After a short but restful sleep in our cabin on the ferry we
arrived at the port of Piraeus. We made
our way by metro to the airport for our plane to Roma. We arrived in Rome late afternoon. As we made our way to the hotel from the
train station we wondered where all the Italians were? The streets were filled with African migrants
and Chinese small business owners. We
couldn’t hear any Italian being spoken, nor did we see anyone who looked like
Italians (whatever that might mean in this day of multiculturalism).
We dropped off our bags and hit the streets to check out
some of the sights in the last few hours of daylight. The streets were teeming with hoards of
tourist, mainly tour groups of young American girls, apparently doing the grand
tour between high school and college - ‘Oh, my God’ American accents
everywhere.
Our first stop was the Colosseum. It looked rather modern to me after the
ancient ruins of Turkey. The
construction was of bricks rather than the tessellated huge granite blocks used
by the Greeks several centuries earlier.
 |
| The Colosseum |
Next we made our way to Trevi Fountain. It was absolutely packed with tourist and
impossible to get close, still a very beautiful fountain.
 |
| The crowds at the Trevi Fountain |
 |
| The Trevi Fountain |
The next day we visited Vatican City. We only went to the Basilica and St Peter’s
Square. I would have liked to have seen
the Michelangelo in Sistine Chapel but I was getting a bit cranky at the
incredibly wealthy church charging so much to get into its buildings.
 |
| St Peter's Basilica |
 |
| A Swiss Guard |
 |
| Inside the Basilicaa |
 |
| Beautiful ceilings |
 |
| Beam me up, Scotty |
My crankiness at the Church’s hypocrisy was vindicated at
our next stop, Castel Sant'Angelo. The Castel was originally built in the 1st
Century AD as the mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian.
In the 14th Century the popes converted the site into a
fortress for their protection with an underground tunnel linking it to the
Vatican. It is a great medieval fortress
with wonderful views of the city but the area of the popes’ private chambers was
covered with fairly lewd ceiling frescos painted in the grotesque style. This hypocrisy after I had to buy a scarf to
cover my shoulders to enter the basilica because I was wearing a sleeveless top
in the 36 degree heat.
 |
| Castel Sant'Angelo |
 |
| Ceiling frescos in the Popes chambers |
 |
| More ceiling frescos |
We continued to walk all over the city in the high
heat. We checked out (off) the Spanish
Steps – closed for repair, the Roman forum and found the pleasant shaded park
of Villa Borghese.
 |
| Spanish steps |
 |
| Roman Forum |
On our second full day in Rome we started out at Circus
Maximus, a bit disappointing as it was essentially a bit of scrub land. We then made our way to Capidoglio Square and
its museum. This trapezoid square was
designed by Michelangelo and is bordered by three beautiful classical buildings
which house a fantastic museum. There
were some beautiful sculptures and old artifacts.
 |
| Circus Maximus |
 |
| Entry to Capidoglio Square |
Our last stop for the day was the Victor Emmanuel monument
at the Piazza Venenzia. This structure
dominates the Roman skyline and turned out to be quite modern. It was conceived in 1885 and inaugurated in
1911 to commemorate the unification of Italy which occurred in 1861. I did not realise this was such a recent
event. Before this Italy was a group of
separate kingdoms.
 |
| Victor Emmanuel Monument |
Thus ended our brief tour of Rome. Perhaps it was the hoards of tourist but Rome
did not grab me. After 2½ days we were
still looking for Italy.
No comments:
Post a Comment