Rome, Round Two

The Roman hostel where we stayed last month was booked by the time we planned the details for our Italian travel week, so we nabbed the next best available option. It put us at least an hour’s brisk walk away from anything we were planning to see in Rome, which gave us a different angle on Roman life than we had seen before: The governmental side. To get to the city center we passed by the Ministries of Agriculture, Culture & Wellbeing, and several heavily-guarded, unmarked buildings. Of course Rome has an important current political side; I just forget about it when I am trying to involve myself in ancient Roman history, Renaissance art, Vatican City, or any of the other million facets of Rome.

In fact, we saw too many armed and uniformed Roman soldiers that first day, and there was a helicopter circling above the downtown area. Alan was convinced that something was awry. Who knows? We never saw Berlusconi as we tramped westward to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, but those tourist crowds would probably had provided him some camouflage if he had been out and about.

The Pantheon and its cozy October tourist throng

Piazza Navona was a new site for me, and I’m so glad we stumbled upon it. Once upon a time it was the location for some great chariot races and mock naval encounters hosted by Popes who would have the area flooded. Nowadays it is the location for street performers, vendors, and tourists. It also has three huge fountains, two created by Bernini.

Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers. The three men are personifications of the Ganges, Danube, della Plata, and the Nile.

Last month we had raced through the ancient ruin aspect of the city, so this time around we planned to concentrate on Vatican City. We had reserved spots in a guided tour of the Vatican Museums. Our guide gave us some good general information about the art that Popes had acquired in the past as we pushed our way through the crowd, but after camping out in the Sistine Chapel for a while Alan and I went back to the beginning so that we could take our time and see some rooms that the tour had completely skipped. That museum is impossible to navigate! They allow too many people in at one time. Going again was worth it, though, even if it was just to see the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel.

Raphael’s Religious Truth, opposite his School of Athens, which is supposed to represent worldly truth.

We went to St. Peter’s Basilica for just enough time to see the important parts: The square, Michelangelo’s Pietá, and Bernini’s baldacchino.

St. Peter’s Basilica from the Castel Sant’Angelo

After lunch we walked a few blocks directly in front of the Basilica to Castel Sant’Angelo. Our outdated Frommer’s book had really talked up this 2^nd century tomb for Emperor Hadrian. It told us about an underground passage connecting the castle to the Vatican used by the fleeing papacy from Charles V in 1527 and by the mistress and children of the debaucherous Pope Alexander VI. We were expecting to see the cells where Cesare had tortured his prisoners, one of which included the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. Instead we saw some old weapons, some breaking busts, and a panoramic view of the city. We weren’t that impressed.

Oh, we also saw Voldemort!

Castel Sant'Angelo