Our trip is in ruins…

Our trip is officially in ruins.

There are ruins on the left.  There are ruins on the right!  Ruins, everywhere!  Welcome to Rome, a real treat for anyone who loves antiquity!

We arrived in Rome after a lovely visit in Lucca, and settled into our apartment outside the city centre.  As you know, there is no rest for the wicked (traveler), so we hopped onto the metro and made our way into the city to get oriented with an evening walking tour through New Rome Free Tour.  One neat thing I really enjoyed about doing the tour at night was the very interesting effects when photographing the different monuments.

The area of the Spanish steps is made up of several different monuments and fountains.  The steps themselves lead from the Spanish Square up to a former French-speaking neighbourhood.  The French actually commissioned the steps to be built so that they could get from their neighbourhood down to where the Spanish Square is, as it was a very steep hill previously.  So there’s a bit of irony there – French-funded steps called the “Spanish Steps”?

The Spanish Steps – There’s an obelisk way up at the top

“The ugly fountain”

Horse carriages in the Spanish Square.

At the bottom of the steps and a short distance along the square is the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican.  Because the Vatican is so small, there are embassies and consulates spread out throughout Rome to maintain the relationships.  You can tell when an Embassy is specifically for the Vatican because of the presence of the Vatican coat of arms on the building along with the originating country’s flag or coat of arms.

In front of the Spanish Embassy is a column dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.  Each year on December 8^th, there is a huge public holiday and the Pope joins a procession from the Vatican to the column where he is lifted up the 30m using a fire-truck lift to place a wreath on the right hand of the statue of Mary.

Column dedicated to the Immaculate Conception

The Pope changes the wreath on Mary’s right hand on Dec. 8th every year.

From here we walked along the streets to the church Saint Andrea delle Fratte.  The most interesting things within this church include two Bernini Angels, as well as a niche which is dedicated to the an event on the January 20th, 1842 when Mother Mary appeared to a Jewish man after which he converted to Catholicism.  Many people come to the church on a daily basis to pray to Mary in front of this beautiful niche.

Niche dedicated to Mother Mary at Saint

A beautiful Bernini angel

Next, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain and were surprised to find it under construction.  The last time Katina and I were in Rome during our honeymoon in 1998, we stood with our backs to the fountain and we each threw a coin over our shoulder to ensure we would come back to Rome one day…and here we are!  Our girls followed in our footsteps and threw a coin over their shoulders as well.  If all comes to pass as it has for Katina and I and our experience with the Trevi Fountain, then we’ve pretty much guaranteed the “travel bug” for our kids!

The Trevi fountain under repairs…

We next made our way to the church of Saint Ignazio, which was very interesting.  The whole ceiling had been painted using optical illusions which tricks the eye into believing that the vault is much higher, though the ceiling was flat.  They could not afford to have a dome built on the church, so they had one painted on the ceiling which again was an optical illusion.  Depending on where you stand in the church it looks as though there is a high, circular dome in the church!

Another interesting thing we saw were Egyptian obelisks spread around the city.  We learned that some were brought to Rome directly from Egypt during various conquests of the Roman army.  Many others are reproductions that the Romans made themselves.  As the Romans converted to Christianity, the obelisks were capped with Christian symbols to show the dominance of Christianity over the “pagan” religions.

One of many obelisks in Rome at night.

One of many obelisks in Rome during the day.

One of the most impressive buildings we saw was the Pantheon.  This huge building which was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa was a temple to all the ancient gods of Rome.  It has a huge dome on the top which was the largest dome in the Roman Empire at 43.3 m in diameter, and is still the largest, un-reinforced concrete dome in the world.  The centre of the dome is open, which allows light to shine in during the day; however, it also allows rain to come in, and when we were there it was pouring!  Fortunately the Romans thought that one through and had drains installed to take the water away.  Inside the Pantheon are the tombs of the artist Raphael, King Vittorio Emmanuel, Queen Margarita – the first king and queen of Italy.

Next stop was the Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument, which is a memorial to the Unknown Solider and known as the “Wedding Cake” to the locals.  It is a huge monument originally built by Mussolini to show off his power and prestige.  It is simply enormous, and from a distance, with the multiple levels, you can understand how it could get the wedding cake nickname.  After WW II it was renamed in an attempt to remove Mussolini’s mark on the city.  Unfortunately, in his quest to show off his greatness, Mussolini also destroyed large areas of ancient ruins through the Roman forum.  Lying under the road from the Vittorio monument are countless ruins which were essentially “cut off” at street level, filled in and then paved over.

Our final stop on the tour was the Colosseum, where we were able to take in the immense splendour from the outside and learn a bit of the history.  One interesting thing I learned about the Colosseum that evening was that at one point it had been abandoned and people were coming to the site and essentially using it as a quarry to get marble and stone for their own houses.  Fortunately, the practice was eventually stopped.  Even so, today only about ½ of the original external wall around the arena stands fully intact.

You’ll be able to read more about the Colosseum in the coming days as our first official guest blogger, our niece Katherine, shares her first blog post with you.  Katherine has joined us for 2 weeks of Global Fieldtrip education to experience school on the road as she never has before.

As you can see from this post, it has been quite difficult for me to give any sort of short overview of ancient Rome!  There is so much to see, so much history to experience!  Hopefully you were able to get a good sense of what we saw, and hopefully I have piqued your curiosity for the posts we will publish in the coming days!

Some bonus material

The rumours about Rome’s metro are true, pickpockets abound.  I managed to have the keys to our apartment stolen as we boarded a busy subway train.  Fortunately, that was all that was taken…but if you are planning to travel to Rome at some point in the future, be extra vigilant.  When I spoke to a local about my experience, the response I received was “we have pickpockets, but fortunately thefts are not violent”…an excellent point.