Roaming Through Rome

For those of you who have been following our Italian adventures, you’ll know that in Florence we did an amazing scavenger hunt called a whai whai. We did what we could to find the one for Rome – but we had no luck – the book was not to be found in English.

Instead, we found another one on Amazon called Mission Rome. It’s a great ebook that brings you throughout the eternal city and challenges you to complete a variety of missions. For each successful mission you receive points. We had a lot of fun learning more about the city and becoming SIA (Secret Intelligent Agents) in the process.

Mission 1 – Roman Forum

For this mission, the girls had to locate the following ruins:

• Umbilicus Urbis (the belly button) which was the centre of the ancient city
  

• Milliarium Aureum – known as the “Golden Milestone” as all of the roads of the Roman Empire started from this marker
  

• Column of Phocas named to honour the emperor Phocas. It was constructed in 608, after the Roman Empire split and Constantinople replaced Rome as the new Roman empire centre

• Temple of Castor and Pollux – even though these 2 gods were Greek, the Romans believed they had helped them win some significant battles so they constructed the temple as a thank you
  

• The Temple of Vesta was important because it housed the eternal flame for Rome. The Romans believed as long as the fire burned, they would remain strong. The vestals were female priests who were selected between the ages of 6 and 10 to serve Rome for 30 years. The girls had to leave their families, live in a temple, and not marry until they had finished their duties. The vestals were very well regarded in Rome and had VIP seats in the Colosseum.
  

•  The Temple of Julius Caesar was a popular one with our family. Back in London, we watched the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar at the Globe theater and the girls had a very good understanding of the story, so finding his burial site was very exciting indeed.
  

We also learned that the Romans were not always enthralled with the history of their emperors and would tear down some of the temples and use the materials to build other palaces or churches. We were able to find evidence of this by the columns with “cut marks”. The people of the Middle ages would cut down the columns and drag them away, as if they were trees, for other buildings.

• The Arch of Titus was built by emperor Domitian to celebrate the Roman victory over Israel in year 71. On the arch, the girls were able to find a menorah and pictures of Titus riding to victory on horse drawn carriage
  

Mission #2 – Capitoline Hill

For this mission, the girls had to locate:

• The bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius who ruled Rome from 161-180. He is considered to be one of the “Five Best Roman Emperors”.
  

• The statue of Roma who is the goddess of the city and wears a lovely purple dress.
• The statue of Tiber, the God of the River that runs through Rome. He likes to lounge, while the twins Romulus and Remus play by his elbow.
  

• For those who might not know the story of the beginning of Rome, the legend of the “Capitoline wolf” is there were two babies Romulus and Remus who were sons of the god of war, Mars. The twins were said to be abandoned on the banks of the Tiber river. The she-wolf rescued them and nursed them until another couple took them in and made them their sons. The twins were said to have founded a new settlement that would become Rome in 753 BC. However, the siblings argued over who would be the leader of the new village. Romulus killed Remus and named the village after himself – Rome.
  

Mission #3 – Bocca Della Verita

For this mission, we needed to go the famous sculpture, Bocca Della Verita (the Mouth of Truth) at the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. It is considered to be an old fashioned lie detector. The legend says that if you tell a lie and stick your hand in, the mouth will bite it off. Lucky for us – our hands are still with us!

Mission #4 – The Arch of Constantine

Emperor Constantine ruled Rome as the first Christian emperor. After a great battle, an arch was constructed in his name. On the arch, the girls were able to find soldiers armed with swords and shields fighting at the city walls. They also found the “sol invictus”, the symbol of the sun. The Sun rides in a chariot led by 4 horses. Emperor Constantine declared “Sunday” as the day of the sun and the Roman day of rest when businesses were closed and people got to relax. I wish we still had this day of rest…Constantine had the right idea!

Mission #5 – The Basilica San Clemente

We visited the church with the goal of finding anchors throughout which symbolize Saint Clement. He drowned at a sea with an anchor around his neck.  We could also hear the sound of rushing water and tracked the source to a beautiful courtyard garden with a fountain.  We also found a gorgeous mosaic of Christ upon the cross with the Tree of Life at the bottom. Saint Clemente was seated at the right side of the Mosaic.

Mission #6 – The Spanish Steps

We had visited the popular Spanish Steps a number of times while in Rome so it was an easy find, but for this mission, the girls had to find out how many steps there were. So off they went counting…it took them a few tries to agree on the number 137. Perhaps if others try this out…they may find a different number:)

At the bottom of the steps, the girls had to have their picture taken on Bernini’s “broken boat” without falling into the water!

Mission #7 – The Trevi Fountain

This fountain is one of the most famous and beautiful fountains throughout the city. Sadly, it is under reconstruction for the next 2 years, so we were only able to see it through scaffolding…it also gives us another reason to return when it’s finished!

The girls were still game to do the mission and followed the legend that says if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, one day you will return to Rome again.

They also had to hunt down the “ace of cups”. Legend has it that a barber whose shop was located right at the fountain, would come out everyday and critique the work of the artist. Finally, the artist couldn’t take it anymore and put up the ace of cups to block the barber’s view of the fountain so he wouldn’t be able to see the fountain anymore.

Mission #8 – The Pantheon

A Roman general, Marcus Agrippa constructed a temple on this site, but it burned to the ground in a big fire. Emperor Hadrian completed the temple but still inscribed Agrippa’s name at the front.

Part of the mission was to count the columns at the front entrance, but it’s deceiving because they are lined up perfectly and you can’t see how many are actually there. The girls had to go in and count each one to make sure they hadn’t missed any of the 12 metre tall, 60 ton columns. Even though there were 3 of them, they couldn’t reach their arms around the massive columns!

Inside the temple there is an “oculus” or an 8 metre skylight. It is the only source of light for the building and it’s open air. The night we were there, it was raining and we were able to see what happened….the rain came into the temple, but there are drainage holes the architects put into the ground. They also designed the floors to slope towards the drains to get rid of the water.

There are a number of niches and tombs in the temple, for example the first King of Italy Victor Emmanuel and for his wife Margherita. The girls got extra points for eating a Margherita pizza (sauce, cheese and basil), which are the colours of the Italian flag.

From the Pantheon, we wandered to the Pizza della Minerva. The church and square are named after the goddess of magic, medicine and wisdom. Back in the 1600’s, an obelisk was discovered under the church’s garden. It is thought that Emperor Diocletian brought back from Egypt in the year 300. The girls had to find it and determine which animal carries the obelisk upon it’s back. It was pretty clear which animal:)

Another neat part of this mission was to find the markers that indicate the water levels of the city’s floods throughout the centuries. It was hard to believe the water could get so high. One of the floods measured almost 4 metres high!

Mission #9 – Piazza Navona

We all loved this piazza – it was great for people watching and listening to the many street musicians, especially in the early evenings.

Of course Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers was part of the mission. The girls had to hunt down the statues representing the four rivers of the world:

• Ganges – the statue holds an oar to indicate how easy it is to navigate the river in India
• Danube – The statue is about to touch the Pope’s crest to show it’s the river closest to the Pope’s residence
• Nile – A cloth covers the statue’s head because people didn’t know the source of the Nile at the time. (there is also the legend of the sculpture Bernini, who didn’t want to look at the Borromini’s church right across from the fountain)
• Plata – The Plata river flows through Argentina and Uruguay which were former colonies of Spain. Plata is on top of coins to represent the riches the colonies would bring to Europe.

The shape of the Piazza is one of a former stadium and was called the Circus Agonalis. This was where 30 thousand Romans could watch chariot races, gladiator fights and concerts. The emperor who had this stadium/piazza built was so despised, the Romans assassinated him, destroyed all of his statues and removed his name from everything around Rome. The girls found out the name of the emperor by looking at one of the Piazza signs.

There were also some fun “Anytime” missions the girls could complete as we travelled around the city.

They had to find the most unusual pizza topping. They all agreed that “potato” pizza was nothing they had ever tried before. It is now a new favourite and they are hoping Pizza Pizza will pick up this topping.

Of course, gelato was a big part of our excursions and they had to find the most unusual flavours. After numerous trials…the girls agreed that apple, persimmon, and kinder egg were the most unusual flavours they had tried:)

It was also a lot of fun for the girls to locate “Nasonis” or drinking fountains around the city. They received more points if they drank from them…and they had a lot of fun trying to see how far they could shoot the water!

SPQR is a Latin phrase for “Senatus Populusque Romansu” meaning the Senate and People of Rome. This translates the belief that the Roman people, not the King, control Roman society. The SPQR appears on things like manhole covers, flags, fountains and so much more. The girls received extra points for finding them on different items.

The girls also received points for speaking Italian to people from the city….not tourists:) They did a great job and were soon talking to everyone they met with Bonjourno, Grazie, Prego and any other words they could remember.

We all had a lot of fun doing Mission Rome and would highly recommend it for adults and kids as a way to learn more about the city and really appreciate all the little things that make Rome such an amazing place to discover!