Coliseum, Roman Forum, Galleria Borghese, Spanish steps
A very busy day! We hopped on our tour bus and took it to the Coliseum. There was a long line to get tickets and get in. If you go, reserve your tickets on line or by phone ahead of time. The Coliseum is huge and one can see the floors used to be marble and the whole thing was faced with white travertine limestone and maybe stucco under the arches. Parts of the stairways still remained and the tops of ionic columns with their carved anthacus leaves were littered about. Young women sat atop them while their boyfriends snapped their pictures. You can see how our current sports stadiums are modeled after this first arena. The roman citizens had certain gates that they entered to go to their specific seats and could not get to other parts of the stadium. Entry was free but there was a distinctive class system that designated where one sat. There was a sign that said they are not sure if Christians were really martyred here but they were in other places. Annie really wanted to restore the coliseum and have “football” – soccer matches in it.
The Roman Forum is very hard to imagine because it is such a tumble of bricks and broken marble pieces. We were looking down on a place that had a small stadium and long entry way to it. I kind of tripped on something in the dirt and pebble pathway and looked down. It looked like an old metal door hinge and then there was another piece of curved half circle piece and then Annie noticed another half circle piece. We thought maybe there were very old so we turned them back in at the entrance. Annie laughed that maybe in the back there is a big box of “metal bits found by tourists” that they chuck them into. We hiked over to what was left of Augusto Caesar’s house and also to Livia’s gardens. I swear they had a kind of redbud growing there. We found this beautiful spot, where two kind of covered outdoor patios over looked a hill. Stairs ascended on either side and you could still see some murals on the walls and there was a big fountain. Across you could see the Basilica de Maximillus (I think) with its three huge half domes. After we “roamed” around a while we exited and headed back to hop on our tourist bus.
We got on the bus at about 3:15 and we needed to get to the Galleria Borghese at 4:30 to pick up our reserved tickets for 5:00 entrance. The bus took forever, stopping at all its stops and sometimes waiting for 15 minutes. Then there was traffic. We finally got off around the Piazza del Popola at 4:25. We climbed up the hill to the Borghese gardens only to find we still had to hike a long way to get to the museum. I called on my cell and asked them to please hold our tickets. They said okay but hurry. We raced down a maze of pathways – via de obelisk, via de magnolia (lined with Magnolia Grande Floras like the ones that grow in North Carolina), via something else and finally via Museo Borghese. One has to leave all their bags, purses, cameras everything downstairs before they can go in. That made me kind of nervous and I did take out my visa, license, money and cell phone. But Oh my goodness, the museum is lovely. Only a small two story house, all the walls are faux painted like marble that frame beautiful paintings and in the center of each room is usually a statue. There were several Bernini statues and the delicate work on Apollo and Daphne was incredible.
After the museum we wandered around the immense park – much bigger than central park that has three to four story high umbrella pines. They have very tall trunks about 1 -2 feet in diameter and no limbs until the top and then they have a cloud of branches and needles. We don’t have anything like it on the east coast of United States.
We went back down to the Piazza de Popola to see if we could get in the Cappella de Chigi which was in the Dan Brown book “Angels and Demons” but they were doing renovations just like in the book and we couldn’t get in. We headed down to the Spanish steps and bought some pastries – a chocolate filled éclair thing, a canoli, a little “bottle cap” sized pie with kiwi and another small pastry (like half a finger) with banana custard. We took our dessert and went and sat on the steps and ate and people watched. Annie and I both agreed that the Italian men and boys were Fine. After that we went back to via de la Croce and ate dinner alfresco at the pastry/restaurant. Annie had roasted potatoes and rosemary (Which she said was like pine needles) and spaghetti Bolognese (meat sauce) and I had gnocchi with gorgonzola and also fried calamari. We walked home and got to bed at almost midnight.
A very busy day! We hopped on our tour bus and took it to the Coliseum. There was a long line to get tickets and get in. If you go, reserve your tickets on line or by phone ahead of time. The Coliseum is huge and one can see the floors used to be marble and the whole thing was faced with white travertine limestone and maybe stucco under the arches. Parts of the stairways still remained and the tops of ionic columns with their carved anthacus leaves were littered about. Young women sat atop them while their boyfriends snapped their pictures. You can see how our current sports stadiums are modeled after this first arena. The roman citizens had certain gates that they entered to go to their specific seats and could not get to other parts of the stadium. Entry was free but there was a distinctive class system that designated where one sat. There was a sign that said they are not sure if Christians were really martyred here but they were in other places. Annie really wanted to restore the coliseum and have “football” – soccer matches in it.
The Roman Forum is very hard to imagine because it is such a tumble of bricks and broken marble pieces. We were looking down on a place that had a small stadium and long entry way to it. I kind of tripped on something in the dirt and pebble pathway and looked down. It looked like an old metal door hinge and then there was another piece of curved half circle piece and then Annie noticed another half circle piece. We thought maybe there were very old so we turned them back in at the entrance. Annie laughed that maybe in the back there is a big box of “metal bits found by tourists” that they chuck them into. We hiked over to what was left of Augusto Caesar’s house and also to Livia’s gardens. I swear they had a kind of redbud growing there. We found this beautiful spot, where two kind of covered outdoor patios over looked a hill. Stairs ascended on either side and you could still see some murals on the walls and there was a big fountain. Across you could see the Basilica de Maximillus (I think) with its three huge half domes. After we “roamed” around a while we exited and headed back to hop on our tourist bus.
We got on the bus at about 3:15 and we needed to get to the Galleria Borghese at 4:30 to pick up our reserved tickets for 5:00 entrance. The bus took forever, stopping at all its stops and sometimes waiting for 15 minutes. Then there was traffic. We finally got off around the Piazza del Popola at 4:25. We climbed up the hill to the Borghese gardens only to find we still had to hike a long way to get to the museum. I called on my cell and asked them to please hold our tickets. They said okay but hurry. We raced down a maze of pathways – via de obelisk, via de magnolia (lined with Magnolia Grande Floras like the ones that grow in North Carolina), via something else and finally via Museo Borghese. One has to leave all their bags, purses, cameras everything downstairs before they can go in. That made me kind of nervous and I did take out my visa, license, money and cell phone. But Oh my goodness, the museum is lovely. Only a small two story house, all the walls are faux painted like marble that frame beautiful paintings and in the center of each room is usually a statue. There were several Bernini statues and the delicate work on Apollo and Daphne was incredible.
After the museum we wandered around the immense park – much bigger than central park that has three to four story high umbrella pines. They have very tall trunks about 1 -2 feet in diameter and no limbs until the top and then they have a cloud of branches and needles. We don’t have anything like it on the east coast of United States.
We went back down to the Piazza de Popola to see if we could get in the Cappella de Chigi which was in the Dan Brown book “Angels and Demons” but they were doing renovations just like in the book and we couldn’t get in. We headed down to the Spanish steps and bought some pastries – a chocolate filled éclair thing, a canoli, a little “bottle cap” sized pie with kiwi and another small pastry (like half a finger) with banana custard. We took our dessert and went and sat on the steps and ate and people watched. Annie and I both agreed that the Italian men and boys were Fine. After that we went back to via de la Croce and ate dinner alfresco at the pastry/restaurant. Annie had roasted potatoes and rosemary (Which she said was like pine needles) and spaghetti Bolognese (meat sauce) and I had gnocchi with gorgonzola and also fried calamari. We walked home and got to bed at almost midnight.
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