Day 17, Florence, Italy to Rome, Italy

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Day 17: Saturday, December 13th, 2009
Florence, Italy to Rome, Italy.

Ah, Rome. Sweet, sweet, Rome. What can I say about it? No, seriously, what can I say? Why did I let my blog updates get so far behind?! All the cities are blurring into one... Plus, as I re-read some of my entries, yes, I have a problem with skipping between past/present tense and my punctuation sucks. Deal with it 😊 Or offer to edit it for me!

So, I don't see any pictures that show the drive from Florence to Rome, so I'm guessing nothing unusual happened. We got into Rome and the bus dropped us off in the Piazza del Popolo and Dave led us on a 1-2 hour walk of Rome. I really wish this happened with each city because it gave us a great layout of the land.

So, in the Piazza del Popolo ("People's Square") you can find many historical artifacts, among which: Obelisk of Ramsses II that Caesar brought back as a souvenir (Dave equated it to us bringing back magnets from countries as keepsakes) and also the Porta del Popolo which was the main entry archway into Rome (and the one that Caesar marched thru after his Gaul triumph- look at me, I am learning history!) I'll admit though, I am googling some of this to jog my memory.

After that, we head over to the Piazza di Spagna or "Spanish Square" which has its name due to the Spanish Embassy being right there. Again, googling to remind myself fun facts and I see that the stairs I climbed had 137 steps over 12 flights, don't remember them being bad so guess I'm getting in shape after all! It was starting to rain, but between my slicker and the umbrella it wasn't bad at all. The view from the top of the stairs (right in front of the church) was nice but we only had about 15 minutes to wander so it was a matter of "Get to the top! Take pictures! Get down the stairs! Go, Dog, Go!"

From there, we head over to the Trevi Fountain where we all toss in a coin and make a wish to return to Rome. However, guess we were supposed to toss 3 coins in to ensure this would happen so looks like we'll only get 1/3 of the way back to Rome. We then pass by the Column of Marcus Aurelius as we head over to the Pantheon.

Wow. You get a glimpse of the Pantheon thru a narrow street and I just couldn't get the picture to do it justice. To see this giant, ancient building, looming in the distance was majestic to say the least. I'm actually appreciating most of this more now as I look back at the pictures and remember. At the time, we were all trying to follow the map and get our bearings while keeping up with the group, on top of being exhausted. That's what happens when you try to do Europe in 22 days. People joke, but we really do wake up and wonder what city we're in and we all have to pause to remember where we just came from. I'll never mock singers who complain about being exhausted from being on tour- it's very disorienting (don't worry, I'll continue to mock singers for many other reasons.)

Anyway, Pantheon, yes- great. Do go there sometime. Dave pointed out that as we went in, if we looked up and behind us we'd see a chunk of where the wall was removed because someone in later years wanted to see how the Romans had built it. Unfortunately, this tidbit I can't find online so I can't tell you the name of the architect that removed that chunk to study. No doubt, Dave will bang his head against the nearest wall if he ever reads my blogs due to my brain's inability to remember names. Heck, his name might not even be Dave, I might have had that wrong all this time too. Follow the above link to read more about the Pantheon, many interesting points.

We then head over to the Piazza Navona where, again, among many other things, the Fontana dei Quattro fiumi (or "Four Rivers Fountain") and Chiesa di S. Agnese in Agone ("St. Agnes" church) can be found. This plaza is built on top of a stadium ("Stadium of Domitian" according to wikipedia) and if you go down to one far end, you can peer down to where some of the stadium remains. I say "peer down" because the old layout of Rome was about 30 feet below where current Rome stands. They just kept building over the old with the new instead of tearing it down.

We start walking towards the Coliseum, but first we pass by the Roman Forum. This was old Rome and we will meet up with a tour guide tomorrow who will explain it more. We had a great spot overlooking it all though and could glimpse the Coliseum from there. Nearby was a replica of the Romulus & Remus She Wolf sculpture which is a major symbol/story for Rome. We round the corner (past the Vittorio Emanuele monument which Dave talks about at great length- remember me saying that, there's a reason) and we then walk by the Coliseum and it still isn't completely sinking in that I was there! Again, surreal. Our local tour guide will take us on a tour of that as well tomorrow so I'll babble about that later. Our restaurant was right by the Coliseum so we head on in and once we sit, I realize how friggin tired and sore I was. It was a great hike, but damn! (however, as I type this in Prague- the hike to get to this hotel in the 6 degree temperature is keeping me from bitching about the Rome walk).

After dinner, we hop on the bus and head to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. Not very Roman, but very modern and clean so after the last hell hole I was happy!

Tomorrow, a full day in Rome!

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Photos

Santa Maria di Montesan and anta Maria dei Miracoli
Almost identical 17th century churches.

Piazza del Popolo arch
Was once the main entrance into Rome.

Building across from Trevi Fountain
Not sure what it is, will have to find out.

Marcus Aurelius Column CU
Tells the story of one of his battles, again, can't remember which.

Pantheon Ceiling
The ceiling is open in the middle so rain does come in but the floors have drains so no harm is done.

Comments

[Chris]

You reenacted the entire movie Gladiator at the Coliseum?
Ooooh, that all looks so amazing!! Can't wait to see more pics!