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Thursday, April 12, 2001-Tuscany

The Tuscan region of Italy well deserves its reputation. Not only is Tuscany the home of the Renaissance with its explosion of artists, architects and writers, but also it is home to great food, wines and countryside that is breathtaking.

The rolling hills of Tuscany, bathed in spring greens, dipping into and out of valleys have captured our imaginations. The hills are low; our map shows us peaks of less than 600 meters. They are comprised of rolling meadows broken up by vineyards and small wooded areas with scrub oak most recognizable. Often the meadows have a single or small group of cypress at the crest of the hill. Tiny communities stand guard over the vineyards and often at a summit, a hill town stands sentinel over all.

The hill towns are as exquisite as anticipated. Perched at the peak of hills, walls or ramparts surround old rock-walled buildings and present as pleasing a picture as you could ever hope for. And this is only in the Il Chianti area of Tuscany - we have heard there are better areas!

We left Firenze on Tuesday with the intention of heading east towards Assisi then backtracking towards Siena but changed our plans and decided to head west to San Gimignano (since we cannot pronounce it, it becomes San Jee-an-anon-amo to us). We followed the S222, which we learned was known as the Strada Chiantigiana, since it is in Chianti wine region. It is also the main tourist route and we become an unwilling participant in a German campers' caravan. The Germans are on the move in Italy at this time of year, in fact the Dutch, whom we consider the world-class travelers, have all but disappeared.

The countryside was almost worth the tourist gridlock (well, it wasn't that bad), giving us our first exposure to the Tuscan landscape. The hills are like a green sheet laid out which has been plucked into continuous little peaks. This trip is offering us the chance to see the full growing season of vineyards. We began at harvest last fall, with the vines full-leaved and grape-laden. Winter showed us the barren vines being trimmed for the next year's growth. Now we watch as the new, light green leaves burst forth on the vines. As in other wine regions we have visited, Il Chianti has an abundance of wine tasting/buying shops, most identified as Gallo Nero or black cockerel (that's rooster to us ignoramus'). Since we have been partaking in quite a bit of Chianti (and to be honest, not finding it the world's best wine) we didn't stop for more. The Strada Chiantigiana is a prosperous region with beautiful farmhouses and when we saw a hilltown it was lost in a wealth of newer homes spilling out from it. We were in search of the perfect hilltown and assumed it would be on a lesser-beaten track. But San Gimignano has a reputation for beauty and we felt we could not miss it while we were in Tuscany.

We left the S222 and approached San Gimignano from the north. It crowns a hill, almost literally with its 13 towers within the walls. From a distance it looks like a miniature skyscraper cityscape. The towers were symbols of power and wealth of the city's medieval families and originally numbered 72. (Did 59 families go broke??) We drove around the city walls to find our campground, 2km away in Santa Lucia.

And here we shall take a break for a short note on the toilet facilities in Italy.

Remember the squatters we took photos of? In northern European countries they are an oddity, thank the gods. In Italy they are the norm. We have finally reached the toilet region of Europe I do not have fond memories of. So far, we may find one sitter and the rest are continental (squatters), the exact opposite of the north. No other campers seem to like them either, you would think the campgrounds would change them over. Even Firenze, with its extremely busy site, had almost all continental WCs. According to all reports we have heard, Greece gets even better - there you cannot flush toilet paper down the loo's for fear of clogging the plumbing! They have little paper baskets - wipe and deposit - Oh Boy!!

Back to Italy.

The campground was so-so and was crammed with Germans. We really don't have to worry about being the only campers anymore and in fact we may eventually miss the aloneness; the campgrounds are packed. It isn't high season yet, so I am hoping this is all because of the Easter holiday and that it will tone down after Easter.

We got up the next morning and rode our bikes to San Gimignano. We are rusty. We hadn't ridden the bikes for a while - since San Remo I think, and even though this was only 2 km, it was all uphill and it hurt!

Thursdays are market day in the town and we thought that would be fun, we could buy some badly needed fruit and veggies, but that turned out to be a disaster! The market was geared for the one-jillion tourists visiting - out of some 50-60 stalls, five were devoted to food purchasing. Between the market and the tourists, we were run out of town within an hour. San Gimignano is a fabulous hill town, but don't come on Thursdays, or during high season, because if it was this bad this early I pity anyone who wants to come between June-September. Actually, the prime time to visit this town may be in the early, early morning before the tourists arrive. We certainly blew it and it is a shame because this is another of these authentic medieval towns, like Rothenburg, Bruges and Carcassonne, which was preserved by misfortune for the modern world to savor.

If we could clear out of our campground by noon, we wouldn't have to pay another nights' fee; it was 11:15 when we decided to depart San Gimignano and we were actually packed up and driving through the camping gates at 11:42. As I said, we had had enough!

We continued our drive, following smaller roads, through more extraordinary countryside, never tiring of the views. More tiny hilltowns cropped up in between larger, better known ones; Certaldo, Volterra, Colle di Val d'Elsa. We followed one small road to its termination at Mazzolla, and found such a small hilltown we joked it must really be the family Mazzolla's homestead. Fifteen kilometers outside of Siena we passed Monteriggioni, founded in 1203, with perfectly preserved circular walls and fourteen defensive towers jutting up amongst them. Dante made reference to this walled city in his Inferno. It was another picture perfect hilltown.

Three hours and countless towns, vineyards and hills after leaving San Gimignano, we arrived in Siena, a hilltown evolved into a city and major rival of Firenze in centuries past. Tomorrow will be our first visit into the town, but today we found our campground and set up. The Sienese campground had SITTER TOILETS! That was a welcome relief.

Good Friday, April 13, 2001

We began our day earlier than usual intending to hop the bus into town and perhaps see if Siena does anything special on this day. Bus tickets in hand (and validated) we rode bus #8 towards the city. We were heading for Il Centro (center of town) and rode the often-stopping bus valiantly (and ignorantly) through the walled gates into the city proper. Once we stopped at a bus station and debated getting off, but we assumed we were to go to the end of the line and past experiences told us to stick with the bus lest we never find our return station. At one stop, some bus cops boarded and requested proof of tickets. We proudly showed ours - we don't often make the same mistake twice! - he initialed it, smiled and got off again. We rode and rode, getting a marvelous took at Siena but never getting closer to the center. In fact we were definitely heading away from the city proper and eventually left it altogether through another walled gate to the south. At the end of the line, somewhere out in the Tuscan countryside, we asked the bus driver what we did wrong. He told us to keep on the bus and he would tell us where to get off along his return route. We figured if nothing else we more or less got a tourist bus tour of the city for a fraction of the cost!

We were told where to get off, near the Porta Tufi, make the first left and go straight to reach the Duomo, the nearest destination.

The only thing I really knew about Siena was learned from the book The Winds of War, which talked of a picturesque hilltown that each year had a mad horserace around it's square in the center of town. Since reading that I learned the square was called Il Campo and that the horserace was a fierce competition between the 17 contrade (neighborhoods) of the city. All that I had learned did not say how captivating the city of Siena is.

Siena sits on three adjoining hills which meet where Il Campo resides. Those hills determined the development of the city and everything seems to go uphill or down. Houses appear to grow at different levels, from a distance seeming to be stacked on top of each other. Accustomed to marble and stone by now, we have seen more red brick buildings in this city than anywhere else in Italy. Small, small streets (you should see the buses - which are narrower than normal buses - maneuver through them, almost touching the walls) lead you past the most delightful alleyways in which it is common to see a small covered, windowed bridge adjoining two buildings, or an arched walkway. Streets bump into each other giving you views of green shuttered windows against brick or brown rock walls. Peeks into shops reveal low-ceilinged, arched-walled interiors, and the streets were paved with blocks squared off by stonemasons centuries ago. Siena is a jewel.

We reached the Duomo and were bowled over by its beauty. First of all, the church had preserved its piazza, leaving the visitor enough ground room to really savor the cathedral. So many churches we have seen have lost their sense of presence by being crowded by other buildings (Salisbury and Florence were also an exception to this). The exterior is of white marble accented with pink and dark green marble. Three archways mark the front entrances. Statues in niches abound. A large dome, or cupola rises out of the center of the church. The bell tower (campanile) matches the Duomo in design.

But the inside - mama-mia!!! I thought the Pisa Duomo sent me in raptures - this one floored me! The whole floor in covered with 49 different mosaic designs ranging from scenes from the Bible to classical themes. Many are covered to protect them and shown to visitors only once a year, but the examples we saw were fabulous. And then there are the multiple arches made from horizontally striped multi-colored marble. The ceiling is night blue with golden stars painted. Looking up from the nave, you see the heads of 172 popes peering down at you! Pisano carved a pulpit here six years after completing his Pisa pulpit and this one is also a stunner. Small chapels contain art by famous Sienese and Italian masters from the 14-16 centuries.

This trip is giving us a crash course in art history. We are learning about the development of art from about the 11th century through the 20th. Obviously right now we are in Renaissance 101. I haven't known or cared much about frescoes until being exposed to them here in Italy. About all I knew was Leonardo's Last Supper and how it was crumbling off the walls. Seeing the frescoes in these churches and public houses has been a real eye-opener for both of us. We are learning to really appreciate the skill and artistic abilities of the masters who painted them.

If you will pay 3000( you can enter the Piccolomini Library built by Pope Pius III to house his uncle, Pope Pius II's books. There you will be treated to a room covered with magnificent frescos by Pinturicchio depicting the life of Pius II. They were gorgeous, the whole room was gorgeous! I am getting scared to go to the Vatican-all this beauty in these " lesser" cathedrals is overwhelming, what's gonna happen when we get there???

After over an hour sucking in the highlights the Duomo had to offer we finally, slowly, made our way to Il Campo, the heart of the city.

We stopped to buy a couple of sandwiches then walked down the hilly streets to the piazza. Il Campo is a large shell-shaped square at the convergence of the three hills making up Siena. We joined other idlers on the piazza for a picnic in the lovely sunshine. Il Campo gently slopes down towards the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) distinguished by its 102-meter tall bell tower, the Torre del Mangia. The tower was named after it's first bell ringer, an idle fellow nicknamed Mangiaguadagni (literally "eat the profits") and was built in 1338-48. The palace, begun in 1288 begins in stonework with Sienese arches and the higher stories are built of brick. Inside is a museum with secular frescoes depicting, among other things, allegories of good and bad government. All sorts of artwork abound in this city, but the Renaissance paintings we loved in Florence are less common here. The Sienese art of the same period has more of a Byzantine look to us, flatter and more dependent on gold gilding. It makes us appreciate even more the beauty of Florentine art.

Returning to Il Campo we tried to imagined the Palio, the famous horse race that takes place here twice a year. Thousands of people crowd the center while ten horses, representing the contrade, race the perimeter three times in about 90 seconds! The parades and pageantry seems to begin days before and culminates in this race. Each neighborhood has it's own crest which is represented on colorful flags used in intricate flag team demonstrations during the Palio. That must be a sight! Unfortunately we will miss it since the two events happen on July 2 and Aug. 16. If you are in the area, tell us about it!

Our second day in Siena started off late due to inclement weather. It rained until 10 am and we didn't leave the campground until noon. Even then it was cold and windy. We had read about St. Catherine of Siena and how her relics (her head) were in the church of San Dominico. Overcome with curiosity, we just had to see her. She was responsible for talking Pope Gregory into returning the papacy from Avignon to Rome in the 1300s. She was born in Siena and died in Rome. I guess they brought parts of her back home because we saw her head and one of her fingers. San Domingo is a large brick, barn-shaped, handsome everyday working church, rather than a showpiece although it had some marvelous frescoes (there we go again) and lovely marble work. The rest of our day in Siena was spent exploring the streets, discovering little squares every couple of blocks and attempting to get lost, only to find our bearings by looking up and seeing the Duomo campanile or the Torre de Mangia. Sienna is surprisingly compact - when we looked at our map of the city it seemed spread out all over, but the map is deceiving since so many of the streets are up or down hill, taking much less space than a flat street would.

Needing to purchase food (it was Saturday-panic day) we returned to our bus stop near the sports stadium. There we learned that the professional football game taking place at 3pm had diverted all bus traffic and so now it became an adventure to find a different bus stop (ever try reading bus diversion schedules in Italian?). We found bus #8 but learned we needed bus #14 to reach the supermarket. Bus #14 was right behind #8 so we got lucky there. Then that driver told us that after shopping, we must take bus #3 to get to our campground. It worked out smoothly (except our one-hour bus ticket expired about five minutes before the bus came, thankfully no bus cops came aboard) and we returned home feeling secure with meals for three days.

Easter Sunday April 15, 2001

Having determined that Easter Sunday in Siena held no special events and we awoke to a beautiful day, we decided to continue our way to Assisi. On our way to Assisi we took a circuitous route through more fabulous Tuscan countryside. We had not seen any livestock for weeks but finally we saw sheep grazing the hillsides and were relieved to see evidence that the inhabitants did consume something besides wine.

We drove through several hilltowns beginning with Asciano, then past Abbazia di M. Oliveto-Maggiore, an abbey of some renown to all the German tourists who were stopped there. We chose not to join them. We passed Buenoconvento, Santa Quirico d'Orcia, Pienza (a UNESCO site) and Montepulciano, one of the highest hilltowns in Italy at 604 meters above sea level. Every last one of them deserved a lingering visit, but we chose Montepulciano with its spectacular views of the region. Then we continued beyond Chiusi to track down some Etruscan tombs, but they were now museums with a gate guard wanting to see your ticket (purchasable in Chiusi on any day but Easter!) We returned to Chiusu for information and possible tickets and found a lovely ancient hilltown whose history dated all the way back to the Etruscan civilization almost three thousand years ago (even before the Romans!). It was one of 12 most important members in the Etruscan federation dating at that time. There is a creditable Etruscan museum here but the doors closed at 1pm just as we tried to enter. We did get into Chiusi's early Christian cathedral and were surprised to find an interior richly decorated with paintings and mosaics. This was probably the most ornate small church we have yet to have seen in our travels.

Chiusi is at the border between the Tuscan and Umbrian provinces and we no sooner crossed that border than we detected a difference in terrain. The rolling hills were left behind and flat lands (perfect for bike riding) bumped into foothills that lead to snow-capped mountains in the distance (a terrain more familiar to us and consequently less interesting). Perhaps 50 km east of Chiusi was Perugia, looking way too big and busy, and 15 km later we arrived at Assisi.

Assisi, completely enclosed by its walls, rests on the side of Mt. Subasio. From the valley its pink and white marble walls and buildings shimmer in the sunshine, a very different look than most hilltown which look like extensions of the earth on which they sit. Its bright, light coloring makes for an impressive sight that was appreciated even back in the Roman days. Umbria is recovering from a devastating 1997 earthquake that also damaged much of Assisi and its' St. Francesco Basilica. While the Basilica has been repaired, parts of the town are still under reconstruction.

After looking over them both, we chose the second of two campgrounds in the area - the first is above the town on the side of the hill and a fair walk into town, all downhill but a steep, long uphill return. The other is in the flats about 3km from the city and offers a minibus that, for $1.50 roundtrip, will drive you to one of the gates of Assisi and pick you up later. We chose that campground. It is Easter and, stupid us, we thought by now the tourists would be heading for home, having completed their religious duties, but the campground was alarmingly full (though we easily got in) for one having only opened for the season, and around Assisi every parking lot and space was filled to capacity. And here we thought we were so clever waiting for the actual holiday to travel and resettle.

This is the home of St. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1228 after founding the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church. Two years after his death the Basilica was begun. Basically two churches, one above the other, they were a compromise between factions of the Franciscan order, one stressing simplicity (lower church) and the other wishing for an enormous monument (upper church). Whatever, they are both exquisite. Both levels are known world-wide for their wall paintings (frescoes). The upper level has famous (and restored) frescoes by Giotto depicting the life of St. Francis in 28 scenes. Above these scenes are more paintings by masters of that period, depicting scenes from Christ's life and Biblical stories. The lower level has frescoes by Cimabue (Giotto's teacher), Simone Martini and Giotto (see, I said we were learning a lot of art history!) mostly depicting scenes from Christ's life. Beneath the two levels is the elegant yet simple crypt containing St. Francis' remains.

The basilica was well repaired after the earthquake and most of the frescoes in the damaged upper church had been saved. I couldn't see where repairs had been made, however I had never been there before (Bruce could detect some spots). It looked to me as though everything possible had been well cleaned and the colors freshened.

The rest of the town did not fair quite as well as the Basilica. Cranes and scaffolding were evident as reconstruction continued, but the town is charming. All of these walled towns are charming! (I've said that before, haven't I?) We found courtyards with baskets of blooming flowers, small alleyways leading to others or dead-ending into homes. Quite like Siena, all of Assisi is on a hill, so every street is busy going up or down (depending on which way you are traveling). We keep admiring the inhabitants their healthiness, walking up and down the hills constantly. ("Check those great lungs, babe!"). Of course we had a lot of trouble differentiating the residents from the tourists, Assisi is packed with St Francis-freaks, but somehow this was not as annoying as our day at San Gimignano. We walked to the town square along Via St. Francesco, the main boulevard leading from the Basilica to the center of town. We passed uncountable medieval homes, churches, public buildings and souvenir shops, some being repaired in what looked like good reproductions of the original structure (with some rebar thrown in!). Before it was Christian Assisi's town square, it was the old Roman forum and a Temple to Minerva remains, although it has been reconsecrated. Nonetheless, it still survives in its original form so we popped by to see it (the interior was impressively gaudy in its baroque-ness). From the town square, our next destination was the church of St. Clare, fellow Assisi-an, follower of Francis and founder of the order of Poor Clares.

Now, I don't want to sound as if on a rant, but what is with the European Catholic Church's need to display various body parts of poor dismembered people and call them sacred? It is becoming a minor quest to make sure we visit them when we learn of them. So far we have seen blood of Christ trapped in a crystal, a couple of full skeletons dressed in bejeweled robes, a couple more skeletons dressed in bejeweled robes with a veil or two to obscure the skull, a couple of individual bones, usually from a hand or foot.

Then we hit Italy! In Siena we were treated to the preserved head and finger of its patron, St. Catherine. Here is a woman who died in the 1300s and her preserved head (sinking eye socket and all) still has skin on it! So did her finger (including its fingernail!!) How did they do that? And don't tell me it's a miracle, because when we viewed St. Clare (in the whole) I took some time to look (despite all the other morbid, gawking tourists squeezing in for a glimpse). She died in 1240-something, almost 800 years ago, around the age of 60. Yet here is the body looking no older than 30. No decay, no sunken cheeks, nothing to indicate that; 1) St. Clare wasn't just taking a short nap, or more likely; 2) this was just a mannequin dressed up in the habit of that order! Now I know that isn't so, but it shows how unreal the body looked, or how the Catholic Church had surpassed the ancient Egyptians in the art of mummification!! Really though, someone must have taken St. Clare's body and sculpted it with some sort of goop, 'cuz that was no natural body! Thank heaven they had the sense to leave St. Francis entombed in his sarcophagus away from all our prying eyes.

We felt we couldn't spend the amount of time we were allowing ourselves in Italy without visiting Assisi and it, quite like everything else we have seen, has pleased us. The only problem was that damn weather. Easter, our travel day, was magnificent - crystal clear, sunny, warm. Today, as I type this at 7:30 pm, it is hailing! This between the downpours preceded by thunder and lightening. We got back to the campground from Assisi just in time; within a half hour of our return it began raining. Tomorrow it is supposed to be clear - we'll see.

Tuesday, April 17, 2001

The thunderstorms subsided until around 2 am when we awakened by thunder cracking right over our heads in a successful effort by Mother Nature to rob us of some sleep. Eventually she tired of us and we returned to the land of Nod. The next morning we got several giggles out of attempts to dry out everything we had foolishly left out: our chairs, table, trashcan, flip-flops, clothes-pin bag (half full of water), bucket - everything was soaked! After a breakfast of fruit salad, coffee and cocoa we left Assisi under gray clouds that cleared out as our day progressed.

I made an unfair judgment about Umbria earlier, condemning it to mediocrity in my description. As we drove along another scenic route through the foothills we saw some beautiful land - not quite as distinct as Tuscany, but quite lovely nevertheless. Italy really can be called "Bella Italia!" it is beautiful. We saw more hilltowns on distant peaks as we drove, passed through sleepy villages, found more vineyards and crossed summit passes of small mountains as we journeyed south towards Orvieto.

When we finally could see Orvieto, we were surprised by it's size. It is supposed to be vintage hilltown, and it sits on its "mesa" looking as majestic as can be, but it was so large! We were expecting a small, quaint town, much like the ones we have been seeing, confined in size by the hilltop on which they perch - Orvieto had more room to grown on, and it did. As much as I had desired to see them all, we realized we needed a break from hilltowns for a while when we were able to pass by this beauty with no regrets. One last hilltown on this leg of Italy, Civita, and we will get a break from them while we are in Roma.

We passed Orvieto, intending to do Civita (about 15 hilly km away) but we needed to get gas before we tackled it and gas stations are closed from 1 to 3pm. It was 1:45 (sometimes we don't plan things well) so we decided instead to find a campground and hit Civita tomorrow. Looking at our map, Lago di Bolsena, a good-sized lake, was staring us in the face and there was that little blue tent symbol for camping right on its shore. So off we went. We chose Camping il Lago, a small campground right on the shore (and I mean, right on the shore). It turns out Lago de Bolsena is the fifth largest lake in Italy and the largest volcanic lake in Europe. It is a pretty one too and quite the summer resort with lots of facilities for vacationers. We just kicked back around the campground, rode our bikes a bit around the lake and, in general, took it easy. The day turned out to be lovely and tomorrow promises to be great for visiting Civita.

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

While trying to research hilltowns, we read Rick Steve's account of a little hilltown named Civita. Thinking this may be the hilltown we were in search of; compact, non-touristy, picturesque as hell, we made note of its location. Now, after two plus weeks in Italy, having gone through 10-15 hilltowns and pretty burnt out, we were in the vicinity of Civita. I really expected to be let down by this latest in our quest for the perfect hilltown, if only because of the overkill factor.

Civita is called the "dying town" because erosion is tearing down the hill it sits atop. Eventually erosion will pull down the buildings one by one until nothing is left. It is almost completely depopulated, most of the residents having moved to a nearby town. It is also almost perfect! Tiny, almost entirely made of the tufa rock that makes up the area, it has been occupied since the time of the Etruscans. To reach the town, you must cross a man-made bridge, the natural bridge having eroded away, then up the side of the hill. You pass through an old Etruscan entryway and a Roman arch and you finally arrive in Civita. It is quiet, few people and no machinery marr it's serenity. Supposedly there are only fifteen local citizens left in the town although wealthy big city-slickers are buying up the property. The church, in the large square in center of town, was once an Etruscan temple, then a Roman one and now a Christian church. Etruscan columns still stand in front of the church. (It also has two embalmed saints residing in the interior - see above rant.) The views of the surrounding countryside are stupendous, the silence interrupted only by cowbells ringing from below somewhere, and a dog barking in surprise. The town is compact, you can walk the diameter in less than five minutes, but you don't. You dally down small dead-end alleys just to see what is there: You pause to shoot photos of the flowers blooming in pots framing an entryway: You look closely at a stone block to try and read the Roman writing on it.

This was it; the perfect hilltown. The only problem I had with it was, I hadn't discovered it myself. Do I leave perfection alone or do I go in search of my own? That is the question. Fortunately I don't need to answer that right now.

Leaving Civita we caught the S2 and took it directly to Roma and our campground, Camping Flaminia, just at the northeastern city limits. The campground managers think the bad weather is over, and for the next three months, nothing but sunshine. We wish!!! We did some housekeeping and clothes washing, I typed this and tomorrow we will make our first forage into Roma, where we will also hope to post this baby.

TTFN

Thursday, April 19, 2001 - Rome, Day One 

Have you ever wondered what it was like to walk the very road that Julius Caesar strode over? Or to stand at the site that Mark Antoni made his famous speech, "Friends, Romans and Countrymen..." Or witness St. Lawrence being roasted alive, call out his last statement: "I think I am done on this side, you can turn me over"? Today we wondered. Today we visited ancient Rome. Coming out of the metro station Coloseo, we emerged onto the Piazza Coloseo, no more than one, three lane wide, street away from that wonder of ancient Rome, the Coliseum. Abused as it has been, 2000 years after it was built, this is a wonder to behold. A gigantic, oval, four levels high in its heyday, marble structure, this was the amphitheater where 80,000 Roman citizens would come to be entertained by gladiators fighting wild animals and each other, and when they were done water was pumped in so naval battles could be staged (for pity's sake!). The coliseum was built in 8 years in AD 72-80 by (among others) Hebrew prisoners, and at its inauguration, 9000 wild animals were killed over 100 days. The Coliseum was built on the site were the hated Emperor Nero had erected a colossal statue of himself, hence the amphitheatre's name. The Coliseum had special seating for the Emperor, patricians, cavaliers, and civil and military tribunes. Special areas were marked out for married people, young men with their tutors, and unmarried women. Finally the plebeians (the rest of us) filled in the blanks. Normally open to the air, on hot or rainy days it could be covered with an immense velarium (which since it was put by sailors, I will assume was like sail cloth). Originally made of marble, after the sacking of Rome by the Normans in 1084, it was used as a quarry to construct other buildings. In the 1700s one of the popes recognizing the historical value of the coliseum and fearing for its survival, protected it by making it a permanent Way Of The Cross. In as sad condition as it arrives to us, it is an awe-inspiring monument and in its glory, magnificent barely describes how it must have looked. We were in the heart of ancient Rome. At the base of the Coliseum was the Via Sacra, the oldest road in Rome. That means this road is over 2,500 years old! That is 125 generations, so add great to grandma 125 times and you may get an idea how long this road has been around. And it is documented - how many greats can we add to our ancestors and know who they were? This was the road used for triumphal marches into the city, displaying all the loot or prisoners captured. We were able to make out grooves in the stone paving that were made by chariots as they passed along it. The Via Sacra winds around the Capitoline Hill, one of the famous "seven hills of Rome" and ends in the Forum, and the Forum was the political heart of ancient Rome. Here is where those three events in the first paragraph took place. Cicero, the great orator, made his speeches here on the rostra, inciting the crowds so much that Augustus Caesar finally had his head and hands removed from his body and put on display there. The Vestal Virgins (we have all heard of them even if not what they did) kept their fire lit in the Temple of Vesta here. Almost anything you know about Ancient Rome took place here. This part of Rome was an active, living area for - get this - 1000 years! And then, for over 1000 years it has been in ruins! I am still stunned by the timescale of the Roman civilization. A surprising thing about the Forum is how compact it is. Not much longer than 3 city blocks, it was loaded with important buildings, from the Senate to the treasury in the Temple of Saturn. The tomb of Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome is here, along with the oldest inscription in Latin, from the 6th century BC. Temples and official buildings, monumental columns, triumphal arches, even a park found room in this small area. It must have been something to see. Today there are triumphal arches marking the entries into the Forum from both ends, many columns both standing and lying on the ground, building foundations and stories, stories, stories of the glory of Rome. We jumped in on a tour for a while, conducted by what I am sure was an American student studying here and earning spending money, who delighted us with anecdotes (such as the St. Lawrence story) about the times. The Forum lies between the Capitoline and Palantine hills. The Palantine is where evidence of a settlement, believed to be the original, has been discovered dating from 753BC, the official founding date of Rome. In Imperial Rome the Palantine was home to palaces of the emperors. Aside from the Forum and Coliseum, which took up most of our day, we walked the circumference of the Capitoline; on the Tiber side we saw the remains of the Circus Maximus. Remember the movie Ben Hur (showing my age here)? Charlton Heston has a chariot race on a racetrack that I'd bet was a reconstruction of the Circus Maximus. It held 200,000 people who, when they weren't thirsting for blood in the Coliseum, came here to bet on the races! At the top of the Capitoline hill we found the Piazza del Campidoglio designed by Michelangelo for Pope Pius III. Michelangelo placed a bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, the only "pagan" ancient bronze equestrian statue to survive Christian religious fervor, here. Currently there is an excellent museum housing Roman art that has been collected from around the city. Another statue, a little below the summit, marks the spot where the last Tribune, Cola di Rienzo, was murdered by the masses. That caught our fancy: we can imagine this leader of the people who pissed them off somehow, being chased up this hill, a symbol of the power of Rome, and finally caught and murdered before he could reach safety. The statue dating from 1880 is mounted on fragments of ancient remains. The Victor Emmanuel monument or Vittoriano, a huge, white, tribute to the first king of a united Italy and to the struggles the Italians went through to achieve unity, backs up to the hill. Great views can had from the different levels of the monument. Just across the piazza from the Vittoriano, we by chance, stumbled on something we had vowed to see way back in England at Hadrian's Wall. Trajan's Column, a fantastic marble column with carvings, spiraling round and round all the way to the top, marking Emperor Trajan's military victories. His ashes were buried in the base of the column. We had seen photographs of this column at Hadrian's Wall, where carvers had imitated it to honor Hadrian, and were so impressed we determined to find the original. At the very top of the column is a statue of St. Peter, so somehow this incredible pre-Christian column was saved, probably by reconsecrating it to the Christian church to make it acceptable. We have covered such a small area of this city and already have seen a wealth of history. Concentrating on ancient Rome today, everywhere we have walked we have seen old rock walls and pre-christian ruins, similar to the ancient walls and ruins we have marveled at through the rest of Europe. To think we are in the birthplace of those foreign monuments is exciting as can be. Friday, our second day, was spent in St. Peter's Basilica. We had planned to do it and the Vatican Museums together, but it was raining when we got up and we delayed the start of our day enough to forgo the museums this day. I didn't know this, but the Vatican has been the home of the Popes for only 600 years, after their return to Rome from Avignon. While six hundred years is a long time, the papacy has been in existence for just shy of 2000 years. Before 1309, when they left Rome for Avignon, their residence was in the Lateran. It wasn't until their return that they set up headquarters in the Vatican. For months I have inadequately tried to describe lesser basilicas, cathedrals and churches, how can I possibly do justice to St. Peter's Basilica? The square outside with its two half circle colonnades appears as arms stretching out to the public. Dead in the center of the square an obelisk and at the far end is the Basilica itself with Michelangelo's large bluish dome. I am sure everyone has seen photos of St. Peter's Square, and I can assure you that in reality it is just as impressive as are the photos. We decided to visit the dome and copula by way of elevator and stairs before we entered the basilica. We took the elevator up to the roof and the base of the dome. From there we entered a gallery circumferencing the dome and 53 meters above the church floor. Looking down into the church everything is miniaturized. The dome itself is decorated with beautiful mosaics and paintings and what struck me, uncomfortable with heights as I am, was who in their right mind would climb this high to paint the dome? Then we climbed 377 stairs, round and round, through a passageway between the two shells to finally reach the lantern at the top of the dome for stupendous views of the city. It was well worth the effort, advisable to anyone visiting Rome. Then we entered the Basilica. We made a beeline for Michelangelo's Pieta, that beautiful statue of the grieving Mary with her grown baby on her lap. It is as magnificent as his David. The sorrow in her expression is as sweet and as universal as it gets. I gazed enraptured for several minutes and was moved almost to tears. I cannot and will not attempt to describe the interior, except for a few points: It can hold up to 60,000 people inside its walls: It is magnificent: It is HUGE! We explored side chapels and monuments along a side row that continued a great distance; easily longer than any church we had yet visited, and when we looked into the rest of the church to get our bearings, found we had not yet reached the center of the basilica. St. Peter's was built over the tomb of St. Peter, which is in the center of the basilica beneath the dome. Bernini, a sculptor of renown, designed the high alter over the tomb, creating a bronze canopy, 29 meters tall, that is a masterpiece. There is an old bronze statue of St. Peter very near the center. Devout pilgrims either kissing or touching the foot have worn the toes of the right foot smooth over the centuries. Of course, every piece of art here is a masterpiece. The Vatican contains one of the richest collections of art in the world. The greatest artists in history have contributed to St. Peters, leaving a wealth of art. This is the tour de force, the pinnacle of Catholic churches and a must-see. And that is about all I will say about that. Saturday we strolled around the city. Somewhere I read that Rome is the focal point of ancient Roman and Christian history - I'll say! We found old Roman temples included into Catholic churches, ancient city walls incorporated into contemporary buildings, in the middle of busy intersections remains of marble Roman buildings sat forlorn as cars whiz by. Everywhere we looked we saw churches, we peeked into many of them to find all of them decorated with paintings or frescoes, often by masters, honoring whatever saint or order that church represented. We found the body of St. Catherine of Siena in a church (remember her head and finger are in Siena). We saw the great church dedicated to the Jesuits, with its magnificent painted ceiling and opulent alters and chapels. When we weren't seeing churches we saw more evidence of ancient Roman splendor. By accident we came to an archeological dig in the center of town that had been identified as the senate where Julius Ceasar had been murdered on the Ides of March. Today the dig doubled as a cat sanctuary. There are more cats in this city than I can believe! Walk anywhere amidst the remains of Rome and you will find cats lolling around. Evidently the Italian SPCA has been gathering up cats, neutering them, giving them a temporary home in the digs and encouraging people to adopt the cats into a permanent home. We made a point of going to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the burial spot of Paul of Tarsus, and found an elegant, multi-columned church that we enjoyed immensely. And that is saying something, there are so many churches it is suggested to visit for various reasons, that after a while you get numb, so to find a standout is...a standout! We searched out the Trevi Fountain and were disappointed to find the huge and beautiful fountain placed in a surprisingly small square littered with tourists that took away it's majesty. The well-known Spanish Steps, where tourists are known to congregate, was very nice despite the tourists. We went to the Pantheon, the Roman temple dedicated to all the gods and rededicated to the Christian one (saving it from destruction). The Pantheon has a dome that was the model for the dome in Florence. Brunelleschi came to Rome to study the Pantheon and learned the long lost secret of building a dome. The top of the Pantheon dome has an 8 meter circular opening that lets in the only light (and rain, etc.) Raphael the well known Renaissance painter is buried in here. We walked and we walked and we walked. We crossed the two bridges that connect the tiny Tiber Island to the mainland, built over 2000 years ago and still standing strong and secure. We passed into the Ghetto and past the Synagogue where police in bullet-proof vests armed with Uzis stood guard. (We suppose to protect the area from extremist reactions to middle east situation?) Finally we walked ourselves back to the train station for our eight minute ride to the campground (not long enough for our tired feet) and walked home to Queenie where, too exhausted to cook, we made a dinner of sardines, crackers and cheese, then fell into bed. Sunday we got up and made for the Via Appia. The Appian Way...probably the most famous road in the world, and we were going to walk it! Or part of it. Begun in 312BC (!) by some guy named Appius, this place was lined with tombs and sepulchers of patrician families for twenty generations. That equals out to 400 years! The Baths of Caracalla, at the point where the Via Appia reached the city, once held enough hot, cold and warm baths to accommodate 1500 people at a time. Today the complex is filled with beautiful gardens surrounded by the ruins. Further out was another circus (horse/chariot racing track), we could make out the shape more clearly here than at the Circus Maximus. The Catacombs, the first Christian burial grounds are out here. St. Peter, fleeing Rome during Nero's persecution of Christians, was stopped by a vision of Jesus here. The answer to his question "Domine, Quo Vadis" (Lord, where are you going), "I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time" sent Peter back to Rome to his death. At the end of his vision, proof of its reality took the form of Christ's footprints left in stone. A chapel was built on the spot and the stone is still there. (Christ had big feet!) On Sundays the Via Appia was closed to traffic and we hoped to take full advantage of that. We wished to see the original Roman road, made up of stone blocks like the Via Sacra or the Roman road we found in Italica, Spain, but we found only a very small stretch of that type, surrounded by a more recent cobblestone road. We walked several kilometers beyond the Catacombs (closed for lunch!) and never found the original Roman road or the tombs. It was very disappointing. Our feet and backs still hurt from yesterday so we walked back to a bus stop and slowly made our way back to civilization as we know it today. We took our tired bodies back home and spent a much needed restful remainder of the day in the campground. The Santa Cruz kids, Anna and Peter whom we originally met in Genoa, have resurfaced and are staying in our campground, so we spent a little time with them comparing notes on Rome.

Thursday, April 26, 2001 

Monday we stayed home, recovering from our last four days of exertions. Tuesday we visited the Vatican Museums. Talk about a wealth of religious treasures, the Vatican has a collection that must be unbeatable. The whole history of the Catholic Church is represented here. We saw reliquaries and small crosses, etchings, etc, starting from the Fifth Century, a time when the church was still getting established and it seems incredible that anything could have survived from then. The art commissioned by the church and collected over the centuries is astonishing. From Egyptian mummies and Greek classical statues and Etruscan artifacts and masterpieces of the ancient Roman world to the collection of paintings by masters of the western art world - this is such a huge collection! And each piece is documented - they know what it is and where it came from! Of course the buildings the collection is displayed in are finely decorated - wall paintings celebrating events within the Church's 2000 year history, floral and geometric designs covering ceilings and columns. It is almost as if, as the centuries rolled by producing new artists, they too wished to leave their mark on the Vatican buildings, so the rooms and hallways become cluttered with art. On our way to the Sistine Chapel, trying to beat the tour groups (didn't) we passed through the Raphael Rooms, almost as well-known as the Sistine ceiling. Raphael was some painter! His subjects have such a beauty and purity to them that I can almost identify them just by look. He decorated Pope Julius II living quarters at the same time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel and his frescoes are lovely. Four rooms were done by him and his students, all outstanding. I particularly enjoyed his fresco of the classical Philosophers, with Socrates and Aristotle the central figures, and friends of Raphael portrayed as other figures. Other artists were represented in other rooms as well. Finally we arrived at the Sistine chapel. When I first saw it on my previous trip I was amazed at how small the Sistine Chapel was. There is such a lot of decoration in this chapel that at first sight it is overwhelming! Looking up of course you see Michaelangelo's ceiling, but on each side wall are six magnificent frescoes by the likes of Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Pinturicchio and Perugino, all masters whose art we have admired over the last few weeks. Beneath the wall paintings are painted drapes, that when I first saw them, I mistook for real drapes and for thirty years I wondered what was behind them. Entering the chapel this time, the first thing out of my mouth was "They still have the drapes..." and then I realized they were painted! All these years I was fooled!! And now we turn our attention to the ceiling. The several-year, much disputed restoration project is finally completed and the colors of the paintings are so vibrant as to thrill you! The oh-so famous paintings of the Creation; of Adam and God in the center, the separation of light from dark, the Flood, the Expulsion from Eden, and all the accompanying art are just fabulous! Fabulous as it is, there is so much art it is impossible to take it all in. Thinking back on the chapel my impression is of color, light and multiple scenes and figures that must be looked at individually in order to take them in. Comparing the ceiling to the wall paintings you realize the breakthrough Michelangelo made in his painting, the perspective, the vibrant figures, they are just awesome. The Last Judgement is another revelation. Christ, in the center of the painting, is so powerful and dynamic, the saints and Virgin so apprehensive and the saved and lost souls so hopeful or fearful as to demand your attention. This is one expressive painting. One cannot dispute Michelangelo's genius. We left the Sistine and spent four more hours wandering through the Vatican museums, perusing the Greek statuary, including the Laocoon and busts of Pericles always portrayed wearing a helmet, the ruler of Athens and builder of the Parthenon. We visited the Vatican Picture Gallery and saw many paintings, we found a beautiful Roman mosaic floor taken from Hadrian's Villa outside Rome. We discovered the Egyptian collection with mummies and statues. As much as we saw, we missed much. We kept losing our way and backtracking to areas we had already seen. Once we got home I looked through a book on the Vatican and learned of many things to be seen there that we had not. Oh well, we saw enough. Wednesday we went to St. John in Lateran, the cathedral of Rome, billed as the Mother of all the churches in Rome and the world. It was pretty nice, but I really wanted to see the old home of the Popes and the Sancto Sanctorum, the personal chapel of the popes in times past. I had always heard that phrase "Sancto Sanctorium" and never knew it meant an actual place. To reach the chapel you must go up 28 steps, kneeling all the way. Tradition has it that those where the very steps Jesus climbed to reach Pilate, removed to Rome by the mother of Emperor Constantine. Unfortunately we couldn't find it. Then we went to the church of St. Peter in Chains, where Michelangelo's Moses is, as well as the chains St. Peter was bound with in Jerusulam (also brought back by Helen, Constantine's mom). The tomb the Moses is a part of was covered in scaffolding (and roped off) with only Moses exposed, lessening the impact of the sculpture. The chains were there though, in a gold case. Then we went to the Capuchine chapel beneath a church near the Berberini square and looked at the 4000 bones of Capuchine monks which had been dismembered and used to make designs on the walls of the crypt. Skulls were piled into arches around skeletons in monks robes. Arm bones were tied together to make lamps. Vertebrae wired together to make floral (?) designs on the ceilings. Five chapels were decorated in this manner. VERY BIZARRE! We left that one thinking two thoughts; don't bring the dog, and the things people will do in the name of religion! That took us up through Wednesday. Thursday we plan to revisit ancient Rome - the Forum, Colloseum and the like. As with other cities, we have only scratched the surface of Rome but it has been fascinating! Rome, along with the other big cities of Europe we have visited, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Barcelona, has been great. I know some people don't like visiting the big cities, but we have enjoyed every last one we have been to. Each has a different appeal: Amsterdam and it's liveliness, London and its ties to our country, Paris and her beauty, Barcelona and its architecture, and Rome, the Eternal City. Friday we head for Pompei, Naples and the southern beaches of Italy. Then east to Bari and Greece. We'll catch you when we can.

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