Rome - City Sights and City Lights

The afternoon came and we headed off with Jonothan again in search of some of the lessor know, but amazing places in Rome including:

·        St Peter in Vincoli (St Peter in Chains Cathedral) housing St Peter’s chains – of course as well as another Michaelangelo masterpiece, a gigantic statue of Moses.



The chains of St Peter



Roman war memorial - where we started the tour

At the Roman war memorial one of 70 Roman poles details victories in battle for the iliterate people of the time - this is only 1 of the 2 left standing nowdays.

·        Church of the 12 Appostles built over the ancient Roman Temple of Minerva, complete with sacrificial alter in the crypt. The crypt also housed the remains of Saints Phillip and James – the cousins of JC as well as the Tomb where Micahelangelo was buried for 2 weeks before the Florentines broke in, opened the tomb, stole the body and took it back to Florence to be buried in the Medici family tomb

Relics of St James and Philip

The tomb from which Michaelangelo's body was pinched



Sacrifical alter from the temple of Minerva



·        The catecombs where St Paul was believed to have been locked for 4 years during his time in Rome. During this time the Romans still allowed Christians to come down and visit him.

The pillar to which it was believed that St Paul was chained

·        The Jesuit church of Pietra with a amazing painted ceiling as well as a painted cupola (inside of a dome) which was all a trick of the eye – the dome doesn’t really exist!



The painted dome - you cant really tell from the photo (nor on first look) but if you shift around the cathedral you notice that the centre of the dome always moves (like a painting whose eyes are always looking at you



The painted ceiling of the Jesuit cathedral

·        Piazza Navona – another Chariot racing venue come pretty square (with very expensive restaurants! Here was also the place where I has diahoreaed on by a bird on a previous trip to Rome. An finally

4 waters Fountain from the centre of the piazza

·        Pantheon – greatest Roman structure ever built with massive bronze doors. The temple is believed to have been one of the hiding places for Roman women and children when the barbarians invaded, even though the huge bronze doors were closed by mere women and children they were never breached by the invading forces – thanks to a bit of Roman ingenuity they ran on ball bearings making the very heavy doors very easy to manoeuvre.

The Pantheon

And finally

·        The Piazza del Pasquino – Piazza of the Barber. Named after a barber who used to anonymously write political satirical notes and stick them on the BC statue in the Piazza inciting city wide discussion and outrage from authorities. This forms the modern act of posting posters on walls, advertising and I guess nowdays – blogging (although mine is nt quite so anonymous.

Us with Jonothan our guide at the Really old Staue

Again we finished the day with a cold drink at the Tiber Bar – ahh this is the life!

Some... other sites of Rome - the Louis Vuitton store near the Spanish steps - even Dave was impressed by their red staircase

Our final day in Rome... sniff. We had planned today so that we could venture out of Rome’s centre, which largely closes down on Sundays 9which today was) and head out to the Appia Antica – the Ancient Appian Way built in 312BC to join Rome to the south. It was also here that Spartacus ( a recent favourite of ours after the TV series) and the rebelling gladiators and slaves were crucified – 6000 in total, by the Romans in 71BC

We had directions on how to get there using public transport, but encountered a slight hiccup with the train lines being closed for maintenance. Multiple buses later we arrived hot hungry and slightly disheartened by the length of time it had taken us to get there.

The Appia

We strolled some of the Appia (its pretty long) and then ended up visiting the Catecombs of San Callisto, the Christian burial grounds during Roman times. Christianity at this time was  still a punishable offence and people of the Christian faith wanted to be buried whole – like how Jesus was in tombs. The Romans didn’t like this idea at all and made them move outside the city walls where the Christians dug mazes of underground tunnels which contained around ½ million people including 6 early popes.

Ruins near the Catecombs

We were guided through the labyrinth by Father Owen – an Aussie priest. The passages were cold and dark (around 15deg),I certainly wouldn’t want to get lost inside its like a honeycomb of tombs. No skeletons or anything too gruesome but overall a pretty spooky place. Plus we were also told that back in the day the smell would have been pretty rank as bodies were only wrapped in the shrouds and then sealed in with a bit of terracotta (or marble if you were a bit more spesh).

After we got back into Rome we finished with some compulsory inner city sites (that I know you have all been waiting for) – The Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and trying to get into the Panthenon (it was already closed for the afternoon L).

The Pantheon - again



Throwing my coin into the Trevi Fountain to make sure i'll be back again



The impressive Trevi Fountain



The Spanish Steps - can you see them underneath all the people?



We headed down a side street near the Piazza del Pasquino to try and find the famous Baffeto Pizzeria. We waited around 2 hours and were treated with excellent pizzas – a definite for Roman tourist itineraries.

While we were enjoying dinner we met 2 Canadian girls – Samara and Sonya as well as an Italian Sandro and his 9 year old son Matteo from Bologna. We got to talking and ended up going for coffee at a great little place near the Pantheon – paid for by Sandro. Dave and I both loved it, even though neither of us are coffee drinkers. It was even a hardcore Italian espresso.

Our table at Baffeto

Me with old "Mr Bafetto" himself - he doesnt work, just watches the line outside his restaurant

After coffee cute little Matteo convinced us to go back to the Pantheon and Trevi again for night pictures – a great finish to Rome.

Dave being persuaded by Matteo to come to the fountain

Night pics at the Fountain

PS theadventure back to camping Tiber was a little rough – the trains had finished for the evening so 2 buses and a tram later we got to Prima Porta and had to walk the rest of the 1.5ks home. I was convinced we would be murdered, but luckily some fellow campers were there to keep us company (Dutch campers again – there is definitely a theme here, the Dutch love their camping!).