2000 years of history in one day (Tues July 24)

Today we were up early again and off to see Rome.  First stop, the Coliseum.

We really lucked out with the Hotel in Rome, Bailey's Hotel, and give it 5 stars.  It's about the only thing left over from our fired travel agent.  There's only 25-30 rooms and they treat you like royalty, and it's about the same a night as the Embassy Suites was in Atlanta, although here we have adjoining rooms.  If you come to Rome, stay here!

An elegant breakfast.  They set out a free buffet every morning, but Hampton Inn, it is not.   We could get used to living like this!

Our first destination

Our guide today was architect Liz Weber, San Francisco native married to an Italian and mother of boys ages 11 and 9.  She was good with the kids and the parents.  We haven't had a bad guide yet.

Checking out the passageways and elevator shafts that were positioned beneath the floor.

This map shows the extent of the Roman empire at its peak under Emperor Trajan.  Benito Mussolini also had an additional map made and hung next to this to demonstrate the extent of territory that he and Hitler intended to occupy.  (They've taken that one down).

Overlooking the Roman Forum, which is really just a bunch of foundation stones and bits and pieces.

These "long nose" public water fountains are ubiquitous in Rome.

Trajan's Column, the site of his tomb and carved with his exploits.

Close-up view

After our tour concluded we wandered over to the Jewish Ghetto for lunch.

The neighborhood was interesting.  The food was uninspiring.  

At the Memorial to King Victor Emmanuel II, who united the Italian peninsula into the modern state of Italy, in a long process ending about 1870.  There is an elevator around the back of the monument that takes you to a rooftop viewing platform.

The Pantheon is above Logan's head, midground.

The member(s) of the family afraid of heights stayed below.

Colosseum in the background.

The statues of winged victory atop the monument.   Photo Credit:  Davis Bolton

Photo Credit:  Davis Bolton

Immediately adjacent to the monument is the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli.  The Italians have thousands of these ornate churches.  You could spend six months doing nothing but tours of churches.  

Napoleon desecrated this particular church by using it as a horse stable during his occupation.  Although to be honest, the little side chapels do look a lot like a stalls.

Everlie and Ethan ran through the Capitaline Museum which was also next door.  Scott, Logan and Davis couldn't take another museum and sat outside.

A little piece of Constantine.

The She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of Rome, supposedly raised by said She-Wolf.  This image was in every one of Everlie's High School Latin textbooks.  She was so excited to see it.  Scott thinks it's kind of gross.

Parts of some other gianormous statue.

Views of the adjacent Roman Forum, plazas built by successive emperors to contain public meeting space and statues of themselves.

Meanwhile, Logan and Davis ran timed laps around Marcus Aurelius in the courtyard.  The German tourists sitting adjacent got in on the act too.  There was a 5 second penalty if you ran into a Chinese tour group.  The girl in the white shirt had the best time:  18 seconds flat.

The've got more big statues here than you can shake a stick at.

Back in the Forum, surrounded by the debris of centuries.

Titus' Arch.  We probably shouldn't smile in front of this one.  It was built immediately after the sack of Judea and destruction of the temple in Jerusalem ("not one stone was left standing on another").

Palatine Hill.  Former home of many imperial palaces.  Below was the "rec room."

Palatine Hill in general was not very exciting.  A lot of old Roman brick laying around, poor signage, nothing to see.

Next we walked over to the Church of "St. Peter in Chains."  (I'm telling you, you can't run out of churches to see here).

Michelangelo's Moses.  This was originally supposed to be part of a tomb for the Pope, but the project was cancelled.  Michelangelo completed the Moses and started work on 6 other figures which were left unfinished.  The unfinished works are called Michelangelo's Slaves since they are figures still trapped in the rock…or something like that.  4 of the slaves are in the Accademia in Florence and 2 are in the Louvre in Paris.  So, on this trip we've seen Moses and all 6 Slaves.  Cool, Huh?

The "chains."  Supposedly one set held Peter in Prison in Judea (Acts 12), while the other set held Peter, and Paul, in Rome.  No offense, but sometimes these Catholic relics strain credulity.

After that our tired crew was done so we took a combination of Subway and Taxi back to the hotel, stopping for some Italian fast food.  Rome was warmer today, up in the 80s and you could feel it in the mid-afternoon.  This is a hot, dusty and generally grimy place in the summers.  The cars lay a haze of smog down over the city and there is a thin film of dirt on everything.

No, Davis does not have leprosy.  This is just what your feet look like after a day in Rome in sandals or crocs.  

Looks like it is getting hotter later in the week.  Still not as hot here as it is in Dothan, though this climate is getting us slowly re-acclimated to home conditions.  Good news, looks like the rain is leaving town!


Tomorrow: Borghese Art Gallery, and whatever else we find to do.  Ciao!

Vatican City (Mon July 23)

We were up bright and early and off to our meeting with our guide for a tour of the Vatican Museum/ Sistine Chapel/ St. Peter's Basilica.  Rome has been in the throes of a drought and hasn't had rain in almost a month.  Good thing we came...they may start calling us the rainmakers!

Outside the Entrance to the Vatican Museum.   

The Vatican Museum was great.  Even though they have 30,000 visitors per day, it is much better organized than Versailles or the Louvre.  We expected to be crushed in a mob of people but crowd flow was not bad.  Sure, there was a crowd, but you had enough time and space to see the things you wanted to, even the Sistine Chapel.  We also had an excellent guide, Francesca Caruso.  She was our best guide yet, and worth every Euro.  Photos were not allowed in the Sistine Chapel and elsewhere we were so engaged by Francesca's commentary and the objects themselves that we often just forgot to take pictures.  Thus, pictures today do not adequately represent the richness of the experience--apologies to our faithful daily readers!

The Popes collected a lot of Roman sculpture.  Most of the stuff in this hall pre-dates Christ.

They had some fine looking hair-dos!

The view from the Vatican Museum, from what was at one time the Pope's summer villa.

The Laocoon.  It's famous…ask an art person for more details.

An ornate ceiling

Scott went gaga over this one.  It's a giant stone basin sculpted out of a single block of porphyry brought all the way from a quarry in Egypt.  Built for the palace of Nero.  Porphyry is really hard, not quite as hard as diamond but much harder than marble, and really hard to work with.  But this piece is perfect.  Additionally, a single piece that large is almost impossible to find.  This should be much more famous than it is--this is better than the Hope Diamond!

The Romans made these awesome mosaics.  Even more impressive is that they are made out of little pieces of marble, rather than glass, so the variety of colors was really difficult to put together.  This 3-D detail is in the floor under the basin, which originally was part of a bathhouse swimming pool.

Would you guess that this was 2000 years old?  These guys rocked!

 After you visit the Vatican, you realize what the French kings were trying to copy at the Louvre and Versailles.

The Sistine chapel was on this segment of the tour but there were strictly no photographs.  The artificial lights are almost always off to protect the paintings and it was overcast outside so it was a bit dark, but it was still amazing.  Next we filed through the line to get into St. Peter's.

Shuffling through the brief line to get into St. Peter's Basilica.

It is breath-taking inside.  

Those letters at the base of the dome are 7' tall.

Michelangelo's Pieta.  He did this when he was 24, out of a single block of marble.  A popular interpretation is that this young looking Mary is actually holding her baby Jesus, and for a moment can see what will become of Him.  With one hand she holds Him, but with the other she lets go because she knows what needs to happen…we got a little teary.  

The altar beneath the dome which sits on the bones of somebody who might be named Peter.

The statue of liberty could fit inside the dome.  The bronze altar is as tall as a seven story building.  

800 years of rubbing St. Peter's feet for good luck have worn off his toes.

The twisty columns on the altar copy the design on some of the stone columns from the pre-1500 St. Peter's.  Those were rumored to have come from the ruins of the temple in Jerusalem.

The Swiss Guards

In the square

The modern residence of the Pope.  Pope's apartment top floor, far right.

Top of the Sistine Chapel

The boys, overcome by the thousands of years of history that have occurred on this spot.

Afternoon nap.  Looks like we have been wearing them out.

It rained some more, but we did venture out for a good dinner.

Given the rain we have taken a cab a couple of times so far.  Driving here is crazy and the taxi drivers are maniacs.  It's a bit like Ben Hur and the chariot races!

Tomorrow:  The Coliseum and Roman Forum.  Hail Caesar!