We painlessly traveled by train from Florence to Rome without a hitch... until we came up out of the subway. Then we spent a good 30 minutes finding our hotel which was supposed to be 400 meters “straight ahead.” We are blaming faulty directions from the hotel website. While it was only 400 meters from the subway, it was to the left, not “straight ahead.”
When we finally did arrive at our hotel, we were delighted to find Ryan, Sam and the Vikens waiting for us in the lobby. We quickly got our room, freshened up a bit and then we all took off on a walk-about with Jeff as our tour guide. Jeff loves Rome, has been here many times and probably knows more about the history, the architecture and the lore of the city than many locals. There is something magical about actually seeing something that you have seen pictures of your entire life and the “pinch-me” moments came fast and furious that day! We walked along the Tiber River, past the Castle of San Angelo, to St. Peters Square and on. Mid-afternoon, we stopped for lunch at the Piazza Navona, which has the Four Rivers Fountain that was one of the sites in the movie “Angels and Demons.” Then we continued on to the Pantheon. Since all the outer marble has been stripped away over the years, the outside of the Pantheon gives no clue to the beauty inside and it literally took my breath away when we entered. I continue to be amazed by the architectural achievements of the Romans so long ago. We went on to the Church of St. Ignatius, and the Piazza Colonna where there is a huge column with carvings showing Roman victories spiraling around from bottom to top. We also saw several huge Egyptian obelisks which were brought from Egypt--can you imagine moving one of those things all the way from Egypt? Jeff gave us detailed information about the design and style of the buildings and the churches, matching that of any professional tour guide. His depth of knowledge of these sites is truly amazing. At the Trevi Fountain, we threw coins in to insure a return trip some day, because we can already tell, one visit to Rome will not be enough. As Dick often says when we are at a really good restaurant, “We'll have to come back here!”
Tuesday morning our touring continued. We headed out to the Coliseum. Jeff found a tour that he thought would give us good information at a fair price. We are so lucky that he is here in Rome when we are, because we wouldn't even know what questions to ask to get a good guide. We continue to be amazed at the knowledge and skill of the Romans with regard to building skills. The Coliseum had an elevator system to bring gladiators and animals up from the corridors below the ground to the main level in the center. They used gravity to pressurize water for their magnificent fountains. Buildings and structures, built two thousand years ago are still still standing. After the Coliseum, we walk to the Palatine Hill where Nero had a palace that covered acres. It even had a race track inside! Guess you need one if you're having the guys over and want to take the chariots for a spin. Then it was on to the Forum—though nothing funny happened on the way. The Forum was the center of early Rome as far as government, religious and city life were concerned. With a little imagination, you can almost see Roman citizens hustling about taking care of daily affairs.
We were feeling pretty spent,(at least those of us over 35) so Ryan and Sam took off on their own and the rest of us went back to the hotel to rest up a bit and get a second wind for that night. Early that evening, we were back at St. Peter's to meet up with our friend, Father Mike Wensing, who is director of the continuing education program at American College Seminary at the Vatican. It was really good to see him again. We also got to see Andy Young, a Mitchell native and former USNA grad who is currently in his 2nd year at the American College Seminary at the Vatican. Fr. Mike took us on a tour of the Seminary which included a trip to the roof top for what he called the second best view of Rome. (First place goes to the view from the top of the dome of St. Peter's). Then we all went to dinner at a little trattoria down the hill from the Seminary and had a great visit with Fr. Mike. After dinner, Fr. Mike excused himself and went home, Sam and Ryan went off to do their thing and the rest of us took a moonlight stroll along the Tiber River back to our hotel.
Wednesday was Vatican tour day! We were all up bright and early--even Ryan--because we had tickets for a guided tour of the amazing rooms in the Vatican Museum, which ended in the Sistine Chapel. In the Sistine Chapel, signs saying, “Silencio” and “No Photos” are all over. They are also totally disregarded by most of the people. Security guards wander through the crowd, shushing and saying, “Silencio!” and “NO PHOTO!” to no avail. What a frustrating job to have. It reminded me of having lunchroom duty from my teaching days. From the Sistine Chapel, we were able to go right into St. Peter's Basilica. Not only did we see incredible paintings, sculptures, and rooms, and we got a lot of really good information from our guide, but we also managed to side step the miles of lines of people waiting to get into the Museum and the Basilica! We felt like we beat the system! When we finally left St. Peter's, we barely had enough time to grab a piece of pizza before getting to our 3:15 Scavi tour, which takes you to the original level of Rome which is underneath St. Peter's Basilica. The Basilica was built on top of an ancient Roman necropolis, or cemetery, including St. Peter's own grave. The tour goes through the crypts and though we all had trouble understanding our Italian guide, it was very interesting. I thought what we saw was very similar to the current Italian cemeteries we have seen with crypts and remains buried in little spaces the walls. The highlight was when we were shown some excavated bones believed to be of St. Peter himself!
Tonight we went to Trastevere, the medieval-village of Rome, across the Tiber River, for dinner at a nice restaurant with outdoor seating, and another relaxing stroll back to the hotel. "La Dolce Vita"--the Good Life! Tomorrow we bid Rome "Ciao" and head to the Amalfi coast. Our days here in Rome went by entirely too quickly.
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