look like the type that was out for a violent confrontation. They looked like a bunch of poor teenaged mothers, and their kids, out to grab anything they could. I think if they received what I had originally planned for one of their little mobs, they would simply scatter to the wind, and probably return with the police to rescue anyone I had caught. Although they present a danger to your stuff if it's not anchored down, these poor folks won't harm you and certainly aren't the danger that the teenaged gang-bangers or skin heads in the U.S. are. I guess that's why there listed in Lonely Planets "Dangers and Annoyances" section, they just don't specify that they're really just an annoyance rather than a real danger.
Next we headed back for a tour inside the Colosseum. Although it really sits in ruin, the insides of the colosseum are worth the price of admission. You get to see all the chambers that were under the floors where they housed the animals they would release through the trap doors. This year they are constructing a new floor for part of the Colosseum so that the Pope can move the annual mass that is held here every year inside the Colosseum for the Jubilee. Next time I want to hire these guys to build my deck! They're using 20 foot long 6 inch thick by 2 foot wide decking on top of some massive joists. I guess when the pop wants a new deck built; he gets nothing but the best!
Floor of Colosseum |
Construction of New Decking at Colosseum |
Next we visited the Arch of Constantine, which sits just outside the Colosseum. This is yet another giant Roman arch that Constantine used for his victorious troops when they returned to Rome. This site also used to house a giant fountain, but Mussolini mowed it down so he could drive his tanks through the Arch.
Arch of Constantine |
From here we walked back around the south side of Roman Forum, to take pictures of the Arch of Titus, which is yet another significant Roman Arch, and the Temple of Venus and Rome.
Temple of Venus and Rome |
After a short gelato break we decided to join up with one of the paid walking tours of the city, even though we had already walked most of the day, so we could see if there was anything significant that we had missed. We picked up a Sunset Walk that conveniently ended in a plaza near our hotel. Again this was a very worthwhile and informative tour. The three-hour itinerary included the following major stops:
Vittorio Emmanuel Monument - Roman Tomb of The Unknown Soldier |
Trevi Fountain |
Fortunately this tour ended near our hotel, after 13 hours of walking around the city, even Dorothy and I were ready to call it quits.
Today we decided to get back on the air-conditioned Stop-and-Go bus to see the things that beyond even Dorothy's and my waking range. Our first stop on this tour was to the Catacombe di San Callisto. The Catacombs were where the Christians in the area entombed their dead from before the Christian persecution and during the Christian persecution. These particular catacombs housed the tombs of over 500,000. They were constructed by digging in the porous volcanic soil of the area. After this soft soil is exposed to the air and humidity, it turns hard as a brick. This allowed elaborate 5 story tunnels to be constructed with individual and family sized tombs in them. Somewhere in the middle ages these catacombs were abandoned and then they were re-discovered by archeologists in the late 1800s.
Next we jumped back on the bus and headed to a little church that houses paintings illustrating the martyrdom of all 43 martyred saints. I guess this is turning into the "Tour of The Dead" today, but I thought this would be cool to see since so many of the renaissance paintings include depictions the martyred saints. I was hoping that this might clue me into some of the symbolism used. Unfortunately this little church hasn't had the truckloads of money that has pored into some of the other monumental churches in the area. However the painstaking work of restoring it was beginning, and our visit was cut short because it was getting a new floor.
Since we had a while before the bus arrived again we visited Chiesa San Giovanni - the church of Saint Giovani, which is a huge beautiful church that is still actively used today. Outside of Chiesa San Giovanni is one of the largest Egyptian Obelisks in Rome. It's interesting that the Romans pillaged Egypt and brought back so many Obelisks that there are more here in Rome than in all of Egypt. The ancient Romans us them as major city markers, and when the area turned to Papal rule, they were all topped with little crosses, and re-used as Catholic monuments to saints.
Egyptian Obelisk |
Next we returned to the Trevi Fountain, which we had visited the night before for a few pictures. The Trevi Fountain is a marvelous work that marks the entrance to an ancient Roman aquifer that runs into Rome from the one of surrounding mountain areas.
After a quick lunch, we continued out "Tour of the Dead" by visiting the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione. This little church houses a bizarre Moslem in which the bones of 4,000 of Capuchin monks decorate the walls in elaborate and artistic designs. The strangest of these designs is a skull with two hip bones arranged to look like wings behind it. Since it's a religious site no pictures were allowed, but I did buy a post card that shows part of this macabre site.
We spent too much time looking at the exhibit of monk bone and missed out bus by 10 minutes. Since it would be another hour before another one came, we decided to enjoy a nice walk to the next stop which is in a very nice and very large park. This park actually brings some sanity to the big city. It's full of a variety of trees and is actually is home to some birds other than the ever present species "Pigeonous Ratus - Rats with Wings" which is the only species of bird we've seen or heard during our visit to Rome. Although at the entrance to the park Dorothy almost got killed by a giant pine cone that decided to drop from it's birthplace 80 feet in the sky just as we walked by.
Dorothy and the Killer Pine Cone |
Villa Borghesa Park |
Our last stop for the day and for our stay in Rome was a run by photo shoot of Piazza Venitia, the Pantheon and Piazza Navonna.
That evening the lack of Internet connectivity finally got to me. So we loaded up the laptop and hopped in a cab, for safeties sake, to headed to an Internet café we had found that could cope with laptops for a quick hour and a half of connect time. This time allowed me to post my stories of Florence, Sienna, and Assisi before we headed into the unknown of Naples.
Initially Rome's size, reputation and frantic nature are intimidating if you're not used to big cities. It is noisy, traffic is crazy, and it's full of pigeons and tourists that both move in big herds. It's also full of all the nasty things that herds of tourists tend to attract like pick pockets, beggars, and lousy street performers. However, after you get past the big city attitudes and learn how to cope with the plague that tourism has brought, Rome has so much to offer that a month wouldn't be enough time to take it all in. Almost every city block is home to some sort of museum, monument, or significant piazza (plaza). There are many, many religious sites, many significant art sites both in Roman and Italian Renaissance style, many architectural wonders, and many fascinating Archaeological sites all within an area the size of Denver's city limits.
At first the stores of hoards of gypsies who are experts at swarming you and cleaning all of your pockets seem a bit frightening. However unlike crime in the U.S. these groups are only after a quick grab of your valuables. Although they may steel all of the money they can get their hands on, and may inadvertently take your passport or tickets, they won't hurt you like some of the gang-bangers in the U.S. We saw several of these little bands and they were mostly 16-20 year old mothers with a few 10-year-old boys mixed in the crowd.
Regardless of all the stories, most of Rome is perfectly safe. Most days Dorothy and I took our usual approach of walking everywhere from mid-morning until just before dark. By avoiding some of the bad areas of town, like around the train station, we never had any troubles.
Again like Florence we encountered many American students who were studying in Rome for a few months; although this crowd seemed less serious about studying and more into hanging out.
Many things here seemed uniquely Roman.
All in al after 7 days of heat and humidity I was sorry to leave Rome. Although it's not as inviting or user friendly as Paris, it has as much if not moor to offer. You just have to pay attention to keep your stuff yours.