"When In Rome" - Day 2 & 3

We woke up to sunny skies and birds chirping outside of our window on Day 2. We dressed for warm weather (since Day 1 was HOT!) and headed out to the Colosseum.

About ten minutes after we left the hotel we realized we had dressed for to warm of weather and that it could rain at any moment. Luckily, right before it started raining, we took shelter in a near-by museum – the Mercati di Traiano – an ancient Roman market which also happened to be the place where Julius Caesar lived in the first century AD. There were many statues that were actually in Caesar’s Palace back on 150 AD. A lot of which were recovered from sewers within the city. The actual marble of the courtyard where Caesar is said to have said “Friends, Roman’s, Countrymen” and “Y Tu Brute” is still there. There was a piece of a statue recovered that was about six feet long that was just part of a hand of one of the statues in Caesar’s Palace so you can image how big the actual statue was.

It was a great place to go to get out of the rain, but we decided to buy some ponchos and head over to the Colusseum. Good thing we did because it started raining pretty hard for the next few hours (even though ponchos look awful…let’s be honest, they keep you dry). One thing about me and Scotty, we are troopers – rain or shine, we will stay on schedule. Plus, we are only in Rome once, and we had to see The Colusseum and Forum at least once in our lives right?

The Colusseum was huge. It was cool to see where the animals and prisoners were taken underground before they were let into the Colusseum to fight/be executed. You can see all of the passageways of the ground floor of the Colusseum because they have removed the middle layer. It’s surprising to me that so many people were so entertained by watching humans die at the hand of animals. According to Wikipedia, there was once a contest “involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.” It reminds me of when people used to be hung or stoned to death in front of their entire towns. According to our map, “Its real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. It was begun under Emperor Vaspasian in 72 AD and finished under his son Titus in 80 AD. Back then - the amphitheater could contain more than 70,000 people. It is organized in three orders of 80 arches adorned respectively with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns.” It had a great view of the Arch de Constantine and we ran into a random cat living on one of the sets of stairs. Truly random.

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Right when we were leaving the sun started shining again and we were excited, because the light was beautiful and perfect for us to go see “The Forum” which is a term for the Roman Ruins. A lot of the ruins have had to be uncovered because of harsh whether in the sixteenth century. The Forum was extremely peaceful… beautiful gardens, birds chirping, the smell of rain and orange trees… it was very heavenly. We got to see where they use to host chariot races and where they used to meet and have famous ceremonies. It is said to be the most famous place in ancient Rome. According to our map it was "damaged by a fire in 283 AD and restored under Emperor Diocletian. From the fourth century, it began to fall into decay, echoing the fate of Rome itself.”

Our favorite part of the Forum was the end because it was sunset and we got to see the second and third of the three main arch’s in Rome – The Arch of Titus & The Arch of Septimius Severus - and a bunch of standing columns from the ancient Roman ruins in the middle of a meadow. It was beautiful.

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Day 3

We decided to wake up early to head to the Vatican because we heard that if we got up early we wouldn’t have to wait in lines. We took a bus to Vatican City and decided to visit Saint Peters Basilica first. The square surrounding Saint Peter’s Basilica is beautiful…It is the biggest square in Rome and makes you feel as if you were living in Roman times yourself. There are 140 statues of Saints, works by Bernini, surrounding the square and beautiful fountains and columns surround the 340 meter area. Turns out, that lines are actually worse in the mornings and that we should have come in the afternoon for shorter lines. We are happy we got started early however, because the Vatican + The Sistine Chapel + St. Peter’s Basilica took us about eight hours to get through.

Our favorite part of the Basilica was the shear size of the basilica itself. Michelangelo wanted it to be PERFECT and didn’t listen to anyone when they told him what to do with it. Apparently he didn’t have many friends because he was a “my way or the highway” kind of person. We loved the “Pieta” with the Madonna holding Jesus – obviously… it’s only one of the most famous works of art in history. We also loved the Bernini bronze piece in the center of the basilica – it is a Baroque sculpted bronze canopy called a baldachin. There is a statue of St. Peter within the basilica where you are supposed to rub the right foot of the statue (but rub both just in case) and he will bless you personally. The renaissance art within the basilica is breathtaking and most of the art in the basilica is a mosaic… yes, little pieces of glass/marble making up the works of art. Talk about attention to detail. There are many saints that have been buried within the basilica and have been embalmed/preserved and made into wax figures so that they can be shown to the public. Scotty and I found this a bit creepy, but cool none-the-less.

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We keep feeling like we are living in the movie/book The Davinci Code/Angels and Demons. Apparently they filmed part of Angels and Demons in the St. Peters Basilica square. There is a secret passage-way between the square and the castle that popes have escaped to in war times.

The Vatican is extremely hard to explain… as are most things in Rome… you kind of have to see them in person to see how amazing everything is. It has been the Pope’s residence since 1377. Since 1377, 265 Popes have lived there. Vatican City is an independent state ruled by the Pope so it is technically separate from Rome and its own country with its own citizens. The Vatican museums have so many little details sculpted into the ceiling and walls and building in general. There are halls and halls and ceilings upon ceilings of amazing, brilliant art. It’s impossible to look at it all. There were thousands of statues, thousands of paintings, thousands of PEOPLE too. It’s hard to move and breathe. 40,000 people per day visit the Vatican.

We ended in the Sistine Chapel (Scott’s favorite part of the day) with the famous ceiling frescos Michelangelo painted in 1481 and “Last Judgment” painting by Michelangelo in 1535 (he painted this when he was 60). Apparently Michelangelo painted everyone naked within “Last Judgment” and the church did not like that so they asked him to paint clothes on the figures. Michelangelo refused, so the church left the clothes off until Michelangelo died. They then had another artist paint clothes onto the figures. I am baffled by the fact that they would deface the work of art like this. Michelangelo painted them naked because he said that on judgment day, we will all be naked before God. I think is very true and the piece is not the same without what was intended by the artist. I am personally just not a fan of anyone’s artwork being changed without their consent.

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We are having a blast.

More at http://jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com

Carpe Diem - Rome, Day 1

We started out the day by taking a train from the airport to the Termini Station in Rome. When we got off the train we had assumed we’d be able to use our GPS to find everything we were looking to find, but the GPS wasn’t picking up a signal so we were o our own. No electronics reliance for us! So we went “old school” and got a map. It took us a minute, but we finally figured out where our hotel was on the map and started walking. On our way to the hotel, we were stopped by a cute old woman. She welcomed us in Rome and told us her story. She said she had lived in San Francisco for 15 years with her husband, but he had passed on so she came back to her home – Rome. She reached in her purse and pulled out a bunch of pictures of her past – when she was young, her house in San Francisco, her family… then she asked if I wanted a piece of candy. I know… you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, but I did : ) I am such a rebel! Then she says… “I don’t have a second piece of candy for your husband, but wait here and I will run to the grocery store to get one.” And we politely said “that’s okay, it was nice to meet you! Thanks for telling us your story!”

What a way to welcome us in Rome eh?

So we started the journey to our hotel and got there in about 15 minutes (after learning to read a map again). I feel so dependent on Google Maps and GPS systems these days.

Our hotel room is similar to what we stayed in in Amsterdam and Prague… small, but a place to sleep : ) The view outside is amazing, though, and we hear beautiful Italian bells all day long.

We were exhausted from the long flight, but eager to get out and see the city. We figured that we should not sleep when we got to Rome because we had to adjust to the time change – even though we REALLY wanted too : ) So we looked at the map and set out on our adventures.

We started walking and soon realized we would not need a map to see all the beautiful things in Rome. There are beautiful things everywhere…. Fountains, statues, beautiful architecture. The first thing we came across was an amazing fountain with four huge beautiful statues coming out of it. We decided to get some gelato and sit next to the fountain. My sister’s fiancé Sam went on his mission in Italy and he said the No. 1 thing to do is eat A LOT of gelato. So no need to hesitate, right? I had the strawberry gelato and Scott had the chocolate and I can tell you that I have eaten gelato in a lot of places in this world, but the gelato in Italy is by far the best.

We then headed to the Fontana di Trevi (The Trevi Fountain). If you don’t know what the Trevi Fountain is, let me tell you… It is a slice of heaven placed on the earth. In fact, I would say that about Rome in general, with its Byzantine art (known for the golden halo around the head in artwork), and renaissance architecture. Scotty and I sat next to the fountain for quite a while and just inhaled the beauty. The Trevi Fountain was one of the major aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. There is legend that if you turn your back to the fountain and throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain that you will come back to Rome one day. You are also supposed to drink the water from the fountain (not from the actual fountain, but from the right side above the steps). We tried both : ) We were told that you shouldn’t have people take pictures of you because there are a lot of people that will steal your camera, but we just find people who speak English (mainly couples) and offer to take their picture first then have them take one of us. It’s working out well.

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We then decided to try to find the Pantheon and in doing so ran into a bunch of other famous architecture/artwork. I wish I could have brought my 20 pound art history book with me so that I could dissect all the amazing things we are seeing.

As soon as we walked into the Pantheon we got chills. There is a hole in the top of the Pantheon because the creator was trying to make the dome perfectly spherical (and using the Pythagorean Theorem and other mathematical calculations to do so). Everything here is mathematically perfect in proportion. I think that this hole which the creator considered a “flaw” makes it SO much better because there is sunlight that comes in and hits a new piece of art in the building at different times of day. Also – it feels like the rays of God are shining in on you and on the artwork. It is simply breathtaking. It is the only pagan temple in classical style still almost intact in Rome and was commissioned to be built in 27 BC and dedicated to the guardian deities of the Emperor’s family. After the fire the temple was rebuilt between 118 and 125 A.D. Today it hosts the tombs of famous people, like the artist Raphael (who Scott mentioned is his favorite ninja turtle haha!) and the kings of Italy. Scott said this was his favorite thing we saw all day because he was in aw of the sheer size of the building and the fact that it was still standing after 2000 years. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be capable of building it.

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We decided to get lunch in a cute little café by the Trevi Fountain and needed to rest our feet… us two overachievers had probably walked ten miles at that point. We enjoyed the people watching and relaxation. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One other thing that I wanted to mention about our first day – We were looking at another gorgeous monument when we noticed a bunch of police/swat teams swarming in and not allowing people to go in to the monument. We were scared that we were in the middle of a terrorist attack of some kind because traffic was stopped and helicopters were overhead. Then, out of nowhere, we were in the middle of a “Free Palestine” political rally. There were thousands of people marching on behalf of the cause, and a leader yelling through a microphone to “Free Palestine” – we felt like we were in the middle of a 1960s political rally in the U.S.

After the long flight and long day, we both enjoyed a long 11 hours of sleep and are ready for day 2!

More at jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com