Roamin' Roman

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Say what you will, no one else saw today the marvelous things I saw. Except for like, a hundred thousand other people. It was busy at the big destinations in Rome (italian pronunciation: Rrrrrrrroma), and for good reason.



First we had to get there. My parents, Geoff and I bundled into our little rental car on the first sunny morning we've had in days. We found the tiny train station, Poggia Mirtito, and got on the train in the direction of Rome. It was seven euros each for a day pass that included the metro in Rome. These had to first be validated in a little hidden validating machine inside an abandoned building. Getting on the train wasn't much of a problem. Then we had to figure out when to get off. All roads lead to Rome, and we assumed all trains did too. Not quite. My dad bought a sim card for his iPad when we arrived in Italy, and I spent the train trip using the gps watching our little blue dot wend its way through the map. The main train station in Rome is the Rome termini, and one staton before we arrived, I saw that our little blue dot was positioned at the penultimate station in such a way as to make it clear this train was not going to the termini. So then we leapt off the train (after hurriedly confirming with fellow passengers) and made our way to the metro, which shared this station with the train. With a little help we found the correct line and direction, and four stops later were in the heart of Rome.



First stop in Rome is a cappuccino and a pastry, which were very welcome. Next was a church. Naturally. But this was some church. The basilica Santa Maria Maggiore is pretty spectacular, and I even saw a real live monk. It's a functioning church, and people were there receiving their breakfast cracker.



From there we walked to the coliseum through a park. I thought I could hear the roar of the ancient Romans chanting "Maximus, Maximus!" but it turned out to be an ambulance rushing to the aid of someone mostly killed by an italian driver somewhere. There are a LOT of ambulances in Rome. Once you spend some time there, you're amazed there aren't more. The coliseum is pretty spectacular. It's amazing to me it is in such good shape so many years later. It is also busy. Really, really busy. Forget going inside. There were people scalping tickets to a special "two hours only" line. We were interested in going through the forum, but the line for that was insurmountable and the path that appeared to go through stopped halfway and we had to retrace our steps. We had tickets to a one o'clock admission to the Vatican, and so from that point we had to point ourselves in pretty much a straight line along the busiest street to put the 4km behind us as quickly as possible. Crossing the street is terrifying, motorcycles cut so close I could have pulled out their beard hair. We got there though, and that is a hell of a structure.



We had to make our way around the side to the Vatican entrance. The plan was to go to the little cafeteria by the Sistine Chapel, have a bite to eat then see the chapel and some of the other art. It did not go quite that smoothly. Getting in was a piece of cake, no real lines, no gypsies muttering curses. But the Sistine chapel and the adjacent cafeteria are in the very bowels of the building, and there are tens of thousands of slow moving tourists in between. The signs read for the chapel and the cafeteria, and ought to add that it will take a good half an hour of being jostled and sweated on, and rushing past priceless art to get there. It turned out to be a good strategy however, as we had a break, had some lunch, and saw the Sistine Chapel as it was meant to be seen, with a full stomach and eruptive coke burps.



I was awed to see the ceiling in person. The invigoration of Adam, the last judgement, Adam and Eve and the serpent...it was incredible. I like that they've left a little corner dirty so you can see what it looked like before they cleaned it. It was dirty. Although, in some ways, it's more dirty now. You see, Michelangelo loved the naked male form, and many of his figures were nude and dazzlingly muscular. In the reformation age they painted little weenie kerchiefs on them for modesty, and some of these were removed in the restoration. I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that the chests of some of the female characters came off too, because they look just like men with breasts added as an afterthought. Eve's arm is thicker and ropier than the tree where the serpent lurks. There are guards loudly shushing and making people turn off their cameras, though I managed to get some pretty terrible pictures of the ceiling without being caught. We then went back the way we came through the river over people, just like salmon. Sweaty, flustered salmon. At least we didn't lay a bunch if eggs and die at the end. We saw tonnes of great art by raphael and Caravaggio and others. Then we went into the square to gaze upon the sinister globe. By this time the Vatican was emptying out because all normal people had gone somewhere to soak their festering feet in an ice bath. It was funny seeing things I've never seen before in real life that seemed familiar from other people's photographs, like the exit ramp of the Vatican and the globe, which everyone takes photos of.



Geoff had done his own thing in rome today, not having tickets to the Vatican and not feeling up to the grueling cross town march to get there. He sent us a text describing his location in st, Peter's square so that we could meet up, and it really couldn't have described anyone else. There is a post office in the Vatican, since it's actually a separate country. It is in a temporary trailer in the square due to restorations. Geoff was, just as he described, in front of the post office, in the only chair. He looked like the king of st. Peter's square.

Then we needed refreshments, so we took the first of two harrowing taxi rides to Piazza Navona. What is piazza Navona? It is defined thusly: piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena). It is believed that over time the name changed to 'in agone' to 'navone' and eventually to 'navona'. Navona was transformed into a highly significant example of Baroque Roman architecture and art during the pontificate of Innocent X, who reigned from 1644-1655, and whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza. It features important sculptural and architectural creations: in the center stands the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, topped by the Obelisk of Domitian, brought here in pieces from the Circus of Maxentius the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Carlo Rainaldi and others. It was also in Angels and Demons, a movie I have not seen but assume that it features scenes of Tom Hanks exclaiming, "da Vinci!" and running somewhere.



Second terrifying taxi ride, coordination of train ride home, which was much more challenging than it should be. We had to figure out which of the trains that go past our little station actually stop there, and there is no nice map of the trains the way there is with the metro. By the time we were back near our town it was very late and we went for a nice late Italian dinner. The roads are very winding and narrow here so driving at night is like being in a "mad mouse car" according to my mother, and that isn't far off. All the animals had come out at night, and that made it even more challenging.



The plan tomorrow is for my parents and I to go into Rome and stay until Saturday. We have nothing formal on the docket tomorrow, and have tickets to the Vatican at night and other fun things in the days ahead.



Important counts from today:

spritz for me: 1

Spritz for the group: 6

Punch Priests: had to stop when dad's arm fell off

Porcupine: 2 sprinting across our road, trying to kill us all

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Photos

Christapillar
My dad thought the reason for depicting the Christ baby in tight bandages was to show his metamorphosis. Mom wasn't a fan.

Comments

[hamish]

packed in like sardinias
Sounds like the place is busy and crowded. Sassari to hear that. Say, I know some people over there. If you're interested in having a private session with the big guy on your next visit, I'll make some calls. No promises, but I'll do vatican.

[MaryMD]

I bow to the king of puns
I don't know why I started with all the pun titles, but it's too late to change now. I'm really glad you're reading this goofy thing hamish, and I love getting your comments.