Our trip is in ruins…


Our trip is officially in ruins.

There are ruins on the left.  There are ruins on the right!  Ruins, everywhere!  Welcome to Rome, a real treat for anyone who loves antiquity!

We arrived in Rome after a lovely visit in Lucca, and settled into our apartment outside the city centre.  As you know, there is no rest for the wicked (traveler), so we hopped onto the metro and made our way into the city to get oriented with an evening walking tour through New Rome Free Tour.  One neat thing I really enjoyed about doing the tour at night was the very interesting effects when photographing the different monuments.

The area of the Spanish steps is made up of several different monuments and fountains.  The steps themselves lead from the Spanish Square up to a former French-speaking neighbourhood.  The French actually commissioned the steps to be built so that they could get from their neighbourhood down to where the Spanish Square is, as it was a very steep hill previously.  So there’s a bit of irony there – French-funded steps called the “Spanish Steps”?

At the bottom of the steps and a short distance along the square is the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican.  Because the Vatican is so small, there are embassies and consulates spread out throughout Rome to maintain the relationships.  You can tell when an Embassy is specifically for the Vatican because of the presence of the Vatican coat of arms on the building along with the originating country’s flag or coat of arms.

 

Spanish Embassy with Vatican Coat of Arms
Spanish Embassy with Vatican Coat of Arms

In front of the Spanish Embassy is a column dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.  Each year on December 8th, there is a huge public holiday and the Pope joins a procession from the Vatican to the column where he is lifted up the 30m using a fire-truck lift to place a wreath on the right hand of the statue of Mary.

 

From here we walked along the streets to the church Saint Andrea delle Fratte.  The most interesting things within this church include two Bernini Angels, as well as a niche which is dedicated to the an event on the January 20th, 1842 when Mother Mary appeared to a Jewish man after which he converted to Catholicism.  Many people come to the church on a daily basis to pray to Mary in front of this beautiful niche.

Next, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain and were surprised to find it under construction.  The last time Katina and I were in Rome during our honeymoon in 1998, we stood with our backs to the fountain and we each threw a coin over our shoulder to ensure we would come back to Rome one day…and here we are!  Our girls followed in our footsteps and threw a coin over their shoulders as well.  If all comes to pass as it has for Katina and I and our experience with the Trevi Fountain, then we’ve pretty much guaranteed the “travel bug” for our kids!

We next made our way to the church of Saint Ignazio, which was very interesting.  The whole ceiling had been painted using optical illusions which tricks the eye into believing that the vault is much higher, though the ceiling was flat.  They could not afford to have a dome built on the church, so they had one painted on the ceiling which again was an optical illusion.  Depending on where you stand in the church it looks as though there is a high, circular dome in the church!

 

Another interesting thing we saw were Egyptian obelisks spread around the city.  We learned that some were brought to Rome directly from Egypt during various conquests of the Roman army.  Many others are reproductions that the Romans made themselves.  As the Romans converted to Christianity, the obelisks were capped with Christian symbols to show the dominance of Christianity over the “pagan” religions.

One of the most impressive buildings we saw was the Pantheon.  This huge building which was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa was a temple to all the ancient gods of Rome.  It has a huge dome on the top which was the largest dome in the Roman Empire at 43.3 m in diameter, and is still the largest, un-reinforced concrete dome in the world.  The centre of the dome is open, which allows light to shine in during the day; however, it also allows rain to come in, and when we were there it was pouring!  Fortunately the Romans thought that one through and had drains installed to take the water away.  Inside the Pantheon are the tombs of the artist Raphael, King Vittorio Emmanuel, Queen Margarita – the first king and queen of Italy.

 

The Panthenon...
The Panthenon…

Next stop was the Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument, which is a memorial to the Unknown Solider and known as the “Wedding Cake” to the locals.  It is a huge monument originally built by Mussolini to show off his power and prestige.  It is simply enormous, and from a distance, with the multiple levels, you can understand how it could get the wedding cake nickname.  After WW II it was renamed in an attempt to remove Mussolini’s mark on the city.  Unfortunately, in his quest to show off his greatness, Mussolini also destroyed large areas of ancient ruins through the Roman forum.  Lying under the road from the Vittorio monument are countless ruins which were essentially “cut off” at street level, filled in and then paved over.

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Our final stop on the tour was the Colosseum, where we were able to take in the immense splendour from the outside and learn a bit of the history.  One interesting thing I learned about the Colosseum that evening was that at one point it had been abandoned and people were coming to the site and essentially using it as a quarry to get marble and stone for their own houses.  Fortunately, the practice was eventually stopped.  Even so, today only about ½ of the original external wall around the arena stands fully intact.

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You’ll be able to read more about the Colosseum in the coming days as our first official guest blogger, our niece Katherine, shares her first blog post with you.  Katherine has joined us for 2 weeks of Global Fieldtrip education to experience school on the road as she never has before.

As you can see from this post, it has been quite difficult for me to give any sort of short overview of ancient Rome!  There is so much to see, so much history to experience!  Hopefully you were able to get a good sense of what we saw, and hopefully I have piqued your curiosity for the posts we will publish in the coming days!

Some bonus material

The rumours about Rome’s metro are true, pickpockets abound.  I managed to have the keys to our apartment stolen as we boarded a busy subway train.  Fortunately, that was all that was taken…but if you are planning to travel to Rome at some point in the future, be extra vigilant.  When I spoke to a local about my experience, the response I received was “we have pickpockets, but fortunately thefts are not violent”…an excellent point.


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Comments

12 responses to “Our trip is in ruins…”

  1. Love your attitude, Oliver, re the pick pocket incident. You glowingly describe Rome and the wondrous places that you and ‘your ladies’ saw, you lovingly talk about how you wish for your girls to experience the fountain ( the returning and the travel bug) the way the you ank Katina did, and only at the end briefly mention the pickpocket . So cool. Hope you had a spare key?

    1. Hi Herta,

      We’re trying to use the notion of speedbumps when we hit some minor snags. Though a bit frustrating, at the end of the day it wasn’t a huge deal, just a bit of an inconvenience. We had to call the landlord to get a new key brought over, and though it was raining we found a small cafe to sit in while we waited. What it did do is cement in our minds the need to be aware of our surroundings and to “lighten our loads” in terms of what we brought with us on day trips. All good things!

      1. Question: as I am hoping to do a bit of ‘ off the grid’ travelling myself, what have you learned is the best place for documents, specifically passports, while you are out and about.

        1. And how are you managing to keep your money safe when you are in crowded situations?

          1. Hi Chris,

            We’ve resorted to a couple of things:

            – we have multiple credit cards with multiple companies. We keep them separated so that they are never all together.
            – we wear money belts. Katina prefers a waist-style belt, while I have one around my neck under my shirt or sweater.
            – we carry minimal money in our pockets…no more than $20-30.
            – if carrying a purse or backpack, we move it to the front of our body and keep it closed when in tight quarters (e.g. Metro) or busy spaces (e.g. very busy tourist attractions)
            – most of all we pay attention to the people around us. In our cases (when Katina was attempted and when I was picked), locals gave us a heads up that something was amiss. I just wasn’t quick enough to react before it was too late.

          2. Hi Chris,
            I’m going to add my “2 cents” to this conversation as well. As Oliver mentioned, I wear a money belt under my clothes and around my waist. It’s safe and I can definitely feel if someone is trying to reach in – this is where I put my credit cards and/or passport:) Since the temps are cooler, we are wearing jackets everyday and inside pockets work very well. I also spread out small amounts of money throughout my pockets so if someone is successful, then they only get a small amount and I’m not left stranded. In Rome, the metro is incredibly crowded and it is impossible to move/protect your belongings very well. As a group, we would huddle together and keep our packs on our fronts, and in many cases, we would exit the metro at Termini station, (the busiest station) and just walk the extra distance. This way we weren’t crushed in the crowds and we could avoid the pickpockets who know how to move in and out quickly. Hope this helps! We’ve now been on the road for 5 months and have been pretty successful. Although we’ve gotten hit 2 times, they didn’t really get anything valuable. I guess that is probably the most important piece of advice…don’t bring anything valuable and/or anything you aren’t willing to lose.

          3. Thanks to both of you, and glad you’re staying alert and safe.

        2. Hi Herta,

          If available we lock up our important documents in the room safe. If not, and we don’t feel that the security of our lodgings is sufficient, then I will carry the passports in the document/money belt I wear under my shirt around my neck. A bit bulky, but when I have a sweater on it’s not noticeable and has not been at all uncomfortable.

          1. Herta Park Avatar

            Thanks Oliver!

  2. That was certainly a beautiful blog, Oliver. I, also, enjoyed your excellent sense of humour! As for the pickpocket, I am glad that there wasn’t any violence involved! Love, Mom P.

  3. Hi, Oliver and all RTW Travellers, I am way behind with my reading and commenting, even though I check your blog every morning and scan the postings. But I also need some time to digest all you have written and especially the beautiful photos. It’s amazing how different everything looks at night. I love your photos but also the information you give, it’s a good mixture of politics, religion and dare I say “ruins” meaning buildings that are old, very old and more recent. My favourite in this posting is the Church of Saint Ignazio, and I appreciate especially your explanation about the ceiling. Thank you

    1. Hi Oma,

      We had an amazing time in Rome, there is just so much to see and do. I picked out this particular church (out of all the amazing things we saw) because it was different – many people have seen photos of the Colosseum, Pantheon, Forum etc., but likely not as many have seen this church! So, there you go!