Return to Roma

In front of just some of many Roman ruins on the Forum
 (notice the pine trees aka "broccoli trees" in the back)

We have not been in Rome since our first visit almost 20 years ago.  It’s strange how things look so different.  Rome hasn’t really changed, but we certainly have.  We are staying in a great little B & B not far from the Colosseum.  They have only three rooms, so it is very friendly and homey.  Our kind host welcomed us with biscotti and a bottle of Roman wine -- ciao Roma!

Roman "villas" at twilight

On our first night, we took a stroll through our new neighborhood, marveling at the impressive villas glowing in the late afternoon light.  We particularly wanted to see the Colosseum after dark – what a spectacular sight and what a wonderful way to begin our return visit.

Colosseum after dark!

Rome is known as “archaeological lasagna” because of all the layers of history here.  In Rome, the past is always with you – around every corner is an ancient column or a portion of a 2,000 year old wall.  We devoted much of our time here to learning more about the history of this Eternal City.  Here are some highlights:

Vittorio Emanuele Monument
also known as "The Wedding Cake" or the "Typewriter"

2700 Years of Scandals

We took an excellent walking tour, “Love and Death: 2700 Years of Scandals,” with a company called 'Through Eternity'.  We were fortunate enough to be the only people on the tour, so we had our guide Thomas all to ourselves for a three hour walk covering 7 ½ miles and thousands of years of history.  We began at the marvelous Vittorio Emanuele Monument and walked through many areas we had never seen before, including the Jewish Ghetto and Castel St. Angelo.   Thomas really knew his stuff, and we especially enjoyed his philosophical take on how things haven’t really changed very much since ancient times.  

Remarkable view of the Roman Forum

Some of the highlights included magnificent views of the Roman Forum and a Renaissance Palace that was originally a theater whose construction was started by Julius Caesar.  The palace is for sale if you have an extra $16 million lying around!  Rome is such a delightful hodgepodge with ancient ruins, Renaissance Palaces, and 19^th c. villas all mixed together.

Castel St. Angelo

A couple other tidbits:  We saw the site where Giordano Bruno, a brilliant astronomer, was burned at the stake in 1600 for suggesting that other suns and other universes might exist.  We also learned that unlike Hitler, Mussolini was not an anti-Semite – in fact, no Italian Jews were deported until after his death.  For fans of the Showtime series, “The Borgias,” we also saw the building where the Borgia Pope Alexander attended clothing-optional parties with his brothel owner girlfriend.  Our tour ended at Castel St. Angelo, originally constructed as a tomb for Hadrian but later used as a safe house for the Popes to hole up in if they became too unpopular. 

Tiber River from Castel St. Angelo

The roof of the fortress at St. Angelo's provided magnificent views of the Tiber River, St. Peters, and all across Rome.

Colosseum on a sunny day!

The Roman Forum and the Colosseum

Another walking tour covered the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, and of course, the Colosseum.  We had seen all of this on our last visit, but never with a guide, and at that time, no one was allowed inside the Colosseum. 

Inside the Roman Forum

Our guide Alessia explained the Roman Forum was the center of Roman life, political (with the Senate), legal (with the courts), and religious (with the temples).  The forum was the equivalent of "downtown Rome" back in the days of the Caesars.  Of course, the most famous temple was the Temple of the Vestal Virgins.  The virgins were the only people permitted to live in the Forum, and it was considered quite an honor for a wealthy patrician family to have a daughter serving as a Vestal Virgin. Even the Caesars lived a few miles away from the forum. These young girls were appointed to the post of Vestal Virgins when they were only 6 years old and served until they were 30 (when surprisingly enough they could marry, but by then they were too old for child-bearing).  

Homes of the Vestal Virgins

The virgins spent their sequestered lives within the Roman Forum, but occasionally a girl would break the rules.  If she was discovered with a man, or even worse, if she became pregnant, the man was beheaded and the former vestal virgin was buried alive after being put on a diet of bread and water for a few days!

We also strolled high up to the Palatine Hill where the wealthiest families built their villas.  The air was fresher and cooler, and the many trees and green spaces gave it almost a rural feeling.  The wealthy patricians had a good life up here with everything they needed including their own private entertainment area for watching various games and chariot races.

Center stage on the arena floor of the Colosseum

At last, we entered the Colosseum where our tour gave us access to several restricted areas.  Our first “wow moment” came when we stepped out onto the arena stage in the center of the Colosseum.  As impressive as the Colosseum is from the outside, the inside takes your breath away!  We also toured the recently opened underground labyrinth where we saw the chambers that housed wild beasts, and where gladiators waited for their time on stage.  The underground had an elaborate system of winch-activated “elevators” with pulleys to lift up beasts/gladiators/special props allowing them to pop out of trap doors in the arena floor – a sure crowd pleaser! 

Top down view of the inside of the Colosseum

When the Colosseum first opened in 80 A.D., they celebrated with 100 days of games involving 5,000 beasts.  Interestingly, the gladiators, who were mostly slaves, but could be Roman citizens looking for glory (and women), signed 10 – 15 year contracts.  If they survived, these slaves became free men.  By the way, the games were held primarily for propaganda purposes – people were able to attend for free, and the intention was to keep them happy (and keep the current Emperor in power!).  Our tour also took us to a restricted terrace on the top level of the Colosseum with spectacular views of the levels below and also the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. A surprising note that we learned: very few gladiators were killed in the Colosseum.  Gladiators were highly trained sports figures, and heroes of the day; Rome had invested gobs of $$ in their training, their care and upkeep, maintenance, etc. Killing off a gladiator would be the equivalent of killing off Babe Ruth or Peyton Manning after investing many dollars and time in bringing them up to speed.  It just wasn't done under ordinary circumstances.

Note: This was a Viator tour and we have contracted to provide an article about our experience, so we will send you the link for the full scoop later when the article is published.

Ruins of the ancient town of Ostia Antica

A Day in Ostia Antica

Our excellent tour guide, Rebecca, described Ostia Antica as the “better Pompeii” which is not an exaggeration.  The story of Pompeii is certainly more alluring with the tragedy of the volcanic eruption of  Mt. Vesuvius, but the city of Ostia Antica actually does a better job of presenting a typical Roman town. Why?  Because Ostia was never destroyed by a rogue volcano; the inhabitants voluntarily left their dwellings to avoid malaria and a dwindling economy, and Ostia became a ghost town.   Eventually, it got buried and forgotten beneath tons of silt from the Tiber River.  The buildings were therefore kept pretty much intact.  Ostia Antica is just 20 miles outside Rome, so our tour began with an easy 30-minute train ride to the site.  Rebecca was everything we like in a guide: knowledgeable, organized, and personable with a great sense of humor.  And she just happened to look very much like our daughter-in-law Michelle.

Frank gives a demonstration of
life on the communal toilets!

Rebecca led us through the ruins of this 9^th c. town which was originally the port of Rome.  It was abandoned when better ports were built nearby.  In her heyday, Ostia Antica had a population of 50,000 people and we got to see lots of the town including:  The necropolis with a columbarium where niches would have held ashes of their deceased relatives in urns.  Interestingly, slaves were buried with their masters, even if they had been freed.  A communal toilet room where men would socialize as they used the facilities.

Our guide Rebecca (Michelle's doppelganger)
describes the theater at Ostia Antica

And a theater where the dramas were so realistic that when a character was going to be killed, they would switch out the actor with a criminal (sentenced to death anyway) and actually kill them on stage!  (And we thought our reality TV was bad!)

At Ostia, we also visited a cafeteria-style restaurant with a marble counter-top still intact and elegant apartment houses (the Romans actually invented the apartment as a way to house their burgeoning population).  Most intriguing was the laundry with large tanks for rinsing laundry and clay pots where it is thought that young children provided the agitation function by stomping the clothes (sort of like stomping grapes).  These poor children had terribly working conditions especially because the Romans used urine to bleach some of their clothes and keep their togas sparkling white!

Ostia Antica apartment house

One last comment: Rebecca explained that the Romans were known to be very tolerant of other people’s religions, and when they conquered another country, they would just add the foreign gods to the long list of Roman ones.  What got the Christians into trouble with the Romans was that they only had one God, and they refused to do any animal sacrifices like all the other religions did.  So when bad things happened, it was easy to blame the Christians, the ones who weren't pulling their weight with the extra animal sacrifices to the other gods!  It was the fault of the Christians because the rain god wasn't getting his due, the harvest god wasn't getting his cut of sacrifices, etc., etc. 

Note: This was another Viator tour that we are contracted to provide an article, so a full article will be published after we return home.

Gallerie Borghese

Gallerie Borghese

Anne has wanted to visit the Gallerie Borghese for years, so it was worth all the hoops they put you thru:  making time reservations online months beforehand, picking up tickets onsite before the tour, paying for audio guides at a separate window, and turning in everything you carry (even purses) at a third location.  We were exhausted before we began.  Actually, we were worn out because in addition to all that, we had the female taxi cab driver from hell.  This woman talked on her cellphone nonstop as she drove, and then she could not find the Borghese Gallery (only one of the top museums in all of Rome!).  After taking a look at Anne’s map (?), and trying to use her GPS, she finally stopped and asked some other cab drivers for help.  What a wacky nerve-wracking ride we had on a day we had an appointment!

The incomparable "Apollo and Daphne"
by Bernini

Anyway, the Gallerie Borghese was well worth all the stress.  This art museum is now one of Anne’s favorites.  The palace formerly owned by at art-loving cardinal is small enough to feel intimate and is surrounded by beautiful flowering gardens.  Every room is eye-popping with colorful paintings covering every square inch of the walls and ceiling (like custom wallpapering) in addition to the incredible works of art on display.  The highlight of the museum was a Bernini sculpture called “”Apollo and Daphne.”  This sculpture tells the story of Daphne who turns herself into a tree to avoid being captured by the ardent amorous Apollo.  Roots grow out of Daphne’s toes, and her fingers sprout leaves.  Even Frank was left speechless by Bernini’s amazing feat.  Who would ever think that marble could be carved in such a delicate graceful way?  Our audio guide told us that if you lightly brush the leaves at the top of the sculpture, they ring like chimes!  But how were those leaves carved without breaking?  This is an astonishing feat of engineering that puzzled Frank, who unfortunately has a limited strength of materials background. But, marble fractures when bumped against, or hammered upon, or chiseled against.  These are facts.  Especially these ultra wafer-thin configurations of the leaves that Bernini created in this sculpture.  And I said leaves - MANY of them!!  Not a single fracture that we could see.  Wow - just moving this behemoth statue would risk breakage of any/all of these little delicacies.  Frank is impressed beyond words, and can only conclude that aliens cut these tiny breakable leaves with space-age laser beams, not chisels and hammers! 

Back to the Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain and “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa”

When we visited the Trevi Fountain almost 20 years ago, we threw coins in the fountain since the legend is that if you throw a coin in the fountain, you are sure to return to Rome.  Well, it must have worked because here we are!

Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Teresa"

We also returned to the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria to see Bernini’s “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.”  By now, you probably know that Anne is a Bernini freak, and this was the sculpture that started it all when we saw it 19 years ago. The statue is magnificent, but it is also quite odd for a religious work since it is known for its sensuality and for the sculpted figures on each side leaning out of balconies as if they were at the theater. 

Food and People

A word about the food, and the word is salty.  Seriously.  Rome was once known for its salt deposits, and salt was a commodity as valuable as gold.  Our first guide warned us that Romans still love their salt, and he wasn’t kidding.  We had to be very careful with our food selections and keep our water bottles handy!

Our favorite waitress, Maria

The people in Rome have been lovely to us beginning with our friendly hosts here at the B & B.  Almost everyone in Rome has been very accommodating and often times lots of fun.  We had so much fun with our waitress, Maria, at a restaurant the other night (called Trattoria Vecchia Roma) that we went back a second night, and Maria took good care of us again!  (Anne thinks Maria would like to take Frank home with her LOL).

Although Rome will never be our top favorite city, we are so glad we returned.  We covered a lot of ground here averaging over 6 miles a day walking, and we are looking for a little R&R at our next destination, the cave city of Matera in the south of Italy.  But we can't leave Rome without mentioning the most popular guy here, and that is Papa Francesco.  Everyone seems to love the new Pope here in Rome, and products with his picture are top sellers at all the souvenir shops.  Even the beer openers sport the Papa's picture on them. 

The very popular Papa Francesco