If you decide to visit Rome in just one day, which I don’t
recommend doing, then I suggest you visit in a Sunday. There are a number of places that are
only open on Sundays, and so today we ran around, hitting all of those.
First we went to St. Peter’s Basilica. We got there two and a half hours early
to hear Pope Francis speak, so after wandering around the square (which is
actually a circle) for a while we decided to go inside. The interior of the church is one of
the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The entire building is practically a piece of art. They were holding Mass at the front of
the sanctuary, and so I went up and watched a good portion of it, though most
of it was in Latin and the parts that weren’t were in Italian… We were addressed and welcomed in
English once! At about 11:45 we
realized we should probably get outside to see the Pope, so we headed out into
a sea of umbrellas. Eventually he
appeared in a tiny window way up in a building and everyone cheered. I didn’t understand anything of what he
said, bit everyone sure seems to like him!
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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| Sooooooo amazing!! |
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| This picture doesn't do it justice... |
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This church was built after the East-West Schism that split the
Church into the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox Catholics.
To reflect that and include both groups, the Saints on the left of the
alter are Roman Catholic and the Saints on the right are
Eastern Orthodox. Distinction is also made in the writing
above the alter, where you can notice a switch from Latin to Greek. |
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Michelangelo's Pieta
Jesus lying on Mary's lab after the Crucifixion |
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| Waiting for the Pope! |
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| Pope Francesco |
Most of the day was rainy and cold, so we went to find
somewhere warm inside to eat. I
had spaghetti pesto, and while it was good I wasn’t entirely impressed. Then we had gelato and that was
delicious! I think I will be
having that again pretty much every day the rest of the week… It doesn’t help that the gelato shops
are about as abundant as Starbucks in the US.
From lunch we went to the Temple of Fortuna, which was
literally just ruins in the middle of the street. That is one of the amazing things I am realizing about Rome,
it hardly matters where you turn and there is history staring you in the
face.
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| Temple of Fortuna |
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| Legitimate street musicians |
From there we walked to the Pantheon (Ah! I’m in ROME!). It is so cool to see all these famous
places I have heard about for years!
The Pantheon used to be where all of the Roman gods and goddesses were
worshiped (pan = all; theos = god), but it has since been established as a
church (Popes would turn ancient buildings into churches to protect them from being
destroyed, which is why the Pantheon and the Coliseum are still standing). Of course, all of the original statues
have been removed. There are also
some tombs in the walls, which I thought was interesting. The dome of the pantheon is the largest
non-steel enforced concrete dome in the world, stretching 142 ft. in
diameter. The oculus in the center
is also 142 ft. high, and has a diameter of 30 ft. across.
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| The Pantheon! |
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| I really like obelisks. |
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| Gladiators... |
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| The oculus in the center of the dome. |
After the pantheon we went on a tour of the Jewish
quarter. Jewish synagogues don’t
have any pictures, sculptures, or paintings in them, though they can be quite
ornate like the churches. The
ghetto in Rome is very small, only about 200 by 250 meters, and housed anywhere
from 2000 to 8000 Jews during the period between 1555 and the 1800s. It was established by Pope Paul IV when
the Jews were ordered to be confined and separated by the Christians. It is another devastating reminder of
oppression of these people across the world.
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| The Synagogue |
Our last official stop of the day was Santa Maria
dell’Orzaione e Morte, which translates approximately to Saint Mary’s church of
Prayer and Death. The basement of
this church contains bones and skulls of the Christians that were buried
here. These relics are from those
who were poor nobodies, those outcast from society, since they did not have the
money to be buried elsewhere.
Because of this the bones represent the way in which Christianity
embraced the poor and lonely, giving them a home within the church. There were shelves of human skulls in
the basement, including a cross made of them. There were chandeliers made entirely of human bones,
including vertebrae and fingers.
Not something you see that often…
After “school” was out for the day we went to dinner in
Campo de Fiori. After walking all
day I was quite tired and cold, and it was so nice to sit by a fire and enjoy a
warm dinner. The waiter outside
told us that if we ate there he would give us free champagne, and so of course
we said yes! I ordered the
vegetarian lasagna, which would have been more accurately called the cheese
lasagna, but oh my goodness it was delicious! I ate every last bite.
And I even remembered to take a picture! I think I could live in Italy and be ok…
After dinner my roommate Zoe and I went on a quest to find
the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps, and we were successful on both
accounts! As custom apparently, I
stood with my back to the fountain and threw in a coin to make a wish. I only threw in a penny… So I’m not
sure if that means my wish is less likely to come true… But I guess we will
just have to wait and find out!
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| On the way there... |
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| Fontana de Trevi |
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| The Spanish Steps |
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| Sun dial! |
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| On the way back... |
We climbed the Spanish steps and admired the view of the
city from the top. I am getting
pretty good at navigating through the city, but there is no way I would ever
want to drive here. We also looked
for Tiramisu but were unsuccessful.
I think that is probably for the better though as I am still quite full
even later as I write this.
Walking back to the hotel afterwards I was still amazed at
the amount of beautiful and historical architecture that we passed. Zoe has studied Italian/Italy and has
been to Rome before so she is a great person to walk around with! (I also really enjoy her company). I am looking forward to see what
tomorrow has in store!
