June 9  writing about my last day in Rome

            Since I had visited the forum and Colosseum in 2001 with Steven, I did not feel the need to visit again.  (However, I have learned from the students who did visit it that there are more informational boards down there in order to reconstruct the original buildings.  They were very excited about seeing the place where Peter—or Paul—was lowered into prison.) 

            So I thought a good way to begin my last day in Rome was to take one of the Open Air bus tours, to tie all my experiences together.  Unfortunately, the hotel concierge and those near the train station urged me to take the tour with the slowest and least frequent buses.  The weather was intermittently sunny, cloudy and breezy, with just a few light showers and sprinkles here and there.  Only once, early in the ride, were we forced to go to the lower level of the bus in order to stay dry, but that shower did not last long.

            It was fun to drive by the Colosseum, and I snapped a couple of shots.  I had not realized that the Circus Maximus was still there, though, and that was fun to drive around, although in the bottom of the bus (due to the rain), I did not get the shots I would have liked. It’s amazing to think that 200,000 Romans would fit in there to see the chariot races.

            What is fascinating is how little temples and ruins seem to pop up everywhere, often in the middle of odd areas.  As with Verona, the layers of history and architecture are fascinating.  We drove around the first Renaissance building in Rome, right near the monument to Victor Emmanuel that so dominates the city in that area.  I think Mussolini had his headquarters for a while in that Renaissance palace.  It is odd, though, because I don’t think that in “older” cities like Venice and Verona that you could point to the first Renaissance palace so easily.  There is almost no medieval architecture in Rome at all.

            I got off at one of the earlier stops to see Il Gesu.  It was open and it was good to visit.  It is quite busy and not really to my taste at all, but definitely Baroque in all its golden glory and cloud-filled ceiling paintings.

            I also walked to Piazza Navona to see the interior of Borromini’s Sant’Agnese.  Afterward, when I read the pamphlet later (while waiting 20 minutes for the bus I just missed!), I learned that Borromini did not complete the entire interior.  And it did seem busier than he more monochromatic work at San Carlo.  But it was still interesting to see, although I liked the curvaceous, white marble exterior much more.

            Then we went to St. Peter’s, and I did hop off the bus again, ready to visit the church for the first time since 2001.  The square was pretty full of people, it was almost noon on Sunday, and I was pretty clueless as to why it was so full.  But after I went through security and was approaching the church, I heard a voice on the loud speakers.  Thinking it might be the pope himself, I turned back and walked a few steps to the edge of security in the plaza and looked up towards the Vatican.  And, sure enough, through the upper balusters of Bernini’s colonnade, I could barely see the pope’s head as he read mass.  There were large video boards through the plaza with the words for mass for all to join in.  I didn’t do that, but I was still excited that I saw the pope!  It was pretty cool, and only possible because I had just missed that other bus and had to wait 20 minutes.  (So you never know how things will work out.)

            Inside St. Peter’s, they were having mass and were letting people through past the Baldacchino to join mass, with their cameras shut off.  The rest of us had to watch from the edge, which was not very crowded.  I enjoyed hearing the music and trappings of mass; the cathedral seemed to come alive at that time, even though mass was concentrated only in that east end of the church.  Then we did get to walk around a bit, but never into the crossing of the church during mass (and I did not stay longer than that).  I was still able to get some nice shots of Bernini’s Cathedra Petri through the Baldacchino, so I was appreciative of that.

            I think this time I did appreciate the power of St. Peter’s more than in the past.   It is definitely the quintessential monumental Christian church, perfect in its glory and majesty.  And some of that spectacular glory did reach me, even as I honestly appreciate more the quiet spirituality of churches like Verona’s San Lorenzo.

            After Saint Peter’s, I got off the bus at the Ara Pacis.  I can’t believe that I didn’t know which building it was in, especially as there was a special museum built just for it.  It was a pretty spectacular modern museum, again a mix of the ancient and the most modern that Italy does pretty well.  It was interesting to see the huge size of it.  And inside, it was fascinating to see the huge garlands and (sacrificial) bull’s heads looped around in addition to reliefs of the bull’s sacrifice.  The steps were high; I think it would have been difficult to get a full sized bull up those stairs to be sacrificed on the block, but who am I to know the details of how it was done.  Still, it was fun to see one of the more out-of-the-way Roman monuments, particularly on this bus trip.

            I decided to get off for the last time at the Trevi Fountain, something I really should have seen.  It was pretty packed with tourists.  The next time I’ll to go around Rome with someone else so that we can see the glory of Rome at night.  It would be pretty spectacular then.

            I then walked to see the inside of Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirnale, but it was closed.  I did see the top of the Quirnale Hill on the way though, not necessarily one of the grander Roman views.  

            I used my last public bus ticket to get to the station and then walked four blocks to the hotel to get my (rather heavy) backpack.  Made it to the train shortly after 3:30 for the 3:55 departure.  Rachel and Jonathan were already in their seats.

            It was fun to connect with the students then and on our way back to our “homes” in Verona on what their Roman experiences had been.  Many of them worked awfully hard to see all that they could.  Others stayed a bit far from the center of the city and had some trouble finding and returning to their hotel.  Alex found some challenging issues of accessibility but seemed to have seen a great deal nonetheless.  Some felt that three days was sufficient to see Rome, others would have liked to have stayed longer and to have made the trip a part of the entire Verona program, even at greater cost.

            What I found most fascinating was hitting one city right after the other, Rome right after Florence.  Thus, when we were at the Villa Borghese gallery, I could say, “Well unlike Michelangelo’s David, which you just saw, what do you think Bernini is doing here?”  And some students liked Michelangelo better, and others liked Bernini’s version better, and they all had good reasons for why they felt that way.  It really was a spectacularly packed few days and thoroughly worth it.  I can’t wait to read their journals!