Carol describes our visit of Rome as Rome Outside as we did not go inside the main attractions; we saw them from the outside. There were just too many people and this was off-season. We took advantage of the advice from our B&B host and visited some of the alternate sites of Rome, like the keyhole and catacombs.
Part of the reason for the alternate approach is our extended travel arrangements from Florence to Rome put us in about half a day late. Once at the B&B, Ruggero the owner of AGV 2001 (advertisement www.agv2001.it) advised us to see the Vatican at night, so off we went. It was very impressive.
On the way to the Vatican, we walked by a Mexican Restaurant, the first we have seen in a year. So, dinner plans were settled and it was good. Someone had been to Mexico as the furnishings and the food were authentic. We would have taken a picture, but it just would not make sense to see a picture of Mexican food restaurant. We are not sure telling you this even makes sense, but for us, seeing (and eating) Mexican food was about as exciting as seeing the Vatican.
The next day, we could not determine if the Vatican museums took reservations for admittance and the other guests at the B&B we spoke with said it was a half-day wait to get in. Since we did not have time to spend a half day in line, we opted to skip the museums which included the Sistine Chapel. We had to settle at looking at the pictures on the web (to see what we missed, go to the google search screen, click on the images link above the search box, and then enter sistine chapel).
Instead, we did the C&C modified walking tour. It started off routine. Hopping a bus with plans to get off at the overview site, then to the Coliseum, Market, Trevi Fountain and such. But which stop is the correct stop and where does this bus really go? It was packed full of people and moving slower than the pedestrians were, so we got off at the Pyramid. We did not actually know that is where we were, but the area looked interesting and we wanted off.
There is nothing to see at the Pyramid, but the Pyramid and you cannot get close to it. It is just a monument set among old Roman ruins. We took a moment to locate ourselves on our map. I guess we looked pretty helpless as a man from New York stopped to offer some tips. He suggested heading further south to the old electric works warehouse for a very interesting sculpture museum or going up past the Coliseum to Plazza San Clemente to see the excavations under the church. We opted to head toward the Coliseum.
Crossing the street, the first statue we see is Skanderbeg, the Albania national hero who fought against the Turks.
Along the way to the Coliseum and San Clemente, we saw the Palantio – the upscale area for ancient Rome. We felt we had recovered from the bus adventure rather well as we were seeing most of the main attractions. However, being in Albania has really influenced our concept of time, we don’t pay attention to it. Things just happen when they are supposed to. Italy doesn’t exactly subscribe to that approach to time and they close promptly for their 2 to 3 hour lunch. We got to the San Clemente church 5 minutes after they closed the excavations for lunch. Guess we will have to add this to our next visit also.
From the church, we headed back toward the center of the ancient city and see the Plazza Venezia. This is where the 5 main roads connecting the Roman Empire started. If you have been a faithful reader of this blog, you know Durrës (and Peqin) are on the Via Egnatia which connects Rome to Istanbul and is one of the five main roads starting at this plaza. So we had to see where it begins.
From here, we picked up a sandwich and walked to Trevi Fountain to eat lunch with about 8,000 other people. After our community lunch at the fountain, we walked over to the Pantheon. It is a huge domed cathedral with an opening in the ceiling. The marble in the floor had been shaped to drain the rain that entered through the ceiling. Very interesting engineering.
By this time, our feet were tired. In Italy about the only places you can sit for free are at the fountains or inside the churches. Being fiscally conservative, we opted to stand and drink our coffees and then go to the cathedrals to sit. Following this pattern, we had a stand-up coffee break and then stopped in the Church of Saint Mary. Inside is one of Michelangelo’s sculptures, Christ bearing the cross. (Michelangelo wanted to be a sculptor, but the he had more offers to paint.) Michelangelo did all his sculptures as nudes, but when Savonarola came to power, he had loin cloths put on many of the statues.
We finished our tour of the city by going back to the overview location we missed in the morning. The park is quite nice but a lot of rules: no walking on grass, no playing with balls, no smoking. Of course, the adults sat at the table smoking while the kids played soccer. Down from the park is a garden that you are not allowed to enter, but you can look through the keyhole of the gate and see a tree lined path with the dome of St. Peters at the end.
We ended the day with Mexican food again and planned the next day.