Day 7: Our Guided Tour of Rome

We met our guide, Barbara, in the lobby and talked about the different things we were going to see that day.  She said she was expecting an older couple because she forgot Americans got married so young.

We began our tour by heading to the area of the president's palace.  On our way she immediately  began picking out different details of architecture and sculptures that we wouldn't have noticed on our own.  She told us about this museum near our hotel that was the residence of a very wealthy family years ago called the Barbarinis.  She pointed out the shield of armor for them that was on columns outside this museum.  It has three honey bees on it.  After that point we saw more family crests and again saw more bees around the town. 

After she told us about the Barbarini coat of arms we then headed up to the tops of the highest of the seven hills that made up Rome.  Once we were at the top we then went into a church that had paintings on the ceiling that were made to look 3-D.  These were nothing short of breath-taking. 

Notice Jesus carrying his cross right into the clouds in the middle of the ceiling

So amazed at how they painted these columns on a flat ceiling but they look like they are going straight into the sky

After we finished with the church, we crossed the street and found ourselves in the middle of a plaza that was located directly in front of the President's Palace!  This place use to be where the ancient senators and Popes built their residences to escape malaria and other diseases of the low lying areas of the city.  The name of the President's Palace is Palazzo del Quirinale.  The fountain in the plaza were of Castor and Pollux with their horses (these are the protectors of horses.

On the balcony of the palace there are three flags, the European allegiance, Italian and the President's flag.  When the President leaves the Palace, his flag is taken down and is taken with him.  From here we made our way down to the Trevi Fountain, which depicts the God of the sea, with two mythological men with horses on either side, which depict the calmness and the fury of the sea. 

Above that are two statues of women, one describing the fruitfulness of Rome and the other being the Goddess of medicine.  At the top of the statue is smaller figures (reliefs) the one on the right is of a woman who showed the Romans the spring and the other on the left is of the architect showing the plans to the emperor of building the first aquaduct.  Above that are four female statues - one for each season (you cant see these in the above picture). 

After our guide finished showing us the fountain we were able to get some local food for breakfast called "white pizza with prosciutto."  Basically its pizza dough sliced open with the prosciutto stuffed inside - like a sandwich.  Prosciutto was a poor man's meat during the Roman's time and is now a very familiar meat to most people.  These hit the spot!  As we were eating and taking in the views of Rome, we came to the Palace of the Prime Minister which was very nice.  It had an Egyptian column (I can't remember the proper term for this) with hieroglyphics chiseled into it in the courtyard. 

Then we made our way down to one of the most astounding buildings in Rome, the Pantheon.  The structure is exactly 142 feet tall by 142 feet wide.  This creates a perfect dome inside the building.  If there was a sphere large enough, it could fit inside the building perfectly.  The ceiling is still open and when the summer solstice begins the sun is directly above the circle and it allows for a perfect cone of sunlight to enter the Pantheon - coming straight down from the heavens.  The name of the opening in the ceiling is the oculus, "eye of heaven."  This was just amazing.

They were doing construction on the right side of the Pantheon

The Oculus.  Notice how the squares are around the dome as well - this design allowed for weight to be taken out

Since the roof was open the floor was sloped and there were holes scattered around so that the rain could drain off of the floor.  The tomb of the famous architect, Raphael, is also found within the walls of the Pantheon.  He died fairly young (for that time and ours) at age 36.  He sure accomplished a lot in that time.

Raphael's tomb

After seeing the Pantheon we made a stop at a small street market.  they had some beautiful flowers, fruit and vegetables and other merchandise.  At this point we were pretty tired, so we just sat and rested.  The tour guide allowed us time to ourselves while we walked around the market. 

Our next stop was at a very large square, which was almost a "U" shape.  She told us it was in this shape because it was built over top of a racetrack from ancient times.  There was a very impressive fountain in the middle of the square (which we were told was in the "Angels and Demons" movie when the guy in the chair gets pushed into the water).  There were four men on each corner which represented the four continents which they were aware of at that time - Europe, Asia, Africa and America.  There was a cactus with the America statue.

 

Our next stop wasn't planned.  She saw this church that she said she had never seen the doors open before today.  So we decided to check it out.  The outside of the church was decorated in skulls.  When we walked in we saw they were having some sort of stamp exhibit - stamps of different Popes.  She pointed out different things she noticed.  There was an hour-glass with wings on either side painted on the wall - depicting how "time flies."  There were skull paintings and sculptures decorated around the sanctuary.

The nun that was in the church told us that the crypt was open downstairs if we wanted to check it out.  It was very creepy.  The guide made Nate go first.  He turned on the light and we walked down the stairs to find a chandelier made of real human bones - vertebrae, sacrums and other bones.  

 

 There were real human skulls in shelves on the walls.  There was even a cross made of skulls...  We discovered some of the skulls on the shelves were written on telling of when and how they died or where killed.  You could see bullet holes in some of the skulls.  It was crazy!!  We got out of there pretty quickly!

The next stop on our tour was along the Tibre River - it is the oldest bridge in Rome.  I can't remember the exact date but I believe it was like 38 BC.  It connected to an island that was in the middle of the river.  There is a church and a huge hospital there now.  It use to be where they would isolate people with diseases so as to not spread any illnesses.

You can see the bridge on either side of the island

She brought us through the Jewish ghetto next.  We walked past the Jewish synagogue - which was very nice.  She told us about how close the most recent Pope was to the Jewish priest.  He even mentioned him in his last will and testament.  This is a pretty big deal.  We walked through some ruins that she described in a way that made them come alive.  We walked past ruins which use to be the fish market in ancient times.  There was a theater that was built by a Roman emporer in honor of his favorite nephew, Marcelo.  It was just amazing to see these pieces of buildings from nearly 2,000 years ago. 

After that she brought us to a fine little cafe that she knew of that was nice and quiet.  I ordered the gnocchi (which was shrimp and prones).  The prones tasted like dumplings but we later found out t hey're like potatoes.  Nate had himself some ravioli.  We both had ourselves some wine as well.  We have discovered that I am a white wine drinker and Nate is a red wine drinker.

After lunch we headed to Capitol Hill.  She told us that the stairs we were walking up were designed by Michelangelo.  He designed them to where your head automatically looks up in order to hold your head high in pride of yourself - versus the steps perpendicular to those which lead to a church.  These steps made you automatically look down, like you were bowing your head out of respect for the church.  The square and the face of the buildings of Capitol Hill were redesigned by Michelangelo as well.  It was impressive.

the steps on the left lead to the church and the steps on the right lead to Capitol Hill

We then walked behind the monument to King Emmanuel (the huge white building) and was told by Barbara that inside the gigantic bronze horse statue with King Emmanuel on it that the designer had supper inside the horse with 27 of his favorite workers (before the top of the horse was placed on top).  We didn't really  believe her until we saw a picture. 

After admiring the building we walked to the Roman Forum.  This was amazing.  It was discovered through excavations.  The ground was much lower in ancient Roman times.  It has gradually risen from floods placing layer upon layer of silt on the structures.  She pointed out certain structures and helped us picture what they looked like thousands of years ago.  Some buildings were for government use, some for civil use - some were  banks and some were homes.  Of course there were churches as well. 

The Roman Forum

She told us that the road we were walking on was also walked on by Caesar Augustus - the first Roman Emporer.  This road was over 2,000 years old.  She showed us the actual place that Julius Caesar was killed.  He was stabbed to death by Senators because he was looked upon as a dictator.  Julius was trying to become an emporer. 

The next thing we saw was the oldest Roman arch which was built in 80 AD.  Barbara told us how the Romans told stories by depictions within the sculptures and reliefs they made.  In this arch it showed the story of Hadrian conquering the Jewish and bringing them  back to Rome.  One side of the arch (on the inside) showed the conquered and the other showed the victorious.  On the side of the Jewish there is a Manorah within the relief - she told us this is the oldest image of the Manorah to date.

This is the oldest image of the Menorah to date - do you see it?

 From here we walked to the Colosseum.  We were escorted by Barbara past all the people in line and straight to the elevator.  On the second level they were showing an exhibition of the gladiators.  In different cases there were replicas of original pieces of armor worn by the different types of Gladiators.  There were skulls of the different animals that were killed by the gladiators.  In other displays were the different kinds of weapons they used as well.  There were little oil lamps which were held by the spectators to give them light.  There were pieces of walls where there was graffiti of their time of gladiators fighting and also where the actual gladiators carved their own names into the wall.

here is a gladiator's name carved into the stone

We were then directed through one of the archways and into the Colosseum.   It was truly awesome.  There was little left to the imagination when trying to picture what it was like back in 20 AD.  Of course there was a lot of destruction, none of the stadium seats were in there except for the ones that were recreated in order to help visualize what it was like.  All of the arena floor was gone except for a section that was recreated to help see what the floor was like.  It was just crazy to see this in person.  It was amazing.  This was definitely one of Nate's favorite parts of the trip.

After this, Barbara took us to a church...and I cant remember the name of it but it has a very famous sculpture in it of Moses done by Michelangelo.  I actually studied this sculpture in my art class in college.  Whats so amazing in this sculpture is how he captured such detail and flow in how he sculpted Moses' fingers intertwined in his long beard.  The shear mass of Moses' body in this sculpture is spectacular.  After seeing this church, we parted ways with Barbara.  She truly did an amazing job.

We walked back to the Colosseum and sat down to rest our feet.  We were exhausted.  We had done a LOT of walking that morning.  We finally got up and walked back to the hotel.  On the way we grabbed some beers and a coke then stopped at restaurant that was close to the hotel.  I had spaghetti and Nate finally had his fettuccine alfredo.

We went to the room and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  We watched some videos on Nate's ipod and watched a movie on TV.  There is only only one English channel on the TV.  Which was pretty annoying.  One night we ended up watching Beverly Hills Chihuahuas.  Haha.  And we actually got into it. lol.