Up and out, breakfast at the hotel. First destination today was the Spanish Steps, a Rome landmark just like the Trevi Fountain. The steps are lovely, long and wide and white marble, one hundred and sixty five of them, very nice. At the top is a church, at the bottom a boat and fountain carved from marble. Very picturesque, and pretty. And well attended by a horde of tourists, particularly several tours of school kids, grade nine or ten Jan and I figure. Good weather today, sun and cloud, cool but not cold. We wandered the Spanish Steps from bottom to top to bottom again, and perused the church at the top as we admired the view of the city from up there. In the church we found, alongside the area where the congregation sits, a series of little chapels dedicated to different saints. But, these chapels featured on plaques all had the names of the people who endowed them. Further, the remains of the endowers and their family's remains, were in the chapels too. Seems that if you have the money, you could be buried in a stone monument in your own chapel, in a church. I've heard of endowed pews in church, but your own chapel within the church? One of the endowers (if that's a word) was a famous courtesan of her day, who became wealthy from her trade and then got religion. And endowed a chapel. Hey, a repentant sinner, who can complain? And uncharacteristically open minded of the church, but money talks doesn't it. All this on the morning that the BBC did a big piece on the Catholic Church in Germany making a big apology to all the young men that were physically and sexually abused by the priests and choirmasters a short while ago. Oh well, at least the daughters were not at risk from the priests in this current era.
From the Spanish Steps we went down the road to the Pantheon. Along the way there, about a three-quarter hour walk in today's crowd, we passed by the Piazza Colonna and heard a loud ruckus, whistles blowing and drums banging and chanting of slogans. So, free entertainment, we went to see what was up. Again from the BBC, in the same section as the pedophile priests, was the story of Italy's embattled Prime Minister, Sylvio Berlusconi. Seems that laws are no big deal to him, he makes new ones all the time. The latest is some of his candidates in the elections at the end of this month have events in their pasts that legally bar them from serving in public office. Undeterred by this, and wanting to ensure his majority in parliament, Sylvio passed a 'pro temp' law, valid until after this upcoming election, that allows his party's candidates to circumvent the elections act and run anyway. That pissed some of the citizens off to the extent that they are marching in the streets and holding rallys outside the civic building in Rome where the parliament sits. More events like this are planned for later, the citizens of Rome are steamed.
A short walk of about three minutes from the protest we found the Pantheon. It wasn't lost, or hiding, just sitting there like it has since before the year zero, but Jan and I found it anyway. This is a Rome landmark like the Trevi or the Vatican, only with a more clouded history. In the beginning it was built as a temple to the gods who were in favor in Rome at that time. There were many gods, each having a different part of man or nature to govern. Sort of like corporate vice presidents. So there was Mars, god of war, and ... oh I don't know, just Google it and you'll find a bunch of them. I think Saturn was one of the gods, also Venus and Mercury, but I don't think that Uranus was on the list, keeping it in a planetary theme. So the Pantheon is a big round building with a stunning dome above the marble floor, a BIG place with this suspended dome, big as a modern domed stadium except that the dome is marble and was designed and built over 2000 years ago. I just sat there inside and stared up, startled by what the ancients had accomplished. And in the old days the god's statues were arrayed around the inside of this 'stadium'. So 'Pan' plus 'theo' says it all, a panoramic array of gods, with a huge foyer out front supported by huge marble columns, and huge doors, high and wide, so that the troops could march in with the 'eagles' and pennants held high on the staffs and captured slaves and trophys on elephants two abreast. You laugh, sure, but sit in this thing on a quiet morning with everyone else at the protest, and let your memory and imagination run - then you'll see what I saw. But Google it first, and see the story before you go, like we did. Anyway, It isn't like that now, no brass carvings on the ceiling or statues on the walls. Those were melted down for other uses over the years. And with the passing from popularity of an array of gods to one god, the thing was turned into a church and it remains so today. An altar, an organ, a pulpit, an array of pews, one of which I was sitting in as I looked up. An amazing place, and much more so I'm sure in its original form.
From there we walked down toward the Coloseum and the Roman Forum, but stopped for lunch along the way. The gods were with us as, once inside a charming restaurant, the skys opened and the deluge began. We sat, ate salad and pasta, and drank wine as we watched the streets and sidewalks float away. An hour later we were done and so was the rain, so we moved on toward the ruins. Our path took us down the back way and gave us a look at the ruins and the Palatino hill area that we hadn't seen before. We wound around and up a hill to the civic museum, past the Palazzo Venezia with its 'Winged Victory' statues. Suddenly a rainstorm, Jan and I scampered into a very convenient coffee house and had a Cappucino. After a short wait the clouds passed and we were off again. Then down to the road that the Colosseum sits on, past the Roman Forum and more ruins that were being carefully restored by workers, and on to the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. Taking pictures the whole way, preserving the memories for the future.
Eventually, tired but happy, we followed the map and made it back to our hotel surprisingly quickly.
Later, after some down time, out for dinner at a small restaurant where we met a totally charming Italian fellow, about 30 years old, in town on business, who was seated next to us. A conversation followed, along with a short lesson on the Italian language. The three of us had a good time together, and it is a great memory.
After dinner we walked about fifty feet to the Trevi Fountain as we wanted some night pictures. We got them, good ones, thanks to the tripod that the girls gave us at Christmas. The flexible legs wrap around anything solid which makes time-exposure night or distance photography easy with the stable platform for the camera.
Finally, bed, sleep.
