Recently in A Week in Rome Category

Well, after a couple of months and hundreds of photos, Susan the Human will cease to be All-Rome-All-the-Time after today. You might say I was ahead of my time, given that the news networks went All-Rome just in the last week. But that's the kind of cutting edge photojournalism you've come to expect from our little blog. Yes sirree. I've got lots of non-Roman pics on tap, but let's get that last batch of Rome out of our system right now, capisci?

I mean, really. How can you not feel like a princesa sitting on the can with floors like that. Fantastic. Our hotel was the Royal Court, near Termini Station but a couple of blocks away from the noise. It was actually very convenient. Travel guides tell you to avoid the area, and though I generally agree, this hotel was nice, and the convenience to the underused Metro system as well as all trains you could ever need can't be underestimated.

A lot of tourists never use the Metro. It's very crowded, and covered in graffitti, so I imagine that turns some people off. But it is extremely cheap (16 Euros for a one week unlimited pass), goes to the general vicinity of almost everything, and runs every couple of minutes making it incredibly convenient. If we had used cabs for all the things we used the Metro for in that week we would have spent a minimum of a hundred Euros. We didn't use a cab once. If you are able bodied, the Metro is the way to go. Make sure you get your Metro Pass from one of the many news vendors up top before you go down, and get it validated in one of the machines on the back of a public bus (works on all the bus and tram lines too--and they're very clean and convenient) or by a Metro employee at one of the entrances.

Don't worry if the train is too crowded for you to get on--just wait for the next one, which comes along in less than 3 minutes. And there are worse things than cramming yourself in a subway car full of handsome Italian men. Trust me.

Rick Steves, who wrote the excellent guide to Rome we followed throughout our trip, doesn't recommend the Metro as much as I do, and I think that's an error on his part.

One last thing on the Metro: I don't have any pictures. Why? Because it's a lousy idea to whip out an expensive camera on the Rome metro. Keep your belongings close. We had no problems, but hey, why take a chance.

Aaah, let's hop back to the Vatican for a moment, eh? Let's try the Pope's private chapel, otherwise known as the Sistine Chapel.

No pictures are allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but if you keep the flash off, there's really no harm, and the minders can't possibly keep track of you in the inevitable crowd, can they?

Besides, I asked God if he objected, and he didn't say anything, so that means it was ok.

I've gotta take another look at that Vatican Museum ceiling:

Back in St. Peter's, anotherlook at the alter, with the shining white dove stained glass peeking through from the back:

Oh, and the rest of our hotel room:

It's amazing how fast I can make a hotel room look like my apartment.

Over at the Collosseum (get off the Metro at Collosseo station, step onto the street, gawk) they had a nice exhibit of various disembodied heads:

Evenings in Campo di Fiori were lovely.

Emperor Nero's palace, known as Domus Aurea (near the Collosseum), is extraordinarily preserved underground with ceiling frescos largly intact:

The winding streets of Rome are often bordered by 2000 year old walls.

And so there it is. A week in Rome. Cost of the trip was less than $1200 per person, all told, including a day trip to Florence on the high speed train. Oh yeah, let's remember Florence, briefly, and our fist peek at that sunset from Il Duomo...

The city exceeded our expectations by a mile. We expected crowded, dirty, maybe even a little poor. We got (with the exception of the Metro) uncrowded (go in November! Trust me!), spotlessly clean in the tourist areas, and visibly prosperous, especially when compared to most American cities. We found the people abundantly friendly, experienced no anti-Americanism, and never ran out of things to do. In fact, we would need another entire week to catch up on everything we missed. Italy is the world's greatest tourist destination, and deservedly so. The food at cheap, family-owned restaurants was so good we could afford to eat out, exchange rate or no. We didn't buy many souveniers, but there were plenty to be had if we had wanted. The shopping is fantastic. What an amazing place. I will be back. Absolutely. Goodbye Rome, I miss you.

Rome is a big city, too big to wrap up in just one post. For all the places I've shown you, there are dozens of little pictures and tidbits that just didn't fit. So it'll take two photo-filled posts to finally get The Eternal City out of my system.

I don't know where to start. So let's just hop randomly through the week, shall we?

The Pope's death this week brought millions to Rome, and according to today's New York Times, 4 hundred thousand in the last two days have visited St. Peter's Square. All I can say is thank you, John Paul, thank you for not taking your bow while I was in town. Because St. Peter's Square photographs so much better when your dearly faithful are not in it.

A lone monk wanders by the fountain in St. Peter's square, looking for his cloister.

From the top of the Spanish Steps, you can see the ritzy shopping streets framed by towering old buildings, so close you pray for no earthquakes.

Gargoyles and little creatures peek out of stone all over Rome. I can't remember exactly, but I think this fellow was in the Villa Borghese.

Let's stop in St. Paul's Outside the Walls, subject of a lovely visit earlier in the week, where parishoners gathered below towering statues as a Cardinal gave his service.

And here's a masterpiece. We made a special stop on the metro to see this (get of at Pyramide). It seems that some 2000 years ago the Romans were very much into anything Egyptian. You can tell because Rome is littered with obelisks and other Egyptian artifacts carted off from the Middle East. In this case, a Roman aristocrat liked the Egyptians so much he decided to be buried like one. So he had a pyramid built to contain his empty vessel, hoping for immortality.

Well his name isn't too well known, but anybody who's been to this part of Rome sure knows about the Roman guy and his pyramid. 2000 years old but looking good as new. The city walls, this section built much later by the barbarians didn't disturb the structure, building neatly around it.

At the moment most Romans simply known it as a landmark that guides them to the metro station, but we had to take a peek.

Let's give a shout out to the spectacular Borghese Gallery, still owned by the Borghese family, still opulant as all get-out, and still to snippy to allow pictures. So this is all you'll see. But it's worth a stop. You must reserve in advance to get in.

At the National Museum of Rome, near Termini Station, the sarcophogi are plentiful, and beautifully preserved despite thousands of years in age.

Somewhere in central Rome the stray cats are fed by volunteers in a garden of ruins. They come in every possible color.

The Roman Forum, free of charge, is worth more than one visit. We must have walked through it four times and never stopped seeing something new.

The church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is humble on the outside an spectacularly beautiful on the inside.

It's just a short hop from there to Piazza Navona, Rome's biggest square, for a bite to eat.

The people watching and the pizza can't be beat.

If you wander back toward Santa Maria, you might peek out around the Pantheon in all its 2000 year old glory.

The Pantheon's columns dwarf anybody who wanders near.

Well, that's half a goodbye to Rome...stay tuned for Wrap-up-the-Second. Let's leave off with a church that overlooks the forum on a sunny day.

Next installment: I wrap up the trip to Rome, with some weird pictures that we missed before. Coming later this month, Monterey, San Francisco, Northern Minnesota, and much more, as The Human goes into photo-overdrive.

On our last day in Rome, we had a bit of extra time, and the rain was coming down, so we dove into the closest museum to Termini station, The National Museum of Rome. Modest on the outside, the museum's modern interior features several levels of diverse attractions ranging from a massive fresco collection to a genuine treasure vault that would make any pirate drool. But first we must admire the discus man.

Well, maybe he is. Anyhow, the wide, spacious halls show off the statues in a minimalist elegance, in contrast to the palacial appointments of the Borghese Gallery (no pictures allowed, I'm afraid) or yesterday's Capitoline Museum.

The museum is in the final stages of a major renovation, but already interior walls have been opened up with glass, giving the museum an airy feel even on a rainy day.

If you are a student of ancient history, you may recognize this sarcophogis, with its relief of the Roman Senate. I remember this from one of my textbooks.

Homer is hanging around, making sure the Romans don't mess up any of his stories.

Of course, the museum also contains the requisite number of stairs, our final big climb of the trip.

At the top of those stairs is an exquisite fresco/mosaic exhibit, which requires reservations when you purchase your ticket. As we missed the last tour, we couldn't get in, and had to march all the way back down those many stairs. Not to be thwarted in our last attempt at fun, we decided to check out the basement.

Let's just say that Roman basements aren't like our basements. In Rome, the basements are full of millions of dollars worth of gold coins. I think that's what real estate people call a "finished" basement here in California. That would explain the prices around here.

Bank after bank of hundreds of gold, silver and bronze coins, tens of thousands in all, displayed behind thick glass. From ancient Rome through to today's Euro. Every era leaving its stamp on the money of Rome. Contemporary stained glass art is featured throughout showing the coin-making processes through the ages.

The collection's value is abundantly obvious, and although no armed guards can be seen, the doors are as thick as a Y2K shelter in Montana.

And this is yet another place in Rome where it's easy to get ahead.

Next installment: I wrap up the trip to Rome, with some weird pictures that we missed before. Coming later this month, Monterey, San Francisco, Northern Minnesota, and much more, as The Human goes into photo-overdrive.

From almost anywhere in central Rome you can see them, the flying horses on top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Well, ok, the horses aren't flying, the Hermes-type-guy is, but from a distance you can't see him, and it looks like flying horses.

The dome in the background is St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

Rome is like a giant city-sized Stairmaster, and the Emmanuel monument is good for burning off that luscious Italian dinner you had the night before.

An angel keeps watch over Rome from the top:

Further up we climbed...

At the top, the view is lovely. The nearby neighborhoods sparkle with the famous pine-covered hills in the distance:

The King overlooks Piazza Venezia, which is somewhat useful as a transit point but is also a great place to play Frogger -- Tourist Edition.

Yes, if you'll recall, Frogger is that 1980's video game in which a hapless frog attempts to cross a freeway without getting splatted. In Piazza Venezia, like most of Rome, there aren't specific walk signals to hold the traffic for pedestrians. You have to get across on your own. As the traffic is heavy, the only way to do this is to get a couple of people with you in a group and step off en masse into the oncoming traffic. The cars will actually stop, but not before your heart does. The point is to look absolutely fearless and committed to your little jaunt. Otherwise the drivers think they can scare you back on the sidewalk.

In our entire time in Rome, only one driver didn't stop, and as I hopped out of the way, he honked rudely. Must have been a tourist.

The last sight on our way back down the steps was the guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, similar to the American version.

Italy isn't as united as King Victor might have liked, however, and I'm told the tomb itself is closed due to threats of mischief. But this changing of the guard is quite well done.

Next installment: Rome's hidden treasure horde...

Atop Capitoline Hill is a museum sandwiched between the enormous wedding-cake Emmanuel Monument and the stunning remains of The Forum. In a single day it's easily possible to do the Collosseum, Palatine Hill, The Forum--

--the Capitoline Museum, and the Emmanuel and still have time to walk into the heart of the old city for dinner.

The Capitoline's appeal is in its irreverent (perhaps unintentional) exhibits, such as this fine collection of disembodied parts:

And it certainly is one place in in the world where you know you can really get ahead.

Outside the museum is yet another European Guy Onna Horsey, a statue so common on the continent that it lends creedence to Jung's theory of collective consciousness. This one is nicely set off by the pastel colors of the museum.

The museum is inside a former palace, and many of the rooms still have palacial appointments, including chandeliers.

The paintings can be, er, intimidating.

There are the usual naked drunken men that one finds in Rome:

This reminds me: at the time we visited, the museum was undergoing some sort of renovation, and try as we might, we couldn't find our way from one side to the other. Somehow the two are connected, but I couldn't figure out how to get to the other side without walking across the small piazza. So remember, the Capitoline Museum is on BOTH sides of the square. You know you haven't seen both sides if you haven't seen the naked drunken man (above).

Aaack! What is this!

Two babies suckling on a gigantic she-wolf? How weird is that? Well, I just gave you directions involving a giant naked man, so actually, not weird at all.

And so after a brief visit, we set our sights on the rest of Rome.

It's one of the best sights in Rome, and must be seen after dark to be truly appreciated. It's not by Michelangelo or Bernini, and you won't find it in most art history textbooks. But it is one of the most memorable sculptures in town. It's the Trevi Fountain, nestled in rabbit-warren streets in the heart of old Rome. Art critics scoff at it, but the light dancing in the fountain on a clear evening is magical.

In summer, I'm told, this experience is significantly less romantic due to the crush of crowds and the suffocating heat and humidity. But we enjoyed our November Trevi fountain.

If you look closely at the base of the fountain, it appears that the sculptures and the building behind them are growing out of rough rocks, like a tree with roots.

More celebrated in the art world is Bernini's masterful Four Rivers Fountain, in the Piazza Navona. This piazza is one of the largest pedestrian-only piazzas in the city and the fountain is its mighty centerpiece.

Each of the men carved into the fountain represents one of the four greatest rivers known at the time of the Renaissance. Intriguingly, one of the figures, the Nile, has his head covered, as nobody knew where its headwaters were at the time the sculpture was carved.

The center of the chunk of marble reveals the buildings behind like a keyhole.

From another perspective, a confused horse surgese through the middle of the sculpture while one of the rivers raises his hand in horror while being run over by a BMW.

Some of these river guys need to hit the gym.

But then again, at night, everything looks better.

Click here for previous chapters of "A Week in Rome".

A long subway ride from the old city, deep in the Roman suburbs, is a massive but ordinary-looking outcropping of the Vatican known commonly as St. Paul's Outside the Walls (of the city of Rome). One of the largest churches in the world, it is about as far from any other tourist attraction as you can get and still be roughly inside Rome. On the blustery November afternoon when we took the trip, we thought we'd see the peaceful columns of a stately cathedral, good for a picture or two. We got a full-blown religious experience.

Disappointed after the riches of Florence and the Vatican City, we wandered back the way we came, past the small door. We saw some tourists disappearing inside, and in a last-ditch effort to get something out of our long trek to this place, decided to follow them.

We found ourselves in a small anteroom. A young priest, dressed in formal robes, motioned for us to go forward toward another door around a corner. We did so, and as we stepped through the inner doorway, were bathed in a blaze of candlelight and color.

Some kind of massive ceremony was going on. Another young priest motioned for use to proceed into the main section of the cathedral. On our way we passed crowds of robed priests and altar boys.

Along the side of the great cathedral, shafts of light come in from above and reflect on the marble below. Dad takes it all in.

A crowd of about a thousand parishoners is packed in, watching a ceremony presided over by an older man, perhaps a bishop or a cardinal. It is clear from the behavior of the parishioners that this man is special, as they strain to take pictures of him, flashes sparkling throughout the crowd. Signs warning not to take pictures are universally ignored. Video cameras run. Parishoners in wheelchairs are parked throughout. The crowd is diverse in age, from young families to the elderly. Priests are dotted throughout the crowd, watching with rapt attention.

Well, almost all of them were paying attention. Some were looking a bit, er, bored.

Or maybe just over-inspired. In the back, the fathful take to their knees as the ceremony, which seemed to involve the blessing of some sort of artifact, went a hundred yards away in the altar.

Worshipping, as they are, in one of the most religiously significant places in the history of the earth, surrounded by the ghosts of Athena and Zeus and those that came even before them. Rome is, above all, a spiritual place.

I ran into some technical difficulties last week posting the remainder of my Castel Sant' Angelo pics, but I think I've got that all ironed out. So here at the ones you missed. We'll start out with a 2,000 year old bridge--yes, the three arches in the middle are original:

The Tiber River itself is, like Florence's River Arn, a slow-moving river by Western US standards. Wide and lazy it winds between what was the center of Imperial Rome and the outlying developments, such as the Vatican City. From the top of Castel Sant' Angelo, we could see vast clouds of swallows dancing over the river, almost like flights of bats.

And finally, the sunset over the Vatican City.

Europe's high speed train systems redefine the day trip. Instead of a traveling a dozen miles out of town, we travelled 200 in less than an hour and a half, from a train conveniently located near our hotel. After flying through dozens of tunnels--which made the tracks almost like a thread stiched in and out of fabric, the train a needle flying at a relatively leisurly 130 mph--we landed near downtown Florence, and easy walk from all that makes this city the world capital of the Rennaissance.

My first impressions of Florence, after several days in Rome, were suprising to me. First of all, whereas the tourist areas of Rome were immaculate--barely a scrap of trash--Florence seemed a bit messy and unkempt. Second, the streets seemed more confining and crowded than Rome's--an optical illusion, perhaps, caused by the lack of pedestrian-only streets in most parts of town. In Rome when the streets get narrow, they're generally for pedestrians and Vespas.

But there is an allure the Florence only hinted at a block or two from the train station. Just ask the lamppost.

First stop: the Museum of San Marco, home to a luscious collection of Fra Angelico murals. Fra Angelico, a brother in this famous (and infamous) order of Monks, had a brilliant, saturated, stylized pieces that are instantly recognizable. Fra Angelico, circa 15th century, would represent the, er, famous side of this former monestary.

Now, for the infamous side, we turn to our trusty Rick Steves "Florence & Tuscany 2005", where we learn about Brother Savonarola, who came into power as head of Florence on a sort of "compassionate conservative" platform...and promptly went downhill:

Savaranola had an uncompromising and fanatical side, as his hair-shirt girdle attests. His government passed strict morality laws against swearing, blasphemy, gambling and onstentatious clothes, which were enforced by gangs of thuggish teenagers.

Then the Florentines dragged him into the main square, hanged him slowly, and burned him up. They really knew how to handle things back then.

This tower on the Palazzo Vecchio is near that lovely spot, which can be exactly located in front of an obscene-looking Neptune fountain I will let you discover on your own.

Anyhow, back to San Marco. After exiting that very worthwhile site, we headed nearby to the Accademmia to see David himself. As its name implies, the Accademmia is primarily a place of study, and the museum is very small. But the few Michalangelos it has can be seen without wading through room after room of overly fat cherubs, and for that I will always be grateful. Now as for David, he's a big guy:

And he really has no bad side:

At this point I should note that it is against the rules to take pictures of David. This is mainly to protect nearby paintings from the degrading effects of a flash. But I had my flash off, and sneaked a couple of pics by strategically angling the camera up from my hip. I imagine I'll go to hell for that.

After the Accademmia, we walked into central Florence, which gets exponentially more interesting. The narrow streets open up into a huge piazza, the centerpiece of which is Il Duomo, a cathedral which screams renassance as much as others we saw whispered of earlier times.

Marble coats the outside of the building like mother-of-pearl, and the belltower shoots straight up into the sky.

Inside, the building is starkly simple, restful and calming, unlike the ornate interiors of cathedrals in Rome. It was like a cathedral inside-out, with the fancy parts outside.

That is, until you enter the altar area and look up.

That riot of color features hell on the bottom circle and heaven at the top. In case anyone needs a visiual aid.

Leaving Il Duomo, we headed toward the Uffizi Gallery, where we toured without standing in line thanks to reservations. The highlights of the museum for me were the Boticelli room, which contains enormous, gigantic, extremely famous Boticelli paintings. You might think you don't know who Botticelli is, but then you walk into that room and you realize you've seen his whispy Venus on everything from soap cartons to Monty Python skits.

Another highlight is Michelangelo's round painting of the holy family, giving us an opportunity to see up close the artistry we saw from a distance at the Sistene Chapel. Lush, brilliant colors and ultra-realistic perspective that makes you fell like you can shake Mary's hand.

Outside of the Uffizi--just in back of it, in fact--is the River Arn, a slow-moving body of water crossed by dozens of bridges. The most famous of these is Ponte Vecchio, home to Florence's jewelers for hundreds of years. It apparently started out as some sort of meat chopping district, but the Medicis didn't like the smell and switched it over to pretty baubles. I doubt there are any bargains on Ponte Vecchio, but it's worth the stroll if only for the views.

We turned around and headed back toward Il Duomo to catch the sunset from the top of the dome. On the way, we got sidetracked by, well...

And dinner across from the Uffizi:

Said hello to a pig as we passed by:

And then, up the dome. We figured, after climbing St. Peter's, how hard could this possibly be? Well, it was pretty hard. But the views were worth it:

And finally, at the top, the end of a lovely day-trip to Florence.