Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

Breakfast is included with our hotel room, and we are only paying $35 a night for both of us ! What a lovely breakfast it was . . . eggs, bacon, rolls, hams, cheeses, in addition to pickled vegetables, fresh fruits, and a baffling choice of coffees. Tom is perfectly happy surviving on ham and sausages – I need a little Mediterranean in my diet, and was thrilled to see the fruit and vegetables. The two couples to our left were speaking French, and the ladies on our right were speaking German. Rome attracts visitors from all over the world !

Our walking tour of Rome began at 11:00 am, and we met our group at the Porto Del Popolo, under the statue of St. Peter.

Porto and Piazza Del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo has a long and interesting history. This square has gotten its name from one of the square’s churches - the Santa Maria Del Popolo. The name of the square literally means “the Peoples Square” in modern Italian, but the name originally derives from the word “populous”.

This square has always been one of Rome’s most important ones. This was the starting point for the vital northbound route, which connected Rome with the northern coastline. This meant that the square was the first or last thing that met travelers entering or leaving Rome from the north.

Today, the square is stacked with interesting structures. One of the oldest parts of the Piazza del Popolo is the main gate. Since antiquity, the northern entrance has welcome travelers to the city.

The modern Piazza del Popolo is centered by a large obelisk. This is actually an authentic Egyptian obelisk, originally belonging to Ramesses II. The obelisk was taken from the Sun Temple in Heliopolis and brought to Rome in year 10 BC. The obelisk was first erected at Circus Maximus, to commemorate the conquest of Egypt.

However, like many other obelisks, it became relocated in the 16th century during the Papal urban renewal. The 75 foot tall obelisk is the second oldest and one of the tallest of all obelisks in Rome. The fountain surrounding it, Fontana dell' Obelisco, was constructed in the 19th century and is dominated by four Egyptian-style lions.

  

Tomb of Aurgustus (aka Octavian)

Nick was our tour guide, a young man from London who has a degree in ancient history, and has been living in Rome for the last four years. He was able to connect for us all the layers of Roman history from the ancient, to the Renaissance, to World War II.

Augustus was Rome's first emperor, the founder of a world-dominating imperial dynasty, and a builder of roads and stunning temples, who brought peace to a far-flung empire; a man so powerful the Roman senate named a month after him.

Built in 28BC and as broad as a city block, the cylindrical mausoleum has seen better days after being sacked, bombed and built upon down the centuries. It was used as a bullfighting ring and a concert hall before it was finally abandoned, recently becoming a hangout for prostitutes and a handy toilet for tramps.

That was a sad fate for one of Rome's most significant and sacred monuments, which once stood 120 feet high – topped by a 15 foot bronze statue of Augustus – and housed the emperor's ashes as well as those of his successors Tiberius and Claudius. Today, as tourists flock to the Forum and the Coliseum, diners at the pizzeria across the street from Augustus's mausoleum – which lurks behind a fence in a piazza yards from Via del Corso – barely notice it.

The Pantheon

Until the 20th century, the Pantheon was the largest concrete structure in the world. Michelangelo studied its great dome before starting work on the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. Dating from 125 AD, this is the most complete ancient building in Rome and one of the city's most spectacular sights.

The Pantheon is the burial place of several important Italians (including the artist Raphael), and it remains an active church. It is a major tourist destination and a popular place for weddings.

The Pantheon is widely praised for its feats of architecture and concept of space – it is a perfect sphere resting in a cylinder.

Piazza Navona

After leaving the Panthenon, we wove through a tangle of narrow streets, built during the Renaissance. Nick pointed out a doorway, the home of Galileo. There are shops and restaurants on the street level, and very expensive apartments on the floors above.

Piazza Navona is one of the largest and most beautiful piazza squares in Rome where the grandstands of the Stadium of Domitian once stood. Built in the 1st century AD, it is impressive. The ancient Romans went there to watch ;the games; and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena).

In the center of the piazza is Bernini's most spectacular fountain, La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) erected in 1651, the most photographed item in the square. The fountain represents the four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: The Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Amazon.

The large and lively square also features another two fountains and the baroque church of Sant' Agnese in Agone.


Ponte and Castel Sant' Angelo

Ten strikingly beautiful angel sculptures, designed by the famous sculptor Bernini, line the spectacular travertine marble- made “Ponte Sant’Angelo” or “Bridge of Angels” in Rome. Each sculptured angel symbolizes a part from the story of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death by crucifixion. Statues of the saints Peter and Paul watch over the entrance way of the bridge.

The bridge was built in between the banks of the Tiber river in 349 AD by Emperor Hadrian in order to connect the center of Old Rome with his newly built mausoleum (known as Castel Sant’Angelo). For many years the bridge was used as a passageway for Christian pilgrims on their way to St. Peter’s Basilica. The current name of Sant’Angelo has used since the 7th century for a legend in which Archangel Michael was seen atop the castle with his sword drawn to indicate the ending of the plague of 590 AD. During the 16th century, the bridge was used as a place to display bodies of the executed in order to convey a warning to the people.

In 1669, Pope Clement IX had commissioned the making of the sculptures by famed Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who decided to perfectly fit the statues with the bridge’s name and purpose. Bernini himself only finished the actual making of two angels – the Angel with the Superscription “I.N.R.I.” and the angel with the Crown of Thorns. Regardless, Bernini’s design and vision of the bridge were kept in mind and were brought to life by his successors.

During medieval times, Rome's most powerful families fought for control over Castel Sant’Angelo up until the return of the papal court from its long sojourn in Avignon in the second half of the 1300s, when it passed permanently into the hands of the pontiffs. Upon his return from France, Pope Urban V declared that the only guarantee of control over Rome was to give him the keys to the Castle. He defended it with a garrison of French soldiers but the population rose up against him, occupied the Castle and even tried to raze it to the ground.

Boniface IX turned it into his residence, making the unassailable fortress a symbol of the worldly power of the popes, and connected it to the outside with a drawbridge. As with all fortresses, the castle had everything necessary within its walls in case of siege: huge water cisterns, granaries, even a mill.

It also had an escape route created by the popes: the so-called “Passetto di Borgo”, a secret corridor that connected it to the Leonine walls and the Vatican, a convenient passageway that guaranteed the safety of the pope in dangerous situations, something that certainly wasn’t unusual in turbulent medieval Rome. There were many popes who used it —and in a hurry, too: the Borgia Pope Alexander VI used it to escape to the castle and from Charles VIII troops. More famous was scurrying Clement VII who used it to escape the Landsknechts during the even more famous Sack of Rome in 1527, running across it, dodging a hailstorm of gunshot as no other pope had ever done before.

Our tour was now over, and we said goodbye to Nick and several young couples from Australia and New Zealand that we had chatted with.


St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square, known locally as Piazza San Pietro, was created in the seventeenth century by Bernini. The square, which is located in Vatican City and borders St. Peter's Basilica, is an architectural highlight.

As soon as Alexander VII was elected as the new pope in April 1655, he commissioned sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini to create a new square in front of the St. Peter's Basilica. Following Alexander's detailed instructions, Bernini came up with an elliptical shaped square. Construction started in 1656 and was completed eleven years later, in 1667.

St. Peter's Square is bordered on two sides by semi-circular colonnades which, according to Bernini, symbolize the stretched arms of the church embracing the world. The colonnades were built in 1660 and consist of four rows of columns with in total 284 Doric columns and 88 pilasters. The columns are 66 feet high and 5 feet wide.140 statues were installed on top of the colonnades, all created by Bernini and his students. They depict popes, martyrs, evangelists and other religious figures.

On special occasions such as the election of a new pope or on Easter, almost 400,000 people fill the expansive square.

Our Lunch

The front desk manager at our hotel had told us that there was a good place to eat in the historic district, and we realized that we were actually quite close to it. The burgers and Italian beer were delicious, and it provided a welcome break from hours of walking.

Roman Ruins (The Forum)

An impressive – if rather confusing – sprawl of ruins, the Roman Forum was ancient Rome's showpiece centre, a grandiose district of temples, basilicas and vibrant public spaces. The site, which was originally an Etruscan burial ground, was first developed in the 7th century BC, growing over time to become the social, political and commercial hub of the Roman empire. Landmark sights include the Arco di Settimio Severo , the Curia , and the Casa delle Vestali .

Like many of Rome's great urban developments, the Forum fell into disrepair after the fall of the Roman Empire until eventually it was used as pasture land. In the Middle Ages it was known as the Campo Vaccino ('Cow Field') and extensively plundered for its stone and marble. The area was systematically excavated in the 18th and 19th centuries, and excavations continue to this day.

Foro was the name that the Romans gave to the central square of the urban settlement and we must try to imagine this busy, crowded place as the pulsing centre of a modern city. Here the masses would flock to see the meetings of the orators, attend criminal trials and discuss internal politics or the latest military campaigns, or quite simply to comment on the games or running races (an activity that the Romans particularly enjoyed).

In the area around the Forum, the city was also home to markets, shops and taverns. You could also find the typical Termopolia, which were the ancient equivalent of today's fast food restaurants. In short, the Forum was the heart and soul of city life. It was in Caesar's time, when Rome has become the capital of a vast empire, that the Forum became a place for celebrations and in the Imperial era it was the symbol of the Empire.

The Coliseum

The Flavius amphitheater is the biggest and most imposing in the Roman world, but is also the most famous monument in Rome and is known as the "Coliseum". Started by Emperor Vespasian of the Flavia family, it was opened by his son Titus in 80 A.D.

The highly ostentatious opening ceremony, lasted one hundred days during which people saw great fights, shows and hunts involving the killing of thousands of animals. For the opening, the arena space was filled with water for one of the most fantastic events held in Roman times  – real sea battles reproducing great battles of the past.

The structure was all white, completely covered in splendid travertine stone slabs. It is elliptic in shape in order to hold more spectators. It had four floors; the first three had eighty arches each; the arches on the second and third floors were decorated with huge statues.

What we see nowadays is just the skeleton of what was the greatest arena in the ancient world. Three-fifths of the outer surrounding brick wall are missing. In the Middle Ages, when no longer in use, the Coliseum was transformed into an enormous marble, lead and iron quarry used by Popes to build Barberini Palace, Piazza Venezia and even St. Peter's.

When we finally returned to our Hotel, my fitness app showed that I had taken the most steps ever - 22,800 !

We saw Rome in a day ! . . . or at least what we could cover . . . and that seems like a lot from 9 AM to 7:30 PM ! ! !