We docked in the port city of Civitavecchia, Italy for this day in Rome. Our group of 8 met our guide outside the port buildings at 7:45 a.m. The 50 mile trip into the city took approximately 1 hour and at about 9 a.m. we made our first stop of the day in Rome in the vicinity of The Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum.
Here are some of the ruins of Palatine Hill with The Coliseum in the background. And, below is the magnificent Coliseum. This immense amphitheater, whose imposing remains still allow us to admire its ancient splendor, was begun by Verpasian in 72 A.D. and completed by his son Titus in 80 A.D. It was built by Jewish prisoners. There is hardly a page of Roman history that is not in some way connected to the Coliseum, which became the symbol of the city and its life. It was designed to accommodate 80,000 spectators.
Below, we view the Roman Forum, a small open rectangle surrounded by the ruins of ancient government buildings at the center of the city. It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections, venue for public speeches and nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history.
The dome building in the background is the Temple of Saturn, a monument to the agricultural deity Saturn that stands at the western end of the Forum. It represents the oldest surviving structure in that area, having been established between 501 and 498 BC.
Above it the Arch of Titus built A.D. 80, the oldest surviving arch in ancient Rome.
The Roman Forum area is the site of ongoing excavation and restoration. Adjacent to the site of the excavation, is the building housing the Museum of Rome.
Outside the museum there are copies of statutes that have been excavated. These original statutes are showcased inside the museum.
The bride and groom from a recent wedding stroll the grounds of the museum.
As we departed this area, we passed by this lovely building built 1911-1935 as a monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy. It is constructed of beautiful, white marble. (The green/blue tint is because I took the picture looking through the window of the bus).
Our next stop was in a plaza where we saw the Pantheon which was undergoing restoration work. The Pantheon was originally built in 27-25 BC by the magistrate Marcus Agrippa (his name appears on the inscription outside), to commemorate the victory of Actium over Antony and Cleopatra. This original temple burned down in 80 AD.
The Pantheon was completely reconstructed in 125 AD by Hadrian, a cosmopolitan emperor who had traveled widely in the East. The second temple was dedicated to every known god, from which the Pantheon gets its name. Hadrian himself is credited with the basic plan, an architectural design that was unique for the time. Until the 20th century, the Pantheon was the largest concrete structure in the world. Michelangelo studied its great dome before starting work on the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Pantheon was dedicated to "all the gods." When it became a church, it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs.
The Pantheon is the burial place of several important Italians (including the artist Raphael), and it remains an active church. The building is substantially intact, thanks to a Byzantine emperor who gave the pagan temple to Pope Boniface IV in 608, who then transformed it into a Christian church.
The Pantheon is widely praised for its feats of architecture and concept of space. At 142 ft wide and 142 ft high, it is a perfect sphere resting in a cylinder. The Pantheon's huge dome is a perfect hemisphere of cast concrete, resting on a solid ring wall. Outside, the dome is covered in almost weightless cantilevered brick. With a span of 142 feet), it was the largest dome in the world until the 15th century when a slightly larger dome was constructed in Florence.
The portico (porch) is made of 16 monolithic Corinthian columns topped by a pediment. The inscription M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM·FECIT means: "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, during his third consulate, built this."
The bronze doors (shown below) leading into the building are original and were once covered in gold. They weigh 20 tons each. The walls of the Pantheon are 25 ft. thick.
The oculus, the only source of natural light in the Pantheon, is a round opening in the center of the dome. It is 27 feet in diameter and open to the sky (the floor is gently sloped to allow for runoff of rainwater). The interior is a single majestic space, entirely centered on a curved line, highlighted by the clear light which falls from the central oculus.
In the 16th century, Michelangelo came to the Pantheon to study its dome before he began work on the dome of St. Peter's whose dome is 2 feet smaller.
It, being a Sunday morning, was occupied with a mass in progress, and so, we were unable to go inside.
In the plaza outside the Pantheon is a lovely fountain topped by an ancient Egyptian obelisk. The obelisk and its base were erected by Pope Clement XI.
We stopped at an sidewalk café in this plaza for a delicious pizza lunch, sitting with our Cruise Critic friends from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
During our lunch time we discussed, with our guide, a “filler” tour stop to make. Because our excursion was outlined with a visit to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel (which are both closed on Sundays) we were given some choices to take the place of those stops. Among those choices was a visit to the Catacombs. Our group chose to visit there and we proceeded toward the entrance to the Catacombs, passing by old wall of the city.
The Domitilla Catacombs are unique in that they are the oldest of Rome's underground burial networks, and the only ones to still contain bones. They are also the best preserved and one of the most extensive of all the catacombs. Included in their passages are a 2nd-century fresco of the Last Supper and other valuable artifacts.
They are the only catacombs that have a subterranean basilica; entrance to the catacombs is achieved through this sunken 4th-century church. This basilica became unsafe and was abandoned in the 9th century. It was rediscovered in 1593, and much of it was reconstructed in 1870.
In the beginning of 2009, at the request of the Vatican, the Divine Word Missionaries, a Roman Catholic Society of priests and Brothers, assumed responsibility as administrator of St. Domitilla Catacombs.
Our driver/guide for the day was a close friend of the brother who was “in charge” of this facility. It was an interesting tour; unfortunately, no pictures are allowed.
From the catacombs we traveled to the beautiful Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is the most famous and arguably the most beautiful fountain in all of Rome. The Trevi fountain is at the ending part of the Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed in 19 BC. It brings water 12 1/2 miles outside Rome and supplies the fountains in the historic center of the city with water.
In 1732, Pope Clement XII commissioned the creation of a large fountain at the Trevi Square. Construction of the monumental baroque fountain was finally completed in 1762.
The central figure of the fountain, in front of a large niche, is Neptune, god of the sea. He is riding a chariot in the shape of a shell, pulled by two sea horses. Each sea horse is guided by a Triton. One of the horses is calm and obedient, the other one restive. They symbolize the fluctuating moods of the sea.
On the left hand side of Neptune is a statue representing Abundance, the statue on the right represents good health. Above the sculptures are bas-reliefs, one of them shows Agrippa, the general who built the aqueduct that carries water to the fountain.
The water at the bottom of the fountain represents the sea. Legend has it you will return to Rome if you throw a coin into the water. You should toss it over your shoulder with your back to the fountain.
The area was literally packed with people. As we admired the fountain, a man standing near the edge of the pool directly in front of the center statute, climbed onto a rail and executed a back flip landing in the water on his feet. As he walked toward the edge of the water, everyone watched to see what he might do next. He reached the water’s edge and was met by a policewoman and taken into custody. This happened so quickly that I failed to get any pictures of the event.
Back in the van we traveled to the Spanish steps, an area even more crowded with people than that around the Trevi Fountain. The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome climbing a steep slope between two piazzas. The monumental stairway of 138 steps was built, in 1723-25, with a French diplomat’s bequeathed funds, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See. The Spanish Stairs is the widest staircase in Europe.
We descended the 138 steps and then climbed them to the top.
Back in the van (for a much-needed rest) we traveled inside Vatican City to St. Peter’s Square where there were hundreds of people standing in line, waiting to be admitted to St. Peter’s Basilica.
The line moved along fairly quickly and in less than an hour we were almost inside St. Peter’ Basilica.
Finally, we reached the inside of St. Peter’s Basilica. What beauty!
To say the interior of St. Peter's is impressive would be an obvious understatement, given that it is perhaps the largest church in the world-- it covers an area of 5.7 acres and has a capacity of over 60,000 people.
A mass was in progress as we walked through. (One couple who were seated at our dinner table on the ship told me that they were selected to attend that mass).
The dome of St. Peter's was designed by Michelangelo, who became chief architect in 1546. (Remember the reference earlier about his studying the dome of The Pantheon before designing this dome?)
The central focus of this area of the interior is the baldacchino. This monumental canopy shelters the papal altar and the holy relics of St. Peter. Artistically, it also serves to fill the vertical space under Michelangelo's great dome.
Made of 927 tons of dark bronze (removed from the Pantheon’s roof in 1633) accented with gold vine leaves, the baldacchino stands 90 feet tall. The baldacchino was created from 1624 to 1633. The spiral columns derive their shapes from the columns of the baldacchino in the original St. Peter's Basilica built by Constantine, which legend has it came from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Cherubs are repeated throughout the monument, giving an overall effect of the Ark of the Covenant.
Overwhelmed! We exited St. Peter’s to view the Obelisk. The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since ancient Roman times. It was originally erected at an ancient Greek city by an unknown pharaoh of Egypt. The Roman Emperor Augustus had it moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria, where it stood until year 37 A.D., when Caligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to Rome. He placed it in the center of the Circus, where it would preside over Nero's countless brutal games and Christian executions. It was moved to its current site in 1586 under the direction of Pope Sixtus V.
Exhausted from almost 10 hours in Rome, we boarded our van for the drive back to the port and our ship.
