Days 3,4,5 - Rome

Benvenuti a Roma

Welcome to Rome - The Eternal City
Days 3,4,5

Rome is an exciting city with an incredible history.

The founders of the city were twins Romulus and Remus, who were suckled by a she-wolf when infants. You can see images of the twins being nursed by the she-wolf all over Rome.

According to the legend, they lived on the Palatine Hill, which today overlooks the Forum.

We will take our tour bus from Florence south to Rome and probably head to our hotel first. It would be a good idea to get oriented to the way Rome is laid out. Try to find a map of Rome so you know where things are - it's the largest city we will visit.

Think of the two subway lines as running in an "X" fashion. I don't know exactly what the order of our tour will be, but I will follow it northwest to southeast, or, from the upper left of the "x" to the lower right.




We will proabably head to our hotel first. It is actually located off to the east of the imaginary "x." The hotel in Rome is the only one I'm sure of as of this writing. It is the Hotel Rouge et Noir (which is French for "red and black"). It is a nice, modern hotel, but a bit distant from the city center. We can take the subway if need be, but that involves a bit of time and walking. It could be an adventure! For programmed visits, our tour bus will haul us.

The Rouge et Noir sits on a hill and we can see downtown Rome in the distance.

The hotel even has a pool. I don't know how much time we will have to swim. Maybe a little bit.


As with all of our hotel stays, we will check in as a group and have breakfast and perhaps dinner there in the hotel dining room.

But, we're in Rome to see the wonders of Rome. Why is Rome so special? Not only is it the capital of modern Italy, it was for hundreds of years the center of the mighty Roman Empire. Rome has left many a cultural legacy to us. Roman Law has been very influential in history; think of all the Latin phrases used in law today!


The Romans were also amazing engineers. They built roads (the Appian Way) which STILL are used. They built huge temples, aquaducts (water bridges), sewer systems, bath houses, and bridges. Many of the most stunning examples of Roman engineering are not in Rome, but in Spain and Southern France, such as this aquaduct. Rome has plenty of ancient engineering to see, however. Think of the world's first sports stadium - the Colosseum.

As with our official tour in Florence, we will have an official tour with a guide in various places in Rome for about half a day. Often in large, noisy cities with tour guides, it is difficult for everybody in a sizeable group to hear what is being said. We will be given "whisper headsets," which will be like our own wireless headphones so we can hear what the guide is saying as we walk around. Pretty high-tech!

Anyway, let's start in a place in Rome that is not technically even Italy - it's the world's smallest country - the Vatican City, residence of the Pope and world headquarters for the Roman Catholic Church, by far the largest denomination of Christians.

The centerpiece of this "city" is the domed Saint Peter's Basilica and the key-shaped Piazza di San Pietro leading into the church. It is surrounded by a colonnade.

The piazza has an Egyptian obelisk in the center. Saint Peter's is the largest church in all of Christendom. It was built during the 1500s.

The dome, inspired by Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, became the standard for many such domes in world architecture. The Sistine Chapel can be seen adjoining the basilica to the right.

Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It is without a doubt the most famous ceiling in the world. Michelangelo painted various panels. Originally he was only going to paint the twelve apostles. He later added larger panels of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, and the most famous painting, the Creation of Man in which God is depicted as an old man about to touch the hand of Adam.

Michelangelo painted in bright colors and awed his 16th century audience with the human passion, detail of the human form,. and energy of his paintings.

We will be awed by the sheer size of this enormous church. Julius knew that the Catholic Church was under social and theological attack from Protestantism and Humanism. He wanted his church to show the magnificence of God on Earth. He also dug the power and attention this brought him.

Piazza Navona is a long rectangular square in the heart of the centro storico (CHEN-troh STOH-ree-koh), the "historical center" of the city. Piazza Navona was in ancient times a "circus," which just means a rounded (actually oval) course where races took place. The present square is well known for its fountains and baroque architecture. Baroque is a very ornate style of architectural design.

The Pantheon is found not too far from Piazza Navona. This building was built in the first century A.D. It is an amazingly advanced architectural feat for its time. The roof is a concrete dome. If you were to continue the lines of the circular roofline, the circle would reach the floor in a perfect tangent. There is a hole (the "oculus") in the roof (yes, it can rain in!). This temple was dedicated to "all the gods." (In Greek, "pan" = all; "theos" = god). This great building has been an inspiration to many later architects and builders. Brunelleschi was inspired by it to make his cathedral dome in Florence 1300 years later. Thomas Jefferson was very taken with the design. His house in Charlottesville, Va, "Monticello", was designed around the lines of the Pantheon. Indeed, the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. is very closely modelled after the Pantheon.

If you walk south from the Pantheon you'll come to the Piazza Venezia. (Venice Square) This is a major traffic hub for downtown Rome. It is here you will see the "marble birthday cake." It's the Vittorio Emmanuele Monument, dedicated to the first monarch of the newly unified Italy in the 1860s. Love it or hate it, this monument serves as a transition from the medieval center of the city to the remains of the ancient city.

You can stop for a minute and take a picture in front of this monument.

Now it's time to explore the Roman Forum. This was the center of Ancient Rome, the most powerful empire the world had seen until that time. What you can still see standing are the remains of temples (where people did their civic duty and made offerings to the gods) and arches (to comemorate military victories as the emperors expanded the empire) and even the Senate house where local politicians met and discussed ruling the empire.

Rome is built on seven hills. The hill closest to the Forum, the "Main Street," was the Palatine hill. It was here, so legend says, that Romulus and Remus lived. When Rome was still just a republic in times B.C., the "important people" of Rome built their houses on the Palatine Hill. They came to be called "palaces," (a house where an important person lives).

Just a bit south of the Forum is the imposing Colosseum, built in the 70s A.D. In its early days, many records say it could be flooded for naval battles to be fought. There were awninged roofs for specatators. Nearly 50,000 people could watch events there. Much of the original Colosseum is gone. With both earthquake damage and stone quarrying in the Middle Ages, were lucky to have left what there is. The original Colosseum had several stories of arches with Rome's notables in statue form in each arch. What we will see inside are the remains of the bleacher stands and the floorless "arena." Under the floor, animals and contestants could enter the arena.

Modern sporting contests usually involve two teams chasing a ball of some sort around. Occasional violence and collateral injury are an incidental part of sporting events. People in that time had a whole different mindset. Not all life was valued the same. "Sporting" events usually involved death for the loser. People liked watching this. Although there were staged "hunts" for exotic animals imported from Africa in which just the animals died, but more common were gladiator fights in which fierce warriors battled to the death. Public executions were also held in the arena.

Romans developed the use and control of water supplies better than any people in history before the twentieth century. The Roman Empire had much running water, sewer systems, and public bath houses. Some of these public bath houses were huge. Perhaps the most famous are the Baths of Caracalla. The Emperor Caracalla had this enormous building built in the early 200s A.D. It had an intricate plumbing system with wood-fired heating chambers for the water. There were hot baths, warm baths, and cold baths. There were places to swim and eat and play games as one socialized. The ruins of the Baths of Caracalla stand not too far from the Colosseum.

After our tour of the Renaissance and Ancient parts of Rome, we will be more on our own to eat, shop, and explore as a group. Hopefully, you will try something typical in a decent ristorante and maybe do a little shopping, people watching, take some interesting pictures, and check out the hip spots of downtown Rome.

Walking the side streets is a great way to learn about a city. It will be during these more random walks that we will encounter unexpected things which will capture our interest and maybe be the best memories of the trip.

Rome is filled with interesting shops and tucked-away places where we by serendipity may find something memorable.





A very "touristy" thing to do is to throw a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi Fountain. This famous baroque fountain is at a location that in Roman times was at the tre vie (three roads) which led to the end of an aquaduct which brought water from the mountains into the city. Now the Trevi Fountain has a statue of Neptune, the Roman God of Water.

The nearly 3000 Euros a day that are collected from the fountain are used to support a food market for the needy in Rome. Here a girl does the "touristy" thing.

Another "touristy" but interesting landmark in Rome is the
Spanish Steps. (Scalinatta della Pizza di Spagna). This is where people congregate in the summer time. There are many shops and restaurants nearby. The steps were a gift from the Spanish government leading up to a church.

We will get a good map of Rome as well as a Metro (subway) map. You can also find these on the internet.