The City Tour

6 April, 2008: Rome, Day Two

Another city, another hop-on, hop-off tour bus. Having been on three now (London, Paris, and Rome), my opinion is that London is by far the best, offering local guides with sometimes colorful commentary that is far more insightful than the typical recorded lecture. On the other hand, for anyone with kids, the hop-on, hop-off style tour is greatly appealing: saves feet (and thus whining), and is an easy way to keep the kids placated while you see the city.

So, anyway, the tours take you round the city to most of the tourist spots, and we rode all the way through the tour before getting off for lunch and a visit to Santa Maria Maggiore, but one of the many Santa Marias in Rome. The story goes that one of the Popes (Pope Liberius, to be precise) had a dream in which the Virgin Mary told him to build a church where he found snow. When it fell on August 5th (yes, August) he obeyed, and the result was the Santa Maria Maggiore. The church ended up being completed about 440. Throughout the years, as with many of the more famous buildings, people have added to the original building so that you now have mosaics from the 13th century, chapels from the 17th century, and the ceiling from the 15th century. It is, however, safe to say that it is one of the most amazing churches I have ever been inside. Ornate hardly begins to describe it.

After the Santa Maria Maggiore, the day was cooler than anticipated, so we made a quick swing around to the apartment for some warmer clothes, and a stop at the Gelateria del Teatro, about a block away. Afterwards, we went back up, caught the bus again, and rode around to the Spanish Steps and the Piazza di Spagna. Maybe I’m just jaded, but I wasn’t impressed. I mean, there are tons of cool places in Rome, and if you just came round the corner and found the Spanish Steps, you might think, “Hey, that’s kind of cool,” but with hundreds of tourists hanging out on the steps, I thought something much more like, “Let’s get out of here as soon as we can.” We did take the obligatory picture or two, but then we followed my instincts and left.

We headed for the Trevi Fountain, which is immense and beautiful. There were tons of tourists there, too, but the fact that the fountain was so nice made it a bit more bearable. The story goes that if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, you will one day return to Rome. We’ll let you know if it works.

Afterwards, we continued our trek back towards the Piazza Navona and our apartment, pausing to enter Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, another exquisitely decorated church, probably best known for its illusionistic ceiling. A cupola was planned for the church, but never built, so the space that it would have filled was covered with a painting (on a flat surface). When entering the church, the illusion is so complete that at best you think someone just painted a dome. Even when underneath it, it took several minutes before Michelle agreed that it was actually flat. Leaving there, we finally made our way back to the apartment, where Michelle proceeded to thoroughly clean our clothes in preparation for another day in Rome. (It wasn’t her fault, she was doing a load of laundry, and accidentally washed it twice.) We dined on fine ham, mozzarella, and tomato sandwiches (panini) from a little place down the street, and called it a day.

The History Lesson

As Westerners, we derive much of our history and culture from the Romans and Greeks. Certainly as Americans, we learn very little about European history, but we do tend to learn about the Roman Empire. Indeed, many of the world's languages are related to Latin, and our legal and political systems still follow some of the precepts set forth by the Romans. Additionally, we still use architectural approaches that were perfected by the Romans. Rome, according to legend, was founded by Romulus (thus the name) in 753 BC. Archaeologists agree that Rome was founded probably somewhere in the middle of the 8th century BC. The city is definitely one of the oldest in the world, and it is hard to state how it feels to stand and see some of the ancient ruins that still somewhat stand upon the Roman Forum. End of the history lesson.

Our apartment was on the Via dei Coronari, which is known for its antiques, and the apartment was about a three minute walk from Piazza Navona, which has a couple of fountains, although one was out of commission while we were there. After a late night, we got off to a late start the following morning. We headed to a small place just north of the Piazza Navona where we got some croissants for the kids and I had a cappuccino. Michelle wanted a caffe latte, and I mistakenly ordered simply a "latte". They asked if I wanted it hot (caldo), to which I replied, somewhat confused, that yes, I wanted it hot. They then asked if I wanted chocolate on top, so I got that as well. It wasn't until we got it that I figured it out - I had ordered simply a milk - not a "caffe latte", so Michelle ended up with basically an Italian hot chocolate.

After that, we tried to figure out the bus routes, and made our way to the Roman Forum, stopping at a small cart for our lunch. Before entering the Forum, we went to the Mamertine prison, which, according to legend, once imprisoned the Apostle Peter. The Roman Forum is a patchwork of old buildings, consisting of temples, arches built by various emperors to celebrate themselves, and old meeting halls. Even the kids, who had no sense of the history of the place enjoyed running about in the "remainings", as they called it. A good number of the pictures below show various buildings and views of the Roman Forum, some looking up towards the Palatine Hill where the emperors kept their residences.

Due to our late arrival, and the fact that our camera battery was already beginning to run low, we headed back to the apartment for a quick rest and to recharge the batteries on the camera. I also made a quick run to the local grocery store for some breakfast food. After our brief respite, we went back to the Forum area for a visit to the Colosseum. It's hard to explain what it's like to see these things. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but they still fail to capture everything that is felt when you actually see them. We spent an hour or two inside, and told the kids about the gladiator fights and other things that used to take place there.

Coming out, it was getting late, so we headed back to our apartment once again, and then out for dinner in a little place on the back streets behind the Via dei Coronari. All along the way, we kept seeing buildings and churches which just seemed so ancient, part of an ancient city. And so ended our first full day in Rome.

Next: All around the town

There...and Back Again

We made it home late last night from our latest trip. In keeping with the previous trip postings, I'm going to try to make a post a day for each day of the trip.

So, yes, on Friday, April 4th, we loaded ourselves (and our luggage) onto yet another plane, and headed out for the great country of Italy. Italy is an hour ahead of London, and flying to Rome took about two hours. We arrived in Rome rather late - at this point, I don't really remember the time. Going through immigration was pretty quick, and we were in the taxi to our apartment shortly afterwards. The kids promptly fell asleep, and Mich and I were left to wonder at the marvels of nighttime Rome. I don't think I will ever forget the first time seeing the Colosseum as it loomed out of the darkness.

We finally made it to our apartment, where we met Giorgio, who let us in. After dropping off our stuff, we went to grab a bite to eat. Our first dinner in Rome was good, although, to be honest, I think we were a bit too tired to really enjoy it. We headed back to the apartment to get some sleep for our first full day in Rome.

Next: The History Lesson