Rome Day Two, or Roma II

This will post on April . . . what day is it??? Oh yeah, this will post on April 3rd, but the events took place on Saturday April 2nd - my second day in Rome.

I knew there were specific things I definitely wanted to see, and I knew those things we be the exact same things millions of other people would want to see. So I booked two group tours because with these tours you get to go to the "head of the line" as a group, and believe me, as I walked past the very long line into the Vatican Museums I was so glad I booked a tour! Absolutely worth every penny!

This day started early and confusing. My information was to meet at a certain place at a certain time, but my information was incorrect, so I did a lot of walking before actually doing a lot of walking! Lots of questions and a phone call or two later, and I met up with the group. I met a nice couple on vacation from Cleveland, Ohio and basically hung around with them for the 4-hour tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Also hung with a cute young couple from London. Everybody on the tour was really friendly. Oh, and this was a WALKING tour and we did a ton of walking. I have the blisters to prove it.

We started at the Vatican Museums - Musei Vaticani. These are the museums of Vatican City, and yes, there are plural. It seemed like every room we entered was covered with frescoes, paintings, tapestries, sculptures, and curlicues galore! My neck hurt after awhile from looking up. Everything is huge and every ceiling and dome is painted or done in the most exquisite, teeny-tiny mosiacs.

Vatican City wall and the line of people waiting to get into the Vatican Museums

Just one of a bajillion painted ceilings

Another ceiling

Fresco

Not painted but beautifully decorated ceiling. Absolutely every corner covered.

Painting of the risen Christ

Just giving you an idea of the crowds on a Saturday at the Museums.

The ceiling of a very long hallway. This was in the Hall of Maps. Forty panels along the
walls of maps of ancient Italy. Huge maps!

One of the maps. Practically ceiling to floor.

Painted or mosaic (I can't remember) dome (cupola) 

I never did get what this was all about but it's two dimensional, not three.

The School of Athens, painted by Raphael
Aristotle and Plato in the middle, discussing philosophy.
Raphael painted Michelangelo (bottom center left) as a writer. Jealous much?

In the lower right-hand corner of the painting, Raphael painted himself - black hat.
Looks like he's looking right at you!

This is only a fraction of the pictures I took, and the pictures I took were only a fraction of the incredible art I experienced. For more information, and if you are an art lover, I recommend some internet research on the art of the museums.

If you don't recognize this, you don't know much about art. But what you probably do know is that I should not have a picture of this! This is Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. Oh my goodness, police were all over the place making sure no one was taking pictures. I had my cell phone on my lap . . . couldn't resist. The rebel in me popped out! I have rotated my photo a couple of times so you can see the creation of man in a good position. The reason you can't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel is not because it might deteriorate the art, but because when the Japanese agreed to fund restoration they put a copyright on it. So not cool! Like what? I'm going to go home and paint it? It truly was quite magnificent.

After a very few short minutes at the Sistine Chapel and a quick snack, we moved on to St. Peter's Basilica. The crowd getting in to sections of St. Peter's was ridiculous - way worse than the busiest day at Disneyland!

Again, the crowds. I can't imagine what it must have been like on Easter!

The high altar of St. Peter's. This masterpiece is by Bernini. Michelangelo and Bernini were the artists involved in designing St. Peter's Basilica. It is said that under this altar are the remains of St. Peter.

The little throne behind the high altar, with the light shining over it, is waiting for Jesus to arrive.

The tomb of a religious leader. There are about 100 tombs within St. Peter's Basilica. I never did get the name of this guy. A pope? A cardinal?  Important enough to have this spot!

Another tomb

A member of the Swiss Guard

Our guide, Daniel. He was fabulous. There are so many tours and each tour guide holds up something so that his tourists can keep track of him/her. Daniel was wonderful. We both had the same delicious snack today - a ricotta and pear torte. I wish I could pronounce it the way he does. So Italian!

A great sight - two priests talking to the Swiss Guard. So Roma!

THAT was just the first half of the day!  My new Ohio friends were off to do something else, and I had a couple of hours before my next tour. I walked and walked and walked to get to a particular church to see a famous Bernini statue only to find the church closed (siesta?) and wouldn't open again until after I had to be on my second tour. Oh well. Killer walk. Still working on figuring out the Metro, not sure about taking a taxi, and the whole bus thing scares me. But on my walk I saw the Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma - the opera house of Rome. I didn't even check to see if it was open, but it was cool to see what performances were slated for 2015-2016.

I also saw some churches, and some more churches. Then I had to start the walk to meet up with my next tour. This one was exactly where I was told it would be at, thank goodness, as my feet were killing me and starting to blister.

The afternoon tour was to the Colosseum and Ancient Rome. And this tour was on a bus with some walking. Some of the pictures might not be so good as they were taken as the bus was whizzing by. We only stopped for certain sites, and they were well worth the stop.

The best shot I could get of Circus Maximus, ancient Roman chariot racing stadium.

For instance we quickly passed by the Victor Emmanuel II Monument while on the bus and this is a really important monument to the Italian people. But it wasn't on the itinerary. I made a decision that I would get back to this later!


A copy of the Marcus Aurelius statue. The original was in the museum across the piazza, in the Capitaline Museum, but it wasn't on the itinerary

The Italians love their Michelangelo and he loved them back. This is just some more of his work.

Our first stop - The Roman Forum. This tour made me realize that I'm quite interested in ancient civilization. This was the very center of the city of Rome, and therefore, to the Romans, the very center of civilization. The Forum held many important government buildings, including the Senate. Again, it's one of those things that you just need to read about because there is too much information to give in this blog. 

I believe these are the remains of the Temple of Casear.

So many ruins lying around the Forum grounds.

This is the main forum.

The columns are the remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux - the twins of Gemini, sons of Zeus and Leda.
The arch is the Arch of Septimius Severus.

This was thrilling to me - original writing. So cool.

There were also some stones from the place where Julius Casear was assassinated, and the building where the Senate met, the assassinators of Casear.

Next stop, San Pietro in Vincoli, or better known as St. Peter-in-Chains. It is a Roman Catholic titular church and minor basilica best known for being the home of Michelangelo's statue of Moses, and supposedly the chains that held Peter prisoner before being put to death.

The chains.

Michelangelo's Moses

Look at the exquisite attention to detail - sculpting in marble. Genius.

Those are not horns, or are they? The sculpture was intended to be part of a massive 47-statue, free standing funeral monument for Pope Julius II. Moses is depicted with horns, connoting "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew words for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and for an artist horns are easier to sculpt than rays of light.

Michelangelo only sculpted Moses.

Most of these churches have wonderful, lofty pipe organs.

Moses, from another view.

Next stop - a walk to the Colosseum!

This was my first full view of the Colosseum. So exciting!

These pictures are out of order from how I saw things, but they are all from the tour of the Colosseum. Our guide was really good at giving us details and history. Being in the Colosseum is one of those "bucket list" items. I took a million pictures. I will tell you that some of the stairs we had to climb to get into the Colosseum were some of the steepest and hardest to climb. Four flights and I didn't think I was going to make. There was a "lift" (elevator) but I went for the climb. Worse than the stairs at the gym. I am not even kidding. I was going to take the lift down, but everybody has to walk down. My poor knees.

One of several originals from huge columns.

Can you say gladiators?

Some original stone seats. 

There were so many steps going in and out of the Colosseum in it's glory days. Not many originals left.

The light colored stonework on the top is original, and the original height of the Colosseum all the way around. Not much of it left either. But the Colosseum is going under a major renovation, to restore it to it's former state. I believe our guide said it should be done in 8 more years. I don't know how they can do it, but these Italians love their Colosseum.

There are supports that some have tried to dig out, with no luck. That's why the holes.

Our tour guide Giorgio. 76 year old Italian man with a bad leg and a cane. He walked faster than most of us. He is a retired teacher so he made it very clear that when he was talking we were not to talk, and he was very good at teaching us things.

The Arch of Constantine. A very important man in Christian history.

Of course I can't remember the name of this church across the way from the Colosseum, and I'm the one who asked our guide what it was!! Brain dead. Too many churches!

Yeah, I can't remember what this statue is all about, but seriously, how do they sculpt fabric so it actually looks flowing?

This was an extremely long day with lots of walking and picture taking and learning. I was actually going to see a couple more things on my own, but I was absolutely beat. It was all I could do to negotiate the Metro from the Colosseum back to my monastery near St. Peter's. But despite out wiped out I was, I got pretty excited when I walked into St. Peter's Square like I always do when I walk back to my room, and the Pope himself is talking! He was outside at some special event on the square so of course I to see if I could get a closer look.

Whoa! That was pretty cool. I did have to go through some pretty tight security to get across the square.

No energy to go very far for dinner, so I ate at this little restaurant a short block from the monastery, called Il Piccolo. It was pretty good, but I sat outside to enjoy the coolness of the evening, and everybody smokes in this country!! Yuk!

Ravioli in a cream sauce, with bread to dip in oil and balsamic vinegar. I don't know what was inside the ravioli, but it was good. Incredibly rich dish. I shouldn't have had that yummy caprese salad for starters! So good!