We stayed at a bed and breakfast in the heart of Rome, just a few blocks south of Termini, the main train station. From there, we could walk to the Coloseum, which we did on our first day in Rome, which happened to be my birthday! (I must say, celebrating one's birthday in Rome is the way to go!) The owners of the B&B spoke hardly any English. Luckily, Italian is alot like Spanish, so between my husband and ~N~, they were able to somewhat understand each other. Breakfast consisted of walking a block to a little Trattoria, where once again very little English was understood, and where we were served an Italian breakfast. Which consists of a basket of bread, a croissant and an espresso. (I ordered coffee, but was always served espresso, until I learned to ask for American coffee!) Ahem. These cultural differences can be a little bothersome until one has had the coffee they are used to.
The boys ooohed and aahed over the Colosseum, and we marveled at how well it has endured the passing of time. We looked for those 200 kittys that supposedly live there, but they must have been napping in the tunnels under the missing floor of the Colosseum. We were able to walk around the inside but not go down under where the tunnels were located. My boys could hardly stand that. They desperately wanted to walk around those mysterious tunnels and I couldn't blame them. What a strange feeling it was to stand in the Colosseum and imagine what it must have been like for the bloodthirsty Romans to witness a gladiator fight. We imagined the crowds roaring, their thumbs pointed down, and great beasts appearing from beneath the floor through the concealed trap doors. It was like traveling back in time.
The following day we made our way to the Pantheon. This was another incredibly well preserved ancient building. A "pantheon" (temple) to all the gods built in the 2nd century and an architectural achievement like no other. The bronze entrance doors weigh 20 tons EACH and the walls are 25 feet thick. The dome is 143 feet across, and the building is 143 feet high; a perfect sphere resting in a cylinder. But the most marvelous thing to us was stepping inside and seeing the 18 foot hole in the center of the dome, which lets the sunlight and rain stream in. The Pantheon was reconsecrated as a church in 609.
We walked through the Roman Forum, marched up the Spanish Steps (all 136 of them!) and viewed the empty oval grassy space that once was Circus Maximus. Towards the end of our time in Rome, we spent a day at St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. St. Peter's was inspiring. But probably my favorite moment was viewing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I have no pictures but mental ones. I shall never forget standing there and looking up to see Michaelangelo's famous paintings. Wow.
We stayed at cheap lodgings, ate cheap (except on my birthday and the day we got totally ripped off at a restaurant across from the Vatican Museum), walked nearly everywhere, and still this trip cost us a bundle! But I like that saying which reminds us to spend money on memories, not things. We didn't come back with many things, but we sure came back with a ton of memories!
CHOW!
;-) Marla
No comments:
Post a Comment