I don’t really know how to write this entry about Rome. I think I saw at least eight churches one day. I also walked six miles that morning and then went and me up with mom and walked some more. Rome was amazing. I saw ruins and things I had studied in art history. We ate great food and had a wonderful time. There is so much history and culture in Rome that it was hard to see it in four days, but we did our best.
I’m going to divide this entry into three sections: churches, ruins, and food.
The Vatican comes first because, well, that’s where the most important church in the Christian world can be found. St. Peter’s was really amazing, but I was most exited to see Baldaccino, or canopy, carved by Bernini. It was huge (it had to be to fit the scale of the church) and the spiral pillars are so often seen on television because they frame the pope’s altar.
Also in the Vatican we saw the Sistine Chapel. We weren’t really ready for the height of the chapel and how far away the ceiling frescoes were from our vision. It was actually somewhat difficult to see them. Even so, the side frescoes were amazing as well (they just weren’t painted by Michelangelo).
In addition to these sites, I went to the first Jesuit church in the world, called the Jesú, saw the chains that bound St. Peter, saw the original papal residency and church, and went to a church on the site of the first Christian place of worship. It was called Santa Maria in Trastevere and its mosaics were amazing.
While I was in the Trastevere section of Rome, I went to Tempietto which I had studied in art history. It’s a little temple, built in 1502 by Bramante, housed in a courtyard at a church on top of a hill overlooking Rome. The temple is said to be of perfect proportions. It’s actually quite tiny. You can enter the front door and from there you can be back outside in one-two steps. There is a lower level, but you cannot enter it. There were only a few other tourists up there while I was walking around it. I went around the back of the temple and walked down the stairs to see inside the lower chamber of the temple. There weren’t many signs so I’m not sure what was housed in the lower part.
While wandering around, mom and I went into Santa Maria sopra Minerva which had a blue fresco ceiling. There was also a statue by Michelangelo up near the altar.
I went to the Pantheon three times. The first time, mom and I went at night, but it had just closed. The second time I went, it was early in the morning and there was almost no one there. The third time (I had to bring mom there with me) it was raining inside. Yes, it was raining inside the Pantheon. That hole in the ceiling is not covered by glass, it was actually a hole. It was only misting/drizzling, but we could see the rain entering the building. We couldn't see it hit the ground, but it was still surreal to see water entering the building. In our practical-thinking American minds, we figured they put glass up there to cover the hole.
Some of the other churches were smaller and had few to no tourists inside. Some, like the one on the Piazza del Popolo or the one on the Piazza Navona, were round, while others like Santa Maria del Popolo had Caravaggio paintings. Actually, we had to brave the crowds of French tourists at the San Luigi dei Francesi to see some amazing paintings by Caravaggio. His St. Matthew series (The Calling of St. Matthew, the Martyrdom of St. Matthew and St. Matthew and the Angel) was much better than his works we saw at the Uffizi. He painted in a realistic style and the expressions on the people’s faces were so lifelike we felt the people were in the same room as us.
Roman Ruins:
Of course we saw the Coliseum. It was cool, but really touristy and our guide sucked and we didn’t stay inside long enough to actually appreciate the building. I was more excited about the Arch of Constantine which was on the same plaza.
Mom and I also visited the Roman Forum which gave us a real feel for how people in ancient Rome lived. Seeing it first from the Palentine Hill, we got a sense of where things were and how it was organized. Then we went down into the forum and looked at the details on the buildings. I had studied the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, young girls who entered the house of the Vestal Virgins at age ten promising to remain chaste and maintain the eternal flame of Rome until they were freed back into society at age 40. Also in the forum, we saw the spot where Caesar’s body was burned, several temples and the original senate building.
In addition to the forum, we saw the ruins of a theater (Teatro Marcello) in the Jewish Ghetto section of Rome. We also saw some small temples near the Circus Maximus, a former chariot racetrack, but now a field. We walked by Caesar’s and Agustus’s fori, as well as Trajan’s forum and his column, which was the basis for Marcus Aurelius’s column. Both men constructed columns which a spiral bas relief going around them to record everything they accomplished while in office.
Another place I walked around was the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina, a site which contains parts of four temples and the building where Caesar was stabbed on the Ides of March. It seems like every corner of Rome has a place in history.
Another ruin we saw, we had been restore and moved inside, was the Ara Pacis, or Peace Altar. It was commissioned by the Senate in 13BC to commemorate the peace throughout the Mediterranean as accomplished by Marcus Aurelius. The altar was huge, at least 12 feet high and people could walk up the stairs and into it. Around the upper frieze of the altar, sculptures depict all the important people of the time. The sculptures are incredibly detailed and serve as a yearbook.
Food in Rome:
We had two great meals in Rome. One was our lunch in the Jewish Ghetto. One of the Roman specialties is fried artichokes. We watched two men pealing artichokes in the entrance to the restaurant. When they arrived at our table, the artichokes had been fried in oil and were crispy. We pulled them apart (like people in the US pull apart a bloomin’ onion). We also ordered a fried zucchini blossom stuffed with anchovies and cheese and fried pieces of baccala (salted codfish). I had eaten baccala in Spain and Portugal (where it’s called bacalou), but mom had not had it since her childhood. Her father, who was born in Italy, had often talked about it. The food was delicious, as was the homemade fettuccini with artichoke sauce we split after our fried appetizers.
Our other great meal was our final dinner. We chose a restaurant that was a bit fancy, especially for us. When we sat down, we were served a complementary chef’s tasting, warm ricotta and artichoke tort with a mint sprig on top. I don’t like ricotta, but this was outrageously good. It was soft, yet the bottom was crunch (it had been the top in the oven). Next, we each ordered a pasta dish: I had baccala tortellini which were more like ravioli and served in a sauce of garlic and butter. Mom ordered chestnut gnocchi which she seemed to enjoy. For dinner we split two dishes: grilled and roasted vegetables (eggplant, pepper, tomatoes, zucchini, potato) and eggplant, buffalo mozzarella, and tomato tart, which was stacks of the three ingredients which had been baked together. The breads were all homemade and replenished frequently.
In addition to these meals we had an interesting lunch in Rome. It was pizza, which in the US wouldn’t be considered anything interesting. Except in Rome, the pizza was baked in a brick oven and sold by weight. We picked what kind we wanted and told the guy how big of a piece, he then cut it and weighed it on a scale before folding it in half, wrapping it in paper and handing it to us. I ate a piece of cheese-less, a piece of zucchini on cheese with no tomato and few bites of mushroom pizza. Mom had the mushroom one and a regular piece (cheese, tomato sauce). The crust was thin and crispy.
