So we made our way to the Piazza del Popolo. This is a place that Judy and I had not visited before. One of the largest Piazza’s in Rome. There’s a lot about it that is significant, but probably the trademark shot of the Piazza is looking at the twin churches. Our taxi unloaded us inside the Piazza. Right where we wanted to be. We took our time, strolling out through the triumphant arch, taking a few pictures there, including my favorite one I took of Judy and her sisters on our trip. Which I will post here.
Then we made our way across the Piazza. There were street musicians playing, so we were viewing the sites with a pleasant musical backdrop. At the center of the Piazza is an obelisk, one of a number that were brought to Rome from Egypt in the days of antiquity. in our current climate, when countries are clamoring to have their historic art returned to them, it’s interesting that I have heard nothing about Egypt wanting the obelisks back.
Then we made our way to the twin churches. Which really aren’t twins, but they’re certainly close to it. Between them is the Via del Corso, which goes from the opposite the Piazza del Popolo, all the way to the Vittoriano, which is saying, all the way to Capitoline Hill, and the Forum. It was the main street by which pilgrims to Rome entered the Eternal City, for century after century. Created as a broad, straight street, it is in the days of vehicle traffic, a two lane road not nearly wide enough, with very skinny sidewalks.
We were able to visit one of the two twin churches.
All about that church here.
The second of the twin churches was sealed up tighter than a drum. So we decided to make our course along the Via del Corso, and we’re glad we did. Because there were several churches along that route that we were able to visit. They’re probably in the guide books, as they say, but they were new to us, and very well worth seeing.
More about it here.
The nice thing about visiting several of these lesser-known churches, among the 400 or so that are all over the city of Rome, is that they’re architecturally engaging, they are filled with beautiful art, and while there were visitors in each of these, there were not too many. So one could get a sense of being in a worshipful place. Certainly something that one does not experience in other more famous churches in Rome, most notably, this Sistine Chapel.
We were still on our own for lunch, so we went to the mailbox, which is a restaurant just across from our hotel with the giant Roman walls in-between. We re-joined, Sue, Ken, and Bob for this meal. We ate in an age room like room overlooking the walls. And everyone was very happy with their meal. Judy and I shared a pizza that was to have lots of different kinds of toppings on it. It did. And they were not mixed together, but placed artistically here and there on the pizza. Perhaps the most unusual to me were the haves of hard-boiled eggs. Certainly a hearty pizza.
On our group tour itinerary for the afternoon, was the Colosseum, which, of course include the Arch of Constantine. And seeing Roman Forum. Okay, let’s get seeing the Roman Form out of our system. We did see it. If you call looking from a terrace into the Form "seeing" it. We did not enter the Form. We did not get to go into any of the ruins there. Especially disappointing, was not being able to go to the Mamertine Prison, which I believe our entire family would say was the most moving thing that we did in Rome, the last time we were there. But we did have a nice view of the Colosseum from the recently reopened ancient temple.
We also had a nice look at the Arch Constantine, which truth be told is one of my favorite sites in Rome. I put Emperor Constantine in the plus column of Roman emperors because, thanks to his heavily vision and his mother Helena, he made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Hooray!
As we went into the area where we overlooked the Roman Forum, we also saw the Arch of Titus. (I put hime in the minus column and here, you may say, "Boo, Hiss!"). I always look for the relief sculpture on it of the sack of Jerusalem. It’s easy to find because of the soldiers carrying away the menorah of the Temple. You can pick that out easily.
After these preliminary as we went for a tour of the Colosseum. Although we’ve been there before, it was certainly worth another tour. I got a different sense of at this time. At least I don’t remember having had the sense before of the great sadness and strange choice of creating a public amphitheater in order for spectacles to take place in which over the course of its use, an estimated 400,000 people were put to death. I felt like there were many ghosts present with us on the tour. Not feeling fear, but very sad.
Among the things that I noticed this time that I didn’t before, were the walls covered with graffiti. I don’t know for how many years the graffiti had been scratched into the yellow Roman brick there, but I snapped a few photos of it, and upon my return did some research about some of the more unusual names there. I will insert the story about that here.
Insert graffiti at Colosseum.
There's graffiti all over Rome, indeed, all over Italy. I get that people have the urges to be noticed, and to be remembered. Graffiti says, "I was here." There's graffiti in ancient Pompeii, some of it of a rather unsavory type. There's graffiti in modern Milan, that city that thinks itself the most suave and sophisticated in all of Italy. Some art critics find graffiti of certain kinds to their liking. Personally, I find graffiti something I could just as well do without.
Meanwhile, back at the Colosseum...
The Colosseum was crowded, but then again, it’s a big building. So we moved through it, more or less with ease. Among the things that I learned this time that I don’t think I knew before was that the Colosseum was built, principally, by Jews, who had been brought back to Rome as slaves after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.. Again, another weight of heaviness and sadness about this building.
Certainly it is a wonder of architectural design, but there are a lot of things to wonder about as well.
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