First Days in Rome

So finally, to Rome! First, the hotel. It was very nice, and its modern decor was a welcome change from the older, more traditional hotels we've had in Italy so far. The hotel is very small, with only five rooms, and you have to climb a steep set of stairs to get to the front desk, but it had a cozy, personal feel to it. The hotel room was also very small, but lovely.





The bathroom included this magnificent jacuzzi tub, which was quite possibly the best thing about our room! We each used it almost every day, and it helped a lot in trying to recover from the ridiculous amounts of walking we did in Rome.

The service at the hotel was very good, too - they made us tea (for me) and decaf coffee (for Sarah) on request in the evenings, and the breakfasts were amazingly good for Italy. Freshly scrambled eggs, bacon (which was somewhere between prosciutto and American crispy bacon), toast, tea, cappuccino, and fresh-squeezed orange juice that was incredibly delicious. I should have taken pictures, but didn't think to bring the camera to breakfast.

The only real downside was the internet not working. And that is so important that I probably wouldn't stay there again. But to try to make up for it the first night, they gave us a bottle of champagne! We'd both rather have internet, but it was pretty fun.



The hotel is located about a block from the Spanish Steps, so whenever we went out we walked past all the beautiful luxury stores - Gucci, Prada, Cartier, Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana... I saw plenty of things I would like to buy!


Spanish Steps at the end of Via Condotti


Shopping in the evening

Overall, the sightseeing and photography in Rome were generally enjoyable and successful, but as always there are so many things I didn't see that I would have liked to. So that was a little sad as usual, but that aside, five days was enough! Rome is just so big, noisy, and crowded. I really don't love it as a city, but it does have some of the best stuff on Earth.

First Evening (Tue Nov 9)

The afternoon we arrived in Rome, we headed out to "take it easy" and "just see some local stuff" and ended up walking all the way across the city. But the weather was really beautiful so I'm glad we did!

First we stopped at the Pantheon, a round Roman temple (125 AD) that has been used as a church since the 7th century.


Glimpse of the exterior and dome from a nearby piazza


Pagan architecture and Christian art


Oculus in the center of the ceiling, open to the sky, and a short ray of November sunlight hitting the interior of the dome


Detail of concrete dome


Tomb of the Renaissance artist Raphael


Lovely piazza in front of the Pantheon, with fountain featuring an obelisk swiped from Egypt by the ancient Romans.

Then we visited the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a Gothic church (the only Gothic church in Rome, in fact) built on the site of a temple of Minerva. It has two main highlights:


Tomb of St. Catherine of Siena


Statue of Jesus by a young Michelangelo

And then we continued quite a bit further on to the Capitoline Hill, Forum and Colosseum, at the heart of ancient Rome.


View from near the base of the Capitoline Hill


Heading up the hill


Statue at the entrance to the plaza on top of the hill (we visited the Capitoline Museums, seen in the background, another day)


View of the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill. That's the Arch of Septimus Severus (203 AD) in the foreground.


Temple of Saturn


Temple transformed into a church


Basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano, another temple converted into a church in the Forum. The magnificent mosaic, depicting the Second Coming of Christ, dates from 527 AD.


Mosaic detail


Trajan's Forum across the street from the Roman Forum


View across Trajan's Forum to a couple of Baroque churches


On our way back to the hotel, we happened to walk right past the famous Trevi Fountain. As you can see by the umbrellas, by now it had also started to rain.


Closer look at the pretty fountain, completed in 1762.


View from atop the Spanish Steps

Full Day 1 (Wed Nov 10)

After lots of rain the night before, the sun shone brightly Wednesday morning so we headed for St. Peter's Basilica, which (unlike most churches) faces east. It turned out to be a very lucky decision!


Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica from across the Tiber River


St. Peter's Basilica (and another swiped Egyptian obelisk)


Saints on the facade. The inscription says, "In honor of the prince of apostles; Paul V Borghese, pope, in the year 1612 and the seventh year of his pontificate." On the right is Saint Peter, the aforementioned prince of apostles.


View across the plaza of St. Peter's. The pope lives in the greyish building on the right.


Interior


One of many domes


A member of the Swiss Guard, in traditional Renaissance uniform, shares a laugh with another official.


There was a special service of some kind going on when we arrived, but fortunately tourists were still allowed to roam around. On the right are a group of pilgrims from the Czech Republic. We noticed a bunch of cardinals sitting near the front, which was fun. So we waited for awhile to see what would happen.

And then all the lights in the church were turned on, and the pilgrims began cheering and waving their flags. I said to Sarah, "Boy, with all this excitement, you'd almost think the Pope might appear!" But I didn't actually think he would - it was just a random Wednesday, after all.


But then I looked again, and saw a guy in white sitting on the throne at the front. The papal throne, that only the pope is allowed to sit on. It was the pope! We were pretty thrilled at our luck.


He looked so small beneath the huge bronze canopy (by Bernini, 1633).


The pope conducted a special service for the pilgrims, including a substantial portion in Czech, then the cardinals and other clergy filed past him to receive individual greetings. It's too bad I didn't happen to have my zoom lens with me, but here's the best I could do with my general lens and cropping.

We had rushed down to St. Peter's to try to catch the best morning light, which meant skipping showers but not breakfast (we have our priorities straight!). So after the Pope left the building, we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest a bit.

But it began to rain on our way back and then poured - huge heavy drops that get you incredibly wet! - the rest of the afternoon. So we found a late lunch at a coffee bar near the Spanish Steps, then pretty much spent the rest of the day in the hotel. That was actually much needed - my busy days in Pavia, Parma and Bologna were catching up with me and I really needed a rest. I might have gotten some blogging done, too, if the internet had cooperated! But instead, I organized and backed up photos and we both did some reading. Good stuff.

And speaking of needing a rest, it's nearing 11pm in Florence and I should try to get to bed. I hope to get a little more posted tomorrow morning, before we leave for Venice!