Rome

We knew this part of our trip would be paced a little faster, especially after the quiet days we had spent in Florence on our own.  I recalled our tour director on our trip to the UK telling us one morning when there was some grumbling about an early departure, “We have a lot to see and do today!  You’re not on holiday!”  That’s the feeling we had with Lino, but to his credit he was very knowledgeable and he took us straight to the important things we wanted to see and do.

We began the day with a visit to the Vatican City, which is technically another country in the heart of Rome - we had to show our passports to gain admittance.  It was a beautiful place, although there were a lot of people there from all over the world.

Our local specialist, Marco, took us quickly through to the Sistine Chapel, and he also told us to be aware of pickpockets, more a problem in Rome than in other places we had been.  He pointed out two young woman ahead of us on the sidewalk and said, "I know those two by name.  They are pickpockets."  Not the type you would expect.  As with the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace, there was just too much to absorb in the Sistine Chapel, the walls and ceilings completely covered with beautiful artwork.

 
In the Chapel itself, we were not allowed to take photos at all (although I saw some visitors surreptitiously snapping shots of the famous ceiling).  I craned my neck to see, over and over again, and I recall being surprised at how small and far away, yet humbling, was the famous work of Michelangelo showing the Creation of Adam (this is from the internet – I feared that my phone might be confiscated were I to take a picture).

If my phone had been confiscated, these guys would have done it – the famous Swiss guards, who despite their decorative garb looked pretty formidable.  I wouldn't have been surprised to see a Glock pistol tucked behind that cloak.

We went to St. Peter’s Basilica after the Sistine Chapel, and again I was impressed by the magnificent opulence of the place.

We walked through St. Peter's Square, too, and saw the balcony where the Pope appears and blesses those in attendance.

After a quick lunch at a cafeteria, we took a tour of another famous site, the Colosseum.  Construction started in 72 AD, and it was massive.  Marco graphically described the slaughter that occurred there for the entertainment of the Roman upper classes.  It was not a pretty picture.

It had already been a packed day, but after that we went on yet another tour with a local specialist to the Trevi Fountain (unfortunately undergoing renovations and blocked by chain-link fencing and plastic) and some of the other plazas in Rome, followed by a visit to the Pantheon, the widest dome in the word and one that was closely studied by Brunelleschi when he designed the dome of the cathedral in Florence.

The structure dated to 27 BC, which was just amazing to think about.  The columns out front were solid pieces of marble, not sections, each of them 39 feet tall and weighing 60 tons.  Our guide told us they were quarried in Egypt, and we can only speculate how they were moved to Rome and raised to a vertical position in a time in history when such feats would have been accomplished, basically, by ox-carts and ropes.

I sent a picture to our daughter, and she replied, “Wow!!  You stood in history.”  And that is the way we had been feeling every day in Italy, but especially in this city, where the Roman Empire thrived and conquered the world.