Rome: Day 3 The Roman Coliseum, Palatine Hill, Ancient Ruins and the Roman Forum

The Coliseum

Yesterday we spent the day walking around the Roman Coliseum, Palatine and the Roman Forum.  Lots and lots of walking in the heat but absolutely worth it.  I took a lot of pictures of the amphitheater.  The floor no longer exists so the lower level where the prisoners, gladiators and animals were kept was exposed. 

You could get your photo with a Roman Soldier.  This one was taking a break.

Underground where the animals, gladiators and prisoners stayed while waiting their fate.

  

  

 

Derek is sitting outside a small shop where we had lunch and the best gelato in Rome.

Palatine Hill

From there we walked around the Palatine which is on a hill next to the Coliseum.  It was once a palatial garden with a mansions where the emperor entertained.  The magnitude is incredible.  It's amazing what slave labor can accomplish. There are also a lot of Roman remains where excavators are still digging and uncovering artifacts.  The columns are incredible.

Head of colossal statue of the Emperor Constantine

Little Car. Wonder how many mpg it gets.

There must be as many motorcycles in Italy as there are cars.

The above and following photos are of the Palatine Gardens

and Roman Ruins being excavated.

The Roman Forum where the politicians of the ancient Roman Republic used to debate and give speeches.

   

 This was our last day in Rome.  From there we traveled to Florence.  Next week photos of our travels through Tuscany and the things we saw in the city that was the birthplace of the Renaissance.

Rome 2nd day: The Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica

Yesterday we spent eight hours traveling through the Vatican.  Can't even describe it.  Highlights were the medieval art and the Raphael rooms.  The greatest was the Sistine Chapel.  I felt tears come to my eyes.  I couldn't tear my eyes away from it:  Adam and God reaching out to each other; Adam and Eve's temptation and expulsion of Eden, the whole side wall showing the Final Judgment.  (No photos were allowed in the Sistine Chapel so unfortunately I don't have any to show.)

 Medieval Art in the Vatican

  

Ancient Roman remains from Sepulcres

 Derek helps keep my blog "g" rated

 View of the City out of a Vatican window

The Discovery of this ancient statue sparked and inspired the techniques of the high Renaissance sculptors

Then there was St. Peter's Basilica. 

 If I lived in

 Rome, I believe I could go to St. Peter's every single day and stare at Michelangelo's Pieta for an hour.  The place was crowded but looking at Mary with the dead Jesus on her lap, all I could hear was an intense silence.

 Michelangelo's Pieta

Beneath the main floor of the Basilica is a whole underground chapel with the remains of different popes and saints and purportedly the remains of St. Peter.  Maybe it's him.  Who knows?

In the middle of the day my friend, Lisa,  became so tired she sat down on the floor.  A guard came up staring at her.  Finally he said, "Signora!"

Lisa just stared at him.
He stared at her.
Finally he said, "Get up!"  and walked off.

This was followed by the not so funny excursion when we found out we had to walk from St. Peter's all the way around Vatican City back to where we entered just to collect our back packs.  That took forty-five minutes alone.

 When we got there the guard gave Lisa her back pack and said, "What's this?"  pounding the backpack with his finger.

Just then the back pack started crowing.  It was her phone alarm.

The man looked at her and said, "All day!"

For some reason she hadn't turned it off correctly so the guards got to hear her backpack crowing for eight hours.

Finished the day at a very nice café and watched the people go by.  Returned home very, very, tired.

Today we're going to the Colosseum.  Tomorrow we leave for Florence via a train ride through Siena.

 Tiny car.  These are common in Italy

European Trip Rome: Day one.

I've spent the last three weeks in Europe.  I've adapted e mails I sent family and friends while there and have added my photos that go along with the trip.  I will be posting a mid week travelogue of my time.  This week is my first day in Rome. 

 

 

Hello! Yesterday, super busy!!  After breakfast we went to the church, San Pietro, and saw the Moses. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I couldn't tear myself away.  St Peter's chains are also there in view under the altar.  But for me the Moses was tremendous. Michelangelo considered this his most perfect sculpture.  Can you see the muscles and veins, the weight of his beard.....the horns reflect the Glory of God that Moses encountered while on Mount Sinai.  And to think this great work of art is in an unassuming church hidden away in a back neighborhood...we almost couldn't find it...local Italians didn't know what we were looking for.

 

 Chains of St. Peter

 

 From there we went near the Colosseum and looked at Roman ruins.  Really just walked around and stepped into whatever historical sight we wanted to look at. 

 

 

 

 

 

The ruins are behind this interesting couple.  Do you know how they do it?  I do.

 

 

 

 Went to another Cathedral, had Michelangelo's Risen Christ.  The Cathedral was called Mary of Minerva and has the bones of St. Catherine of Siena under the main altar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Of course all these churches are lined with altars up and down on both sides and in the cross sections.  Each altar is enclosed in a separate chapel flanked by loads of paintings and sculptures.  Incredible.  Lisa said she had never been in such a beautiful Cathedral before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the road was the Pantheon.  I think this is where St. Paul addressed people about the unknown God. Never mind, that was in Ephesus.  But it was a pantheon just like this. It is now a church and, even though round, has separate chapels and altars circling it.  The artist Raphael is buried there under one of the altars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of Raphael's paintings at the Pantheon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked on to the famous fountain de Trevi. 

Incredible.  It's the whole back side of a building. 

 

This is another famous fountain. I can't remember the name.

 

What was funny to us is how difficult it was to find any information on anything.  There's no signs or plaques telling you what things are.  I'll have to look a lot of stuff up later.

 

This is the famous Trevi fountain.

 

We ate at the Piazza Novana.  Food was great.  Service, meh.  Waiter sarcastically thanked us for our generosity when we gave him a four euro tip.  Everything is very expensive. 

 

But the Cathedrals and Pantheon were free.  Interesting.

Today we leave for the Vatican.  We may stay the whole day there.  We walked our legs off yesterday.  The good thing is that Derek and I crashed and didn't get up until this morning.  Feel much better.

 

These photos are all my own.