Rome – page 2
Friday 18th
The Old Town
I barely made it to breakfast and went immediately back to bed after eating. I left the room just after noon, a fact which displeased the cleaning woman to no end. I returned to the Colosseum where I was able to use the same ticket I had for the Forum (which, incidentally, was free, as were all museum and historical site tickets until Saturday because this was ‘culture week’ in Rome). The Colosseum was pretty standard – the net gain for me was a picture of myself in the Colosseum:
They really should have passed out swords on the way in; let’s just say these geriatrics would have had an exciting story for the grandkids.
Here’s the Colosseum’s money shot – it doesn’t get much better than this:
Try to imagine a floor covering that basement level and bleachers covering the sides – the Colosseum today is basically a skeleton
I guess some official in the cultural ministry agreed with me that there isn’t really much to the Colosseum, so they added a little exhibit of ancient Greek pottery. There were some really ‘new’-looking 400 BC pots. This one in particular caught my attention. Good thing I checked the back or I wouldn’t have known how the story ended.
He sneaks a peek, but does he like what he sees? He likes it! And check out that cock – the Rooster!
I didn’t waste any more time and made my way West, past the Imperial forums, which were basically additional forums built by specific Emperors (Caesar, Agustus and Trajan). Basically, if you wanted to establish yourself as a really good emperor you needed to build huge public works, things like baths, markets, libraries, temples, etc. This is the stuff they remember you by (that and your personal insanities). The Imperial Forums look something like this now:
At the end is Trajan’s Column. This thing is pretty cool for a few reasons; it’s been here since AD 113; it is a detailed, visual account of how the Roman military operated; and it is supposed to mark the height of the hill they dug out to build Trajan’s forum.
The column’s reliefs didn’t really photograph well The eternal flame
This was a good place to sit down and eat lunch. I had brought a ‘sandwich’ – basically just some excellent cured delimeat between two halves of a Kaiser roll. After eating I crossed the street to check out the Victor Emanuel Monument. This is a modern monument so it is still intact and clean. Unfortunately part of it was being renovated so they had sheets stretched over the middle part. Victor Emanuel was Italy’s first king, so I guess he’s respected for dragging the country out of the feudal hell it had endured for over 1000 years. The paramilitary soldiers in Italy are great. There must be a half dozen different groups – the Polizia and Carabinieri are the most common, but I also saw these guys guarding the eternal flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier and some other guys in green fatigues working for the Guardia Finanza. They all wear berets, pants with stripes down the length of the legs and carry submachine guns. American police look like clowns in comparison. There was quite a view from the top, but it’s the kind of thing that is cool to experience but unimpressive in photos.
Moving on, here is the little balcony where Mussolini would give his speeches over Piazza Venezia
The building is Palazzo Venizia. Mussolini was the fascist dictator that took over Italy and allied with Hitler. He had visions of recapturing the old glory of Rome and it’s really a miracle that he didn’t damage many artifacts while he had control of the country.
I stopped in to the church of Sant’Ignazio. It had a great ceiling, lots of beautiful marble and a particularly nice example of Pope’s as Superheros – something of a theme I developed later in the trip.
Check out this ceiling! There are some tricky visual effects going on here.
Tomb of Gregory XV
This is pretty typical of the cooler pope tombs, which often turn up in random Roman churches. What’s great is how nicely the materials are all combined; there’re at least 4 different kinds of marble and lots of gold. The dynamic posing of the figures and the marble curtains is indicative of the Baroque. The Baroque is the period following the Renaissance when artists finally stopped trying to copy the Greeks and things started to get good.
Now it was time for the Pantheon, this time with a camera. The Pantheon is by far the most impressive building remaining from ancient times. Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it in AD 120 and that’s the version we have today. Apparently Hadrian designed it himself but gave credit to Agrippa, who designed the first one, and that’s what’s written up there in huge lettering. This trip would prove to be the first time in my life I wished I knew how to read Latin.
The Pantheon
The thing about the Pantheon is it is so big it can’t be photographed properly, not by me at least. You walk inside and look up and it’s pretty damn perfect. There is a hole right in the middle which is the open sky but because of the contrast of being inside it just looks like a burning white circle that nicely represents heaven looking down on earth. That hole is the sole source of light inside and does a pretty good job but I’m guessing that they have to get a mop every time it rains.
I told myself I wouldn’t drop any massive pictures into this webpage but the two pictures fit together so nicely that, well… let’s see how your little computer screen likes this:
The dome of the Pantheon was the biggest in the world until 1960!
The Pantheon literally means “All Gods” and it was a temple to all of the ancient Roman gods. It was too nice to trash so the Christians converted it into a church. Apparently at one time the entire dome was gilded in gold. Raphael was buried here (something I missed while I was visiting) along with Victor Emanuel. Ok, time to move on.
Next stop was San Luigi dei Francesi, a church known for having 3 Caravaggios (all themed around St. Matthew). This was my first time to see a Caravaggio and I’ll tell you, it’s drastically different from the typical Renaissance paintings you find in European churches. The typical church painting comes across as kind of cheesy – everyone is glowing and looking up at heaven. They are all wearing sky blue and royal red and have very pious expressions on their faces. My photos were a little blurry, so we’ll just borrow the following from the internet:
The Inspiration of St. Matthew
As you can see things are a lot darker. They are also a lot more interesting. The contrast suddenly makes the colors worthwhile; where previous paintings would be awash in so much color that it all ran together, the orange of St. Matthew’s robes pops our brilliantly when put against the pitch blackness. I also like how the swirling form of the sheet implies the kind of fluffy cloud work usually associated with angels but fit into the earthly ‘realistic’ form of simple linen. I was also stuck by how new the Caravaggios appeared to be, they were glossy and looked as if they had been painted yesterday.
On the way out, lets take a quick moment to check out the ceiling. Crazy mural-covered ceilings are amazing, but there’s something to be said for what can be done with a clever sculptor and a lot of gold.
San Luigi dei Francesi
From here I wandered through piazza Navona and found one of the Museum of Rome locations which was free admission so I went right in. There were some nice paintings and some impressive dishware here but nothing was labeled in English and my guide book didn’t even acknowledge the existence of this place so we’re going to assume there was nothing really noteworthy here. In fact, the only thing my notes mention is how quiet this place was and how the percentage of attractive women seems to be quite favorable inside museums.
I wandered around the alleys leading off of piazza Navona. There are a lot of quaint little workshops that look basically just like this one:
Every workshop had in it exactly one white haired Italian man and a complete clutter of either: picture frames or furniture
Good god, is it still Friday? Ok, I’ll move it along a little faster or this webpage will never load. I found another church. It had a darker, more gothic feel to the inside with marble work that looked like Crusader gear. I liked this mosaic of the pontiff with the sword:
After some more strolling I visited Sant Andrea dell Valle. The organ was playing when I came in. A few minutes later it started playing the bridal procession song and in the door walks a bride. This was one hell of a church but it turns out I ‘rediscovered’ it a week later so I’ll just cover it in detail then and move things along for now.
This was a verdant little spot near Navona that I often found myself when I would become lost
According to my guidebook, Piazza Navona is supposed to be the center of the infamous promenade every day around dusk, when everyone is out strolling around and checking each other out (or something like that). I waited around until dusk was well underway but I wasn’t seeing much other than the fact that the half of the plaza now covered in shadows appeared to be empty except for a very seedy element (gypsies!). I called it a day and took the bus home.
* Gypsy is a very politically incorrect word I learned from the kids in Austria which is basically used to describe someone who wants nothing more than to steal everything you own. Gypsies in Rome are easy to identify in that it’s clear they are not Italians, but difficult in that you can’t really tell what they are.