Today we had one complete day in Rome. We had obviously chosen the wrong day, because today was the day Mother Theresa was being canonised, so we were warned that it would be impossible to approach St Peter's Square or the Vatican because of the crowds. Because of terrorism fears, many streets in the area were completely blocked off. So no visit to the Sistine Chapel either! It's 50 years since we were in Rome - we were here for a few days when we were on honeymoon - and we had seen St Peters, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, but had intended to go again. But we were obliged to do other things instead.
In the morning our group had a long bus and walking tour round the city. We started at the Coliseum, one of the most popular of the city's sights, built by the Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus and completed in AD 80. Our guide told us that it would have seated between 50 and 60 thousand people, and they were able to enter and leave very quickly because there were 80 entrances.
It almost seemed as if there were very nearly that number queuing to get in today, this being the first Sunday of the month so that Museums were free. But there weren't 80 entrances today, so the queues were rather slow, and standing in the hot sun did not appeal. Our guide suggested trying to get in around 5pm when it should be quieter and certainly cooler, but we were a bit too exhausted by 5.
We also drove round the old Forum, with views up to the Palatine Hill, another place we visited 50 years ago and would like to visit again. We passed the site of the Circus Maximus.
There's not a lot of it left,but you can clearly see the shape in the valley, with raised areas on either side for the spectators. There would have been a wall down the centre, the spina, round which the chariots raced.
We drove past the Baths of Caracalla, an enormous edifice where 6000 people a day could bathe in four shifts
The grounds are extensive, and this was another place we would like to visit - clearly we will need to return.
We drove past another building where we paused very briefly to admire the balcony from which Mussolini made most of his speeches, then we went on to the Victor Emmanuel monument, looking even more gleaming white in the bright sunlight. It's often known as Mussolini's wedding cake, and it certainly looks as if it was made of white icing. My photo, taken as it was from the bus window, isn't very good so I won't post it here.
We had to get out of the bus and walk after that, and we walked to the Trevi Fountain where we spent quite a while.
It was extremely difficult to photograph with so many heads in the way, but it was slightly easier from the side. Our guide explained that it's at the junction of three roads (tre vie) and the water comes from a source called the Acqua Vergine; this used to be called the Aqua Virgo and was one of the aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome, built by Agrippa. The legend about the water is that in 19 BC, a young girl showed some Roman soldiers a source of pure water a few miles outside the city, hence the aquaduct's name.
I threw a small coin into the fountain to make sure I come back again. I did it last time I was here and it obviously worked, even though it took 50 years. The coin I threw today had better work a bit quicker!
We passed through a nice air conditioned shopping mall and went outside again to admire the column of Marcus Aurelius, which is quite similar to Trajan's column. I didn't get a decent photo of Trajan's column, so I took several of this one.
We stopped to admire the building housing the Chamber of Deputies, with a very nice Egyptian obelisk outside, then passed on to the Pantheon.
This was a building we didn't visit 50 years ago so I was desperate to go inside but today is Sunday, and it was time for mass, so there was a service inside and it was closed to tourist visits, which was a great disappointment.
Nearby is the French church in Rome. It is called the Chapel of St Matthew and contains 3 wonderful Caravaggios which we went in to see. I took photos but they aren't very good, sadly.
We went on to the Piazza Navona, very picturesque, which was built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian. The Romans used the stadium for athletic competitions.The piazza follows the shape of the open space of the stadium, so it's curved at one end.
The whole piazza is an example of Baroque architecture, with many fine buildings. In the center stands a famous Baroque fountain, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, sculpted by Bernini; it stands right in front of a church designed by Bernini's great rival, Borromini. It's said that the figures on the fountain facing the church are shielding their eyes in horror from the facade of Borromini's church. I'm afraid my photographic skills aren't quite up to that!
By this time my back was getting sore so we headed for the bus back to the hotel for a rest, passing by the Baths of Diocletian. As they are very close to our hotel, we thought of visiting them, but decided against it later owing to a poor review in our guide book.
We cooled down and rested over the lunch period in our hotel room, (first ice cream of the day!) and decided that we might devote ourselves to art in the afternoon. So we set off for the Palazzo Barberini, a place we had never visited before. There was a most interesting exhibition of recovered cultural artefacts which had been stolen at one time or another, and the selection was highly eclectic, ranging from ancient Etruscan artefacts, Roman frescos and pottery to paintings from the 20th century.
The photo above is of a statue said to be connected to the cult of Mithras. Mithras was the a soldiers' cult and involved bull sacrifice, and this is a Roman soldier sacrificing a bull.
There was a huge collection of red figure pottery, and the collection of paintings ranged right through the centuries, some having been looted by the Nazis, but many more having been stolen from museums and private collections relatively recently. And of course there was quite a collection of ecclesiastical artefacts, since churches often have poor security.
The Palazzo itself has an interesting collection of art, and though parts of it were shut today, we saw a great many famous paintings - including the Hans Holbein one of Henry 8th which I think every English schoolchild knows. This post has been long enough already so I won't go on, but we particularly admired a number by Caravaggio
This is his Judith and Holofernes. I don't know why I always seem to photograph paintings squint, and this isn't a very good photo, but at least you can get an impression of it.
Then it was back to the hotel for a further rest before going out to dinner. Later came the second ice cream of the day - melon in my case, and quite delicious. I'm hoping I can count melon ice cream as one of my 5 a day!
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