Roma! Day 2 (21/7)

Day two in Roma! Today was to be the "busy" day - especially as I had to leave for the airport around noon the next day. In the photos below, please also take note of the brilliant blue sky! Not a cloud to be seen all day!!!

Up at 6am and out waiting for the bus (#508) at 7am. It finally arrived around 7.20am (don't expect buses to run to a schedule here!). It terminated at Ponte Mammolo Stazione (the Metro line) where I caught the tube into the Termini to meet Peter & Mandy at 9am. I ended up getting there around 8.30am so just pottered around and did some people-watching. Now, I realise that this is very stereotypical, but it's also very bloody true: Americans are loud, rude and abrupt! They complained about everything (heat, cost of things, people, language...). The teenagers were just dumb f**ks (i.e. I overheard one saying to another, 'I don't know why they can't just speak English here - everywhere else does'. That's news to me. I'm sure if you dumped the dickhead in, say, Beijing he'd have trouble too!).

I happened to catch Mandy out the corner of my eye - just as she was about to snap a photo of me. Sneaky woman! ;-) It was great to see them again - I don't think I've seen them since the afternoon of Howard's farewell at my place before Christmas! After a wee chat about things (what we'd do etc) we headed off for breakfast/coffee at a lovely wee cafe near where they usually stay when in Roma.

We decided to do the 'hop-on-hop-off' bus trip. These are the best things around. 24-hour ticket and you can get on and off where and when you like (well, by where I mean at designated stops!). There are a few different types - the one we ended up was a "Christian" one. Fortunately, there are churches near everything we (I) wanted to see (much of which Peter & Mandy had seen previously).

Stop #1 was at the Colusseum. This is absolutely amazing. It's not as large as I imagined it to be; but it's a wonderful piece of architecture (I love architecture I've now decided...maybe I'll do an architecture degree too? ;-) ). There are many parts that look as if they've been heavily restored over the years - and others that look fairly original. Never went in (due to the lengths of the queues) - could be something to do in the future. From here we strolled over to the Fori Imperiali/Romano (the seat of commerce & politics in ancient Rome). Here you could feel the history ooze out of the ruins. I doubt that in two centuries as much of what we know today will be in such conditions - we tend to bulldoze and rebuild. We did, however, wonder where all the dirt came from that buried much of the ruins? They're quite low compared to the rest of the city. Interesting.

^ One side of the Colesseum

^ Peter & Mandy - reading up on something :-)

^ One of the arches that led into ancient Roma

^ Can't quite recall what this is, but the history oozed out of it!

^ Remains of the home of the Vestal Virgins (what can be seen in the middle is the remains of the pond;
statues around the back are of the vestal virgin gods - or something like that)

^ Will get back to you on this (I should know)...but isn't it truly amazing?

We jumped back on the bus and travelled around, past the Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus). This was a hell of a lot bigger than I thought it was. It's hard to picture the chariots taking the sharp turns... Never got off the bus here; rather we went around to Santa Maria in Cosmedin (a church that houses Bocca Della Verita - a hole in the wall that, legend has it, will bite the hand of anyone who has lied). This was a great stop. We had a look around the church. Churches, it turns out, are great stops on hot days as they're so nice and cool - and have somewhere to sit if needed ;-)

^ A temple (can't remember which) over the road from Santa Maria in Cosmedin

After a look around here, we walked up the side of the Tiber, crossing over Ponte Fabrico onto Isola Tiberina (a tiny island, with a hospital, in the middle of the Tiber) then over Ponte Crestio to Trastevere - an old part of Roma, housing the oldest church (St Maria). Here we stopped off at a lovely cafe for lunch. It was so nice to sit down in the shade - with a lovely cool breeze at times. St Maria's is a beautiful church. Like so many churches in Roma, many things were stolen/salvaged from other sites (such as the columns in the middle of the church - all different sizes & tops/bottoms). There are also some amazing mosiacs that have withsottod the years. Trastevere is a part of town that I feel requires more exploration in the future!

^ Ponte Fabrico, over the Tiber

After Trastevere, we crossed back over the Tiber to the historical city and went to have a look at the Pantheon (Santa Maria ad Martyres). I'd almost go as far as to say that this has to be one of, if not the, highlight of the city! Again, architecturally amazing! The ceiling (big dome) is made of concrete - but in order for it to withhold the weight of the concrete, a higher proportion of pumice was used the higher up it went. Considering this was done nearly two centuries ago - I'm speechless! In here is also where Raphael's tomb is.

^ The ceiling in the Pantheon - breathtaking!

^ One of the side streets by the Pantheon

[more photos will be added - this is a slow & painful process, bugger it all!]

We backtracked a wee bit and caught the bus to St Peter's. When we arrived (around 5pm-ish), I happened to notice that the temperature was 34deg. Not too bad. While there were times when I was sweltering in the heat, it's a much different heat to what I've ever experienced before and was fairly bearable.

Essentially, despite St Peter's being a beautiful building, I thought it was more a blatant glorification of the wealth of the Catholic Church. But that's just my take (being a complete heathen!). I had to pull my shorts down a wee bit before going into the church. Apparently, and I'd never heard this before, but Mandy filled me in on it, you're not supposed to show your bare shoulders or too much bare leg. I only pulled my shorts down a couple of inches so they were below my knees and that satisfied them :-) Again, in the church were items stolen from other churches (including the Pantheon). It was breathtaking standing outside the main door looking down through Piazza S. Pietro.

After St Peter's we made our way (via the bus) to the Spanish Steps. Instead of walking up them - we made our way from the top down. Not really sure what the big deal with these are - but I can say I've been there (which is close by the big name shopping area, apparently - meh). We then wandered around to the Trevi Fountain. I loved this. Even though I've seen pictures of it - it wasn't anything like I imagined. For starters, I'd never realised that it's built off a building (not a big stand alone fountain!). The sculptures are huge and very impressive. Never got photos from directly in front of it (too many people), but we did make our way down and threw the coins in. The thing I noticed about this area was that everyone was just so happy. It was truly a special part of the day in that respect.

We then wandered to the bus stop to get the last bus back to the Termini (by this stage it was around 7.30-8pm). Once back at the Termini, we strolled around to find where the hotel shuttle departed from (that I was picking up at 10.30pm) and then around some of the streets to find a nice restaurant (with outside dining) to have dinner. We found one just off the Termini (on the other side; but near Peter & Mandy's hotel) and had a thoroughly enjoyable meal there.

All of a sudden it was time for the shuttle back to the hotel, so off I went (getting back there just after 11pm). Had a quick shower and then fell into bed (after sorting out my stuff, seeing as I had to take it all with me 'cos I was checking out).

This rates up there as one of the absolute best days I've had and one of the best cities I've been to (not that I've been to many, mind).

Seeyabye