As we're trekking across the streets of Rome, my anticipation shows as I'm walking with an awkward blend of a bounce and a skip. It's our second day of the 4-day Rome trip with the school (Feb 20-23), and we were walking briskly hiking with my art history professor, Angela.
To be honest, Rome didn't impress me at first. Cigarette smoke filled the alleyways. I felt like I was "just" in another city in Italy. And I didn't have much appreciation for it before -- my studies and interests never went too far into the architecture scene, and the last time I studied Roman history (albeit I found it fascinating) was in 8th grade.
But look past the graffiti, the gypsies, the tourists (why yes, I've felt so cushioned by people that I could have fallen from 20 stories and been perfectly safe), and you'll see a well preserved city of culture and history where Italians live from day-to-day.
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For me to sum this up in one blog post is impossible for me -- hence, there are multiple posts. Here's a glimpse of this beautiful city that combines ancient and modern like it's nobody's business.
What they don't tell you is all the (re)construction that is going on in Italia! History cannot remain preserved forever, and things are slowly falling apart. I didn't expect the Colosseum to be -- excuse my bluntness -- the crumbling wreck that it was, and I had to mentally envision what it would have been like back then. Taller, fuller, complete, with sculptures in between. Crowded, full of various entertainment (of which I won't name), and most obviously, the stench of blood (both animals and humans). Contrary to popular belief, a number of Romans volunteered to be a gladiator. With winning came popularity, fame, and possibly freedom for foreign prisoners, if you will. Also, "losing" did not always mean death. It depended on how well/beautifully you fought -- quite a subjective judgment -- and they would not force you to fight to the death.
When I saw the Colosseum in person, 'twas difficult to believe it was built in less than 10 years. The intricate and structural design of it was not only on a massive scale, but deliberate in pairing detail with function. Absolutely unbelievable.
Pictured below is the Roman Forum (a forum being similar to a plaza) which started out as a marketplace but became the town center and hub for everything political and economical in Rome. For centuries, it was the site for public speeches, gladiator matches, and criminal trials. Of the many old and important structures, one that was new to me was the House of the Vestal Virgins.
If you broke this rule, you were, in short, buried alive. They put you in a prison with a loaf of bread and a cup of water, then would ignore your existence. You starved to death underground. Aside from this, life was pretty wonderful for them -- they didn't have to marry, and as free women they could go about as they pleased. To give you an idea of how powerful they were, if a condemned prisoner saw a vestal virgin on the way to their execution, he was automatically pardoned. There's so much information out there about this tradition that lasted for 1000 years -- I highly recommend looking more into it, if you're interested.
Of course, we visited the famous Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi). Why Trevi? Merely a combination of two italian words: tre+vie, which means 3 roads, referring to where the fountain converges. The water is supplied by an aqueduct that is almost completely underground. If you decide to visit, be forewarned that this is one of the busiest tourist spots in Rome. If I could do it again, I'd come in the evening or sunrise for some great photos!
Recognize the Pantheon? Commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during Augustus' reign, then restored by the famous Hadrian. It is one of the best preserved Roman buildings. Quite an experience to be standing here and seeing something so ancient in history standing amidst modern Rome. The strategic and well-designed architecture paved the way for the Renaissance and hugely influenced how Brunelleschi built the famous dome of the Duomo (Cathedral) here in Florence.
A perfect sphere could fit perfectly under the rotunda/dome of the Pantheon.
In our free time away from major tourist spots, a few of us decided to search for the elusive keyhole. (Read more it with this article I found online here.) We stumbled upon this panoramic view of Rome, taking our time and savoring the moments.
(In case you were wondering, the girls above are triplets. So you're not really seeing double or triple ;) Thankfully, the weather was cooperative most of the time.
We did end up finding the elusive keyhole, which ended up not being that elusive because of a line of 30 people standing behind this keyhole. Apparently, you can see St. Peter's Basilica through it.
I thought my photos were great until I saw the website I linked you to above.. Take a looksie if you want to see what I actually saw when I looked through (and not a blanked-out, white view). Here's the site again: The Story of the Rome Keyhole Photo
And… Vatican City. The country within a country, separate from Italy. People who work here do not pay taxes to the Italian government, and have much better-paying jobs. It's difficult to obtain one and quite prestigious to work here. Only about 900 people live here, and the main income for the state is the sale of postage stamps, souvenirs, and museum admission fees. (I mean, consider it. About 25,000 tourists pass through the Vatican museums per day… do the math?)
The museums are magnificent. I know you aren't supposed to use generic words when describing amazing things you see when traveling, such as beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, good, etc. but nothing else is coming to mind! I see all these wondrous (there I go again) works of art, especially, amidst this historic hub of art, Catholicism, and politics. Saw the Sistine Chapel, School of Athens, and the Gallery of Maps -- to name a few highlights.
Speaking of the Sistine Chapel, the backstory behind Michelangelo's world-famous ceiling fresco deepens your appreciation for the piece. In short, Michelangelo was a sculptor. The pope at the time commissioned him to work on his large and elaborate tomb. Reluctant to work on the Sistine Chapel, when the pope was momentarily diverted in attention by a war with the French, Michelangelo left Rome and went to Florence. By some threatening to the Florentine government, the artist was coerced to come back to Rome and work on the ceiling. He hadn't done frescos for years and wasn't properly trained -- so it was a long process of frustration by trial and error. To say the least, Michelangelo had to design his own scaffolding system and worked from a standing position.
When his work was condemned for having nude characters (not suited for a church), Michelangelo displayed the god of the underworld as having the face of his accuser Cesena, with his genitals bitten off! Artists are quite creative with retaliation -- shows you how human these great artists are. (Fun fact: it was painted over after his death, and in 1993 -- so recently -- during restoration, they discovered this original depiction..).
The fountain above is located in Piazza Novana, called the Fountain of Four Rivers (Fontana die Quattro Fiumi), with an Egyptian obelisk. For a long time, Romans avoided walking near the fountain because they were afraid the obelisk would fall off at any moment. This was one of many "firsts" of architecture, and no one's sure yet about how Bernini was able to place the obelisk there in the first place -- it's immensely heavy. (This is one thing that is so amazing -- the artists back then were also engineers by profession..) It wasn't until an earthquake many years later until they trusted that the obelisk would stay solid there.
It's all a part of the counter Reformation movement -- where many, many public works of sculpture and architecture were strategically commissioned to redirect people to the papacy: that the Catholic church held the world together.
In Part 2 of the Rome posts, I'll be sharing rest of Rome in less-touristy photos. We did an unbelievable amount in a mere 3 days, as the 4th day we spent in Tivoli, Italy -- an UNESCO World Heritage Site. I'm giving Rome more credit now. It surpassed my expectations and there's always more to see!
"Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning." - Giotto di Bondone
Did they ever tell you about the fountains around the city that you could drink out of? Well, apparently at one point it was sanitary enough to do so, but the tourists kinda ruined it. I almost drank out of one low key one until a doggie decided it was going to be all about it, but then other members of my group did too, and they didn't die, so maybe I missed out. Whoops.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. In my desperate thirst, as I was debating if I could drink from one, an Italian man proceeded to do so. Nobody gave him a second glance, so with the encouragement of my friend, I went ahead and imitated him.
DeleteNot 10 min later, I see people taking their dogs to drink from another fountain. . .