Montepulciano to Rome – Day 30 – Saturday
I got up early to catch the bus for Chiusi at 8:30. Fiorella and Kiriku saw me to the
station. It was hard to say goodbye, but
the rest of Italy was beckoning. Chris
and Age, whom I seem to see everywhere, were on the same bus, although they
went north to Assisi once we got to the station. The train for Rome was on time, but it was
crowded. I found a seat, but had to
leave my suitcase half a car away. The
darn thing weighs a ton, but a conductor helped me heave it into the overhead.
The train ride to Rome took about two hours. The scenery was the familiar green hills and
fields that I have been seeing for the past four weeks and then, suddenly, we
were stopping in Rome. Unfortunately, we
were not at the Termini station near my hotel.
This was my first indication that Rome was going to be contrary. There had been a train wreck the day before
and the track into Termini was blocked.
We stopped at the Tiburtina station.
Despite my best efforts to book a hotel half a block from the train
station, I ended up having to haul my baggage halfway across Rome on the
subway. After a month of cold and rain,
it was hot. I was sweaty by the time I
dragged my bags into my room.
The metro deposited me at Termini Station and I stood in a
very long line to make reservations for my trips from Rome to Naples and from
Naples to Florence. I chatted in Italian
with the woman behind me who was very exasperated with the line. She told me that Rome is extra crowded this
weekend because Tuesday in Labor Day in
Italy and many people take a four day weekend.
Before I left the station, I also went to the tourist office to buy a
Roma Pass. The pass gives you
transportation within Rome for three days, free admission to the first two
sights and discounted admission to most others.
It is a good deal, but really pays off because you don’t have to stand
in the ticket line for those first two sights.
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| B&B Cappellini |
I am staying at the Cappellini B&B. Like a number of other B&Bs where I have
stayed in Europe, this one is really just a large apartment in an apartment
building with a dingy lobby. There are
five rooms and a kitchen/dining room. My
room is very pleasant. It is painted a
cool shade of blue and has a window that opens.
It is on the quiet side of the building.
I have my own refrigerator, kitchen sink, cable TV and a safe, all this
for 64 Euros a night. The neighborhood
is a little dodgy, but it improves rapidly within a block. I try to get home before dark. The owner, Pasquale, is Asian but speaks
Italian and British English. He is very
polite and helpful. He gave me a map and
showed me where to find major sights and what transportation lines to take to
get there.
I rested and took a couple of hours to get organized and
then set off for a walk about 4:00.
Since it was late, I didn’t want to validate my Roma Pass until the
following morning. I decided to take an
overview walk through Rome and see some of the admission free sights. Rome
is big and everything in it (except the cars) is big. All of these monumental sites are embedded in
a crowded city with narrow streets. The
street names change every block or two and nothing looks anything like my
map. Rome was definitely not built upon
a grid! I have to reorient myself at
every intersection. I am constantly
stumbling unaware upon some iconic vision.
A note on photos: My
camera battery has died and will not recharge.
I am sometimes able to use my cellphone to take pictures, but the
quality is not nearly as good and I usually can’t see what I’m shooting until I
get back to my room. My cellphone battery
is dodgy, also, so if the weather in the photo doesn’t seem to match the
narrative, it may be because I had to go back to take the photo at another
time. This is regrettable, but I don’t
think Italy is the place to buy a new camera.
I walked north from the station to the Piazza della
Republica and stopped into the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. One could play a game of football in that
church. It’s huge with a monstrous pipe
organ to fill the cavernous space with sound.
During Roman times, the building housed the Baths of Diocletian. I also stopped in to see the petite but
beautifully decorated Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. I barely glimpsed Bernini’s statue of St.
Teresa before a coughing fit sent me running outside where I could hack up a
lung without disturbing anyone’s prayers.
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| The Spanish Steps |
I walked down the street of the four fountains. The buildings on all four corners of the
intersection sport intricately carved fountains spewing water for the
neighborhood’s use. These fountains have
not been cleaned and are nearly black with soot. I continued on to Piazza Barberini to take in
the Triton fountain and then headed for some open space that appeared to be a
vista point, but turned out to be the top of the Spanish Steps. All of the planters surrounding the steps
were blooming with fuchsia colored azaleas and the steps were a sea of
color. People lounged in the sun on the
steps, making it difficult to descend in anything resembling a straight path. At the bottom of the steps is another Bernini
fountain of a sinking boat, but the piazza was so completely packed with people
that the fountain was almost invisible. The
entire street past the fountain was a solid mass of humanity off into the
distance. I turned to head back in the
direction of my hotel, rounded a corner, and found myself staring at the Trevi
Fountain.
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| Trevi Fountain |
What a powerful work of art that fountain is! The figures rise from undressed blocks of
stone, giving them power, as if they were springing from the bank of an untamed
river. The crowd surrounding the
fountain was certainly untamed. I took a
few photos with my cellphone, since my camera battery refuses to recharge, and
swapped photo taking services with an Asian girl who unfortunately lacked a
good sense of composition.
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| Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument |
I continued past the Palazzo del Quirinale, where the
president of Italy lives, Trajan’s column and marketplace and wham! I found myself face to face with the largest
pile of blinding white marble I have ever seen or will likely see again. The monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II is 200
feet high and 500 feet wide. It features
the world’s largest equestrian statue. A
person could sit within one hoof and the king’s moustache is five feet
wide. Vittorio Emmanuel II was the first
king of a united Italy. He came to power
in 1861. The monument really calls to
mind the glory of Rome and gives one an idea of how the Forum must have looked
when its buildings were new and bright.
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| Late Afternoon at the Colosseum |
After gawking at the monument for a bit, I tramped on, eventually
coming to the Forum and the Colosseum.
The sun was beginning to set and the Colosseum was bathed in that yellow
glow that every photographer hopes to capture.
I even managed to take a decent shot with my cellphone. It was hard to miss. I was beginning to drag, but stopped into a
grocery store to but some meat, cheese and beer and limped back to my room. I was dive bombed by bats on the way. Somehow, bats were fitting.
Ah, beer! This was
the first beer I had tasted since arriving in Italy. Beer is expensive here and rather bad. Dark beer is not available. It is never cold enough, either. For this reason, I have been sticking to the
cheaper, but better, wine. At the
grocery store, I bought a couple of big bottles of Beck’s and brought them home
to my fridge. I had crostini with salami
and buffala mozzarella with lukewarm beer for dinner and watched a strange
program about Italian motorcyclists riding through Baja California with a
soundtrack of 60s and 70s rock music. Must
have been MTV.
Rome – Day 31 – Sunday
Had a rough night and coughed until 2:00 am (Guess everyone
else in the B&B had a rough night, too.
Sorry.) I didn’t get up as early
as I had planned. Breakfast was coffee
and toast. Not much choice at Cappellini
B&B unless you like jam. There must
be six kinds. Italians serve orange soda
for breakfast. Possibly it has a small
percentage of juice in it. Possibly
not. The coffee here is strong, but not
espresso. It’s a good thing the cups are
small because it’s not decaf.
I decided to get the ancient Roman stuff out of the way
first. After my long walk yesterday, my
hip was bothering me so I decided not to walk any more than necessary. I walked to the metro station near my hotel and
discovered that the B line (the one that goes to the Colosseum) was closed for
the day. I walked back to the train
station where the buses stop because there was supposed to be bus service to
replace the metro. There were buses, but
not nearly enough to accommodate the traffic.
They were packed so full I couldn’t bear the thought of riding one, even
if I could have gotten on. I walked to
the Colosseum again.
My Roma Pass saved me from waiting in a very long line to
buy tickets at the Colosseum and the Rick Steves audio tour I had downloaded
saved me from paying for the audio guide.
I stomped around and up and down the Colosseum. It’s big.
In its heyday, it could seat 50,000 people. The games were free and, unlike today, there
were exits all around the structure, allowing all of these people to exit
within about 15 minutes. (The chariot
parking lot may have been a different story.)
These exits, spewing forth humanity were called “vomitoria.” This is the origin of the word “vomit.”
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| Colosseum |
The Colosseum was originally called the Flavian Amphitheater. The name “Colossem” was taken from the
colossal, 100’ tall bronze statue of Nero that once stood in front of it. Only fragments of the statue remain. The Colosseum was built of brick and concrete,
faced with stone and marble. Most of the
marble was plundered after the fall of Rome, but you can see the holes where
metal brackets once held it in place.
The Colosseum displays the history of Greek architecture with plain Doric
columns on the bottom, Ionic columns on the second tier, leafy Corinthian columns
on the third tier and a mix of all three on the top. There are some nice views out over the forum
and Palatine Hill from the upper level.
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| Palatine Hill |
After the Colosseum, I visited the Palatine Hill. I came in the back way and wandered through nearly
deserted gardens before arriving at the forum side of the hill which is
honeycombed with layer after layer of former palaces. I was suffering from museum overload, so
skipped the museum, but I did wander through some of the ruined palaces enjoy
the view out over the forum. Everywhere
someone excavates on that hill, layer after layer of habitation is
discovered. Our word "palace" comes from the name of this hill. Whether or not you believe
in the legend of Romulus and Remus, there is no doubt that Roman civilization
began on Palatine hill.
I descended the steep hill to the forum and began my stroll through
the Forum at the Arch of Titus. Romans
were big on triumphal arches. There are
three along the Via Sacra: Septimius Severus’ at the top, Titus’ near the
bottom and Constantine’s lower still.
Walking up towards Capitol Hill, the first sight is three monumental
archways, which are all that remain of the Basilica of Constantine. These three arches are immense, but they were
originally only the side aisle of a basilica that covered an area the size of a
football field in its day. Basilicas
were not religious buildings during Roman times. The term refers to the architectural plan of
the building (central “nave” with flanking arcades.) This one was the hall of justice.
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| Roman Forum |
The former Temple of Antonius Pius and Faustina is now
inhabited by a church, but the nearly 2,000 year old, 50’ tall Corinthian
columns are still impressive. Less impressive
is the small Temple of Julius Caesar, which resembles a rest stop
restroom. People still leave flowers on
the mound of dirt where Caesar’s body was burned. The ruins of the Temple of Vesta and house of
the Vestal Virgins are move story sorority house remain. Vestal Virgins who served their 30 year terms
dutifully were given large dowries and allowed to marry. Virgins who weren’t (virgins) were given a
loaf of bread and buried alive. Bummer.
The Curia or Senate House still stands, although the
bleachers that once allowed 300 senators to sit and listen to orators are long
gone. The building is well preserved
because it was used as a church from early Christian times until the
1930s. The acoustics are wonderful. At the top of the Forum is the Rostrum, a 10’
high stage where orators could stand and speak to the crowds in the Forum. The hill behind the Forum holds more modern buildings
today but, during the time of Ancient Rome, it sported the Temple of Jupiter.
Exiting the Forum, I climbed the steep staircase to Piazza
del Campidoglio, an attractive piazza with a copy of the ancient equestrian
statue of Marcus Aurelius as its centerpiece.
Michelangelo designed this piazza and surrounding buildings. I visited the Capitoline Museum and had lunch
in the café on top. There is a beautiful
view from the terrace there, as Capitol Hill is the tallest hill in Rome.
Not realizing that there was a shortcut that would have
saved me from climbing hundreds of stairs, I descended Michelangelo’s grand
staircase and circled around to the front of the Vittorio Emmanuel II
Monument. I climbed up and up the blinding
white marble steps to the terrace at the top.
The building is just as impressive close up as it is far away. At the far right, one can pass from the
monument across to the entrance of the Church of Santa Maria Arcoeli, saving a
climb up a daunting staircase. The
church is very old, but beautifully decorated.
I was glad that I got the chance to visit, after all. I returned to the “Vittoriano” and descended
the way I had arrived. Then I set off
for the Pantheon.
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| The Pantheon |
The Pantheon is a 2,000 year old domed temple that once
honored all gods, but is now a Christian church. The dome is 142 feet high and wide and has a
circular skylight open to the elements in the center. Because the temple was dedicated to all gods,
it was never looted. It gives us a
wonderful example of Roman interior decoration.
The dome is built of concrete. It
is thicker at the bottom than it is at the top and the materials used to make
the concrete get lighter as the dome rises.
The upper part is made from volcanic pumice, which is very light. The whole thing is a marvel of engineering
and a simple and pleasing design.
Raphael and Italy’s first two kings are buried in the Pantheon.
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| Piazza Navona |
From the Pantheon, I wended my way through narrow streets to Piazza Navona. This long rectangular piazza was once a racetrack. Today, it is filled with cafes, mediocre artists hawking their works and a spectacular Bernini fountain depicting the four river gods from the four continents known at the time of its sculpting: Ganges, Nile, Danube and Rio de la Plata. It’s a dramatic fountain, full of motion, and supports an Egyptian obelisk. You will have to indulge me while I force you to look at this fountain carefully. It is my favorite fountain in the world. I am developing a Bernini obsession.
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| Rio de la Plata |
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| The Nile |
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| Central Horse |
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| The Danube |
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| Ganges |
Not yet having completed my Roman death march, I continued on to Castel Sant’ Angelo and climbed to the top of the fortress. Hadrian originally built the castle as a tomb for himself and for a hundred years or so Roman emperors were buried there. The tomb eventually became a fortified palace and refuge of threatened popes. Chambers were decorated in papal splendor, although I wondered about the rather secular theme of Cupid and Psyche in the Pope’s bedroom.
I limped back down all the stairs and across the street to the bus station, where I was fortunate to find a seat on a #40 bus that would be packed tight by the time it returned to the Termini station. I stopped on my way home for some spicy Indian roast chicken and a piece of naan. Ethnic food was noticeably absent in Tuscany, but Rome offers Chinese, Indian and Turkish food. I returned to my hotel and enjoyed a cold (!) beer.
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