We were up around 7:30, and I checked email to see what kind of responses I had from Venice hotels. Of the 11 emails I had sent, I only had 2 responses so far, both more expensive than I wanted ($200 E and up).
We went down to breakfast and ate with a Belgian living in France that worked for the UN. He had a few days business here in Rome, then was off to Brazil for several months.
Back at the room, I started trying to line up a tour of the Coliseum and Palatine Hill for this morning. One operator was only doing the Vatican today, but we were were pretty sure that we were going to do that with Chris when we got back on the 17th.. I called Rome Walks, and was told that their tour this morning was full, but they could do something for us at 1. Enjoy Rome could do it at 2. I called Rome Walks back and set it up, and we decided to go to the Basilica of St Peter in Chains in the meantime. Just as we were about to walk out the door, the cell phone rang…it was Annie at Rome Walks. Only 4 people had shown up for the morning tour, could we come right away? They were at the Coliseum Metro stop, only about a 10-minute walk. Sure, we could do that. We headed out.
We arrived at the Metro stop, and did not find the tour. A quick call to Rome Walks, it appeared that they had walked down the hill to the Arch of Constantine. We hustled down there and could not find them. I called Annie back and got her vmail, but as I was leaving a message, we found the tour guide, Greg, with 6 Californians in tow. It had been a frustrating few minutes, looking around for them, but Greg was apologetic and promised us a good time.
This tour would usually have started “at the beginning”, on Palatine Hill, where Romulus founded Rome. But some sort of union issue had closed the Hill until noon, so we would have to do the Coliseum first. No matter. Greg was a 30 something native of New Hampshire with a disarming, casual demeanor and a love of history. While he did not seem as authoritative or educated as Christopher, he still did an excellent job on the tour. We stayed with him for over 4 hours, covering the Coliseum, Palatine Hill (after it opened), and the Forum. Price was $40E. We were very happy with the tour and the value.
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Reconstructed floor in the foreground. This view lets you see the passages built under the floor. There were slave-powered elevators that allowed for animals, gladiators, weapons, etc to be lifted up to the floor through trapdoors. |
I must say that our guides really made Rome come alive. The forum is just a jumble of rocks and debris without an explanation of what you are looking at. There is very little in the way of interpretive signage. Many of the guidebooks have walking tours of the Forum and other areas of interest, but nothing can replace a capable guide. We asked Greg how he had come to be here. He told us that 6 years ago he had come here as a tourist, took a tour, loved it, and figured that he would like to be a tour guide in the area. So that’s what he did. I couldn’t help but relate to his decision. If I were younger and single, I think I could have followed the same path.
Some pictures from Palatine Hill and the Forum.
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The
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, begun in 141 AC, located in the Forum
area, along the Via Sacra. This was originally a low, marshy area
between hills, that tended to flood. Notice the green door? It's about 30 feet above current ground level. But when this ancient pagan temple was converted to a Christian church, that WAS the ground level! During the Imperial period, Rome had a population of over a million people. But in the Middle Ages, the population dropped to as little as 15,000. It was a ghost town. During those few hundred years, the Tiber flooded over and over, and silted up the Forum, burying everything there. Cattle grazed there. So when this building was converted to a church in the 7th century, they did not excavate the part that was buried, they just built around what was sticking out of the ground. There is an excellent digital recreation of the Forum at http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Forum/.
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After our tour, Greg recommended a good place for by-the-slice pizza in the Jewish Quarter called Pizza Art. Enough pizza to quench our appetites, plus a beer and a water, was less than 8E…by far our cheapest meal so far.
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We also found a small supermarket in the Ghetto that had a curling iron…15E, and it worked better than Lana’s $100 Chi iron that she uses at home. They also had cheap lotion. When you want a deal, go to the Jewish quarter!
Lana seemed to be getting tired, but I wanted to climb Capitoline Hill via Michelangelo’s Steps, so we decided to do that, then head back to the hotel to see if we had any more emails from Venice. We found the reproduction statue of Romulus and Remus (much smaller than I expected).
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| Going down the hill, I spotted the Mamertine Prison right beside the stairway. Lana did not know what it was, so I explained that it was where Peter and Paul had been imprisoned. Entry fee was a donation, so we dropped a few coins in the box and went in. The cell is a round room, originally over 20 feet high (it now has a false floor at the current entry level), with a square hole in the ceiling that the prisoners were lowered through. There are signs inside listing the Christians martyred there, and their means of death…decapitato, stragulato, morte de fame (starvation). A small stairway leads down to the original floor level, where there is a tiny shrine. A bronze plaque depicts Peter baptizing his jailers with water from a little spring that miraculously sprang up from the floor of the jail. The post that he and Paul were chained to is still there, as is the hole in the floor where the water flowed up. An upside-down cross below the plaque references Peter’s execution at the Circus of Nero, crucified upside down. |
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As I gazed at the shrine, I heard gentle weeping to my right. I turned to see Lana wiping her eyes. “Of everything we have seen here, this is the first thing to make me cry” she whispered. I understood. This was a powerful, solemn place.
As we walked out and discussed this place, I told Lana that the church containing Peters chains was just a short walk away…would she like to see it? She would, so we walked up the hill to the Basilica that we had originally planned to visit this morning. It was a beautiful, spiritual place, sadly interrupted by an Italian tour guide talking loudly to his group until some worshippers shushed him. The church also contains Michelangelo’s “Moses”, a wonderful work the Michelangelo completed after his work on the Sistine Chapel. A story goes that a frustrated Michelangelo once hurled his chisel at the unfinished work, yelling “Speak, dammit, speak!”.
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Our day had gone a little longer than planned, but that was OK. Back at the hotel, we had more responses from Venice, so we chose and confirmed a hotel. We then went out for dinner. Greg had recommended a place a block from the hotel (but not real close to the Coliseum…the restaurants that overlook it cater to tourists) that we had checked out as we walked home. We asked Mr. Khan what he thought of it. “It’s good, simple food” he said. He also mentioned another place, Lucies, right next door, saying it was good, but “rowdy”. I asked what he meant by that, and he said that a lot of Romans eat there and tend to be a bit boisterous. Sounded fine to us, so we ate there, on the street under a gas heater with scooters whizzing by. The food was the best we had eaten so far (with the exception of the meal at the hotel), and was less expensive than our last two evening meals, at 38E.
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Back home, we downloaded photos, sent a few emails, and were in bed by 10:30.
