Love & Light and everything bright...

FROM MAUI, HAWAII

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Touring Rome, Day 2

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ROME, Sep 18 - Our second day in Rome started with bright sunshine, and then it got even better.  The temperatures were in the mid-70s, ideal for sightseeing as well as any other outdoor activities...

... such as enjoying a poolside breakfast (above).  After that, we headed back to the Vatican where we had pre-reserved tickets for a visit to the Sistine Chapel, the highlight of every tourist's visit to the Holy Sea city.

Sistine Chapel

Having pre-reserved tickets meant merely not having to wait in a long line to buy tickets.  But it was no respite from the hordes of tourists once we got into the Vatican buildings, as you can see from the above pictures.  Nevertheless, the richness of artifacts on display, both frescos as well as painting and sculptures, was simply breathtaking.  They need no words.  Enjoy...

One felt overwhelmed, even exhausted, by all that beauty and artistic imagery well before getting to the Sistine Chapel.  Once we got there, though, no pictures were allowed.  So you will have to be content with a picture of a poster of Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel ceiling (right). 

Altogether, we spent about two hours in and around the Sistine Chapel.  The above pictures were taken on our way out (left).  We joked that my hair glowed in morning sunshine as if it were a halo of "St. Bob."  :-)

After a short respite back at the hotel (above right), we continued out walking tour of Rome at the Coliseum...

The Coliseum

Just before you get to the Coliseum, you pass four large stone tablets depicting the rise of the Roman Empire over the centuries just before, and after the start of this Millennium.  Thought the history buffs may be interested in these ancient maps, so I took pictures of them.

The Coliseum was built toward the end of the first century AD under the auspices of three Roman emperors.  As you approach this monumental structure, you come across various mock "Roman centurions" who are there to pose for and entertain the tourists.  One of them, however, was too busy for that.  He had more important business to discuss - on his cell phone (right). :-)

We took a guided tour of the Coliseum which helped us understand the class structure of the Roman society, and thus the seating arrangements you can see above. The arena held about 80,000 people in its heyday.  And the games went on every day from 8AM to 6PM.  In the morning session, wild animals fought wild animals.  In the afternoon, gladiators went at it, trying to best and kill each other.  Most of them were slaves, captured in one of Rome's many war expeditions.  What is less well known is that 80% of them were able to win their freedom if they fought well in the arena. 

 The Coliseum is where the best of them dueled, winners of regional competitions across the breadth of the Roman Empire.  So it was sort of like the World Cup of "gladiatorship" in which the toughest and the bravest won their freedom by their swords.

The Forum

One can catch good views of the nearby Forum from the Coliseum's high galleries.  Once our tour was over, we walked across to the Forum grounds and spent another hour or so milling around the ancient ruins. 

It was an eerie feeling to be walking over and around a place packed with ancient history. 

I have been to the Acropolis in Athens and other famous Greek antique sites. 

But none of them made me feel as if they were still alive as the Roman Forum did.

Right next to the Forum lies the much more modern, recently restored Mussolini's Imperial Palace (left and right).  Known as Villa Torlonia - by the name of an Italian aristocratic family who had it built in the early 19th century - this palace was home to Mussolini and his family from 1924 until 1943.  Il Duce, the fascist dictator, loved the residence and, in his letters Mussolini described his pleasure at rising early to ride or play tennis in the grounds. The palace became Allied headquarters when British and American troops fought their way through Italy in 1944.  Restorers decided to leave evidence of their presence: a cluster of dart holes on a wall, and a few amateurish paintings of exotic female dancers, left by American soldiers. This white edifice has been left to ruin for five decades following the end of World War II.  In 2006, the palace was restored and opened to the public for the first time since Mussolini fled it in 1944.

Partying at Piazza Campo de' Fiori

We ended the day with a dinner at this charming old square in Rome - Piazza Campo de' Fiori.  Every storefront seems around the monument in the middle of the plaza seems to be another restaurant.  We picked "Baccanate" (left) for our last evening on the town.  And what a time we had.  By the time we finished our dinner, the whole square seems to be partying, with balloons raining down on the plaza from the rooftops like confetti.

A quartet of Romanian musicians, including two Gypsies, moved from restaurant to restaurant, playing the crowd favorites.  I went over to them and asked them if they could play Tico-Tico.  They happily obliged.  Then I went back to our table and got Elizabeth up for a dance.  We performed a wild Brazilian samba to a frenetic pace practically to exhaustion.  The musicians were evidently also enjoying themselves watching us done, and would just never end the song.  Eventually, we stopped, and they followed.  In the end, we got a bigger applause from the crowd than did the musicians.  People were clapping and waving to us as if we were some "Dancing with the Stars" competitors.

After that, we checked out beautiful flower shops in one corner of the square, before going for a long walk along the banks of the Tiber river. 

And that's all she wrote from our second day in Eternal City.

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