Thursday, June 08, 2006
Journal of Italy - Rome - Ancient Ruins & Basilica Sant' Paulo
Rome - May 19, 2006
I slept well. Except my foot hurt. So I booked a bus tour (horrors! Something I wanted to avoid) with a local touring company. There was NO way I was going to be able to do another walking tour of Rome with my skinned foot.
And I was feeling a little strange too...like maybe coming down with a cold. A tour would be good. And it was. It was a vertible photo op and I was up to it, as long as I could sit most of the time. I snapped shots from the bus window in a sort of turista trance. From the Capitoline to the Palatine, my little finger just kept pushing down on the shutter button.
The heart and hub of ancient Rome is where we headed, The Roman Forum (Foro Romano)and the Palatine (Palantine) and the Colosseum. I don't think I need to even write up the history--most of us remember it all from school and our reading. There are
museums galore that I didn't explore, but you cannot imagine the plentitude of tourists blocking the entrances to all of them. Besides, it meant walking.
This is Castor, one of the twin saviours of Rome.
Well, I'm pretty sure we went flying past the palace of the Emperors, Nero's
house again. It must have been magnificent, but now, hey, what a dump!
Then our bus headed for the suburbs. Luigi, our guide said we were going to the Basilica of Sant' Paulo. The guide also explained that masses are performed by priests in churches, performed by bishops (or cardinals?) in cathedrals, but ONLY popes perform masses in basilicas, so this was one of those. And it was quite something. The gold on the outside was enough to make you squint.
The portraits of every Pope in history surround the ceiling of this basilica.
Here was the current Pope, with eight "empty" portrait spaces left on the ceiling. I asked our guide what happens when they run out of space and he laughed and said, "they do an exteenshun, of course." An extension of this building would be hard to imagine. Then he said more seriously "once they are 'feeled,' the world will end."
This forever-burning light is atop the burial place of Sant' Paulo's relic bones, we're told. (It's the flame beneath the crucifix at the bottom) This whole section of the altar/edifice radiated spirituality. It was as if our voices hushed on approach, without being told.
Then we were led to the rose garden which is tended by the monks who live above it. (see the little windows above the gardens). These monks make rosaries out of the rose petals. I bought one for a Catholic friend of mine and it smells like a handful of roses, truly wonderful. The monks also make a liqueur, but I didn't buy that for anyone. I'd never get it home.
The cloister's twisted columns inlaid with mosaic supported an elaborate arcade of sculpted reliefs. The whole building was magnificent.
And here was our charming Italian tour guide, Luigi. He told me he had been leading tours for tourists since 1964.
Our last stop was the Colosseum. Again, I didn't tour the inside--Hollywood had provided all those sets, but I snapped a few of the exterior.
And it isn't only tourists who still revere and chronicle the ancient ruins of Rome. These young newlyweds will have photos for their memory books too.
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Next
Home
I slept well. Except my foot hurt. So I booked a bus tour (horrors! Something I wanted to avoid) with a local touring company. There was NO way I was going to be able to do another walking tour of Rome with my skinned foot.
And I was feeling a little strange too...like maybe coming down with a cold. A tour would be good. And it was. It was a vertible photo op and I was up to it, as long as I could sit most of the time. I snapped shots from the bus window in a sort of turista trance. From the Capitoline to the Palatine, my little finger just kept pushing down on the shutter button.
The heart and hub of ancient Rome is where we headed, The Roman Forum (Foro Romano)and the Palatine (Palantine) and the Colosseum. I don't think I need to even write up the history--most of us remember it all from school and our reading. There are
museums galore that I didn't explore, but you cannot imagine the plentitude of tourists blocking the entrances to all of them. Besides, it meant walking.
This is Castor, one of the twin saviours of Rome.
Well, I'm pretty sure we went flying past the palace of the Emperors, Nero's
house again. It must have been magnificent, but now, hey, what a dump!
Then our bus headed for the suburbs. Luigi, our guide said we were going to the Basilica of Sant' Paulo. The guide also explained that masses are performed by priests in churches, performed by bishops (or cardinals?) in cathedrals, but ONLY popes perform masses in basilicas, so this was one of those. And it was quite something. The gold on the outside was enough to make you squint.
The portraits of every Pope in history surround the ceiling of this basilica.
Here was the current Pope, with eight "empty" portrait spaces left on the ceiling. I asked our guide what happens when they run out of space and he laughed and said, "they do an exteenshun, of course." An extension of this building would be hard to imagine. Then he said more seriously "once they are 'feeled,' the world will end."
This forever-burning light is atop the burial place of Sant' Paulo's relic bones, we're told. (It's the flame beneath the crucifix at the bottom) This whole section of the altar/edifice radiated spirituality. It was as if our voices hushed on approach, without being told.
Then we were led to the rose garden which is tended by the monks who live above it. (see the little windows above the gardens). These monks make rosaries out of the rose petals. I bought one for a Catholic friend of mine and it smells like a handful of roses, truly wonderful. The monks also make a liqueur, but I didn't buy that for anyone. I'd never get it home.
The cloister's twisted columns inlaid with mosaic supported an elaborate arcade of sculpted reliefs. The whole building was magnificent.
And here was our charming Italian tour guide, Luigi. He told me he had been leading tours for tourists since 1964.
Our last stop was the Colosseum. Again, I didn't tour the inside--Hollywood had provided all those sets, but I snapped a few of the exterior.
And it isn't only tourists who still revere and chronicle the ancient ruins of Rome. These young newlyweds will have photos for their memory books too.
##
