April 15th in Rome

On Sunday, 4/15/07, we began our day with breakfast at the hotel, dining on scrambled eggs, cooked proscuitto which served as Italian bacon, chocolate and glazed croissants, fresh fruit, coffee, juice and sandwiches of proscuitto and provolone. As we leave the hotel, I turn my head toward the Trastevere district and the Ponte Sisto bridge leading to it, which offers a wonderful, early morning glow. It is eerily quiet in the early morning, as compared to the frenetic energy so prevalent in the later evening, as Trastevere seems to be the place for the young and beautiful to live and to hang out.

We continue down via Pettinari, and pass by a church, Santissima Trinita del Pellegrini.


Joe urges me to stop taking photos and move on, as we need to meet our Rome Walks guide for a tour of Palatine Hill, the Forum and the Colosseum. Since this was only our second day in Rome, and we hadn’t yet developed the sore leg muscles and feet that we would later, we eagerly set off on foot, past Area Sacra dell'Argentina, part of which is the cat sanctuary. Here are the remains of four temples discovered in the 1920's, among the oldest found in Rome. It was here that Julius Caesar was assassinated.

We continue down Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, past the Vittorio Emmanuelle monument, past Mammertine Prison and the Forum, turning the corner to set our eyes on, for the first time, the great and mighty Colosseum.

Our guide, Julia, hailed from England and was well versed in the history of the ancient Roman ruins. While we both enjoyed the tour, Joe seemed to like it better than me, because I often reached points of information overload and would wander a bit, taking photos while Julia lectured. We met Julia atop the Colosseum Metro and with our group of 10, began the descent down to street level and reluctantly passing the Colosseum for now, began our ascent up Palatine Hill.

Here we saw the ruins of Domitian’s huge palace, first stopping at an overlook of the stadium.


Since there is so little remaining, it was necessary to use our imaginations while Julia filled us in on what to imagine in its place. She discoursed on the history of the hill, Roman emperors and the ages before the fall of Rome and after. We heard of the story of Romulus and Remus, and the excesses and cruelties of Caligula and other emperors.

Next, we stopped at a place overlooking the Circus Maximus below and across from us, the Aventine Hill. Here, too, we could spy the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the far distance. There were races being held on this day. We walked further and crossed to the other side of the hill, overlooking the Forum ruins below. From here we saw below us the central courtyard of the House of the Vestal Virgins, adorned by eroded and often headless statues of senior Vestals, and the spot believed to hold the sacred flame, in the Temple of Vesta. We can also see the Temple of Romulus, currently serving as a vestibule to a church, and the three fluted columns remaining from the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Next to this is the eight columns of the Temple of Saturn, dedicated to the mythical god-king of Italy.

After a short break, we descended to the Roman Forum, first coming to the Arch of Titus, erected by Emperor Domitian in honor of the victories of his brother Titus and his father in Judea. Inside the arch you can see a relief of a procession of Roman soldiers, triumphantly carrying off the spoils of Jerusalem.


From the arch, we crossed the Forum to the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, now part of a church. The door of the church, now many steps up, was once at ground level. We walked further along, stopping in front of the Temple of Julius Caesar, where his body was cremated after his assassination in 44 BC. Julia exhorted us to come back with flowers, so that one day we could tell our grandchildren, “I once laid flowers at the final resting place of a great man, Julius Caesar.” We looked in the opposite direction to the Arch of Septimius Severus, one of the best preserved monuments of the Forum, erected to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the accession of the emperor.

We then retraced our steps back toward the Arch of Titus, and walked along the colonnade surrounding the Temple of Venus and Rome, on our way to the Colosseum. We passed the Arch of Constantine, erected to celebrate the emperor’s victory over his co-emperor, Maxentius. Most of the medallions, reliefs and statues adorning the arch were stolen from earlier monuments.

We waited in a short line to enter the Colosseum, and were a bit disappointed to discover that we couldn’t tour underneath the arena to see the areas where the gladiators and animals were kept. Emperor Vespasian was responsible for commissioning the great amphitheater where deadly gladiator combats and wild animal fights were staged to entertain the emperor and Roman citizens, wealthy and poor alike. Parts of the outer wall of the Colosseum were removed to help build other places, including St. Peter’s. There were 80 arched entrances allowing spectators quick access to the entertainment, and the absence of a floor that once existed allows viewers to see the area underneath the arena where animals were kept. Joe and I often remarked to one another, “You do realize that we’re standing IN the Colosseum, right?”

After our three hour tour, we bid arrivederci to our group and set off to find lunch. We walked past the Colosseum along Via Labicana and came to a small restaurant on a corner offering sidewalk seating that seemed full of Romans, a good sign of good food inside. In addition to sating our hunger, we also sought refuge inside from the heat and sun, and to take a potty break and get off our feet. The wait staff spoke no English, but with a menu in both Italian and English, we found it easy to order what we wanted. Like most lunchtime dining in Rome, no pizza was offered but pasta and meat dishes instead.

After eating and resting, we set off the short distance to San Clemente, http://www.basilicasanclemente.com, one of many, many churches we would visit this week. We took photos of the ceiling frescoes, mosaics, and tomb of a cardinal in the 12th century basilica. We admire the Schola Cantorum and apse mosaic. San Clemente has three layers of history: the top layer is at street level, which is a 12th century church; below that is a 4th century church; and below these two layers are ancient Roman buildings, including rooms dedicated to Mithras, a god worshipped by an all-male cult.

Leaving here, we walk through an Esquiline neighborhood of beautiful mansions and make our way toward the piazza of Santa Maria Maggiore, a very large church offering many different architectural styles. The marble floor of the nave and bell tower are medieval, while the ceiling is a Renaissance one and the front facade is baroque. In the piazza is an obelisk, topped by a bronze statue of Mary holding Jesus while placing her foot on the moon. We rest on a bench in the Sistine Chapel, taking photos of the altar in its center, decorated with four gold-leafed bronze angels.

After a very busy day of touring the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill, and two churches, we head back to the hotel for a rest, waking later in the evening ready to hit the streets again, this time in search of dinner. We head over the Ponte Sisto bridge to Trastevere, hoping to eat at Dar Poeta without a reservation. Over the phone earlier, the staff had told us there would be a 15 minute wait and when I asked the desk person at our hotel about this, he replied, "They always say there's a 15 minute wait at every place, but it's note true. You'll wait much longer than that." As we bumbled along with map in hand, trying to read it under a lamplight in order to find the restaurant, we asked for help from a group of three young people. Two of them were Americans setting up a business venture in Rome, and the other was from Ireland and worked at the UN. They walked us to Dar Poeta, which was very crowded outside with people waiting to eat. They assured us there would be a very long wait and when I asked them about an alternative, Da Ivo, they walked us there.

Da Ivo offered us a table inside, but told us we would have to wait if we wanted to eat alfresco. While Joe and I dithered about where to eat, we made the waiter a bit crazy, who began talking about us to the outside waiter, who began talking loudly and shaking his head. Then the waiter talked to two patrons outside, who looked at us as if we were crazy Americans. For his good nature, I snapped a photo of the waiter. The reason he's smiling here is because Joe just told him he looks like Al Pacino. Apparently the actor is revered here, because during our time here I often saw photos of the actor from his Scarface movie. The pizza here was the best I had on the trip. For the first time, we had suppli - rice and mozzarella balls - which were yummy and Joe had artichoke bruschetta. What a wonderful ending to an amazing day.