Pizza. What IS pizza? Is it a disk of flatbread coated in herbaceous red gloop, topped in white shreds? A geometric conundrum even pythagoras would be intrigued by? Or have we allowed ourselves to be limited in our definition, failing to explore the full potential of this ancient culinary marvel? Enter Rome, where pizza and foccacia are merely fifty shades of beige; where pizza is served in the form of a rectangular sauceless foccacia-like flat bread sandwich and foccacia comes as a crispy, round disk over-laid with proscuitto and goats cheese. But this is only one of Rome's many marvels.
Sunday, sunny Sunday began with a trip to the colosseum. Like so many before, we were eager to check out what surprises the stadium had in store. Huge marble facade outside, innumerable (collapsed) brick arches inside, the five tiered structure was a marvel of civil engineering like none other. On the tour, we walked down to the basement, amomg travertine marble supports and broken down staging areas for the now-absent floor above. Slaves, gladiators, and starving beasts would all wait in the smelly, hot, dark corridors while listening to the cheers of the crowd, the roaring of animals, and the pounding of the wood floor overhead. Of course, Rome would be in decline soon enough; the last games were held in c. 563, and the towering structure (like everything else in the city) was partially buried and dismantled for scrap-marble (much of which went towards building the Vatican!).
Passing by the Constantine arch (made prominent by Musollini...yawn) we headed to the incredible Roman forum. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum (sorry, couldn't resist): I bought a drawing of the colosseum from a street vendor for my collection. The forum was in its own right spectacular. The home and burial sites of Julius Caesar sat next to a small rock strewn grassy plaza, surrounded by monumental columns and the remnants of gigantic temples. One can only imagine the splendour of even this fragment of the ancient forum, with the colosseum beyond and Palantine Hill above; and that's not even at the peak of the empire 2000 years ago. My only regret is the fact that I came across a project being researched by one of my Oxford engineering compatriots; the magnicent Basilica of Constantine, longer than a football field and as high as the colosseum. Sigh... to think I could have worked here...
After lunch (we made a habit of eating at 2:30) we climbed the Palantine hill and Capitoline Hill in succession. The views leading up to sunset were only marginally less spendid than the broken buildings we were standing around, and I felt a bit like Nero watchingRome go up in the flames of twilight. If only I had my cello.
The day's fun wasn't done yet. We walked the length of Via del Corso - think Champs Elysee Rome - stopping for an outdoor Christmas acapella concert, a market, and finally dinner at a pizza place. Then we went to a choral concert of Italian Christmas carols. Somehow Jingle Bells translates to Italian as 'Ding ding ding,' leading to continuing humour for us...
Sunrise the following day was colder and clearer, and given that Rome shuts down on Mondays, we used this day to go church hopping.
Basilica di San Clemente- church on a church on a church from the I, IV, and XII centuries. The marble mosaic in the 'modern' church was quite nice (Jesus Sheep!) but the highlight was walking around the two churches in successive underground levels.
Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli - aside from the giant marble Moses, one could not miss St Peter's chains, located in a shiny windox box on the alter.
La Basilica di Sta. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri - with a name so long, it wasn't surprising the building was massive. The unfinished and now ruined complex lies on top of ancient Roman baths. I think the architects' eyes were bigger than their stomachs...and wallets.
Basilica di Sta. Maria Sopra Minerva - a church with a magnificent vivid blue ceiling with gold and red detail that actually out-shone Michangelo's 'Cristo della Minerva' sculpture. Definitely worth a look in pictures!
Basilica Di Sta Cecilia - Believe it or not, the most 'normal' church in the set. Nuns setting up for mass... beautiful outside facade with piazza and fountain.
Sta Maria in Trastevere - Another gorgeously mosaiced floor under a chocolate brown, red, green, and gold rectangular roof. Massive columns provided the wow factor, but a curious dachshund was not intimidated, and scampered around the back of the nave.
And on the 7th day (ok, church), we rested... skipping St Ignatius among others.
But wait, there's more- we also visited the tremendous Pantheon, ancient Rome's only temple open to all classes and religions. It definitely left me to wonder how such marvels of engineering (and art!) could be lost over the span of the dark ages. How could so much splendor evaporate entirely with the fall of Rome??
Like the Borghese Gallery, the Pamphilj (pronounced pamfeely) Gallery is an art- filled palace. Without all the details, the best works were Velasquez's 'Pope Innocent X' and Carravagio's 'Rest on the Way to Egypt.' Rachael and I also scrutinized a copy portrait of Giovanna of Aragon by Raphael... the original is apparently in the Louvre; we'll get back to you next week after we have confirmed! I also really liked the ballroom of the palace... I think Jenna would have loved it too. I was sorely tempted to bust out in a spontaneous waltz, but decided the guards might not appreciate my enthusiasm.
That evening, we ended up in Trastevere for a pretty nice dinner. When I ordered a foccacia with goat cheese and proscuitto (SO much proscuitto this week), I was exceedingly surprised when a circular flatbread showed up. uhhh... pizza? Well, Rachael and I decided that foccacia is a subset of pizza, thus redefining our prior conceptions. That's what international travel is for. By the way, we're still investigating whether Italians eat, bread with olive oil. So far, it doesn't seem like it, but we're still seeking an authoritative source.
So that takes us to Tuesday when it was all Vatican, all day! St. Peters Basilica is the largest church in the world. I found it so big that I could not even grasp its scale until I saw a worker rapelling down the alter canopy to dust it! The columns were much bigger than any other that I had seen in a church, but since the church's proportions seemed normal, the overall space seemed quite reasonably sized. Anyway, the capacity of the basilica is over 60,000 people, so that gives you an idea of how big the space is.
Next, we climbed the 500+ steps to the top of the basilica. It was incredible, but there are so many things to say that I'll just leave you with the mental image of us getting wedged between the two sloping layers of the inner and outer roof :-)
So after the awesome views of the dome, we grabbed pizza (i.e. salami and cheese in foccacia sandwich. huh?) and headed back to St. Peters for the excavation tour. This limited tour took us below the basilica to explore the crypt and the 1st century mausoleum below. Most importantly, we were shown St. Peter's original tomb, the buried monument erected by Emperor Constantine, and the alters erected in the 4th and 16th centuries. We also saw some small relics and bones believed to belong to St. Peter himself, which are all directly below the aforementioned modern alter and the largest basilica in the world. It was more than cool; try mind-boggling.
Lastly (ha!) we toured the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel, a lengthy undertaking. The building was in its own right spectacular, but we were legitimately impressed by Raphael's 'School of Athens' and 'Transfiguration.' These two works were incredible, but not as cool Michangelo's Sistine Chapel. I was surprised that the famous 'Creation of Adam' was a very small portion of the Sistene ceiling, but nonetheless quite prominent. Really, it's hard to believe that he spent four years on the work, but clearly it paid off! Behind the Sistene alter, his 'Last Judgement' -in my opinion- was as or more impressive than the ceiling. I was particularly struck by his self portrayal as a flayed skin, evidentally an indication of self doubt over his worthiness for salvation.
Overall, the Vatican is amazing and unbelieveable; every Christian, art enthusiast, and perhaps every human should find a way to visit this influential city in the center of modern civilization. You will NOT be let down.
With that, we called it a successful first leg of the trip. Vienna used to be my favorite city, but that may have just been supplanted by Rome, a city of growth, empire, peace, decline, rebirth, enlightenment, artistry, and religious importance. Its influence from 2000 years ago persists even today. If nothing else, the people are friendly, the food delicious, and the language ... well ... stunningly romantic.
Next step: Florence.
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