European Vacation - Rome (Day 4 & 5)

Ready for days 4 and 5? Here you go…

Day 4 of our trip was spent on the cruise ship traveling from Barcelona to Rome with nothing to see but water in every direction. We had breakfast in the Garden Café, a cafeteria-style buffet area where you could get food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This was followed by wondering around the ship until lunch time. For lunch, we ate in the Grand Pacific, one of the main dining rooms. They served sandwiches, salads, and other “lunch” type items. The food was good, but the service was SLOW! This was the only day we ate lunch in a dining room for that reason. After lunch, we went to a presentation by Dan the Art Man. Dan was the head art auctioneer on our ship (they sell art, like really expensive, seriously collectable art on cruise ships – it’s a strange). His presentation was like taking Art History 101 in an hour. He was a great speaker, and we ended up spending a lot of our free time on the boat listening to his subsequent presentations and attending art auctions (we liked watching rich people spend ridiculous amounts of money). That evening, we had dinner at one of the themed restaurants on the ship. We opted for Mexican – something we hadn’t eaten in a long time. My chocolate caramel torte for dessert was the best part! We finished up the evening with a show in the ship’s theatre. This evening’s show was a pair of popular British singers. The duo was fun to listen to and had several very good songs.

Rome:

We woke up bright and early for our landing in Civitavecchia, Italy. We were supposed to be able to get off the boat at 9am, but having never done the cruise thing before, we had no idea how long it would take once we were allowed off. To our surprise, we had gotten off the boat, out of the port, and walked to the train station all before 9 am! We just missed the 8:59 train to Rome though, so we had to wait about 40 minutes for the next one. When the train finally arrived, we rode, standing, on a packed train for about an hour before we arrived in Rome – I guess we hit rush hour!

Our first stop after arriving in Rome was the Coliseum. This was the one place in Rome I insisted on seeing, so we decided it was a good place to start. When we walked up the stairs out of the metro station, the first thing we saw was the Coliseum. Guess there was no way to get lost now! We bought our tickets, picked up an audio guide, and went inside. The Coliseum was everything we expected from a historical perspective, but we thought it would be much larger. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing feat of construction considering the time at which it was built (~80 AD), but in our heads, it was so much bigger! We took pictures and listened to the gruesome history of the gladiatorial games on our audio guides while we wondered around. It was fascinating to see the complex system of rooms, hallways and elevators under the floor of the Coliseum. It must have been quite impressive to see entire sets of scenery and wild animals appear out of nowhere during the games. Another interesting feature was the box seats for prominent members of society including the Emperor and government officials. The stone front of each box was carved with the official’s name. When they were no longer in office, their name was removed and their replacement’s name was added. The names we could see today were those of the last officials in office before the games were stopped.

After the Coliseum, we walked to the entrance of the Palatine Hill. The Palatine Hill was the site of the first settlement in Rome and was later home to Rome’s emperors. Most of the structures that once dominated the hill are little more than foundations and rubble. However, illustrations on information boards throughout the site help you envision what an over-the-top place this must have been in its day. We walked along the ancient stone streets in the shade of what Chris called the “Cloud Trees”. Yes, I looked up their real name when we gone home. They are called Stone Pines. My favorite spots on the Palatine Hill were the Stadium of Domitian and the House of Augustus (it’s the only building that is still kind of standing). We were also able to catch a small glimpse of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica – we would only have one more sighting as we sped by on the train later.

Next up was the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was the center of Roman government and religion for nearly 1000 years between 500 BC and 500 AD. We started with an overview from the top of the Palatine Hill then wound our way through the ruins of the Forum with the aid of our trusty Rick Steves’ travel guide. We were very thankful for the clearly narrated directions, historical insights, and maps – lots of maps! I also have his guide books to thank for most of the historical information you’re reading right now.

First up was the Arch of Titus, commissioned to celebrate the victory of Rome over Judea in ~70 AD. Next, we saw Constantine’s Basilica. The arches still standing today are the remains of the side hall. The ceiling of the central hall was another 50 feet higher. Walking down the Via Sacra (the central road through the Forum), we passed the Temple of Romulus (complete with original bronze doors) and the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. The slice marks on the tops of the second temple’s columns were caused when rope and vinegar were used to try to cut the columns down for scrap.

Near the central square of the Forum, we found the Temple of Julius Caesar. It was on this spot that Caesar was cremated after his assassination in 44 BC. The dedication of the temple made Caesar the first Roman to be considered a god. Around the corner was the House of the Vestal Virgins. The women who lived here were responsible for maintaining the fire in the adjacent Temple of Vesta. It was believed that as long as the fire burned Rome would not fall… guess that didn’t work out quite as planned.  We finished up our walk through the Forum with a stop at the Curis or Senate building. This is the most complete building left in the Forum, and it’s easy to imagine senators meeting in the building to debate the issues of the day. The original marble floors as well as some early frescos can still be seen in the building. Currently, several statues and carved reliefs of scenes from the height of the Forum also call this building home.

We left the Forum and walked toward the Pantheon. On the way, we passed the Capital Hill and a huge white building known as the Victor Emmanuel Monument. From here we followed Chris’ handheld GPS for directions. This little piece of technology came in handy on many occasions and made us feel a lot better about exploring knowing, if worst came to worst, we could always find our way back to the boat using the GPS. While walking, we learned that crossing streets in Rome is one giant game of Frogger. Cars are supposed to stop at red lights, and typically do, but scooters are not required to stop, and typically don’t! Needless to say, we found locals and ran across the street whenever they dared.

We made it to the Pantheon but approached from the back. It’s kind of a run-down looking brick building from the back, but once we walked around to the front, we were sufficiently impressed! The columns that support the front of the building are each one solid piece; shipped in from Egypt. The dome of the building is constructed of concrete and gets thinner toward the top. The dome is 142 ft wide (the largest in Europe for many, many years). The floor and walls of the circular church are covered in brightly-colored marble; statues and frescos decorate also the walls. There is a large sky light in the top of the dome. I imagine it could get a little soggy if you sat in the wrong place during a rain storm!  The Pantheon is unique in that it is the only building in Rome that has been continuously used since its construction in 120 AD. It is for this reason, and the fact that it eventually became a church dedicated to Christian martyrs, that it wasn’t destroyed or picked apart for parts over the last 2000 years. We marveled over this amazing feat of ancient Roman engineering for a while before deciding it was lunch time, and when in Rome…. It’s time for pizza. We had classic margarita and slightly more adventurous spinach, mushroom, and roasted pepper pizza. Then, we found ourselves some Gelato – yummy!

At this point, it was time to start heading for the nearest metro station so we could make it back to the train station on time. We had had several bumps along the road with Rome’s metro system already, so we didn’t want to take any chances on being late. Also, unlike Barcelona, Rome’s metro stations are fewer and much farther between. We took a nice scenic walk (thanks again Rick Steves) past several interesting sites including a couple palaces turned modern government buildings to the Trevi Fountain and finally to the Spanish Steps, where the metro station was located. The Trevi Fountain looked exactly like it does in every movie you’ve ever seen, except we saw it during the day, and the movies always show it at night. The hand-carved detail on all the statues and decorations was quite impressive. The Spanish Steps were not nearly as impressive. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Having checked off everything we were going to see for the day, we hopped on the metro and headed for the train. The train ride back to the boat was much nicer than the ride there… mostly because we had seats! Check out the video in the pictures side show for a glimpse of the Italian countryside from the train.

I’m sure you’re probably asking… what about St. Peter’s and the Vatican? Isn’t that a big part of Rome? Yes it is, but we only had roughly 5 hours in Rome, so we had to pick one side or the other so to speak. We picked ancient Rome this time, but we’ll be back to see the Vatican and everything else we missed!