Rome, Italy

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Rome, Italy

Tour of the City.

Our hotel is a beautiful 5-Star hotel up on a hill.  Bob and Denise were able to share their hard earned points to bring the rate down to a reasonable level.  Our stay included breakfast and it brought a whole new meaning to the word breakfast buffet.  First of all the entire hotel is beautiful.  Lovely furnishings, a very extensive art collection in the hotel.  Doorbells on the rooms and the light switches you need a tutorial for. 

 

The breakfast buffet was two huge rooms filled with fruit, cut up and whole, a bread table with many different types of bread, a sweets table with assorted pastries, cakes and cookies. There is a room with silver steam trays with fried eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets and you can boil an egg for whatever amount of time you’d like.  There are meats, vegetables, many different types of granola and yogurt, a table with Asian food and on and on.  It’s so hard to decide what to get.  A very beautiful display of food.

We started the day with our driver, Marco, and our first stop was Trevi Fountain.  It is a beautiful fountain and we did what everyone does….. threw in a coin.  The Trevi Fountain water is still provided by a 2000 year old viaduct.  There is a spigot where you can taste the water, which we did.

Jim throwing a coin in the fountain.

 

Me throwing my coin.

Drinking the water from the fountain.

Our next stop was the Roman Forum.  The forum is a confusing patchwork of ruined temples, arches and basilicas. 

 

 

We drove by The Victor Emmanuel Monument which was built in honor of unified Italy, an impressive building.  It also now is the place for Italy’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

Our next stop was fascinating… we went to the Aventine Hill and drove to the Piazza Dei Cavalieri di Malta which is a square where the Knights of Malta have existed since 1798.  There is a residence there with a huge green door and a keyhole.  There was a line of people and we didn’t know what to expect that we would see when we peered into the keyhole.  I will let you Google it and find out what we saw in the keyhole.  It was really neat though.  Just Google the Magic Keyhole.

A view through the keyhole.... but you really can't tell what you see.

 

Waiting to look in the keyhole. 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to see where the Circus Maximus which was an ancient Roman Chariot racing stadium.  It is now a park but at one time held 150,000 spectators and was the site of the chariot races in the movie Ben Hur. 

Hard to imagine that it could seat that many people.

It looks very different now.

 

Then on to the Colosseum.  I was really ready to see the Colosseum, it’s something you see pictures of and read about and something I’ve wanted to see.  Construction began in 72 AD and opened in 80 AD.  The massive amphitheater could seat between 55,000 and 75,000 people.   It was wonderful having a private tour guide and so worth the extra money because the guides can skip the long, long lines and get you right in with little or no wait.  (This is the way to go when you go to Rome, skipping these very long lines is more than worth the expense.)   We walked all around the top walkway and then some on the lower walkway.  The ruins are beautiful and sad all at the same time.   We took lots of pictures and talked about what took place so many years ago.

Me outside the Colosseum.

Looking down into the center.

All of us at the Coliseum

 

 

We drove on to the Pantheon.  The Pantheon is one of the most impressive buildings in Rome and the best preserved ancient building.  Built originally built as a temple to all the gods it was converted into a church in 609 which saved it from being torn down.  The inside has beautiful marble work, columns and statues. 

The Pantheon

 

Our next stop was the Catacombs di San Callisto.  These catacombs were founded in the 2^nd century.  Archaeologists found the tombs of 500,000 and seven popes who were martyred there in the 3^rd century.  It was an interesting experience and we had a wonderful guide who you could feel the presence of God in.  It was nice to get back above ground though.

 

Our final stop was the Spanish Steps.  It was filled with lots of people, just as I had read, but I didn't really get the magic of it.  I guess you have to be a Roman to feel it.

This was from the top looking down at the steps.

 

Back at our hotel we went down to the back patio and had focaccia, (prosciutto, mozzarella and tomatoes on a wonderfully thin crust) and sat and talked and laughed for several hours.  Off to bed for tomorrow is the Vatican!