Day 17 - Exploring Rome

Day 17 (number change) - Exploring Rome

They say Rome wasn't built in a day.  Rome cannot be toured in a day either, but we tried! Thankfully we have all day tomorrow to see several more things we missed today. Even then there is plenty left to come back to again some day. 

After a quick breakfast, we were up and out the door headed to St. Peter's In Chains. Not to be confused with St. Peter's Basilica which is part of the Vatican. "In Chains" is a church near the Coliseum. The church is known for 2 things. The first is the chains that allegedly held St. Peter while he was in Rome are located in the church. There is some debate about whether Peter was ever in Rome, but putting that aside, it still makes you consider the plight of the apostles in the first century. Many were imprisoned and martyred. The second item the church is known for is the Michelangelo statue of Moses. It is quite unique due to the horns on Moses' head. Apparently, an early Latin translation of the bible confused the word for "halo" around Moses head after he came down with the 10 commandments with the Latin word for horns. Hence the horns. Regardless of either facet of the church, it was a good visit. And Moses is a fantastic sculpture to view. 

This shot shows the horns a bit better. 

Not sure who this was but the pirate theme on the sarcophagus was interesting. 

We then headed over to the Coliseum to meet our guide, Serena. She was the same guide we had for the Etruscan tour in Tarquinia. She took us through the Coliseum, Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Vatican Museum. So get ready for a lot of touring.

The 1st century AD Coliseum was built on top of an earlier one by the emperor Vespasian around 70AD and completed in 79AD. Its initial use was for funeral games (like the Etruscans did) but later turned into just general, spectator entertainment that the emperors used to gain support from the masses. It held about 50,000 people. It was three stories high and had three vertical tiers of construction.The arena was a wood floor on top of two stories of rooms that housed animals used in the games as well as elevators used to "spring" up animals and gladiators during the fights. A couple of misconceptions. One, Christians were not killed in the Coliseum. They may have been killed elsewhere in Rome, but not here. Also, typically gladiators did not fight to the death. They were too valuable a commodity to kill off on a regular basis. Much of the marble that once covered the Coliseum was stripped out during the middle ages for construction of other buildings. Also an earthquake in the middle ages toppled the third story on about half of the structure, leaving the iconic look that exists today.

After the Colosseum we headed over to the area where the "main" part of Roman era buildings are present. Allegedly Rome was founded in the 8th century on the Capitoline Hill. Later this area became the spot where Roman emperors would build their palaces. The space also contained multiple temples, the Roman senate, the Forum, Basilicas (public buildings), the Vestal Virgin Temple, and more. The space was filled in over time so that at one point approximately 15 feet of material covered most of the buildings and cows grazed on the field. It was excavated by Mussolini who wanted to find Roman relics to justify his "imperial" reign.

Panel from the Arch of Titus showing the remains of the temple being removed after Jerusalem fell. 

 

The plant the Corinthian columns are 

modeled after, according to our guide.

And below is a Corinthian column to compare it to. 

Where Julius Caesar was cremated after being killed. 

Holes like these are all over in ancient buildings. 

Our guide told us it’s where thieves dug

 in to steal the iron support brackets for the metal. 

Wow! We are only half done.

Next up was a quick lunch and a taxi ride over to St. Peter's Basilica. We had a 3pm, self-guided walking tour of the Basilica. As a reminder, the Pope had died about two weeks ago and the Conclave of the Cardinals was starting today. So the area around the Basilica was busier and more crowded than normal. We entered what is one of the three largest Catholic Churches (Seville and Milan are the others). The Basilica is quite ornate, to put it mildly. It has a famous Michelangelo statue called La Pieta, which is quite beautiful. The church also contains the bones of St. Peter who we mentioned above. Catholic tradition says Peter was martyred in Rome by Nero, like his companion, Paul. So his crypt is located in the Basilica, although not directly accessible to visitors. The church contains a lot of other interesting art, including the main ceiling of the chapel which was designed by Michelangelo.  We did not visit the Sistine Chapel, since it was closed to visitors during the Conclave. Maybe next time...

Thousands of pilgrims marched (and are marching)

into the Basilica. In addition to the conclave going on, 

this is also a Jubilee year and the Holy doors are open.

 Apparently if you pass through the doors your sins are forgiven. That brings even more crowds. 

Michelangelo’s Pietà. It’s lovely. Wish you could 

walk around it like you can David. 

Jubilee door - open only every 25 years 

St. Peter getting out of the boat to walk on water. The description compared the community of the church and its dependence on Christ as necessary for doing good. 

Lots of press stands and crowds gathering to see smoke indicating a new pope has been chosen. 

Later that night the smoke was black. No decision yet. 

The balcony the pope stands on. 

The chimney installed to send papal smoke signals. 

We saw much of St Peter’s Basilica. 

We will need to come back and see the ceiling. 

Finally, we headed over to meet Serena again for our Vatican Museum tour. The Vatican has accumulated a VERY LARGE collection of art and antiquities over time. Hence the "museum" part of the Vatican.  Included in the collection are various Roman copies of Greek original sculptures, tapestries, a whole wing of Raphael paintings, and much, much more. Much like the British Museum in London, a multi-day visit would be required to see all the exhibits.  

Emperor Hadrian

Bathtub from the time of Nero (I think)

 and beautiful floor mosaics. 

Tapestry rooms

Map rooms. Wasn’t sure we’d get 

Brad and Randy out of this one. 

Painting of the angel visiting Paul in prison. 

Pano shot of the Raphael rooms. Single shots are below. 

Raphael’s School of Athens painting. 

Includes faces of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, 

and Raphael himself among others. 

Represents the great learners and fields of the time. 

Raphael’s Poets painting. 

Vincent Van Gogh’s Pieta 

We then said goodbye to Serena and headed back to our hotel for dinner. Tomorrow we'll do a more leisurely walking tour past some of the other highlights in Rome.