The girls had a long weekend break from school for celebrating Carnevale. So Friday night after school, we hoped on the high speed train for Rome. We had booked an airbnb in central Rome, and our host had (very) graciously agreed to meet us late in the evening to check us in. We got to Rome, got settled into a lovely apartment, and got a good night's rest.
Saturday morning, we got up for the first day of Tim's well planned visit.
(As a preview in numbers, my notoriously under-counting Microsoft band clocked 20,502 steps for the day; Tim's empirically verified iPhone counter had 24,760... roughly 13 miles of walking for the day.)
We started by stopping into Panella just down the street from our apartment. This pasticceria had dozens of types of sweet treats coming straight out of the oven, plus delicious coffee with various types of indulgent creams. We had some cappuccini, donuts, and etc., fortifying us for our busy morning.
From breakfast, we headed straight for the morning's stops: the Coliseum and Roman Forum. Our guide was in the form of Tim's well-laid master plan and Maya's second installment of the scavenger hunt book series, Mission Rome. Our walk took us through the very pretty (and mostly empty on this Saturday morning) Parco del Colle Oppio.
We passed a statue of Alfredo Oriani, an Italian author considered a precursor of fascism.
We arrived at the Coliseum. We had purchased tickets on the web the night before, so we got to skip the line and just pick them up. We arrived just as the doors were opening, so the lines and crowds inside weren't (yet) completely insane. We had decided to skip the extra tour of the uppermost and lowermost parts of the Coliseum, but we got pretty good views of them as we wandered around.
This one is by Maya...
Outside of the Coliseum, we checked out the massive Arch of Constantine, which the Emperor Constantine built as a gift to himself so everyone would remember how amazing his victory over Maxentius was.
We then headed up Palatine Hill before heading back down into the Roman Forum. We made a little mis-turn here (and judging by the crowds of people going up and down a (long and steep) dead end street, we were not the only people misled by the Roman signage. Extra steps, I guess...)
On Palatine Hill, basically, we saw lots and lots of things that are really really old. We saw the old "stadium." It's called a stadium on the maps and signs, but apparently it maybe wasn't really a stadium. It was a garden in which the ancient Romans happened to exercise their horses. The archeologists apparently still argue over what it was really used for. We learned about the founding of Rome by Romulus. According to legend, Romulus and Remus were discovered by a wolf on Palatine Hill. Romulus and Remus got along for a while, but then they had an argument about the creation of a new city on the banks of the Tiber river. Romulus won that argument (Remus definitely lost), and I guess this is why Rome is called Rome and not Reme. There are ruins on Palatine Hill of Romulus's "hut" which is where he purportedly lived when he founded the city. There are lots of other ruins of more recent ancient things. We also had a good view across the Circus Maximus and down into the Roman Forum.
This is the Domus Augustana, what was once the emperor's private quarters. Apparently, there was more to them back then...
The Roman Forum is basically what was the heart of the original Rome. We effectively walked down main street, looking at the (restored) ruins. (Apparently, in between ancient times and now, people thought it was totally cool to come steal all of the very lovely marble used to make these buildings. The restoration has clearly been a monumental undertaking.)
This is the arch of Titus. It was built by the emperor Domitian to celebrate Titus's victory in Israel in the year 71. Maya's scavenger hunt had us finding the carving of Titus on the arch and also a menorah (to symbolize Israel).
This is the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. The emperor Antoninus Pius built this temple to honor his wife's memory when she died. The Romans liked him enough that, when he died, they changed the name of the temple to include him. Here, look at the second and third columns from the left. Near the top, you can see some dark lines. Maya's scavenger hunt tells us that, in the middle ages, people did, for real, try to cut these columns in half and take them away.
This is the Temple of Vesta. You've heard of the Vestal Virgins, right? Well, this is the temple where they kept an eternal flame burning. The Romans believed that this was essential to the strength of Rome. Being a Vestal was a super big deal, and included VIP season tickets to the Coliseum.
This is the Arch of Septimus Severus. Continuing the theme, this one honors Severus's great victory in Parthia.
This plaque marks the Umbilicus Urbis (there were no Us in the ancient Roman lettering system, so it's written "VMBILICVS VRBIS" ... Maya got a kick out of this). This translates literally as "belly button"; it marks what once was the center of the city.
The girls ordered boring. Maya at least upped it a notch by getting (plain) gnocchi; Cora had pasta in bianco (that's right... white pasta). Maya preferred dad's sausage pasta...
After lunch, we headed to the bone crypts of the Capuchin monks, housed in the Convento dei Frati Capucini. There were no photos allowed inside, but basically the monks collected the bones of something on the order of 3700 (human) skeletons arranged artistically. You have to see this to believe it. So here is a photo. Just outside the metro stop was Fontana del Tritone.
We then went to Basilica San Clemente, which was covered inside with beautiful mosaics. Saint Clement's symbol was an anchor, so it was fun finding anchors represented everywhere inside. Perhaps what made San Clemente the coolest was not particularly photographable. It is built (like many other churches in Rome) on top of the ruins of an older church. But you can actually still get inside these ruins and walk around. So we did. Obviously. The cult of Mithras used some adjoining spaces in ancient time for cult rituals. Creepy. There were also some ruins of an old Roman home down here, with its own little spring coming in.
It was getting late, but we pressed on. We headed to the world's largest Catholic Marion church (i.e., churches dedicated to Mary), the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. We arrived about 10 minutes before mass started, which meant we had to stand in a long line to cross through the security check point (these, as well as armed military personnel, were all over Rome). It had a very impressive ceiling.
Whew. We were tuckered. We found (after a few strike outs) a restaurant reasonably close to the apartment for dinner before turning in.
Scavenger hunt score: 53
No comments:
Post a Comment