Italia Day 23 - Roma

By day 4 in Roma we were both very tired. I went for an early run to clear the cobwebs and took the opportunity to revisit a couple of tourist sites senza crowds. E.g., Fontana di Trevi - quite a peaceful place without the hundreds of people.

Piazza del Popolo, a huge piazza filled with various fountains, obelisks, portas & monuments.

There were lots of police standing around for some reason, but not many other people.

And the spanish steps - without the street vendors and much more pleasant.

There were only 2 things on our agenda for the last day in Roma - stop 1 was the Capuchin Crypt beneath Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. It was truly amazing and humbling. Filled with the bones of mostly monks that died between the 16th-19th centuries, it's not just a graveyard, but a sculpture gallery. Due to the sacred nature of the building, I don't have any photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it - outstanding.

Stop 2 was a picnic in the Villa Borghese Gardens. Our plans were nearly thwarted when we couldn't locate a supermarket or even deli anywhere within a kilometre of the gardens. Lucky we persevered & eventually we found a small deli & a fruit stall &, loaded up with bread, fruit & juice, made our way back to the gardens for a late lunch.

Afterwards we wandered through the vast estate - this is a view down to Place del Popolo, with St Peter's in the background.

And one of the lakes - it was filled with turtles & ducks. You could hire small boats to row around it - very cute.

Finally, after a lazy afternoon in the gardens we walked all the way over the other side of Roma to Trastevere for dinner. I loved it - a thriving village filled with more restaurants, cafes & bars than you could ever possibly have time to visit.

After a lovely dinner it was time to farewell Roma. On the way back we stopped outside the wedding cake & could finally spot the eternal flame burning on the tomb of the unknown soldier. They take it very seriously - each flame has an armed guard with a machine gun standing close by 24 hours a day.

Arrivederci Roma & thank you for a great ride!

Italia Day 22 - Roma

Our awesome tour guide, Luke, from the day before, had told us he was running a tour of the Pope's House early the next day. We knew we had to do it & were really looking forward to the application of his dry humour to the subject matter.

Unfortunately (and not the fault of Luke), the crowds at the Vatican are the most ridiculous sight I have ever seen. From the line up of over 1hr just to get through security screening, to the 30min queue for the toilets, to the crush inside the Vatican museums, I didn't really enjoy any of it. Despite being pretty much pushed by the crowds from behind the whole time to keep moving through the galleries, I did manage to take some photos & learn some stuff. This is a statue of Apollo - Michelangelo used the face from this statue as the face of Jesus in the Sistine Chapel.

And this is a torso of Hercules - this is what Michelangelo modelled Jesus' body on.

One of the gallery contains marble statues of animals. I liked this Boar.

And this monkey.

Close up of one of the Raphael tapestries.

The gold-leaf ceiling of one gallery.

The next stop after the Vatican Museums was the Sistine Chapel. Obviously, not allowed to take photos in there. Despite feeling quite unwell & claustrophobic by that stage, I did still enjoy hearing about the history of the frescoes.

To our great relief, soon we got a breath of fresh air & room to actually stretch our arms. This is looking out over St Peter's Square, with the all the chairs set up ready for the Pope's weekly address the next day.

The immense entry of St Peter's Basilica.

The right foot of this St Peter statue is pretty much worn away now - people come to rub it & receive a blessing.

The huge dome. It's impossible to convey the scale of this church - remember it has the largest interior of any church in the world.

A Swiss Guard outside the Basilica. These guys have such a serious job, but I can't help but giggle a little bit over their uniforms.

Looking up at St Peter's from the square.

Surrounding the square are huge columns - 4 rows deep - designed by Bernini. There is a point marked on the square - when you stand there the 4 rows of columns should line up exactly so it looks like just one row. It really works!

Because of the crowds and the delays our 4 hour tour turned into about 5.5hrs. We started wandering along the river. This is a bridge (too lazy to look up the name), lined with marble statues.

The Castel Sant'Angelo has provided refuge for a number of Popes over the years - there is a tunnel between it & the Vatican.

View back to St Peter's from the banks of the Tiber.

Meandering our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at the Pantheon to have a look.

Big crowds again, but the scale of the building could handle it.

As soon as you walk through the door your eyes are drawn upwards to the Dome & the open skylight - as it was designed to do.

View from the outside, showing the church behind.

Next along the way was the Fontana di Trevi.

It's a huge fountain, but boy, so were the crowds. We still managed to get close enough to throw our coins in though.

Italia Day 21 - Roma

My day started bright & early as I wanted to go for a jog & check out the city before the crowds hit. I started running down the main street near the hotel & before I knew it was in the ancient quarter. I turned my head to the left at one intersection & there it was - The Colosseum.

I didn't get much jogging done because every 5 metres was another ancient ruin to look at & photograph. This is part of the Roman Forum, not that I knew it at the time.

The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (or Wedding Cake), with (as I found out later that day), the goddess Nike gracing its roof.

Some church steps I liked the look of.

Eventually I reached the river I had been aiming for - the Tevere or Tiber.

At this point it flows quite rapidly.

I was surprised in Rome (as I had been in Paris), how deserted the river was. Not much attention gets paid to it for some reason.

Later that day, at an hour far more suitable to my friend S, we headed back to the Colosseum to have a look inside. Here is the obligatory tourist shot.

Just some of the crowds lining up to get in. We ended up paying for a tour (with SPQR - I recommend them) and I'm glad cos we got to skip the lines, plus found out lots of interesting history along the way.

Here you can see where they have recreated part of the floor that once covered the arena. What you can see today is the basement area - where all the animals & gladiators & whatnot came up from.

Dark clouds rolling in.

There were many more photos, but I won't keep boring you with just one monument.

After a quick lunch we started the next part of the tour - in the Roman Forum & Palantine. We had a new guide called Luke & he was awesome. English, with a very dry sarcastic humour. He was the highlight of Rome for me. Moving on, this is part of the Roman forum with the Senate in the background.

I have completely forgotten the name of this temple, but it had a very interesting history, which I have also forgotten. What I do remember is that it's currently being excavated - in the middle of this temple is a church that was obviously added to the temple at some stage. I loved that about Rome - everything is layer upon layer upon layer.

Close up of the Senate with the rain clouds which were about to open up on us.

Long view of the forum with Luke in the foreground.

I think this is part of the Temple of Concord. We saw so many temples, they are all starting to blend into one.

The Temple of Vesta. The history of the Vestal Virgins is very interesting, I recommend you have a read.

The Vestal garden & baths - with the Emperors balcony in the background. Nice view for some.

After the tour we walked around the Palantine Hill for ages. This is Mussolini's palace - inside is a museum with really ancient treasures - even by Roman standards. I think some were dated 35,000 BC or something silly.

These were some unnamed ruins.

One final view from the top of Palantine Hill towards the wedding cake.

Me getting rained on in front of the Senate - thought I should get a photo in front of the home of our modern legal system, being a legal researcher & all.

The edge of the Teatro Marcello, just near the Forum.

We certainly packed a lot into the day. That evening we headed back across town to a vegetarian restaurant I wanted to try. On the way we passed the Spanish Steps. This is the Trinita dei Monti that sits at the top of the steps.

Just writing about this has been exhausting. And this was only Day 1!