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[Wednesday 12 June 2013]
Guided city tour of Rome—Santa Chiara Hotel, Chianciano Terme, Siena
Day 164 Thurs 13 June 1Kings 8, 2Chron 5
Woke up, ca.5am. The dawn chorus was remarkably similar to the one back home — blackbird, collared dove, wood-pigeon, swifts — except that they were all heard together; back home, the birdsong tends to be heard singly, not a “chorus”, exactly. There was an additional warbling song I didn’t recognise. I’d gone and washed all three pairs of travel socks — I should have left one pair unwashed — and they were all still very damp. So I dried them by placing the open end of each over the nozzle of the hair-dryer and inflating it with hot air from the dryer. I knew when they were approaching dryness because they became too hot to handle. We were scheduled to depart at 7.10am; this was originally going to be 7.00am, but Jane stretched it 10 minutes to allow sufficient time for breakfast, starting at 6.30am.
Janet and I occupied the back seats. From the road-signs I saw that we crossed from Umbria into Lazio at 8.10am.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 08:11:40
Views from the coach — hill town seen en route
I noticed a sign “Tevere”, indicating the river that we were crossing, at 8.25am. We arrived at the Palazzo di Giustizia in Rome
ca.9.30am, where we deposited the people who weren’t including themselves in the optional city tour, and picked up our guide, Barbara. I can’t quite remember what route we took, and the photographic evidence is confusing. I remember that we passed the back of the round Castel
Sant’Angelo, because I tried but failed more than once to get a photo, and it was mentioned that there was a passage or corridor from there to the Vatican; but perhaps that was before we got to the Palazzo di
Giustizia. I seem to remember looking out of the right window to take the photo just below (09:44:00), meaning we were crossing the Tiber from the Palazzo di Giustizia southwards, yet the photo that I finally managed to get of Castel Sant’Angelo (09:54:46) appears to be just west of it on the north bank, while the one after it (10:03:32) is definitely identifiable from
Google Street View as the façade of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, back on the south bank (or,
equally, the east bank, because there’s a bend in the Tiber).
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 09:44:00
Views from the coach — crossing the Tiber by Ponte Umberto I, with views of Ponte Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s Basilica
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 09:46:50
Views from the coach — house wall with Scaligeri-style swallowtail crenellation
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 09:54:46
Views from the coach — Castel Sant’Angelo
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:03:32
Views from the coach — Baroque façade of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:04:20
Views from the coach — remains of temples in Largo di Torre Argentina
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:07:02 Views from the coach — steps up the Capitoline Hill to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven; to their left: foundations of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus
Maximus; to their right: Michelangelo-designed “cordonata” to the Capitoline palaces (now museums)
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:07:44
Views from the coach — passing the Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland). Left: Trajan’s Column
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:08:06
Views from the coach — Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland)
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:09:02
Views from the coach — the Palazzo Venezia, where Mussolini had his office, and from the balcony of which he used to address the people
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:09:50
Views from the coach — Trajan’s Column
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:10:06
Views from the coach — Forum of Caesar, standing columns of the Temple of Venus
Genetrix, and the church of Santi Luca e Martina, from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:10:50
Views from the coach — part of the Roman forum, seen from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:11:00
Views from the coach — part of the Roman forum, seen from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:11:56
Views from the coach — Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, seen from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:12:34
Views from the coach — Temple of Venus and Roma, seen from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:13:06
Views from the coach — Temple of Venus and Roma, seen from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:13:30
Views from the coach — Flavian Amphitheatre or Colosseum
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:13:42
Views from the coach — a look back at the Temple of Venus and Roma, from Via dei Fori Imperiali
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:14:44
Views from the coach — Colosseum
We coach stopped and we got out in Via di San Gregorio. There was the arch of what appeared to be the remnant of a viaduct or aqueduct ahead of us, but we didn’t go that way; we turned back towards the Colosseum, passing the triumphal arch of Constantine and, away to the left, the arch of Titus. I understand that that has a bas-relief of the Menorah on it, but that doesn’t appear on the long shot I took of it.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:18:08
Out of the coach, on Via di San Gregorio
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:22:32
Arch of Constantine
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:23:02
Temple of Venus and Roma
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:23:24
Colosseum
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:28:46
Arch of Titus
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:30:44
Palatine Hill and Arch of Titus
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:31:50
Colosseum
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:36:02
Colosseum
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:37:16
Colosseum
Barbara showed us from a picture-book she borrowed from a
vendor the “velarium” that would be stretched over the seating area of the
Colosseum, providing spectators with shelter from the elements. I was already
familiar with the Esperanto word “velo”, meaning “sail”, so “velaro”
by regular word-construction would be a collection of sails. When I asked
Barbara, though, she said it was from the Latin for “veil”. According to Wiktionary,
to which I didn’t have access till after we returned home, “velum” can
mean both the sail of a ship and a cloth, curtain, veil, or awning.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:42:24
Activity at the Arch of Constantine
We went back to the coach. I didn’t get a very good view
when we passed Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus). We were deposited a short walk
away from the Trevi Fountain.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:54:26
Seen from the coach: Circus Maximus
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:54:40
Seen from the coach: Circus Maximus
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 10:58:16
Seen from the coach: Colosseum
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:30:58
Trevi Fountain
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:31:26
Trevi Fountain
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:33:04
Trevi Fountain
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:35:18
Trevi Fountain
I noticed that the church on a corner opposite the Trevi
Fountain had two polished plaques, one in Bulgarian and one in Italian. The
dedication of the church in Bulgarian was to Saints Cyril and Methodius but in
Italian to Saints Vincent and Anastasius. I guessed, then, that the two
denominations must share the building.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:38:12
Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi (Saints Vincent and Anastasius at Trevi)
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:39:10
Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi (Saints Vincent and Anastasius at Trevi)
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:41:24
Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi (Saints Vincent and Anastasius at Trevi)
(In the photo, Jane’s reflection is visible in the
second, Italian, plaque.) From there we walked, past the surviving columns of
the Temple of Hadrian, now incorporated into a later building, to the Pantheon.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:53:48
Temple of Hadrian
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:54:26
Temple of Hadrian
Mention of the “concrete” roof of the Pantheon
confused me; I thought that must mean it was a later addition: I didn’t
realise that the ancient Romans had concrete technology. Indeed, parts of the
Colosseum are constructed of concrete. In fact, the roof of the Pantheon is the
world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 11:57:54
Piazza della Rotonda and the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:03:18
Inside the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:03:36
Inside the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:03:56
Inside the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:05:24
Melozzo da Forlì’s Annunciation, 1480’s, inside the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:05:40
Inside the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:06:06
An unknown artist’s, Madonna of the Girdle and St. Nicholas of Bari,
1686, inside the Pantheon
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:07:26
Fontana del Pantheon, surmounted by an Egyptian obelisk, in the Piazza della
Rotonda
From there we walked to the Fountain of the Four Rivers,
and Barbara took us round it, showing us each of the figures symbolising the
rivers of the world: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing
Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the
Americas. “Strange choice!” I thought of the last: “Why not the Amazon or
the Mississippi?”
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:20:02
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), surmounted by an
Egyptian obelisk, in the Piazza Navona
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:21:44
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:25:44
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi:
Nile, left
Rio de la Plata, right
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:27:22
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi:
Rio de la Plata, left;
Danube, right
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:28:40
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi:
Danube, left;
Ganges, right
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:29:50
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi:
Ganges, left;
Nile, right
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:30:32
By the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in the Piazza Navona
The long and relatively narrow Piazza Navona, of which the
Fountain of the Four Rivers forms the centrepiece, stands on what was the
running track of the Stadium of Domitian. Indeed, as we left the piazza at its
north end, on the far side of the building standing there we stopped to look at
a ruined remnant of the arcade of the Stadium, which, like the Temple of
Hadrian, seen earlier, stood a couple of yards below present-day street-level.
In this more recent building, which followed the line of the old Stadium, was a
large recess in which the arcade fragment was visible.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:36:28
“Stadium of Domitian”
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:35:14
Arcade of the Stadium of Domitian
Arcade of the Stadium of Domitian
— better view from Wikipedia
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:35:30
Stadium of Domitian: view through the arch
From there it was only a couple of hundred yards to the
avenue lining the Tiber, where Barbara left us and we got on the coach for the
short hop to the other side. Before we did, though, I was intrigued by the
insignia on one of the litter bins; it had the iconic Roman emblem of the
she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, and just as the plaque by the Stadium of
Domitian had, the letters “SPQR” (“Senatus PopulusQue Romanus” —
“The Senate and People of Rome”). It just seemed as though the evangelical,
largely dispensationalist interpretation of Biblical prophecy, that the end-time
would be marked by a revival of the old Roman Empire, was in fact happening. I
suppose that Rome has always been the seat of the papacy, which has often been
seen by evangelicals as the face of apostate Christendom, but it wasn’t the
capital of Italy till 1871. Mussolini emblazoned “SPQR” on a number of
public buildings and manhole covers in an attempt to promote his dictatorship of
a “New Roman Empire”.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:42:28
Roman litter bin…
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 12:42:28
…marked with the Roman image of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, and
“SPQR” (“Senatus PopulusQue Romanus” — “The Senate and People of
Rome”)
We were deposited not far from the entrance to St.
Peter’s Square, and followed Jane’s directions to where we’d be able to
find somewhere to eat: through a side street from Via della Conciliazione to
Borgo Sant’Angelo; through an arch there in what appeared to be an old city
wall reminiscent of the one in Verona, but which was, in fact, (I only realised
when I got back home) the lower part of the aforementioned passage or corridor
from Castel Sant’Angelo to the Vatican; through another side street to Borgo
Pio. It was perhaps there that we found a shop where I bought two postcards; and
it was there that we sat outside under an umbrella and I had another of the
several pizzas I ate this holiday, and Janet had a Coke Light. Somehow
the “standard” American accent that I heard from the next table seemed
incongruous with the speakers, who were a pair of black young women. We were
hassled by the best-dressed beggars I’ve ever seen, two women, separately —
perhaps Gypsies (Romani, to be non-pejorative), now that I think about it.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 13:42:00
Pizza at a “bar e caffè” in Borgo Pio
There was a “Tabacchi” in the street, but they
didn’t have postage stamps, as other “Tabacchi” shops (we were told) did;
that was because there was a post office which sold them in the nearby Via di
Porta Angelica. However, when we went in the latter, I was confused by the
take-a-ticket-and-wait-for-its-number system: the list was in Italian, and I
couldn’t tell which of the categories was appropriate to the purchase of
postage stamps. So I abandoned that, and from there we entered Vatican City, i.e.
from the north, rather than going in from the east out of Via della
Conciliazione. (The caption of the photo, below, is not strictly correct: we
weren’t “approaching Vatican City” just there; that side of Via di Porta
Angelica is already in Vatican City, and the other side is in Rome.)
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 14:03:24
In Via di Porta Angelica, approaching Vatican City
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 14:04:48
The eastern colonnade of Saint Peter’s Square from under the Passetto di Borgo
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 14:06:50
The eastern colonnade of Saint Peter’s Square
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 14:07:46
Egyptian obelisk of red granite in the centre of Saint Peter’s Square
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 14:09:30
St. Peter’s Basilica
There was a long queue waiting to go into St. Peter’s
Basilica, so after wandering about a bit, footsore (me) and feeling weary from
the heat (both) we went back to the café, sitting exactly where we’d sat at
lunch-time, and had a drink. Then we set off, retracing our earlier route, to
find Jane and rejoin the group.
Thursday 13 June 2013 — 15:18:40
Passetto di Borgo, running along Via dei Corridori
We picked up the rest of the group where they’d been set
down, outside the Palazzo di Giustizia, and returned to Chianciano Terme. Janet
started to feel ill so lay down on the back seat. There was a “comfort” stop
where we also bought cold drinks. Jane resumed the word game, and participating
in that helped to ward off the travel sickness that Janet was prone to. Copied
today’s photos from the camera (18:29–18:30). Continued editing photos from
Tuesday (18:48–19:22) — nine, including a cropped duplicate. We went down
for dinner at 7.30pm. Then we had a stroll down to the “Tabacchi” but found
it closed. Finished editing photos from yesterday (21:18–22:05) — 21,
including a cropped duplicate. We were both in bed, ca.10.30pm.
[Friday 14 June 2013]
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