Rome Part 4 - wandering through the city, the famous fountain and the Pantheon

Before I finish my story of my first visit to Rome, I have just realised that one of the photos intended for the last post did not load up. Sorry about that - it was late, I was tired and did not pick it up at the time. So I have included it amongst the photos that are posted below. This is a photo of people praying at the feet of the statue of St Peter inside the basilica. They rub or touch the feet as they pray. The feet already look quite worn down . . .

After we left the Vatican, by which time it was quite late in the afternoon, we headed for more historic sites. It was incredible to see the complex maze of narrow lanes and small town squares, each with their own character and special features, and of course lined with small shops, always including coffee houses and gelato shops. I have never seen so many amazing gelato and ice-cream flavours. And our lovely tour director treated us all to a double gelato treat on this long walk, which was very welcome. What a sight we must have been - but then just about everyone else was doing the same. It was still very hot.

But we did have to be careful of pickpockets around here. The worse offenders are gypsy youngsters who dress like any other kid and are hard to spot, but are very well trained by their parents. This is because under Italian law children under 14 cannot be prosecuted for a crime. The gypsies take full advantage of this well-intended law. Luckily none of us lost anything. We had been well warned.

The two standout moments on this long walk were throwing coins into the famous fountain featured in the old movie ‘Three Coins in a Fountain’, which most of us did in the Italian way (turning your back to the fountain and throwing the coins with your right hand over your left shoulder), and visiting the Pantheon. Throwing the coins was harder than you might think - there were so many people, mostly tourists, all trying to do the same thing. After all, you did not want the coins to whack some poor dreamer in the face with your coins . . . On the other side of the coin, if you'll pardon the pun, I saw one enterprising Roman with a fishing line in the water; no prizes for guessing what he was trying to do!  

The dome of the Pantheon is incredible. Its design and construction were not only an engineering feat for that ancient era, but also a scientific marvel. In the centre of the dome there is a hole to allow the rays of the sun to shine in. From where they light up you can tell the time and other information. It is extraordinarily clever and well worth looking up on the internet. (Unfortunately I can't remember all the detail. I could barely stand by then.) Moreover, to catch any rainwater that might enter the hole, there were small holes in the floor vertically below the hole and a short distance away as well, with a drainage system underneath the floor. And we are talking about a beautifully made marble floor, with rare red marble from Egypt, as well as other coloured marble from other sites forming a rich pattern. This marble is still intact and in good condition today.    

It was with great reluctance that we said goodbye to our absolutely delightful Roman guide. It also was with great reluctance that we left left Rome early the next morning - and not just because we were ‘zonked’ after all that walking, climbing and standing. It is an incredible city I would love to explore further, especially with an historian who is a great raconteur as was our guide. 

Visiting a city with such rich history really brings home the fact that while in Australia we have some powerful ancient rock paintings created by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people long before the Romans built their city on its seven hills, our buildings are all less than about 240 years old! We simply do not have ancient castles, fortresses, walls and all the rest. The story of what we euphemistically refer to as white settlement but, let’s face it, was really an invasion - only began about that long ago.   

Note that again as my two sets of photos were merged, they did not come out in the order I would have liked, but I cannot change that. Or at least, I am yet to learn how to fix that problem.   

Praying to St Peter.

Inside the Pantheon.

One set of drainage holes in the floor of the Pantheon.

The famous fountain for dreamers - or wishful thinkers . . .

The side of the fountain. 

One view of the front of the Pantheon.

Another view of the Pantheon, which had a fountain out front.

The hole in the dome and where the light landed at that time.

The marble floor of the Pantheon.

Another beautiful building we saw on our walk.

Rome Part 3 - The Vatican

Our visit to Vatican City, St Peter’s Basilica and St Peter’s Square was memorable in a different way to our visit to all the historic ruins. When we entered through some long narrow tunnels from where we were dropped off, which tunnels thankfully had moving platforms like at some airports (we were by then somewhat tired), we noticed there were some refugees/ gypsies asleep or begging. One young mother with two very young children was busking, playing a piano accordion. We found out later that Pope Francis had decreed that all who come to the Vatican must be accepted as pilgrims, no matter whether they are Catholic or not. Accommodation and showers and other facilities have been set up in the name of Mother Therese for any of the large influx of refugees who wish to accept that support. The ones in the tunnels apparently have declined them. 

After a casual lunch in one of the Vatican shops, we then entered the vast St Peter’s Square, only to see a long, long queue of people waiting for a chance to enter and view the Basilica. We joined at the end of the queue. It was really really hot, the sun was beating down on our heads, and we stood and stood. After 45 minutes we were still only about a quarter of the way along, but I could not stand any more - I felt quite dizzy - and some others in the group felt the same. Our very supportive tour leader took us to a shady spot and came back for us about 45 minutes later, when the group was fairly close to the front of the queue. As was the case for the Forum, we went through metal detectors and had our baggage X-rayed.  

Finally we entered the Basilica, and all I can say is Wow! It was certainly a lofty, beautiful, awe-inspiring piece of architecture, built to symbolise and celebrate the people’s beliefs and to encourage worship. I discovered that this basilica is the reason why there are no tall buildings in Rome. No-one is allowed to build anything that is of a height equal to or greater than the height of the basilica, out of respect.

The following photos show St Peter’s Square and the long queues, and then inside the basilica. Notice the statue of St Peter whose feet people can touch and at whose feet they can pray, after entering a special controlled line, as well as the mummy of a former pope (I think, if my memory serves me correctly). The body is wearing a death mask. The photos are in a slightly odd order because the computer has woven together my photos taken with my camera (the outdoors photos, which were actually taken first) and those taken inside the basilica with my phone. I have no control over that, unfortunately.

I cannot begin to imagine how challenging it must be for the tens of thousands of people who fill the square to see the Pope and hear his message, and sometimes have to stand there for hours, especially if they have children with them. Incidentally, we also saw the humble place in which the Pope has chosen to live, but my photos do not show that clearly enough. (It is hidden in the background.) 

Our group will be returning to Rome in a few days and actually having dinner at the Vatican. 

Since Rome, amongst many other wonderful things, I have been to Florence and seen THE statue of David, as well as to Pisa and seen THE leaning tower, and tomorrow, instead of the free day listed on my itinerary, we are travelling into Switzerland and cruising on Lake Como and seeing two other lakes as well. That is a really unexpected opportunity. I am really looking forward to it!  

By the way, it is now 11 pm on Saturday 6 May. It must be the time difference that causes the blog site to register my three posts on Rome entered tonight as being posted on 7 May (which happens to be my birthday)!

Rome Part 2 - The Forum, and Mussolini's arrogance

The problem with writing about all the wonderful places we visited on 2 May four days later, when we have seen so much since, is that one tends to forget some of the detail, and even the list of all the historic sites that we saw. As our Roman guide said, Rome is an outdoor museum. And as the authorities have started to excavate to install, for example, an underground railway, they have had to stop, because they keep finding more ruins the deeper they dig. It is believed there are seven layers of ruins yet to be uncovered!

One place that did stand out was the Roman Forum, which was opposite the Colosseum. This is in a worse state than the Colosseum, not just because of being exposed to the elements for so long, but mainly because Mussolini wanted to build a big highway through the heart of the city as a monument to his so-called leadership, and so had a whole lot of the magnificent structures at the Forum knocked down to make way for it!  You can still see where it started. It is hoped there will be some restoration of this vast site, the seat of the then Roman government, but if you could see the drawings of what it looked like in the past, like the Romans, you too would want weep at the loss of so much beauty.

One interesting fact our guide told us was about the 'Vestal Virgins', who were like priestesses. The wealthy families gave one of their young daughters to the priests when they were about six years old. The girls then spent the next 30 years in service, always wearing white. They were not to have any relationship with a man in that time. If they did, they would be executed! When you remember that those days the average life expectancy was maybe 40-50 years, what a terrible fate for these young girls, all to bring favour to their family.

  

In my next post I will focus on our visit to the Vatican.

Part of the Forum at night.

The Forum from the front. It was a huge site.

The archway into the Forum.

A close-up of some of the culture on the archway.

These ruins could be seen on walking into the Forum.

This was all behind the structure in the second photo.

On the front right was where the Roman Senate met. The white building in the background is the back of a new and very ornate building known locally as 'the wedding cake'. 

Where the Roman Senate met from the front.

This was the special place where the 'Vestal Virgins lived.

Another view of the site.

Wild red poppies growing at the site - a fitting tribute to the loss of beauty!

Rome Part 1 - the Colosseum and other ancient sites

I finally have the opportunity to start updating my blog. Our Insight tour of Italy has been action-packed day and night, and I have had little access to WiFi. Here is the start of my story, at last. 

My first time in Rome has been amazing. There are about 40 in our tour group, who are from all over the world. Most are Americans, though there are small contingents of Aussies and Canadians. Unlike on the ship, where the majority of the last batch of passengers who embarked in Dubai, and of those who had been on longer, were British, I don’t think we have any British people with us. Most of us are retired.

On 2 May, most of our group flew into Rome and arrived at our hotel over the day. (I of course arrived by train, as per my previous post.) We were very warmly greeted by our lovely and very helpful tour guide, who was born in Australia but has lived in Europe for about 30 years. She lives on a small farm in Italy and speaks fluent Italian. That evening we went to an early dinner at a really delightful restaurant where the owners greeted each of us with a big welcome and a handshake. The food was delicious, the highlights being two varieties of home-made pasta and a tiramisu to die for. This was a perfect way to start getting to know each other.

After that, those of us who chose to, went on our luxury coach for a 2-hour night tour of Rome. We saw the Colosseum just as the sun had set, then many other historical places of interest, where we hopped on and off the coach for short walks, mostly up and down ancient steps, to see the views and to take photos from the best vantage points. This included seeing the ancient Roman Forum. What spectacular views!             

The next day we were privileged to have a local Roman lady join us for the day. Her knowledge of the history of each place we visited was phenomenal, and she had the most wonderful droll sense of humour. And most fortunately, we all had one of the special radio devices like we had in Sicily, so we could all hear her very clearly. 

On this entry I am just going to mention the Colosseum, which we walked through the next day. I must confess I was so exhausted after over 8 hours of touring many, many ancient sites - walking over ancient cobblestones and up and down many ancient steps and sloping pathways, and standing in line for a very long time at the Vatican - not to mention the time we spent on the coach and having lunch in one of the Vatican shops, I could barely make it up to my room and flop into bed. I skipped the group dinner that night - I was just too fatigued!   

Looking back, it was worth all of that fatigue to see all the places we saw that day, especially the  Colosseum. Words are inadequate when it comes to describing the feeling you get when you walk inside that ancient structure. The architects for the Colosseum, whose names are not known, must have been brilliant men. They created a stadium that was beautiful, tall and tiered so that everyone could see, and could be filled with up to about 80 000 people through the 80 archways around its circumference very efficiently. They achieved amazing structural strength that could withstand earthquakes. 

Our Roman guide told us that this was really built to act as a circus for the people, with successive shows occurring over the day they were there, including executions of criminals, gladiator sports, wild animal shows and, would you believe, mock sea battles. This was a way of maintaining effective power and control over the population. For the sea battles, the arena was designed to quickly fill with water to a depth that the combatants could wade through, and just as quickly drain away. Likewise, there were luxury toilets with marble floors, with a cleverly designed sewage system. The emperor was very clever about this: going to the shows was free, though it required a ticket, probably made of clay, but people had to pay quite an amount to use the toilet. The revenue from that helped pay for some of the costs of the building and management of the stadium.

The stadium even had the first known lift to bring animals up to the arena, and many holding cells under the arena for the animals and the prisoners and so forth. It was built by about 100 000 slaves, mostly Hebrews. Since then a lot of restoration work has taken place, as the structure has been damaged over the last 2000 years. A very wealthy Italian fashion designer donated millions to have the walls cleaned of centuries of grime, and repair work done.

Security at the Colosseum was very tight. To enter it, we had to have our bags checked with metal detectors, and there were police everywhere outside, some with machine guns. The authorities are very aware of the threat of terrorism. But some people still manage to do the wrong thing, with little respect for the history of this wonderful edifice. Apparently a few months ago a tourist was caught carving her initials into the outside wall. Her excuse was she wanted a permanent memorial to herself!  How pathetic is that? Our guide then told us a delightful Roman saying: ‘The mothers of imbeciles are always pregnant.’  . . . 

The Colosseum just after sunset. 

It can be seen that the walls are not quite the same height now, but restoration is ongoing.

Another view of the external wall in the morning.

A close-up of the stone work. Notice metal staples are inserted into the stone blocks to add strength.

This is the top of the lift that brought wild animals into the arena.  Large numbers were killed in each show.

This shows the holding cells/pens under the arena, with narrow passageways in between them.

This was where 'royalty' sat. Their guards had cloths containing elephant tusks, which were to ward off any wild animals that came too close.

Another view of under the arena. 

A close-up of the narrow bricks inside the arena. The way they were laid meant they could withstand movement of the earth.

One of the very steep set of staircases for spectators to climb up to upper levels. Apparently slaves could come and watch, but they were relegated to the top level.

Arriving in Rome, and more photos of Sicily

I am pleased to tell you that I have arrived in Rome safely, though the journey was a little challenging in terms of finding out information, not to mention carrying all my heavy baggage. I was very glad I had booked a transfer to the station, even though it was very expensive. It saved me a lot of worry and effort, because taxis cannot come into the port.

The train from Naples to Rome turned out to be a modern very fast train, which at one point was travelling at 296 kph, so the journey only took 70 minutes. We were even given a little bag containing a large rectangular jam tart and a small soft jube, both of which were very nice, a hand wipe and a small bottle of water.  However, the downside was there was very little room for your legs and even less for your baggage. It was a real struggle getting on and off and getting into and out of your seat. (You were hemmed in by tables.)

While the other passengers were glued to their phones, because there was free WiFi, I enjoyed the spectacular scenery we saw after travelling through the outskirts of Naples. There was a lot of agriculture, greenery, wooded hills and mountains, and little villages, while in Naples the general poverty, the dilapidated state of buildings and overcrowding was very evident. There the traffic was totally chaotic, and even here it's rather scary. More anon. I have to go and meet my tour group shortly.

Enjoy the remaining photos from Sicily.

I cannot get over having access to free and fast WiFi. Wonderful!

A building built years ago by the fascists. It is right over the road from the university. Notice the soldiers on guard.

The outside the gallery.

Inside the gallery, beautifully restored.

At the square, where we enjoyed our granitas.

Beautiful fountain at the square, with sculptures by a student of Michelangelo. 

One of the famous clocks on the clock tower of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.

The clock tower.

The crowing rooster.

The 'rising' cathedral.

The 'risen Christ' appears before the Roman soldiers.

Angels visit the Virgin Mary.

Sicily - a walking tour of the lovely port city Messina

Today we arrived in the most picturesque port city I have seen so far  - Messina, Sicily, which is nestled right on the bay and surrounded by wooded hills. I had decided that even though I should be packing for my departure tomorrow, I would not waste such a unique opportunity to see this island. I have just come back from a 3-hour guided tour of this city, and I am so glad that went! (I did much of my packing yesterday instead so that I could afford the time.) 

We had a very friendly, informative young man guide us around, and for the first time for any of the shore excursions I had been on from this ship and others, we were given a special hearing device so that we could clearly hear everything he said as our group of about 20 walked along. It made such a difference! I would also add that we were really lucky to have clear blue skies, bright sunshine and relatively cool temperatures due to the cool winds that apparently blow here just about all the time.

It was wonderful to see a city with so much character and colour and lots of beautiful trees along its streets (even orange trees with their tempting fruit), and no skyscrapers. It was surprising to hear that the whole city had been destroyed in a major earthquake in 1908, then rebuilt, only with wider, straighter roads. Great care was taken to restore many historic buildings to their former glory. But then much was destroyed again by allied bombing in WW2. So again the citizens rallied and rebuilt their city, and as they are devout Catholics, they believe and pray it will be protected from now on by the Virgin Mary. A statue of her is down by the waterfront. Fortunately Mount Etna, an active volcano just two hours drive from Messina, has ‘spared’ it (so far!).

I also learned that Sicilians speak a different language to Romans, and see themselves as a separate nation, with a very different history. There is a lot of Byzantine architecture in Messina. Our guide took pains to assure us that there is no more crime or violence in Sicily than anywhere else in the world, and there are a lot of soldiers and police about to keep the citizens and buildings safe. We only saw a couple of soldiers guarding a building, but as we pounded the pavements then spent some time in the city square, we felt perfectly safe. We had a few people who were clearly from North Africa come around us whilst we had a superb lemon granita (an icy drink that is a specialty of Sicily) and brioche for morning tea in the town square, selling bits and pieces for tourists, but they were polite and not at all pushy.  Even the roads felt very safe, in terms of the traffic. Crossing the roads was no problem at all.  

The highlight of our time in Messina was the incredible display that occurs every day at midday at the 100-foot tall bell tower of the cathedral. Down the tower were special displays in a series of vertical recesses, as you will see in my photographs. The golden lion that rules over all flicked its tail and roared three times, and a very loud booming roar it was, then the golden rooster flapped its wings and crowed loudly three times, then while Ave Maria played, a model of the cathedral rose from bare earth, a statue of Jesus rose above two kneeling Roman guards, and angels visited the Virgin Mary, who then waved to the large crowd. Incredible! And I would add this clock tower also houses the largest astronomical clock in the world. 

It is with mixed feelings I spend my last day on the ship for this voyage, anyhow. I will be back on it in a few months to go from Southhampton to New York. I will greatly miss the lovely friends I have made. It also will be difficult to get used to living out of a suitcase and racing around everywhere by train and bus after staying in a luxurious floating hotel for 61 days. You may think I will miss the leisurely lifestyle of lying around on deckchairs out in the fresh sea air, but you are wrong there. I never relaxed in a deck chair once. Too boring for me. Besides, it was either too hot or too cold and windy for that to be a pleasure as far as I was concerned. However, lots of my fellow passengers did spend a lot of time sun baking and/or reading on deckchairs. Quite frankly, seeing so much exposed skin on people of mature age, some of whom had clear evidence of surgery for skin cancer, and seeing skin that was either sunburnt or like old leather and covered in moles from far too much time spent exposed to direct sunlight, really worried me. Me, I preferred to have coffee with my friends, write my blog and read sitting on my bed with my feet up, and to go to these lectures and talks that were of interest to me.       

I only have a few minutes of WiFi left on the ship, so I can only post four of my photos this time. And I have no idea when I will be free to write the next post. But I will do what I can when I can. Cheers to all. 

  

Arriving into the proof Messina, Sicily.

View of Messina from the ship.

An old Byzantine church.

Part of the university.