The following day we ate our breakfast on the rooftop terrace and wandered to the Spanish Steps to meet Jane’s good friend, Libby from the Royal Children’s. After a quick espresso at the bar we caught the metro to the Colosseum.
We took a tour of this haunting and mind-boggling place where many a beast and man were slaughtered. Its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It remained in use for nearly 500 years until around the sixth century.
Our tour also took us to the Palatine Hill which we found as impressive as the Coloseum. Much imagination was required though since a lot of the building materials (gold and marble) were pinched by the Vatican to decorate St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican. This photo shows huge pillars with the marble stripped from their sides.
The palaces of three emperors were built here, one on top of the other. And their scale must have been GINORMOUS. Here is the INDOOR sports arena belonging to Domitian who held his own private chariot races in this arena.
It was a very hot day – near 40˚C! – so after our tour we stopped to paddle in the fountain.
Refreshed after our dip and having eaten some more pasta for lunch we walked on to the Pantheon where we saw Raphael’s grave. In the evening we planned a rendezvous to farewell Libby and fitted in well with the Italian’s late dining habits.
On Wednesday we met our guide from the Palatine hill for a 4 hour extravaganza tour of the Vatican City and St Peter’s Basilica. There are so many stunning things to see at the Vatican. Not only are there hundreds of paintings and statues, but there are rare tapestries woven with gold thread, ancient manuscripts and artefacts from afar (given as gifts from famous visitors) and rare hand-painted maps. The maps are impressive since they were drawn by two men sent out to map Italy with only a donkey each and one compass between them. The similarity between their version of Venice and the current one via satellite is awesome. The only differences now are a few extra bridges across the Grand Canal.
Our tour guide Hannah was fantastic, pointing out many interesting facts and some pretty funny ones two. She’d spotted Silvester Stalone on her numerous walks through the Vatican.
Hannah pointed out this bath. The special marble – Egyptian Porphyry – used to make the basin, one single piece of stone, costs €20,000 per square inch.
Of course there are also plenty of paintings in the Vatican. The Sistine Chapel was incredible. We heard that the reason no one can take pictures there is that a Japanese imaging company paid for the most recent restorations in return for the sole right to any images from within the chapel. Hannah pointed out so much for us to look for and explained all the different sections to us before we arrived in the chapel itself.
The story goes that Raphael (who was already painting in the Vatican) suggested Michelangelo as the artist to paint the chapel when he spoke with Pope. Michelangelo was known as a very eccentric character and Raphael was dobbing him in, thinking he’d mess it up. Four years later, when the ceiling was finished, Raphael went with the Pope for a first peak. He realised Michelangelo’s genius and decided to honour him by painting him in to an already finished painting in the Pope’s rooms. That’s Michelangelo at the desk in the foreground of this famous work by Raphael, “The School of Athens”.
We moved on to the awesome St Peter’s Basilica. Its size takes your breath away. Apparently the whole Statue of Liberty could fit under the dome! And there’s so much decadence. Here is the baldachin (cover) over the high alter, sculpted by Bernini using bronze taken from the roof of the Pantheon around 1625.
The Basilica also contains Michelangelo’s Pieta, behind a shield of bullet-proof glass. In the 70's an Hungarian-born Australian set upon the sculpture with an hammer and rather than stopping the vandalist people collected the pieces flying off as mementos! The pope issued a statement that anyone who didn’t return the pieces would be eternally damned. All but Mary’s left index finger were returned. The restoration was extremely thorough seeing as Mary’s face was the most badly damaged section – look at it now!
People also flock to the Basilica to touch the foot of St Peter’s statue – its said to bring blessings. The statue has had the foot replaced six times now!
The pope addresses the crowd in St Peter’s Square every Wednesday morning so the chairs were still set out. The Square has the highest crime rate per square meter in the world due to all the pick pocketing that goes on. It's still an astonishing place to visit. Just keep your hands over your pockets!
On Thursday we visited the Galleria Borghese with some absolutely brilliant sculptures by Bernini (the same man who designed St Peter’s). It was fascinating to see all the different textures he could create from marble. No photos were allowed inside, sorry. You’ll have to go yourselves. That evening we walked to the Trevi Fountain. Before this trip we had no interest in sculpture but with so much talent on show here it’s hard to walk away unimpressed. We stayed to admire the fountain for at least 30 minutes.
The following day we took the train to the Amalfi but you’ll have to wait for the next instalment. No doubt we’ve left you enough to read here!
