3/5/14 -- Running around ROME

I can’t remember the last time I sat down today.  That basically sums up the day.  But since I am in Rome and should probably elaborate I guess I will.

The day began with a breakfast of fancy pastries.  Because why start the day any other way?  We then visited Santa Maria in Vittoria to see a famous Michelangelo sculpture (at this point I have seen a bunch of those and am getting confused as to what was in which church). 

Santa Maria Vittoria

The beautiful sculpture

Inside the church

Outside the church

Near there we visited the baptistery of Constantine.  Constantine wasn’t actually baptized until his death bed, but he had this baptistery built.

The baptistery of Constantine

A painting on the wall showing Constantine's "conversion" to
Christianity.  He saw a sign from YHWH, and vowed to follow the
Christian God if his army was successful in battle, which it was.

Inside the chapel

My guess is this lower section in the center is
where the baptisms would happen...
Psalm 42:1
"As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you, O God."

After that we took a train to the Scala Sancta.  These are the stairs that were in Pontius Pilate’s palace, the stairs that Jesus climbed many times in the days leading to his crucifixion.  The stairs are now considered sacred, and pilgrims travel to them to ascend the stairs on their knees.  Since I am in Rome, I decided to do the same.  The marble stairs have been encased in wood to protect them, though there are places where the original steps are still visible.  It was really cool to move up the steps with people from all around the world on Ash Wednesday.  A fresco of Jesus’ crucifixion was positioned at the top, to give a focal point to my eyes, mind, and heart through the ascension.  Honestly, it was kind of painful, climbing the stairs on my knees, which served as a powerful reminder to the pain Christ must have felt as He was beaten, mocked, betrayed, and crucified at our hands.

Outside the church (there were no pictures allowed inside)

After the stairs I walked across the street to the church where the Papacy was positioned before it was moved to St. Peter’s.  In this church there were giant sculptures of the apostles of Christ.  These larger than life statues were one of the methods the early church used to try to convert people to Christianity from Rome’s ancient religions.  The large sized sculptures serve to glorify the characters much in the same way that the previous Roman gods such as Zeus and Hercules were glorified with statues of large size and prominence.

Giant sculpture of Matthew

Inside the church

In the afternoon we went back to St. Peter’s, where we had reservations to tour the Scavi.  This below ground tour included viewing of the necropolis, catacombs, and the grave of St. Peter himself.  At the grave of Peter, our guide read the passage from Matthew where Peter affirms his faith and Christ’s identity.

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’  And they said, ‘Some say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’  He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’  Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’  And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’  Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.”

            ~ Matthew 16: 13 – 20

It was incredibly powerful to hear those words, as we stood beside the bones of Peter, with the massive St. Peter’s Basilica and the heart of the Catholic Church towering above us.

After an exhausting day, we took a much needed power nap before venturing out again.  We stayed close to the hotel for dinner and I had ravioli.  After dinner we stopped for Tiramisu for dessert and then called it a night.

Dinner

Dessert

3/4/14 -- More churches in ROME!

I am impressed by the number of things I have seen already.  I am also impressed that I haven’t been hit by a car… The drivers are crazy here and I’m not sure traffic laws exist… Or if they do they must be optional.  Anyway, today was a rainy cold day so we decided not to go to Ostia Antica since it would require walking around in the rain amid the ruins all day, which sounded kind of miserable.  The cool think about Ostia Antica I guess is that the ruins are well preserved and Christianity never made it there so there are a lot of Mithraic temples and such.  Anyway, instead we visited more churches (Surprise! Surprise!) and the Capitoline Museum. 

Our first stop was Santa Maria degli Angeli.  This church is what used to be the Roman public baths (the Baths of Diocletian).  The baths had both cold-water areas (the frigidarium) and the steam baths both for women and for men.  I was actually a bit relieved that they weren’t still open for public use because when in Rome…  Anyway, this church is famous because Pope Clement XI commissioned the construction of a meridian line that runs through the church.  This line is important because it centered the calendar and time at the hands of the Church, making the Church more central to society.  The line also predicts the exact day of Easter, when the light from the hole in the wall follows the line exactly.

Santa Maria degli Angeli

The Diocletian Baths

The meridian line

A pendulum!

Church #2 of the day was Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.  This object of interest: Michelangelo’s Resurrection of Christ.  This sculpture is absolutely beautiful.  I now understand why Michelangelo is such a famous sculptor, architect, engineer, painter (this guy could do everything, and everything very well).  The bronze piece across his mid-section was added later when the Church decided that Christ should not be nude…

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

All of the churches are so beautiful...

Michelangelo's Resurrection of Christ

Our 3^rd and final church of the day was the Gesu.  This church was built right after the reformation.  The Catholics wanted to send a strong message that those who left the church were in the wrong.  This church is full of paintings and sculptures of Protestants falling from heaven and going to hell, infidels being crushed, and Martin Luther himself being whipped…

The church itself was beautiful!

Protestants falling to hell...

Martin Luther being whipped

An early depiction of Mary.
As time went on Mary picks up characteristics of many other
Goddesses of ancient Rome, especially Aphrodite.
That is why today she is usually depicted in blue.

In these churches we also noticed the eye of heaven,
which is taken from the Egyptians as a combination
of the gods Aten and Horus, and put on display
in Christian churches.  Talk about a perfect example
of syncretism! (A main focus of our class)

A beautiful mural focusing the light on the Lamb of God

The afternoon was spent in the Capitoline Museum.  But first we grabbed lunch at a little sandwich shop.  Yummm…

Lunch!

Entering the Capitoline

God of the Ocean

Athena!

Zeus disguised as a swan...

Artemis

Remus and Romulus

Medusa

Famous bronze sculpture...

The story of Jesus

View into the Roman Forum

After a short break from walking all over Rome, a few of us went out to find dinner.  We walked for quite a ways again, but found a place and were very happy with our choice (it is hard to go wrong here…) I had gnocchi pomodoro and an artichoke and it was delicious!  After dinner we stopped back by the Trevi Fountain.  Since my wish the first time was to come back, and I did 3 days later, I made another wish and this time wagered 5 cents.  Fingers crossed for just as prompt results!  I then ate the most amazing gelato (or any frozen dessert) that I have ever tasted.  I had a combo of Carmel and Valrhona cocoa gelato, and finished the night very happy!

Dinner

Jumping in Rome!

Most delicious gelato ever!

Back at the Trevi Fountain

3/3/14 - When in ROME

Oh my goodness this place is amazing!  Seriously I am really starting to like it here.  Already getting ideas for future trips… Ok.  So the day started off with a visit to Santa Maria Maggiore.  Pope Liberius had the church built after he had a dream where he saw St. Mary in the snow, and then the next day it snowed only in this one spot so they constructed the church here.  As all the churches have been, this one was beautiful.  Our particular interest in this church was the mosaic at the front of the sanctuary.  It included an image of Mary and Jesus sitting together, which is similar to the relationships displayed between a female goddess and her consort in some of the ancient Roman religions.  Below this image is the Assumption of Mary.  It was believed that she couldn’t die, so instead she was just said to be sleeping and her body “assumed” into heaven.  The other favorite is the Annunciation of Mary.  In Luke Mary hears the word of God from the angel Gabriel, and therefore Jesus is conceived through her ear, which is depicted quite clearly in this mosaic.

Santa maria Maggorie

The entire mosaic

Mary and Jesus

Assumption of Mary

Annunciation of Mary

The room was absolutely beautiful, and the art continued
all the way up to the dome ceiling!

The all-seeing eye of God.  A blend of imagery from the
Egyptian gods Aten and Horus.

This church also houses relics of the ‘true cross’ and the manger in which Jesus lay (though it has been said that if you put all the remaining pieces of the ‘true cross’ together you could build the mast of a ship).  Along the sides of this church were dozens of confession booths, each with a sign that indicated which languages the priest spoke, and little light that would tell if the priest was “in.”  I thought that was really cool!

Relics of the manger
Lord God, we praise you for creating man,
and still more for restoring him in Christ.
Your Son shared our weakness: may we share his glory.
Amen.

The second church we visited was San Pietro in Vincoli, which claimed to have the chains of Peter and Paul.  These chains were miraculously bonded together into one chain.  This church is home to Michelangelo’s Moses sculpture.  In this sculpture Moses has horns because of a mistranslation of the Bible when he returns from Mount Sinai.  Now we recognize the text to mean his face was shining, but during the Renaissance the former translation was used.  It is a beautiful piece of work!

Chains of Peter and Paul

Michelangelo's Moses

The third church of the morning was the Basilica of San Clemente.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in this one.  One thing I didn’t realize about Rome was how layered the city is.  As new people moved in they just kept building right on top of buildings.  The Basilica of San Clemente sits on top of an earlier church, which in turn is situated on an even earlier temple of Mithra.  After entering the church, we walked down a staircase and through tunnels that had been excavated.  On the lowermost level, beside the temple of Mithra, there was a Roman house with a spring and water running through the corner of it.  This is quite amazing considering it was inhabited close to 2000 years ago.  The oldest portion that we visited dates to about 200 CE, with the original brickwork still intact.  Wow!

The Basilica of San Clemente

After a morning of churches we stopped for a Panini by the Coliseum (casual).  It was a beautiful day!  I took a nap in the grass.  After being so cold all day yesterday I was a little over dressed today.  The sun was so warm, I cannot imagine coming here in August (well, I can imagine that it would be painfully hot at least).  I also had braided bread stuffed with spinach and cheese for lunch and it was delicious! (That is going to be a very common word throughout these posts).

Panini by the Coliseum

After lunch we had a private tour of the Coliseum by someone (I want to say his name was John) who studies architecture in Rome, and we got to go inside!  It was crazy, and so amazing, and giant, and beautiful in a very different way than the churches.  Obviously much blood shed occurred here, but also a huge part of history.  Upon entering I decided that I was going to see the chariot races.  Others in the group were heading in for the naval battles and lion fights.  Others just thought I was crazy for asking…

Our tour guide

A drawing of the ancient building

The Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, was built between 70 and 80 CE.  It is estimated that it could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators.  Games were held on holidays, which occurred about every 3 days (you can imagine how that fared for the economy…) and citizens were required to attend.  The games included animal and gladiator fights, as well as chariot races, and naval battles when the arena was flooded.  There were a handful of “career” gladiators where were the crowd favorites, and generally set up to win the matches.  One time a Christian jumped in between two gladiators to stop the fights, and while he didn’t make it his message did, and from then on human to human fighting ceased.  After the period used for the games, the Coliseum was used for all sorts of things, including squatters who had no other home.

WOW!!!

Even the Coliseum has been turned into a "church"

Continuing from the Coliseum we stopped by the Arc of Constantine and the Roman Forum.  We learned all about the temples and way of Roman life in this era, but by then my brain was so packed with new information from the morning/early afternoon that I don’t really remember much of it…  Here is what I do have.  Roman life was centered around courtyards, so people in higher places of power were given the vantage point to see into as many surrounding courtyards as possible, and the original trenches and foundations of the huts of Remus and Romulus were found here.  The Arcs were built when armies were successful in war, and the returning soldiers would pass through the arcs in celebration of victory.  The sculpture work on the inside of the arcs depicts these scenes.

The Arc of Constantine

Remains of part of the aqueduct system.  So cool!

An ancient courtyard

A view of the forum

Trenches and huts from Romulus and Remus

Map of the Forum

Another victory arc

Inside of the arc depicting the armies carrying the spoils of war

The Forum

Ruins of an ancient temple

You can literally see three levels of Rome in this building

Think about this for awhile...

One theme of this trip has been recycling.  Nearly all of the bronze, marble, and other valuables have been stripped and repurposed to numerous new buildings.  As the Christian unearthed ancient temples, they quickly acquired all material that proved useful in decorating their own ornate churches.  After a very busy day we stopped for some gelato as a pre dinner snack.  After dinner we continued the dissert trend with cheesecake and tiramisu.  Yummm!!!  Have I mentioned that I like this place?

Gelato!

Aaaaaand second dessert!