la Citta Eterna (The Eternal City)

Rome (Roma)

June 2008

The following description is part of a week long tour. The narration assumes that you are already in Florence.

We (Chaitanya and I) took an intercity train from Florence (Firenze) to Rome (Roma Termini) on June 26th. This was a fast train and it took us only 1.5 hours and we reached Rome at about 9.40pm. We had booked a room at the Tiber Camping Village, another joint through hostelworld.com. Not as good as Alba D'Oro (similar camping village near Venice), and price of accomodation on the higher side, we were slightly disappointed. There is a shuttle that picks up people at the metro station Prima Porta till about 11.00pm. Prima Porta can be reached from the Termini by taking the metro line A to Flaminio and then changing to grey line that goes to Viterbo. We had two full days at Rome and were to leave Rome on the night of 28th June.

Rome is one of the most ancient cities of the world, and we tried to visit the most important places namely the Vatican, situated on one side of the Tiber river and the Colosseum situated on the other side. Armed with numerous options as to purchasing a Roma day pass, opting for the 110open bus tour etc, we ended up buying a Roma pass, and a day pass for the hopon hopoff 110 open bus tour. The tour itself takes about 2 hours, and it covers all the important areas of the city. In fact, after our important visits, we just sat in the bus for a complete tour of the city from start till the end.

We visited 4 places of interest - St. Peter's Basilica, The Vatican Museum, The Colosseum and Fontana de Trevi. Each had a rich history and I have tried to find out some information relevant to our visit from the net and sort of compiled them below. This was the best I could do, given the sea of information we were flooded with when we were listening to the audio guide during our visits.

St. Peter's Basilica - This and the Vatican Museum are the most important monuments in the Vatican city, the smallest country in the world. I was no doubt awed by its grandeur and intricate sculptures, but I still had basic questions in my mind about what a Basilica denotes, whose are the statues lined up on the front facade and so on? Unanswerable at that point even with the audio guide, we moved on, admired the sculptures and took plenty of pictures ( I like photography). The monument was built during the period of Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, who ordered a Basilica to be built on top of the Vatican Hill, and with good reason too. I read that this was the place where St. Peter, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus was buried in 64 A.D. St. Peter, I believe was the Bishop of Rome and the first Pope. Catholic tradition holds that St. Peter's tomb is beneath the altar at the Basilica. The word basilica, I learnt was originally used to describe a Roman public building usually located in the forum of a Roman town. After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term came by extension to refer to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rites by the Pope. Thus the word retains two senses today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical. The government in the Vatican City is one of Papacy, where the Pope is the supreme head. The basilica, I believe, is associated with Counter- Reformation and numerous artists, namely Michelangelo and Bernini. Interestingly, I also read that Saint Peter's is not a Cathedral, as it is not the seat of a Bishop. So basilica did not necessarily mean a Cathedral. The pope's cathedral is St. John Lateran.

Here is a useful description that I came across on the net on the details of the architecture - Like all the earliest churches in Rome,[6] it has the entrance to the east and the apse at the west end of the building.

Michelangelo designed the dome and Bernini designed the square.There are 2 incomplete colonnades on either side of an obelisk at the centre of the square. On top of the colonnade are 140 statues of saints, crafted by a number of sculptors between 1662 and 1703. Near the stairs to the basilica at the front of the square are colossal statues of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome. The front (east) facade is topped by 13 statues in travertine. From left, the statues represent: Thaddeus, Matthew, Philip, Thomas, James the Elder, John the Baptist, Christ the Redeemer (in the

center), Andrew, John the Evangelist, James the Younger, Bartholomew,

Simon and Matthias. St. Peter's statue in this set is inside. The insides of the pilasters that separate the nave from the side aisles have niches filled with statues of saints who founded religious orders. There are 39 of these in total throughout the church, spaced evenly in the nave and two transepts.

The sumptuousness of the interior is breathtaking: 45 altars, 11 chapels, around 10 thousand square metres of mosaics and many other masterpieces, such as the “Pietà” by Michelangelo.

The Swiss Guards - Near the entrance of the Basilica we encountered

some of the famous Swiss guards.Since 1506 when pope Julius II invited Helvetian soldiers to join the small Vatican army, they have been the guards of the Vatican and the pope in particular. All entrants to the army must be Swiss, catholic and they must take the oath of loyalty to the pope.

The Vatican Museum - Lots to learn, I think I will settle with pictures and the basic descriptions of the Museum. The link above gives all the information about the museum. Undoubtedly, the grand finale was the Sistine Chapel, but the length and breadth of the collection of treasures in the museums and palaces also left me in equal awe.

Fontana de Trevi - Supposedly the largest Baroque fountain in Rome, it was a beautiful structure. Tradition has it that if one throws a coin over the left shoulder into the fountain, it ensures their return to one of the most beautiful cities in the world, i.e., Rome.

The Colosseum - Also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre and constructed in 72 A.D., I believe it has a capacity of about 67000! Lower the class of the people, the higher they were to sit in the amphitheatre. It featured fights by gladiators and wild beast s killing thousands of humans. As advised by Lonely Planet, we did keep away from the muscly (err..not really) dudes outside the fortress. On the west side of the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine, which I read was built to honour Constantine following his victory over Maxentius in 312 A.D.