I am sitting on a park bench in front of the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is several blocks southeast of Vatican City. We have a couple hours until our dinner reservation, and I decided it would be nicer to sit outside to write in my journal.
We were lucky with the weather today. There were a few brief sprinkles around noon. I think I had my umbrella up for 10 minutes -- and then it stopped. Yes, we were very lucky.
Yesterday, we got caught in the rain near the Roman Forum and it stayed with us most of the afternoon. The temperatures have been warmer than I had expected -- in the high 70s and low 80s. And it's very humid here. But I cannot complain. We've been very comfortable.
Today was another long walking day. I'll list here all the places we went and then I'll fill in some of the details:
Piazza Augusto Imperatore & the Ara Pacis
Piazza del Popolo and Santa Maria del Popolo (Church)
and a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit
Villa Borghese (the park)
The Spanish Steps
The Trevi Fountain
Saint Ignazio di Loyola (Church)
The Pantheon (again)
Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Church)
Palazzo Doria Pamphilj
Piazza Navona
I'm exhausted just having made this list. Some of these were repeat stops as we moved from one part of the city to another. Christopher commented today that Rome does not appear to be an overly big city, and we certainly have had no difficulty getting around. And I am rather surprised that we have never taken a taxi anywhere! And I am very happy that Dad is getting around fairly easily. He often has trouble with his left foot (for me, the problem is with my right), but he's doing really well. He's complained a little bit about his hips -- especially when climbing steps. How nice for him that both times we approached the Spanish Steps we approached from above and walked down (never up!).
This morning, we struck out from our hotel heading north. Our immediate goal was the Piazza del Popolo, but we also hoped to see the Ara Pacis -- an ancient bas relief altar built in the time of Augustus. It has an interesting history because it was separated into pieces and scattered all over Europe some time in the second century. It was only within the last 30 years or so that the various pieces were identified as belonging together and were reassembled in Rome. Sadly, we had to be satisfied with looking at it through a glass wall because the building that houses it was closed. And so our stop here was a short one and we moved quickly on to the Piazza del Popolo.
Like so many piazzas in Rome, an Egyptian obelisk is in the center of the Piazza del Popolo. This is a very large square with three large churches located here. The oldest is Santa Maria del Popolo, built in 1472. The main attraction in this Church is a Caravaggio oil painting called "The Crucifixtion of St. Peter." It was quite striking.
Upon exiting the Church, we headed towards the Villa Borghese but got sidetracke
d by a rather unique exhibit of machines built based on the models and plans of Leonardo da Vinci. It was a very clever exhibit. Dad and I especially enjoyed playing around in the 6-sided mirrored room (closet). We both took pictures of ourselves inside!
After that, we hiked up a long flight of stairs to the Villa Borghese Park. Unfortunately, this was a disappointment. It's a large, open park, but it is not very well signed and it was sadly rather unkempt -- with litter everywhere. We felt a bit overwhelmed by the size and lack of signage, and so we decided not to explore very far.
Instead, we left the
park and walked south to the Trinita de Monti (another church) and the top of the Spanish Steps. We had seen the Spanish Steps at night, but we wanted to see them by day. They were, again, very crowded, but we took a few pictures and were happy. From there, our goal was to spend a bit more time at the Pantheon. The Trevi Fountain was on the way so we stopped there again as well. I enjoyed the Trevi more during our night time visit when it was really well lit. The most striking thing about the Trevi Fountain is its size. It's massive! It fills the entire square, which isn't very big to begin with.
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I walked along the Tiber lat this afternoon. Specifically, I walked between the Ponte Umberto I and the Ponte Sant'Angelo. It reminded me a lot of walking along the Seine from Notre Dame to the Louvre. The river side of the walkway is filled with street vendors who protect their wares under roofed stalls. But the Tiber is not a very impressive river -- at least not the part I saw. It's very shallow in places and just not very pretty.
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We really "did" the Piazza della Rotunda area today. We saw two churches, the Pantheon and a private Palazzo. As we reached this area of the city, we made our first stop at the Sa
nta Maria sopra Minerva. "Sopra" means "above," and this church is built on top of the site of an ancient temple of Minerva -- hence the name. The inside of this church is most striking because of its blue painted ceiling. Also in this church we saw a statue (The Risen Christ) which was started by Michaelangelo and completed by one of his students. Another great feature of this church is a beautiful, round stained glass window. And outside and in front of this church is a famous statue by Bernini -- it's an elephant with an Egyptian obelisk on its back. Dad took
a lot of pictures for his Republican friends.
By now, we had walked enough and were ready for some rest and some nourishment. We stopped for lunch at a cafe in the Piazza della Rotunda directly across from the Pantheon. Wow! After refueling we went into the Pantheon for another view of its amazing ceiling. Another main attraction at the Pantheon is a tomb housing the body of Raphael. It lies just beneath a statue of the Madonna.
The second church we saw in this area was Sant' Ignazio di Loyola. Like so many churches in Rome, this church was very dark and, sadly, much of the art work is not well lit. We toured the chapels along the outer walls and then departed.
One of the highlights of this, our third day in Rome, was a tour of the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj. This is a privately owned (huge) palazzo that the family owners have renovated and opened to the public. What an amazing place this was! The family has a really long, impressive history. They were very wealthy and very influential in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Two popes came from this family, and during the reign of one of them, the matriarch of the family exerted considerable influence over papal affairs.
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