Roma! Ancient Ruins and Crowds!

Rome was both magnificent and completely exhausting! The trip from Florence took us about 3 hours by train, getting us into our hotel around 2pm. Once we stashed our big packs in the room we decided to go over to St. Peter’s Basilica. Our hotel was a 5 minute walk to the Vatican area, so it was really convenient. St. Peter’s Basilica is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and is one of the largest, richest, and grandest churches in the world. Outside of the church is the grand St. Peter’s Square, where crowds gather every Wednesday and Sunday to hear the pope speak.

 St. Peter's Square:

There are massive columns on either side, lined with statues of the Saints.

 

Guards outside of theVatican

 

St. Peter's Square:

The closer you get up to the Church, the more massive it appears. Once inside, you are overwhelmed by all of the detail; marble flooring, columns, grand statues, paintings, mosaics, etc.

 

 

 Inside the Church:

 Grand Statues:

The main alter is massive and was glimmering in the sunlight. Behind the alter is a smaller section where we are pretty sure we saw the Pope giving a sermon to a small group of people.

 

 After wandering around the church, taking in all the detail, we headed over to Castel Sant’Angelo. It was originally built as a tomb for the emperor, but was used through the Middle Ages as a castle, prison, and place of refuge for popes. The castle used to be surrounded by a moat, but now there is only grass around it. There were some extravagant rooms still intact at the top of the tower and amazing views of the sunset over St. Peter’s Basilica.

Bridge leading over to the castle

Castel Sant'Angelo:

Sunset from one of the Pope's rooms

 

 

 

Dusk in Rome

Sunset over St. Peter's Basilica from top of Castle:

The following day we headed to the Colloseum. It was a really hot and humid day and the crowds were swarming!

 

 

 

Luckily we bought a pass ahead of time so we didn’t have to wait in the several hour long line. The Colloseum was massive. A lot of the structure has actually been ruined from exposure, but a lot of it remains and you can definitely get a good sense of what it must have been like during its’ glory days.

 

 

 The stadium was built in A.D. 80 for gladiator contests and public spectacles. There was seating for 50,000 people! Today, they have built a reconstructed floor over part of where the floor used to be. Under the floor you can see all of the exposed underground storage cells. This area under the arena floor used to hold bears, lions, panthers, and several other animals used during the games.

 Underground level still intact:



 

 

After the Collosseum we went over to the remains of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The Roman Forum was the political, religious, and commercial center of the city. Rome’s most important temples and halls of justice were here. Most of what is left of the forum is in ruins, but again you could get a good sense of what it used to be like with a little imagination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roman Forum:

 

 

 

 

Palatine Hill overlooks the Forum and was where the emperors used to live. The Hill was once filled with palaces and gardens. Today, there are only ruins/rubble left of the palace. The space where the largest palace used to sit was enormous. It must have been quite a spectacular building.

Palace Remains:

 

Victor Emmanuel Monument

 After a picnic up on the hill, we wandered around the town a bit, walking by the Victor Emmanuel Monument and then making our way to the Pantheon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pantheon is a domed temple built two millennia ago, and is the only ancient building that has been continuously used since its construction. There is a small square just outside the Pantheon where we watched a guy since opera for a while. It was quite a spectacle.

Next, we walked over to the Spanish steps which were jammed packed with thousands of people. It seemed like everywhere we went there were thousands of people! The subway back to our room was so packed you couldn’t even move! After living the past five months in isolation in Yellowstone, I think I am having too many people anxiety!!

 Crowd Claustrophobia!!

 

Our third day in Rome we had Reservations to go to the Vatican Museum. The museum is massive; four miles of displays! The most famous of the displays being Raphael’s painted rooms and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. We started in the ancient Egyptian part of the museum, which housed several old Egyptian statues and even a mummy.

 

 

Next, we went into the museum’s courtyard, which has some of the best Greek and Roman statues in the world.

After the courtyard we entered several long hallways that were filled with large tapestries and paintings, although it was hard to appreciate many of them because once again there were swarms of people!! It was so crowded!

 

 

 

 

After the hallways, finally the crowd spread out enough to be able to breath in the Rapheal rooms. These rooms were quite spectacular; with paintings on the walls, ceilings, and magnificent tile work throughout, there wasn’t an inch of the rooms that weren’t decorated. The amount of work that went into the rooms is amazing.

Raphael's Rooms:

 Beautifully painted ceiling:

 

After several rooms we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is just as intensely decorated as the previous Raphael rooms, but the church was painted by Michelangelo. The chapel is the pope’s personal chapel and the place where a new pope is elected. The museum overall was probably my favorite of all the museums we have been in so far (except for all the people!). Everything inside was absolutely beautiful, but no photos allowed!

After the chapel, we headed over to the ancient baths of Caracalla, only to find out they close early on Monday. So instead we went over to the Baths of Diocletian, which were the largest baths in ancient Rome in A. D. 300. It could accommodated 3,000 people at a time. Most of the complex was turned into the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 1561 and was designed by Michelangelo.

 

 



Huge Organ!

Our last stop of the day was the Capuchin Crypt. The crypt was below a church and holds more than 4,000 bones of friars who died between 1528 and 1870. The bones are all ornately arranged to decorate six distinct crypts. The amount of work and creativity that went into arranging the bones is quite spectacular, but overall it was more morbid and creepy than anything! Again no photos allowed.

Tomorrow we are heading to Naples for the day, but will stay in Rome overnight still. Overall, all of the sights we saw in Rome were awesome. Just seeing how old some of the ruins are, and getting a sense of what life must have been like was a great experience. Rome was definitely crowded, loud, and overwhelming though!