Rome

Italy has a population of 58 million with 2.5 million living in Rome. Rome came into being because geographically it had seven high hilltops that were easily defended with swampland between to ambush unpleasant visitors. Over time the swamp was reclaimed and became the meeting places between hilltops and the city of Rome.

From the 3^rd century Rome has had multiple owners starting with the Estruscans. Around 500 BC the Romans overthrew the Estruscans and declared a Roman republic. The Romans, the best engineers of the time, set about building some lasting engineering feats;

·      the now 3000 year old roman sewer system still in use;

·      the Circus Maximus for chariot racing and 250,000 spectators (Ben Hur was filmed here);

·      the Colosseum for 50,000 spectators, some lions and a few very stressed Christians. The Colosseum could be flooded to have mock sea battles;  

·      the Pantheon law library where the painter Raphael is buried

·      St Peters Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, to mark the grave of the Apostle Peter executed by Emperor Nero

·      The Vatican, from 1377, where the Pope still resides. In 1400 the Pope Sixtus engaged Michelangelo to decorate his new chapel and then to paint the famous “Last Judgement”.

·      Countless other treasures from the byzantine and renaissance periods

Today was going to be faster than an episode of the Amazing Race. The day began at 0530. There were eight ships in Civitavecchia Harbour with an unhealthy number of symbiotic buses lurking ashore. I had arranged for our driver to meet us early to try to stay in front of the coach convey as we moved around Rome.

First stop was the Piazza Navona and the la Fontana dei Fiumi  which is the fountain used to try to drown a Cardinal in the Tom Hanks movie “Angels and Demons”. All the fountains in Rome are fed from the Roman Aqueducts and natural springs in the mountains so everyone DRINKS the directly water from the fountains. The water is blue/green and crystal clear.  This took a lot of getting used to.  

Next was the Trevi Fountain and, humorously, it was empty as it was being cleaned. The sculptures were amazing though. A quick jog and we standing at the top of the Spanish steps looking down on to a beautiful marble Obelisk that originated in Luxor, Egypt. Shelley and Keats lived in this Bohemian corner of Rome. The steps are so named as they were once part of the 16^th century Spanish Embassy. The Via Dei Condotti, the Rome version of Rodeo Drive, leads off from this area and did distract us for a while.

Off to the Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre), built in 80 AD, and we were still in front of the coaches. Wow, this is worth seeing. In its day it could be flooded for mock sea battles with real boats and cannon. Gladiatorial fighting and feeding Christians to lions was abolished in 438 AD.

We found some very unusual practices by the Monks in the Capuccina Vieneto Dominican Church. It seems that when a Monk dies the body is buried until all the flesh is decomposed, the skeleton is then dug up and placed on display in the church. The skeletons of every deceased Monk of the Church is either displayed in robes or used to make light fittings, wall decorations and other religious focused displays. The chandelier is gross!  No cameras were allowed in this area so I will only mount one of the photos I took.

Keeping with the theme, we headed underground to the catacombs of St Callisto. The catacombs are the ancient underground cemeteries, used by the Christian and the Jewish communities. The Christian catacombs began in the second century and continued until the first half of the fifth.

In the beginning they were only burial places and later became real shrines of the martyrs, centres of devotion and of pilgrimage for Christians from every part of the empire.

 Imagine thousands of burial niches, fifty metres underground, through 17 kilometres of winding narrow tunnels woven into four ever-deeper underground levels. The tunnels are black, cold and airless. There are scarce low-wattage light bulbs at tunnel turns in place of original oil lamps.  Many of the niches are still sealed. Double creepy....

All of this before lunch. The afternoon saw us queuing for access to the Vatican City, Museum and Sistine Chapel. A few words cannot conjure an adequate description of the Rome midday heat, combined with the length of the queue, let alone the visual treasures waiting once we got inside the Vatican City. I will leave this part of our Rome tour to post-holiday repartee.