Day 3

I was up early again the next morning for round 3 of 'Sarah walks across Rome'. My first planned stop on this day was the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, to see La Bocca della Verita - the Mouth of Truth. I caught the metro Termini to Circo Massimo, and then walked along the side of Circo Massimo itself. This used to be a grand stadium, where races were held - up to 12 races per day in Augustus' time. Caligula liked to gamble a bit more, and held up to 24 races each day. These days the area is just a place for locals to walk their dogs, but you can still see where the track would have been.

Anywho, it was just a short (wet) walk up and down the hill to the church. I'd gone out of my way to go there because I knew that it was a central scene in the film "Roman Holiday", which I figured I'd be watching when I got home. I'm somewhat ashamed to say that I hadn't seen it before I went, and I haven't seen it yet - but I have the DVD here and it's a current plan for this weekend! I could see the Mouth of Truth as I arrived at the church, but wanted to take a look inside first. Turned out to be a great idea - inside I discovered a relic of San Valentino - yep, you guessed, good ol' St Valentine himself. It's kind of morbid to be standing there looking at a skull, but that's just what I did.



There wasn't much else to see inside this particular church, so I wandered out and joined the queue to have my photo taken with my hand inside the mouth. For those who don't know, the legend has it that if you put your hand into the mouth of the sculpture, and you tell a lie, it will bite your hand off. I can testify now that the legend isn't true, but the lie I told wasn't a big one, so maybe there's just degrees of lying!



I went inside to buy a souvenir, and discovered a piece of an 8th century mosaic on the wall there. Apparently it comes from the Old St Peter's Basilica. I loved the fact that there was no glass over it, and no apparent security system - something that's at least 1300 years old, and it's on the wall of an old, small church in a city known for its thieves. Britain would guard that with several armed forces units, heat sensors, motion detectors, and a donkey.

I left the church and jumped onto a bus, taking the scenic route through the city before eventually finding my way to Barberini. From there, I walked up the hill to the top of the Spanish Steps, which I had avoided going to a couple of days before. I'm not sure in the end if it would have been better to approach them from the bottom or the top, but nevertheless I did get lots of photos. I'm still not sure what's so special about these steps. I mean, I know the history of them, I know that they're in a few movies, but really? They're just steps. Slippery steps, covered in tourists and freaky guys trying to give women flowers. I did kind of like the fountain at the bottom of the steps, the Fontana della Barcaccia (Fountain of the Old Boat).







Right next to the Spanish Steps is the Keats Shelley Memorial House. I got all excited when I realised that, because of all the English poets, Keats is a favourite. Naturally, it was closed. I said a few naughty words quietly, turned around, and realised that I was at the end of Via Condotti, one of the premiere shopping streets in Rome. Somehow though, I restrained myself, however temporarily, and headed in a different direction - towards Piazza del Popolo. I didn't know what was supposed to be there, but it was highlighted on the tourist map I was following, so I figured it must have been worth a shot. It was a bit 'more of the same'-ish, so I didn't hang around there long. Can I just say though, it's no wonder I don't understand modern art. There were a couple of sculptures on the street on my way to the piazza, and lets just say I don't think anyone around me really got the point of them.
Got a little excited again when leaving Piazza del Popolo!

I wasn't really sure where else to go from here. I covered a lot of places much more quickly than I had anticipated, I think because I hadn't realised how close they all were to each other. I'm too used to big distances. I decided to go to Rome's cathedral, Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. I'd already seen a lot of churches, but what's a trip to an ancient city without a whole lot more? The cathedral was huge. I'd figured that with so many churches in such a small area, that the cathedral wouldn't actually be that big. Wrong. It wasn't huge as in the size of the Vatican huge, but it was certainly big enough.


From there I headed down the street, looking for the Scala Santa. This is supposed to the the staircase that Jesus walked up in Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem. I don't really know why I couldn't find it, but I never did get there. I went into Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Holy Cross in Jerusalem. There was a lot of interesting things to see there, not the least of which was a shrine to a young girl who is up for sainthood, but there is was is reported to the holy relics from Jesus' crucifiction. I wasn't sure if they were real when I was there, but I did a bit of research afterwards and it seems that they are. The relics, known as the passion relics, include: a large fragment of the Good Thief's Cross; the bone of an index finger, said to be that of St Thomas, which he placed in the wound of the Risen Christ; pieces of the Scourging Pillar, Christ's tomb and Jesus' crib; two thorns from the crown of thorns; three fragments from the True Cross; a nail used in the crucifiction; and the Title of the Cross. There is also a copy of the Shroud of Turin there. I wish I'd taken it a bit more seriously now - I snapped a couple of pics while I was there just to record it, but didn't really believe it, and left relatively quickly.



That was pretty much the end of my day, as it was time for dinner and to head back to the hotel. Yet another successful day!

Buon Natale!

I'd rung the family the night before, as it was Christmas Day their time and I knew it'd be the best time to speak to everyone. That meant that I didn't have anything to do on Chrsitmas morning, other than organise myself and get to the Vatican. I'm not a Catholic (I had a stand-up fight with Sr Therese at school when she called me an aetheist, because I'm agnostic), but I figured, hey, when in Rome...!

I don't really know how I managed to fluke this, but I timed my arrival to St Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro) quite perfectly. I'd stopped on the way from the train station to give Aunty Ann a call (being Welsh she was in almost the same time zone as me, and I'd get in trouble if I didn't call), and arrived at the piazza just as the various groups of guards were doing their little march past. I snapped a couple of photos, found the way through the gates, and headed for the front of the piazza. Basically, there's a space under the balcony for the Swiss Guards, followed by a seated area, a fenced off gap for the march past, and then the crowds. The gazillions of people, just like me, who all wanted to see the pope wave his hands and ramble on. Somehow, despite all of those people, I ended up as the third person back behind the fencing. I was also right in front of a big screen, so I had the perfect view of things (that is, when the blonde, Amazonian woman in front of me swayed left and I went right, or vice versa).





We stood around for quite a while waiting for the big guy to appear, and quite a roar went up when he did. Needless to say, I didn't understand more than a few random words, but it was a good experience all the same. He gave a blessing (I assume) in what I think was just about every language, including Esperanto. It was like he was some kind of rock star, the way people carried on. I don't really get the fascination with him myself, although I suppose it doesn't help that I was more a fan of JP2 than of Benny, but anyway.

After he'd finished his somewhat short appearance, the crowds began to disperse. I hung around the front for a bit to snap a few pics, then wandered back to the nativity scene, before exiting the piazza on a search for something to eat. Christmas Day, and what do I have for lunch? Pizza, of course! I didn't pay by the slice either - I paid by weight. You tell them how much pizza you want, they cut it, weigh it, you pay for it. And the pizza was gooooooood. I then turned back into the piazza, sat down for a spot of people watching while lunch settled down, and then went into the Basilica di San Pietro. It was yet another opportunity to get a crick in my neck and to marvel at the sheer opulence of the place.

I spent quite a while wandering around the basilica. The big red circle on the floor is where Charlemange and later Holy Roman Emperors were crowned by the pope. I took stacks of photos, far more than I'm putting up here. I saw the high altar, where the only person who can say mass is the pope, and St Peter is reportedly buried underneath it. I also saw the 13th century bronze statue of St Peter, with the worn down foot that has been touched by thousands of pilgrims (thanks for the info on that one, Lonely Planet!).

This photo was taken directly below the balcony. You can see the fence at the back of the seats - that's where I was.


After I left the basilica, I headed down the street towards Castel Sant' Angelo. It wasn't open, so I wandered through the markets, somehow found myself in Piazza Navona, and figured I'd have dinner before heading back to Termini for my shuttle. Another lovely day filled with wandering and discovering - and once again I was shattered.

From the Roman Forum...

...along the Via del Fori Imperiali, past several other forums, and the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II. This is a momument to the first king of the unified Italy (he became king in 1861 - practically yesterday in terms of Italian history). It has various nicknames, including the wedding cake and the typewriter, and is pretty much derided by Italians young and old.


From there it was a hop, skip and a dash across the busy street to Piazza Venezia, which didn't have anything to hold my interest, so I strolled down the street, wandering in and out of shops, wishing I didn't have a credit card limit. I picked up a couple of souvenirs and eventually found my way to Piazza Navona.

This place was exactly what I'd imagined a piazza to be. I don't know if the stalls that were there are year-round or were just there for Christmas, but they sold everything from cheap crap to leather handbags. By this point in the day it was early afternoon, and I was a little peckish. I grabbed a panini and parked my butt on a railing around the Fontana del Nettuno. It was glorious - I sat there for quite a while, soaking up the sunshine, listening to the people (a good mix of tourists and locals), and trying hard to work out more of the language. It was that perfect temperature where I could have fallen asleep though, so I made myself get up and move on.

This time I headed for the Pantheon, which was only a few blocks away. I somehow managed to approach it from behind, which meant that I didn't really get the full effect of the columns until after I'd been inside. They're *massive*, and like the Colosseum, made me marvel at how they had been built so perfectly so many years ago. I went inside, and it was amazing. There are beautiful paintings everywhere, more huge columns, and, something I didn't realise beforehand, the tomb of Raphael, the painter and architect. It made me stop for a second, one of those 'wow' moments (there were a lot of them during the trip, but this was one of the first). I was suddenly standing before the tomb of someone whose name is bandied about so frequently when talking about history, and there it was, right in front of me.






The real 'wow' moment of the Pantheon though, for me, was the roof. This is a church, filled with priceless relics, and there's a gaping hole in the top of it. It's designed so that rain will drain away from small holes in the marble floor, which is great, but it's still kind of odd to go into somewhere like that and find that you're staring up at the sky whilst standing between the tombs of kings and queens.

I sat for a while here, too, to take it all in, before heading out into the piazza to take some photos of the front. In the end I didn't manage to get a photo of the whole front of it properly, but I did get most of it. It's just too big! I was about ready by this point for some dessert, so naturally I headed for the nearest gelati vendor. I bought a couple of scoops, saw lots of people sitting on the steps of this monument in the square, and figured I'd join them. I don't really know how I do it, but as soon as I sat down, a policewoman was telling me to bugger off. Turns out you can't sit anywhere even AROUND the monuments. Luckily, one of the easiest phrases of Italian sprung to mind, and "Mi scusi, mi scusi!" got me out of trouble!

Having nowhere to sit, I wandered up the street, with no real direction in mind. Eventually I saw a sign for the Fontana di Trevi, and seeing as that was on my list of places to go, headed for it. There's not much to say about it, apart from that it was truly spectacular. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was still warm, and there were so many parts of it all. I managed to wiggle my way into a seat in front of the fountain, and stayed there for a while, drinking it all in. I must have had my trustworthy face on, because I took photos for a stack of people while I was sitting there. In the end I was there for about two hours, just people watching and enjoying it all. I did throw a coin into the fountain, over my shoulder - now I get to go back!






It's a bit hard to make out in the photo above, but there's a guy leaning over in a khaki jacket and black beanie - he's got a magnet on the end of something like a television aerial, and he's fishing coins out of the fountain. Bastard.

I figured it wasn't yet time for dinner, but the sun was starting to go down. I had originally thought of going to the Spanish Steps as well, but then figured I'd leave it for another day, as I'd have very little to do otherwise. I decided to go back to the places I'd seen already, and take some night photos. That meant back first of all to the Pantheon, and then to Piazza Navona. I figured I'd eat somewhere in the Piazza, because there were lots of places to choose from and not so many on the way back to the Colosseum. I settled on this little out of the way place, which had very few people at it. One of the waiters was standing out the front, trying to convince people to come and eat there. He was funny, spoke enough English to understand my sarcastic retorts, and I was sold. Turns out, he wasn't even the charmer in the restaurant - the other waiter proposed to me! I couldn't really see myself married to a (hot) waiter in Rome, tempting though it was, and declined. Still, I can notch that up as a proposal all the same!

Finally I headed back through the piazza, past the Fountain of the Four Rivers, and back along past the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, along the side of the Palatine and back to the Colesseum. I was exhausted by this point, so luckily for me it was time to head back to Termini and get the shuttle back to the hotel.

I saw this back at Termini - how exciting to see the Grandview on a poster in Rome!!

Day one - straight back in time

I had arrived in Rome late in the afternoon, and by the time I got to my hotel, there wasn't time to go anywhere. Instead I settled in, kicked back and sorted out a plan of attack for the next few days. I had a Lonely Planet guide and map, and a vague clue as to the things I wanted to see. Eventually I sorted out a bit of a plan, knowing that I'd play it by ear a lot of the time depending on things that I came across.

That first morning I was up bright and early, and I jumped on the hotel shuttle bus which dropped me off at Termini, one of the main public transport hubs in the city. It's also where the two metro lines meet. I somehow, with a mix of broken Italian and English, managed to get myself a ticket (for some reason, you buy metro tickets from the tobacconist, not the ticket office). I found my was down to the correct platform, jumped on a graffiti-covered train, and headed for Il Colosseo - the Colosseum. I had been told by someone else who'd been there before that the Colosseum itself was right outside the metro station, but even then I wasn't quite prepared to have it literally right there across the street.


There are a lot of hawkers hanging around the various sites, doing whatever they can to get money out of you. I learnt this quite quickly, as I was approached by some men dressed as gladiators. They took a couple of photos on my camera, and then tried to tell me it was going to cost me 20 Euro. I told them I'd rather delete the photos than pay, pretended to do so, and then took off. I got the photos, didn't get my wallet out, and learnt a quick lesson about who to be aware of!


I then headed into the Colosseum. I'd already bought a Roma pass, which gave me entry into a couple of sites, a few discounts on others, and a rail pass that lasted a couple of days. I used this to get into the Colosseum, as it was the most expensive place on the list that I was going to visit (thanks to the Lonely Planet guide for the tip on that one!). It was pretty much what I had expected, but it was still amazing. The only thing that I had expected to see but didn't were the cats - everybody told me that there were cats absolutely everywhere, but I didn't see a single one!

I was there for quite a while. It's not hard to imagine what the place was like back in the day, with so much of it still intact. How they managed to build it, though, is what's hard to get your head around. I imagine that it's a lot like the pyramids of Giza - you're struck by feats of engineering that we seem unable to replicate today. I have to admit, I was also thinking of the movie 'Gladiator', and trying to work out where the various parts of the ruins fitted into what they suggested was the layout of the arena.




After the Colosseum, I headed over to the Palatine and Roman Forums. I didn't really know much about the Palatine, other than the few paragraphs in my Lonely Planet guide. According to mythology, the Palatine is where the cave is where Romulus and Remus were found by the wolf that kept them alive. The twins were then found by a shepherd who raised them, before they later killed their great-uncle (who had betrayed their father and taken the throne). They started their own city on the banks of the River Tiber, before having a fight, where Romulus killed Remus (and thus the city is called Rome).

Basically, the whole area is a mass of ruins and gardens. It's gorgeous, and provides great views across parts of the city.


The forums kind of blend into the palatine, so I didn't realise until after I'd left that I'd actually seen the forums at all. The forum was where the government and senate began, and was where people gathered for a variety of reasons. It was also considered the economic hub of the city.