Aim High to Travel: Day 52

Day 52: Rome

This morning we woke up early to head off to St. Peter's Basilica To make sure that we beat the crowd. The tour guide knew it was going to be busy because Pope Frances was in town today. We arrived and lined up for maybe 10 minutes then we were allowed to go in. There were areas you couldn't photograph so I had to be very careful with my camera. The art was amazing it was painted all over the walls and the roofs. The main art pieces were actually mosaics. They looked like paintings but when you looked closer you could see the little squares There were so many colours in the room it was almost too much to take in at once.

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We got back on the coach and drive to the colosseum. As today was the first Sunday of the month everyone could access the colosseum for free. When we arrived the queue was massive but because we are traveling with a tour you can by pass the queue and almost go straight into the colosseum.

The colosseum was used as a fighting ground. This is where Roman warriors would fight till the death. The colosseum was incredible, we saw the original stairs that people used to sit on to view the fights and the original walls were still intact in most areas. The colosseum is about 2000 Years old.

After the colosseum we made our way on a walking tour around Rome. We saw the Trevi fountain again but this time we had the information and background of the statues which was very impressive to hear. We then headed to a row of pillars called Tempio Adriano. Around the corner there was a building called the Pantheon we got to go Inside. The shape of the building was incredible it was like a large dome.

Trevi Fountain:

The Trevi fountain, inspired by Roman triumphal arches, is the largest and most famous Baroque fountain in Rome (standing 25.9 meters high and 19.8 meters wide).The central figures of the fountain are Neptun (God of the sea), flanked by two Tritons. One struggles to master a veru unruly "sea horse", the other lead a far more docile animal. These symbolize the two contrasting moods of the sea.

Column of Marcus Aurelius:

The Column of Marcus Aurelius is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modeled on Trajan's Column.

Temple of Hadrian:

The Temple of Hadrian was built in 145 AD by Emperor Antoninus Pius, successor of the deified Hadrian, to whom the temple was dedicated. The temple was situated at the Campus Martius (Field of Mars). A large staircase led to a four meter high podium. On the podium was a cella, surrounded by thirty-eight large Corinthian columns, each 15 meters tall. Along the length of the temple were thirteen columns, the front and back had eight columns each. A small flight of stairs led to the cella, a barrel vaulted chamber decorated with pilasters. At the foot of the pilasters were war trophies and reliefs, allegorical depictions of conquered provinces. Some of the reliefs can now be found at the inner court of the Capitoline Museums.

Of the original Temple of Hadrian, only one row of eleven columns is still visible today as part of a seventeenth-century stock exchange building. The temple was built in honor of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who reigned from 117 to 138 AD.

The Pantheon:

The Pantheon is a building in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus. The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD.

The original use of the Pantheon is somewhat unknown, except that is was classified as a temple. However, it is unknown as to how the people worshipped in the building, because the structure of the temple is so different from other traditional Roman temples such as in the Roman Forum. The Pantheon exists today in such amazing form because the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave it to Pope Boniface the IV in A.D 608 and it was used as a church ever since. The Pantheon has been in use since the time it was built.

PIAZZA NAVONA:

Has beautiful architecture and have beautifully decorated balconies with bold coloured flowers and Ivory. There were so many restaurants that you can choose to eat at. Mum and I ate at one that had some of the best gluten free pasta!!! In the middle there was a market square which everyone was selling art. Such as paintings, drawings and photographs. The Piazza Navona is the home of three fountains and a piazza.

Sant' Agnese in Agone:

The unusual shape of the piazza isn't a baroque affectation but precisely follows the ancient perimeter of the Stadium of Domitian that once stood on this spot. The stadium was a grand edifice ordered by the emperor in the first century BCE; it had a rectangular shape with rounded short sides, was completely covered in white marble and could hold up to 30,000 spectators!

As opposed to other Roman structures built to house spectacles, such as Circus Maximus or the Colosseum, the stadium of Domitian didn't offer chariot races or gladiator fights: here were played the "Agones", the games in honor of Jove, and the athletes arrived directly from Greece for the sporting matches where even little girls challenged each other in races. The name of the piazza is derived precisely from the Greek term "Agone"--contest--which in the Middle Ages became "in Agone" and finally "Navona".

FOUNTAIN OF THE FOUR RIVERS

Your gaze is immediately drawn to the imposing Fountain of the Four Rivers in the centre of the piazza, dominating the scene with its powerful presence and figures that seem to come alive from the sound of the rushing streams of water.The four giant nudes that form the statue are the personification of the principal rivers of the continents known at the time: the Nile represents Africa, with its veiled head because the source of the river had yet to be discovered, the Ganges Asia, the Danube Europe and Rio de la Plata, the Americas.

The marble giants are arranged on a travertine shoal at the centre of a scene of carved grottoes and decorated with flowers, exotic plants and animals. There are seven animals ranged around the fountain: a horse, a sea monster, a serpent, a dolphin, a crocodile, a lion and a dragon. Overhead, at the top of the obelisk, is a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit and emblem of the pope that commissioned the fountain.

FOUNTAIN OF NEPTUNE

The fountain of Neptune, originally called the fountain of the kettle makers, remained unfinished for a long time until a few marine deities were added along with the statue of the god of the sea battling an octopus.

FOUNTAIN OF THE MOOR

Two other fountains at either end of the piazza, works by Giacomo della Porta, complete the overall picture.

The Fountain of the Moor, fed by the Aqueduct of the Virgin (Virgo), was originally called "the snail fountain": Bernini had in fact modified the fountain, inserting a dolphin that supported a snail, but the people, as well as the Pamphilj family, were not exactly thrilled with this combination and so a male figure was put in to substitute the snail, a figure with African or "Moorish" features that holds the dolphin by the tail and it's this particular point that gives the fountain the name it's had ever since.

We then walked back to the Tiber River to get back on our bus. We parked opposite the Piazza de Tribunall.

Piazza de Tribunall:

The Palace of Justice the seat of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Judicial Public Library, is located in the Prati district of Rome. It fronts onto the Piazza dei Tribunali, the Via Triboniano, the Piazza Cavour, and the Via Ulpiano. The huge building is popularly called in Italian the Palazzaccio (the bad Palace).Designed by the Perugia architect Guglielmo Calderini and built between 1888 and 1910, the Palace of Justice is considered one of the grandest of the new buildings which followed the proclamation of Rome as the capital city of the Kingdom of Italy.

Capitoline Hill:

This is a Michelangelo- designed hilltop square. It was so beautiful and behind the square we found the Roman Forum ruins which is the excavated heart of the roman empire.

While being the lowest and smallest of the seven hills of Rome (The Aventino, Capitoline, Caeline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinale, Viminale), the Capitoline is perhaps the most closely bound to the city’s history, as it has been the hub of Rome’s political and religious life since ancient times. Today the Michaelangelo piazza, reached by climbing a splendid flight of steps, is encircled by two identical buildings (Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, home to the Capitoline Museum) and Palazzo Senatorio, which serves as the seat of the Mayor of Rome.

We made our way back to the hotel to have showers and get ready for our optional dinner.

The optional dinner was at a restaurant which used to be a spa that the roman fighters used to go to before their fight. The restaurant was so cool there were arch ways built under ground. There were heaps of table and a few more Trafalgar groups were eating as well. When our food came this singing group started singing. They sang opera and some of the songs I knew as they were from phantom of the opera or famous Italian songs. The food was great and also the show was pretty good too. Overall it was a really nice night out with our group.

After dinner we walked around the Colosseum at night. It was beautifully lit up and it was still buzzing with people.