Rome - The Eternal City (in two days!)

The first leg of our journey South (Rome/Castelmezzano/Bari) last week was to Rome.  Ken hadn't been to Rome since 1970, so it was probably time.  We were lucky to find a very nice and inexpensive hotel in the center of the historic district that was close to the Pantheon and a lot of other sites.

Rome is only about 2 hours train ride from Florence with the high speed trains they have, so we got to spend the afternoon visiting St Peter's Basilica.  The crowds of people were much enormous and we had to stand in line for about 40 minutes in the hot sun just to get into the Basilica (still free).  The line to get tickets for the Vatican and museums was even longer, so we passed on that.  No Sistine Chapel this time.  But St. Peter's is still as spectacular as ever.

Inside St Peter's with the tomb of St Peter under the canopy

The dome, looking up

Michelangelo's Pieta is now behind glass, so you can't go up and touch it.

....but it's still one of the most spectacular pieces of artwork ever constructed.
The guards made no pretense of stopping people from taking photos, so everybody snapped away to their heart's content.

The floors, as we noted in other churches here in Italy, are magnificent.

As we exited, we were lucky enough to catch the changing of the Swiss Guards (they get younger all the time!).  Their costumes were created by Michelangelo and have never changed. 

The most disturbing part of the visit was that we think Theresa got her money belt pick-pocketed on a crowded bus ride over from the hotel.  We say think, because when we got back to the hotel we did a money count and very little, if anything, was missing,  But the money belt was clearly open and not how she had put it on.  This gave us not so nice a feeling about Rome, even if little damage was done.

The next day we spent most of the day in the ancient Roman ruins - the Colosseum, the Forum, the temples.  It just went on and on, and we could have seen more if our stamina hadn't given out.  Here are some samples of the sights:

Of course, THE Colosseum, where as we're now told, NO Christians ever died - just animals.

Some of the beautiful open green space around the park

One of at least three triumphal arches.  This one is by Constantine, to celebrate his victory over a rival general (in his pre-Christian days)

A close-up of a scene on Titus' arch.  Note the Roman troops carrying the minorah.  This was to celebrate his destruction and pillaging of Jerusalem around 70AD.  An eerie meeting of biblical and secular histories.

Lilac were in bloom then.  I couldn't resist.

This unimpressive looking hut was to mark where Julius Caesar was cremated after being murdered.  People were still putting flowers there!

An overall view of the crowds and the welter of temples and ruins

The Temple of Saturn and miscellaneous rock pillars.  Many of the old temples had been converted to Christian churches and, while preserved, the original features were buried under later construction or renovation.

Later that afternoon after re-energizing we walked around the neighborhood around the hotel.  Here's the Piazza Navona, very nearby, a nice picnic and people-watching place.

As we left the piazza, we passed this most Italian of events - the "sciopero" (strike).  Not sure what this one was all about, but everything was peaceful and the carabinieri were chatting with these old guys having their sitdown strike.   Actually (knock on wood) we've had no problems with strikes here and things move quite smoothly.

As I mentioned, the Pantheon was nearby.  While obviously a beautiful Roman temple, it got converted to a Christian church early on, and so was spared the worst treatment.  Since this was Roman Cultural Week, we were surprised to find out that all state owned historic sites were free to the public.  Of course this made them crowded, but the crowds were well behaved and didn't create too much of a problem for us.

While not so beautiful on the weathered outside, this video gives you a better impression of its inside size and shape than still photos.  You can also get a sense for the noise level there.  This is with signs and guards all around saying "Silenzio"!

The Trevi Fountain was a bit further on, still as beautiful as ever.  Tre remembers that when she was here around 1990 they were told not to go there at night, that the area was dirty and dangerous.  Well, now it's just full of tourists, day and night, all having a good time (with the usual hassle by vendors trying to sell stuff - watches, leather goods, glowing necklaces, and little glowing gyros that fly into the air at night).

And finally, looking off into the sunset... St Peter's. in the distance.