Even though it's now almost mid-October, the city is still crammed full of tourists, which has been somewhat of a frustration for us. But it's unrealistic for me to expect that we're going to have Rome (and it's beautiful monuments, churches and statues) all to ourselves. But it would be nice to have a few pictures WITHOUT a bunch of people standing around them.
So I thought I'd share with you some of the highlights. I'll be writing separate posts about some of the things we've done which I feel deserve their own post, such as our visit to The Borghese Gallery, St. Paul's, our cooking experience in Toffia and the Colosseum.
The Trevi Fountain is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. The fountain at the junction of three roads that marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, and the revived Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome.
In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km. This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin to herald the water's arrival.
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Though Bernini's project was never constructed, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it exists today, which was completed in 1762.
I found this panorama picture on Wikipedia; we went to the fountain twice (day and night) and the amount of tourists around the fountain (and general area) were 3 times as many depicted in the photo below. When I was attempting to get a photo of the fountain without a bunch of heads in front (you have to "shoot high"), I was actually pushed aside from my perch on a ledge by a very rude tourist who thought that SHE deserved my spot in order to take HER photo. The nerve of some people!
Nearby the Trevi Fountain, in the Piazza di Spagna are the famous "Spanish Steps". To be honest, I was rather underwhelmed. I just don't really understand the fascination with a fairly plain staircase going from a fairly plain square up to a church, but that's perhaps just me? Naturally, there were 400,000 tourists present, so we didn't even bother walking up the steps. According to Wikipedia, the staircase contains 138 steps and is the widest staircase in Europe.
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars.
Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). The structure is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height, 35 metres (125 ft) including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of 3.7 metres (11 ft). The 190-metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the shaft 23 times.
Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 stairs provides access to a viewing platform at the top. I don't think the platform is currently accessible to the public, although I'm not sure I would want to climb that many stairs in that narrow of an area.
Ancient coins indicate preliminary plans to top the column with a statue of a bird, probably an eagle, but after construction, a statue of Trajan was put in place; this statue disappeared in the Middle Ages. In 1587, the top was crowned by Pope Sixtus V with a bronze figure of St. Peter, which remains to this day.
The National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II is not very affectionately referred to as the "wedding cake" building by locals. A tribute to Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of a united Italy, the monument was completed in 1935.
The monument was controversial since its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a Medieval neighbourhood for its sake. The monument itself is often regarded as pompous and too large. Even our Rome landlords referred to the building as "the wedding cake".
The monument is built of white marble and features stairways, Corinthian columns, fountains, an equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel and two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on a chariot.
Personally, I thought the building was beautiful and offered many spectacular views of Rome, particularly from the viewing platform on the top.
The monument also holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, built under the statue of Italy after World War I. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen in 1921 from among 11 unknown remains by Maria Bergamas, a woman from Gradisca d'Isonzo whose only child was killed during World War I. Her son's body was never recovered. The selected unknown was transferred from Aquileia, where the ceremony with Bergamas had taken place to Rome and buried in a state funeral on 4 November 1921.
We just happened to be there during the changing of the guard.
As you can see by the ominous clouds in my pictures, a sudden rainstorm tried to soak us while we were admiring the views. Thankfully, we were able to duck into a nearby church to escape the deluge of rain.
Built on the foundations of the ancient Temple of Juno, the church known as Santa Maria in Aracoeli (St. Mary of the altar in heaven) is the designated church of the Italian Senate and the Roman people. Santa Maria in Aracoeli has a long history. The foundation of this church may have been laid as early as the 6th century. However, the church was taken over by the papacy in the 9th century and was given to the Benedictines. It was then passed on to the Franciscans in the 13th century, who added Romanesque and Gothic touches to the church. By the Middle Ages, Santa Maria in Aracoeli was at the center of both religious and civic life in Rome.
It was the first church I've seen with crystal chandelliers.
After spending a few minutes inside the church, thankfully the rain stopped. I might have said something inside the church to the effect of "please, God, make the rain go away". Well, my prayers were answered and we were once again amidst blue skies. We then rode an elevator to the viewing platform to some more spectacular views of Rome.
The views were pretty amazing. I love the diversity of Rome. Ruins, mixed with Renaissance-era buildings, as well as modern structures (which kind of seem out of place?). All of this history! The sad part is that the difficult economy is making it difficult for Italy as a State, to continue preserve some of these ancient wonders. Our new friend Guido (our Roman chef in Toffia -- this will be a separate blog post) told us that it is anticipated that the ruins of Pompeii will no longer exist in 100 years as it is literally crumbling away and Italy just doesn't have the resources to continue with the upkeep.
You would think that the millions of tourists who visit Italy each year are generating the necessary income, but apparently it's still just not enough. In the United States, we don't have 2,000 year-old monuments to maintain, but if we did, I certainly feel it's important to preserve for future generations, yet I don't want to be taxed any more heavily than I already am, so what's the answer? I'm sure that many countries in the world are facing this same issue. But I digress.
Not far from Piazza Navonna is the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, the national church in Rome for France.
The church has some fairly famous artwork (as per usual in Rome, right?). The church's most famous item are the cycle of paintings in the Contarelli Chapel, painted by the Caravaggio in 1599-1600 about the life of St. Matthew.
Saint Catherine of Siena (one of the two Patron Saints of Italy, along with St. Francis of Assisi) is buried here (except her head, which is in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena).
That's an interesting story. The people of Siena wished to have St. Catherine's body. A story is told of a miracle whereby they were partially successful: Knowing that they could not smuggle her whole body out of Rome, they decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag. When stopped by the Roman guards, they prayed to St Catherine to help them, confident that she would rather have her body (or at least part thereof) in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards, it appeared no longer to hold her head but to be full of rose petals. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head was visible once more. Due to this story, St Catherine is often seen holding a rose. The head and a thumb were entombed in the Basilica of San Domenico, where they remain today.
I loved the brightness of the colors in the ceiling; such a nice shock of color. Among the artwork in th church is the statue, "Chris the Redeemer" by Michelangelo, completed in 1521.
In front of the church is a statue designed by Bernini of an elephant as the supporting base for the Egyptian obelisk found in the Dominicans' garden. It is the shortest of the eleven Egyptian obelisks in Rome and is said to have been one of two obelisks moved from Sais, where they were built during the 589 BC-570 BC reign of the pharaoh Apries, from the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. The two obelisks were brought to Rome by Diocletian, during his reign as emperor from 284 to 305, for placement at the Temple of Isis which stood nearby.
Since this blog post is now very long, I'll end it now and start a new blog post to continue talking about some of the other sights we've visited. I'll cover Piazza Navona, Trastevere and the Pantheon in my next post.
You can view my pictures (they will include pictures from upcoming blog) of Rome Sights on Shutterfly.
Ciao!
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