Part 3 - Roma

Up to part 3, if you have not been here for a while check out parts 1 and 2 first.

After two days of guided tours we now had a couple of days to sleep a little late, go at our own pace, and check out some more sites. At least that is what I intended to do. I am quickly realizing I am an all out vacationer and there is no rest for the weary. Even with good intentions I still felt like I pushed everyone to go fast and hard to see as much as we could. On Tuesday morning I was seeing a forecast for rain starting Wednesday afternoon into Thursday. That made me feel like we would have time to rest when the rain started, for today we needed to GO!

We started out on foot headed west from our apartment. That is Trajan's Tower in the background. We didn't know anything about it at the time, but on a later tour we found out. You may not be able to tell really well from this pic, but there are engravings (called a "spiral bas relief") all the way around and up this tower that tell the story of Trajan and the numerous battles and victories by the Romans. This was completed in 113AD, wow.

We came across this building many times during our stay as it was close to our apartment and it is huge. It is a monument to a deceased king from the end on the 19th century. In 1921 a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added after World War I on the outside front part of the structure.

We climbed the many levels of steps outside and entered the monument to climb several more flight to get the view above. There was an elevator that would take you to the roof but we passed on that. It was early morning and there was a haze that had not burned off yet.

We took several pics of typical Rome streets. This one is a good example showing the small cars and scooters that dominate the streets. In part one I mentioned driving instead of flying here. It would have only taken a couple of more hours to drive, but thank goodness we didn't. I thought that I was doing pretty good driving in Europe, after all we did make it around Nice France for a week driving a Volvo SUV without incident. I truly do not know how anyone drives in Rome. There are not really lanes, in many areas just wide open streets with cars and scooters dodging and weaving. Many of the cities that we have seen try to give the public transportation system some sort of advantage with a bus lane and lights that allow the buses to go before the cars or scooters. Not here, the bus drivers are just really good I guess and based on our experience later in the trip, the bus arrival times are merely suggestions. While in Nice the motorcycles and scooters drove me nuts. They have a widespread practice where they drive in between lanes and along the curb to pass all of the cars waiting on a red light. The get all the way in front of the first car waiting then take off, most of the time there are several that do this at each light in some cases causing others that were in front of them to get stuck at the same light over and over because there is nowhere to go. This was a huge thing in Rome too, but I think the scooter to car ratio is much higher in Rome. Again, luckily we did not drive and I only had to see it while walking the streets or in the couple of times that we actually had to be in a van or bus to get somewhere.

Our next site was the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It is a sixteenth century church and one of a few that we saw on this day. We actually had one stop before this. It was the old palace of a wealthy family that you could tour and see the art on the walls. For a while I was trying to figure out if it was the place that I had on our itinerary that was built on top of an ancient home. After looking at the presentation and speaking to the ticket guy we realized it was just another palace, and it was not cheap to see. The kids were excited that they did not have to tour another palace, and we moved on to our church tour.

We saw these islands of scooter parking all over. It was crazy how many there are and how they would have to work to get out of it when the time came.

St. Maria Sopra Minerva Basilica was close by. It was one of the few Gothic style buildings that we saw. Here was the thing about the churches. There was always one person in front of the door begging for money. We saw a lot of homeless people all over Rome, but especially in front of the churches. I commented to Cindy that at least they don't infringe on each other's turf, it was always just one person. One of the guys was pretty good at his approach. He was motioning and making gestures as if he was the official collector of the church and that donations to go in were being accepted by him. I am not sure what the church itself would think about that approach. There were a lot of people on the street and it was very clear that the economic conditions in Rome/Italy are not that great right now. We already talked about how aggressive the street vendors are. David and I talked about the aggressiveness and what people will do to survive and provide for their family. We used it as a lesson to him pointing out that if you hustled and gave that much effort in good times, working hard, just think about what you can accomplish. Not sure if he got it or not, but it was a good talk.

The last church was very close to the Pantheon. We had to pretty much pass it on the way, so below is a shot from behind. I had seen the columns from the front but I don't think I realized it was a big dome structure inside. I really didn't know what it was, I had just heard of it. The Pantheon. I just like to say it, the name is good I think, it translates to temple of all gods. It is a structure that was first started before Christ. The outside looks really old, as you might imagine, the inside was just a big open area. It was nice, but I can see why the outside is what it is more known for, at least to me it is.  

The square outside was very busy with people and shops all around. I didn't want to look at them, so they have been cropped out of the picture. 

Our last stop in our westerly route was at Piazza Novona and the Fountain of the Four Rivers. It turns out the building in the background was another church, but we didn't plan on or decide to go in. The scene on the square was tame in the afternoon. There were a lot of street vendors but it seemed that all of them were artists. There were dozens of little places set up for individual artists displaying and selling their work. In the buildings around the piazza there were restaurants and little shops that we browsed in for a while. At the far end we found a gelato shop and decided to partake. As we were sitting next to a small fountain another guy came up trying to sell those squishy blob things. Again, poor timing as we were just enjoying the scene eating our gelato. At one point he said he would sell it for one euro, we still refused even though Katherine was begging for one. It was an annoyance factor. When we decided that we were ready to head out I had a two euro coin in my pocket, perfect for each of the kids to get a squishy. We found the guy and told him we wanted a pink and blue squishy and gave him the coin. He fired back at Cindy and said four euros for two. Here we go again. Cindy kept putting the squishy down on his little demonstration table, he would pick it up and hand it back to the kids, over and over. She stood toe to toe with the guy eventually demanding the money back. He finally figured out that he was not going to get any more money, it was two squishy things for two euro or nothing. The kids walked away with their new squishy thing. Now they are back home in Germany never to be used again.

We had walked a good ways already today and started talking about how we wanted to get back. At one point during the gelato break I saw a horse and buggy that looked like fun. I asked the guy how much, he told me 200 euro for a 40 minute ride. I really thought this was just a starting amount and I must have looked like an easy target. I tried to negotiate a much more reasonable price, they guy wanted nothing to do with it. We did not do the horse buggy thing on this day.

It was a nice leisurely walk back towards the apartment. We stopped a short distance down the road at this restaurant for a coffee. We kept seeing people walk out of the place with a little folded pizza thing, the sign called it Super Pizza. We decided that we had to try it. It might have been the best thing that we ate while in Rome. The outside sitting areas are so great, if only people weren't allowed to sit right next to you and smoke. We have the same frustration in Germany at the beer gardens. So many people smoke in Europe you almost never walk outside without smelling it from somewhere.

 More street pictures

This area is located just behind our apartment building. It is the home of the Italian President along with many other government offices as well as the Italian Constitution resting place.  

It is a pretty significant uphill walk, and one site says this is the highest of the seven major hills in Rome. We took the below pic of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the distance. 

Random Building close to our apartment. 

Day 4

At this point in the "vacation" we have been going pretty hard each day and everyone is fading fast. Katherine was sick before we even left and now she is showing fever at times, but still mild. Late yesterday David was fit to be tied with a sore throat and obviously feeling ill. Cindy and Katherine had been sharing bugs back and forth for days. I was okay at this point, but really tired of the uncomfortable bed and nights with little sleep. We are on vacation, so no excuses, day 4. Again, rain in the forecast for later this afternoon, we will have plenty of time for rest later, now it is time to go explore this morning. 

This time we headed east and south. This walking tunnel led us to St. Peter in Chains Basilica. The green truck way in the distance is the street level that we came from. It was a big hill with several groups of steps. You can see a dude in the middle of the tunnel. At this point in the trip Cindy and I were getting pretty good at flanking Katherine when we came close to other people. Why, well because they kept touching her. It was truly amazing how many people throughout our tours and sightseeing adventures wanted to touch Katherine. that long blonde hair, blue eyes, and little girl factor was just too much I guess. Katherine did not like it too much either. She is pretty shy with people that she has never met. She warms up to them pretty quick after a while, but the complete strangers on the street touching her head, she was not happy. I don't blame her, Mommy and Daddy were not real excited about it either. 

I found the legend about the Michelangelo work "Moses" interesting. It says that upon completion Michelangelo told Moses to speak, when it did not he threw his chisel at it damaging the knee of Moses. That dude was wack!

Below are said to be the chains that held Peter prisoner in Jerusalem along with the chains from his imprisonment in Rome.

After seeing the Roman Forum earlier in the trip I was fascinated with the concept of levels of history and new eras just building on top of older buildings over time. The next church was a great example of that. St. Clement Basilica is an 11th century church that is built on top of a 4th century church that is built on top of a 1st century home. You can tour all three levels. They did not allow photographs in any of it, but it was very cool. The older church still had some remains of the paintings and frescoes on the walls. There were actually the remains of two homes at the lowest level with a very narrow passage between them.  

This is the Basilica of St John Lateran, the oldest of the four major Papal Basilicas. The above picture turned out to be a rear or side entrance. It was built in the third century.

This place was very beautiful and very impressive I thought. St. Peter's Basilica is said to be the largest, but this one felt larger to me. There were numerous grand halls going in all directions. These pictures only captured parts of it.

We left out of this hall, which seems to be the main entrance. The exterior was much more grand than where we entered. The interior was lined with these huge statues on both sides.

Across the street from the basilica is another small church. The attraction here are these stairs. You are only allowed to climb them on your knees as they are considered to be holy stairs that Jesus once walked on. Below is a more in depth detail. I think it is large enough that if you click on it and zoom in you can read it.

We did not climb the stairs. Just took a couple of pictures and looked around. As you might imagine it was a very solemn place. There was a priest there that was fascinated with Katherine and touching her hair. The kids did really well here, we walked out and the priest told them they did good.

This was one of the streets on the way back. You cannot see it very well, but the Colosseum was at the end of the street.

We stopped and ate at this cute little restaurant along the way.  

There was a large park/green area that had this view along with several homeless people sleeping on the benches.

We were on a little bit of a schedule this early afternoon. In the morning we had purchased a tour of Le Domus Romane, the remains of another ancient Roman home. This was very different from our other underground experience. Alone the way we were a few minutes early so we found a great bench to sit and rest while people watching. We were looking across at ancient ruins that included Trajan's market.

The domus tour is located under a sixteenth century palace that is now a government building and the official seat of the Province of Rome. Including the four of us I think there were only ten people in our group. We headed inside and once down the first set of stairs we were standing on clear plexi glass over the remains of the domus. What made this tour unique is the clear floor and the use of sound and projection. The tour guide was really only useful to press the button on the screen that said "English". Everything else was a prerecorded  presentation that was synchronized to pretty sophisticated projection system that covered many rooms. Again, they did not allow photos, but trust me that this was a cool tour. The projection system would highlight elements of the presentation and in some cases recreate some details lost to time. There was a mosaic floor that was missing some pieces and sections, the projection system filled in the blanks precisely to give a complete image of how it looked. One of the rooms they were able to project on all of the walls at the same time to give a feel for how the room looked in its time. Where the domus had water features they used sound and projection to make it look as if clean water was in the remains of the pools and baths. This might have been my favorite thing that we did in Rome outside of the Vatican and Colosseum. It was a great use of technology to drive interest in the history of this place. At one section we saw the foundation of the present day palace. It was put right in the middle of an amazing floor mosaic that was still mostly intact. At the end we sat down to watch a detailed history of Trajan's Column. Remember it, that we saw yesterday? The video was a little longer than I would have liked as it explained the story that the column was telling all the way up. Still interesting, but long. Below us in the floor was remains of the largest diameter granite columns that I have ever seen. These were described as columns that were once around Trajan's column that made up a temple of sorts. In the end the guide took us to a tunnel where we got to see an up close view of the column.

This is just a screen capture from Google street view. The bottom area just left of the column will give you an idea of the view. I think we looked from a different vantage point, but this will give you an idea how close we were. The building to the right and below the dome is the rear of the palace that was built on top of the Domus. Once again I am amazed that the landscape can change so much that you can just build a new building on top of another and not even know or care that it was there. Here is a link to a brochure for this tour. It does not do it justice, they need a marketing department.

http://www.palazzovalentini.it/depliant_en.pdf


We ended up getting a little bit of rain that evening. We had a relatively short day since everyone was a little sickly. The next day was Pompeii. A very early morning and long day of travel and sightseeing. At this point nobody wanted pizza or pasta so it was a hearty Burger King dinner and rest.

Next entry will be the final one for the trip, Pompeii and Naples. Contrary to my Uncle Larry's accusation we were long gone from Pompeii when some of the walls collapsed. I have no idea why that would have happened.