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Published: March 30th 2009
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Piazza Navona
Church of Sant' Agnese in Agone lines one side of the square March 2 - Our flight in from Cairo went without a hitch, and we touched down in Rome early afternoon. As expected, having spent the last couple weeks in Egypt, we knew we were in for a different type of culture shock, the money culture shock. I had arranged a transfer from the airport before we left with Romecabs, because we didn't want to deal with our baggage on the train into town, well known for the pickpockets. It was nice to be picked up by a Mercedes van, but handing over the 45 Euro ($75 Cdn) for the ride wasn't so fun.
When we got to the Hotel Parlamento, we were grateful the driver knew where to go, as it is not very well marked. One small sign on the side of the building lets you know the hotel is on the 4th floor. We checked into the hotel and were greeted at reception by Mom and Dad who had heard us at the front desk. It was great to see them, and nice to talk to somebody who's first language was English. We had a booked city tour starting at 6pm, so we spent a couple hours freshening
up and chatting.
At 6pm, we were to meet Jerry from Real Rome tours for our "Rome the City" tour at Piazza Minerva. We knew from looking at the map that it was right by the Pantheon, so we headed that way. We got there early, spent 10 Euro on 2 Paninis (this trip is going to be expensive!), and waited in the light rain to join our tour. After 6pm came and went, we started to wonder what was going on. A quick look at the map again, we figured out we were in the wrong Piazza. Piazza Minerva was just around the corner from where we were standing, in Piazza della Rotonda. In a city of hundreds of Piazza's, it took Melissa and I about 4 hours to go to the wrong one. But we blamed it on Mom and Dad as they had already been in Rome for 24 hours, they should have known the way around!
Once we got to the right square, we met Jerry, our tour guide. Not exactly what I was expecting, Jerry was an Irish guy who had married an Italian woman, but whose knowledge of catholocism, ancient and current
Rome was unsurpassed. We had one other guy from Ireland with us, and this was going to be our group for our next 3 tours.
Jerry walked us around the city, pointing out different things as we went along. Our first major site we stopped at was Piazza Navona. It was originally a Roman circus, where they would come to watch various games, and is now considered a great example of Baroque art history. The pride of the square is the "Fountain of Four Rivers", built by Bernini in 1651. The 4 fountains represent the 4 great rivers of the four continents during the renaissance time (Nile, Danube, Ganges, and Rio de la Plata), and is topped by a familiar Egyptian style obelisk. There are 8 actual Egyptian obelisks in Rome, this one is a Roman copy. There's an interesting legend about the design of the fountain, with one of the statues shielding its eyes from the neighbouring church of Sant'Agnese built by Bernini's rival, Borromini, in fear the church would come crumbing down due to its poor design. In fact, the fountain was completed several years before Borromini worked on the church, but its an interesting story nonetheless.
Piazza della Rotonda
The square that the Pantheon is located at Next main site we went to was the Pantheon. It was originally built around 20 BC by Marcus Aggrippa (one of Augustus' generals and later consul). It burnt down in the great fire of 80 AD, and the current version was rebuilt in 126 AD by the Emporor Hadrian. He left the original inscription on the front of the building dedicating it to Agrippa. Originally it was a pagan temple, but since the 7th century has been a Roman Catholic church. It also serves as a tomb for some famous Romans, most notably, the painter Raphael, and King Vittorio Emanualle II. The inside of the building is decorated with marble everywhere, but the most significant architecture is the oculus, or the big hole in the roof. Romans actually invented concrete, and this is still the biggest unreinforced dome of concrete in the world, with the oculus itself being 30 feet in diameter. Its a very impressive building with a tonne of history behind it when you really get into it.
After sufficiently snapping hundreds of pics, we continued on the tour to the Trevi Fountain. Jerry warned us that the Trevi fountain is a very well known pickpocket
hotspot, as its usually absolutely packed with people. Its the biggest Baroque fountain in Rome, standing at 85 ft high, and 65 ft wide, built over the course of 30 years, finished in 1762. The fountain is simply amazing with its detail and scale, and fortunately we left with all our belongings.
The last stop of the night was the Spanish steps. Simply a large staircase built to connect the Piazza to the Church above, it didn't do a whole lot to impress us, but does offer a decent view from the top. Jerry left us at the steps, and we made our way back to the hotel, with a pit stop at the store across the street from the hotel, for our first of many gelato for the trip.
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