Paul, our guide, walked us through the near by monuments of Rome. I revisited the Campo dei Fiori, where a day prior I noticed my foot had lost a half cup of blood. As you can see in the picture below, there is a statue of a creepy cloaked man. Although at first I thought he stood for the grim-reaper of blisters, in fact he is a philosopher whose statue was commissioned by the government had a falling out with the Catholic church. Today the square is a open air market in the morning and patroned by youth during the night.
Next we visited the Plaza Navona, as I mentioned yesterday. Here is a picture of one of the fountains. Unfortunately the fountain of the four rivers was under scaffolding so we couldn't see it, but we learned some funny tid-bits about it. The artist designed it so that the two men who personify the rivers of Africa and Europe shield their faces. This was done because they face the large while buiding, seen in the photograph below (designed by a competing artist), because the fountain designer thought the building was poorly build and would fall on the fountain. Ironically, when the fountain was built the building had not even begun construction. Oh how I love the Italian spirit of competition and humor.
We then went to the Pantheon. The dome is an architectural feat-43 meters from the top and in width. Inside Rafael, the great artist, is buried. Marble aquired from Africa, Asia and England show the strength of the Empire.
We then proceeded on to the Church of Saint Ingatius with its beautiful ceilings. Interestly, the fo painted a dome (the dark circle in the first picture). It really looks like the real thing when you walk in, however, when you're right under it appears fake. However, I doubt many patrons looked straight up at it, since as you can see the Baroque style alter is a bit distracting.
Then we walked through a mall that had originally been constructed early 19th century as a place to take an evening walk with beautiful stained glass window ceiling. However it was abandoned and the poor of the city took it over. 20 years ago, it was turned into a mall where there are car exhibited as reptiles (Will this shot is for you). Dad you might recall this mall as your savior in Rome since you cut through it countless times, savoring its air conditioned hallways. Our guide also had the same strategy.
Our last stop before lunch was at the Treve Fountain, a site we had failed to locate the day before. Every time I see the fountain I am at awe with how clean and pristine it looks. A group of us did throw a coin over our back, as we would all like to return to Rome (They collect 2 million euros a year from the Treve F! Police stand by to make sure no one steals coins out of the pools of water). Below is a picture of the fountain, including one of Elizabeth and I. One thing about being on a tour with strangers/not your family, is that you take a lot of pictures of things, but you're not in a lot of them. Here is proof that yes, I was there.
After lunch at a pizzeria, we hopped on a bus (with cold AC!) and went to the colluseum. I'm always impressed with the ideal of the Romans re-enacting famous naval battles by flooding the floor of the stadium with water so that they can sail boats on it. Much of the colluseum was quarried for its stone and the metal holding the stone in place, which is why the outer limestone is completely gone along with much of the upper stone structure (as you can see below). As our guide Paul put it, Rome has always been very green-they like to recycle. In fact the entire building would probably be gone if a Pope had not proclaimed it the site in memory of Christian martyrs, making it a holy place prohibiting the removal of more stone.
Viewing looking out of the Colloseum.
We then drove outside the Roman walls and through various neighborhoods, enjoying the AC (if you don't know me, I don't do heat well. I can do it emotionally, but my body doesn't like it. My skin gets itchy, heat rashes are frequent, and I get sun headaches sometimes. I'm fun to travel with, I know). After a shot of life had been "frozen" back into me, Elizabeth, Amy (elizabeth's roommate) and I ventured to find the Spanish steps, but instead got side tracked at the Tomb of the Unknown Soilder. The bronze statue of the emperor on the horse is so large that they put a table in it and had dinner IN the statue. Sadly, we were unable to find a way into the horse's belly ourselves, although we find some great views from the top and a great museum with Girabaldi's striped pj pants and pictures from the first world war.
View from Tomb of the Unknown Solider. The farthest dome is St. Peter's Church.
Venician Palace: Mussilini gave many speeches on the balcony of this building that shares a
square with the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.
Finally, a few random pictures of a Peace flag and inspirational street art.
(That's Amore, for my phi sisters).
For dinner a group of six of us ate at Trattoria La Fraschetta in Trastevere. I had pasta gorgonzola with "speck" (some type of ham, although we haven't looked it up yet). It was a cute family run place with red and white table clothes, many tables squeezed into the room, and garlic hanging from the rafters. The house wine was perfectly dry and we toasted to Roma. We're all antsy to get to Florence and begin living as Italians among Italians. To walk off the meal we wandered around the river and back to Campo dei Fiori which had radically changed from open air market to college kid hang out.
Tomorrow we tour "Christian Rome" aka Vatican City. Sorry this entry was a bit tour guide-ish, but really it's too early for gossip or for me to tell you about all the Italian men showing me the town (joking-basically all we see in Rome are tourists). I just wanted to show you a glimpse of what we saw, as if you were here too.
Ciao!
Jacqueline
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