Jan 14 to Jan 17, 2005

Three Walks: About 25 km. total.

Saturday:from Monte Gianicolo west of Trastevere to the Colosseum and return by way of the Pantheon;

Sunday: to the Vatican, over to Villa Borghese (off the top of the map) and back downtown via the Corso;

Monday: to Termini via St Stefano Rotondo and Colle Oppio.

all photos: MMcC unless noted.

then to Frankfurt, Germany

Fresh air and garden view. It was warm enough to have a window open almost all the time.

Friday evening, a concert at the elegant and prestigious American Academy, cappucino at the neighborhood Bar Gianicolo, and a walk along the Garibaldi promenade on Monte Gianicolo.

"Continental" Breakfast Bar at the Hotel. Fresh and prepared fruit, fruit juices, croissants and other pastries and breads with a variety of jellies or almond butter; lemon, apple, almond and several other varieties of tarts; American coffee or cappucino, teas; American style cereals and granola, yogurt, salad with cheese and cold cuts... Not exactly Mickey D's!

Near the hotel we pass S. Pietro in Montorio and Bramante's little Tempietto of 1500 built over the spot traditionally believed to be the exact location of St Peter's crucifixion.

...to Santa Maria de Trastevere, famous for early Christian art and mosaics....

The S. Maria's church piazza looks much today as it did in this drawing of the church done in the 1600s. It was already more than 1000 years old at that time.

The original church was built sometime not later than 337 AD, possibly as early as 222 AD, so it is one of the oldest churches in Rome.

Early Christian gravestones are embedded in the wall of the church at the portico.

Columns of the Temple of Saturn, first built in 498 BC and later modified...

Triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus 203 AD. The columns at left are the Temple of Castor 6AD. The brick wall is a part of the "Rostra" -- named for the pieces of captured enemy ships which were displayed here. This was a site for public speechmaking, (as in "Friends, Romans, Countrymen...") hence our modern term "rostrum."

Trajan's Column, 113 AD, is nearby. It shows over 150 scenes of Trajan's military campaign in Dacia (Romania) carved in a continuous long scroll that wraps around the column. There are over 2600 figures, about 2/3rds life size... The figures are so detailed that they actually are one of our best sources of information about Roman military practice. This column has a spiral staircase carved out of the solid rock within it. It was part of a church from Roman times until the 800s AD. When the church was demolished, this became the first Roman building to be intentionally preserved as a historic artifact. So, it still exists 1200 years later in almost the same condition as in Roman times.

In ancient Rome, this 40 meter high column was the center of a busy market area that extended over many hectares. A computer generated model and explanation of how the entire area looked was done by the Getty museum.

On to S. Pietro in Vincoli, built in 432 AD. The term "in Vincoli" means "chained." The church has chains traditionally believed to be the same ones used to bind St Peter in Herod's dungeons and in Rome. More famous these days, the church has a statue of Moses by the master sculptor Michelangelo. The top figures in the display were carved by Michelangelo's students and are almost thuggish by comparison with the work of the master.

The church was dark and it was hard to get a good picture so these are somewhat edited views. Like a lot of the sights in Roma, this has a bookful of anecdotes attached. This was supposed to be part of a much larger tomb which was to have more than 40 statues. That tomb was never built... the statue is viewed at floor level, but it was designed to be viewed looking up, so it is slightly oddly proportioned... The carving is extremely lifelike -- so much so that tourists are told to look for a chip on the statue's knee. It was supposedly made when Michelangelo was carving the statue -- he was so stunned by the lifelike image emerging from the stone as he carved it, that he grew angry and threw his chisel at the statue, saying "perche non parli?" - why don't you speak!" Hollywood legend says that Charlton Heston was chosen for the role of Moses in the movie "The Ten Commandments" because producer Cecil B Demille thought that he looked like this statue.

From there, back towards the Vittoriano, along the Corso, towards the Pantheon...

Piazza Minerva

The famous Elephant statue holds up an Egyptian obelisk of about 600 BC not far from the Pantheon.

Ancient Rome had a temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis, and that temple had a row of Egyptian obeslisks which over the centuries have been spread around to sites all over the city.

Supposedly this amusing statue was designed by the great artist Bernini as the base for this obelisk, and later carved by one of his students about 1660.

If I had read my guidebooks more carefully I would have gone into this church, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which has several notable items.

The monastery behind the church is the site where Galileo was forced to reject his astronomical discoveries and swear, as the church commanded, that the Earth did not go around the sun.

The Pantheon was built in Roman times by the Emperor Hadrian, probably around the year 120 AD. It became a Christian church in 608 AD, so this space has had a Christian worship service virtually every day for the last 1400 years.

The dome is concrete and was made by piling up a huge mound of dirt, then pouring a concrete shell over the dirt. Stone lining the concrete was especially chosen for its weight. The stone on the lower part of the dome is normal building stone, but the higher levels of the dome are lined with extremely light volcanic stone. This was the largest concrete dome in the world until 1958, when a new building in Paris beat its record!

Interestingly, no one knows what the Pantheon was actually intended to be. What did the Romans use it for? There is no record of why they built it or what it was used for.

The center of the dome has a huge open hole, the oculus, which is 30 feet across.

Piazza Navona, with the statue/fountain of the the Four Great Rivers. There were lots of street entertainers in the piazzas.

To the right is a "living statue" of an Egyptian queen. Little kids are amazed and fascinated by these guys...

Some other living statutes included Jupiter, top-hatted gents, Space Guys, and a Statue of Liberty. They mostly had little audiences which watched them slowly move, then tossed money into their collection boxes (except for the Statue of Liberty, which had no audience and her collection box was empty).

Back across Ponte Massina to the hotel, then by taxi (cheating, but it was getting a little cold!) to wonderful neighborhood restaurant full of Italian families having a Saturday night feast.

Hard to get a feel for the scale of things... The Baldacchino, this canopy structure over the main altar created by the artist Bernini, is giant.

For centuries it has been considered good luck to touch the toe of this statue of 'St Peter Enthroned.' Devout Catholics who kiss St Peter's foot after Mass are given an indulgence of 50 days by Papal decree.

On to Castel Sant Angelo, built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian in 130 AD. and used as a fort for more than 1000 years. Interesting building. Wonderful view of the city.

Not everything in Italy is wonderful. There is some routine tourist junk, like this lunch stand near the train station (left) and the world class snack wagon in Villa Borghese ....

And some people have to be reminded of how to behave, as with this dress code sign in the Vatican City. We won't mention any particular countries that are notorious for not being respectful, but you notice that the labels are in English! p.s. yes, that is a Christmas tree in the background. There was also a large but kind of tacky looking creche....

photo above and below: cjo

Up at five a.m. Wrote in Journal. Then a quick bite, off to airport by a roundabout route. Walked to river, along past Temple of Boario and all the way over past Via del Cerchi, through back alleys by Santa Maria in Dominica and to S. Stefano Rotondo -- it was closed for Restoration. Argh!

Back past ruined Temple of Claudio to Colosseo, up over steep park of the Terme di Traino ruins (which seems to be dogwalk central!) then past a lot of tourist junk stores to St Maria Maggiore and the train station.

Santa Maria Maggiore is built on the site of a Roman temple to the goddess Juno Lucina. She was a favorite of women, especially pregnant women and mothers of small children. The Christian church was probably built in the 400s AD and has a series of 36 mosaics from that period. The entire inside of the church is extremely elaborately decorated with amazingly detailed artwork, sculpture, beautiful stonework, etc. Overwhelming!

I don't know who that guy on the column is.

Termini Centrale -- the trains were clean, reasonably priced and on-time -- and by train to Fiumicino airport and home!