"All roads lead to the eternal city of Rome"
The third day of our trip to Italy is a trip to Rome!
Rome - what is this word associated with? Before my eyes there are pictures from books and from historical films: this is the Pope and the Vatican, this is the Pantheon, this is Caesar and Mark Antonio, this is Michelangelo and Raphael and much more.
Early in the morning we set off, drive to Rome for 4 hours, the guide makes all the necessary announcements: stops, toilets, breaks, transfers... and the first part of the journey wishes everyone a good sleep in order to gain strength for excursions in Rome. I decided that I would not sleep, I would look at nature outside the bus window, we are going through the Apennines, up and down, the landscape is one more beautiful than the other: gorges, mountain rivers, tunnels... The bus is quiet, almost no one is talking between myself and succumbing to the general mood, I fall asleep too. Stop, we have already passed most of the way, and for the rest the guide begins his story about Rome, which will then end only at 8-9 pm. Once again, she regretted that she didn’t have a recording device with her: everything is so interesting: the reign of Mussolini and his entourage, fascism in Italy, the Vatican and the Popes, the history of laying the first stone of St. Peter’s Cathedral, etc.
We arrived, first we go to the Vatican, to St. Peter's Square. They warned in advance that at the entrance to the Vatican, and then to the Cathedral, there would be a screening, like at an airport: no forks, knives, nail files, tweezers, etc. The whole group without delay passes inspection and here we are on the square. My God, what is this? The whole square is filled with people: tourists, pilgrims, Buddhists. in what language. While organizational issues are being resolved with headphones, we look around. Due to the large crowds of people, it is not even clear whether the area is large or not, a special originality is given to it by the colonnades standing in a semicircle on both sides. A visit to the Cathedral is postponed for some time and we are heading to souvenir shops, later we will not have time for this. In one of the shops they speak Russian and this is a pleasant surprise. Here everything is the same as everywhere else: books, postcards, calendars, magnets, glasses, crosses and all sorts of other things. Finally, the people in the square are gradually dispersing and we are heading to the line to enter the Cathedral. The queue is huge, but it moves quickly, once again screening, face control: no bare shoulders and short skirts. We pass by the Holy Door, which is opened only during anniversaries, and through some other door we enter the largest Cathedral in the world. When you enter the Cathedral, the impression of its enormity does not immediately strike the eye, gradually, but how much is there: sculptural groups and individual sculptures, wooden crucifixes, columns, beautifully painted vaults, a bronze canopy over the papal altar, the tomb of St. Peter, colored stained-glass windows, on one of them depicts the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and of course, the dome of the Cathedral, a masterpiece of the genius of Michelangelo. We went to the left, then straight, then again to the left, then to the right, we went to the call of the guide, otherwise it was possible to get lost at all with so many people. It is simply the largest and most beautiful of all the Cathedrals that I have ever seen and visited.
It should be noted how lovely these headphones are: you don’t have to constantly look through the eyes of a guide in order to keep up with the group. You constantly hear him, you can stop somewhere, take a picture, but you don’t miss anything, you hear everything that the guide tells, and he constantly orients in which direction he is going, and what you should pay special attention to attention and what to see first. The advantage of the headphones will also affect later, during a city tour: “. . . here you reach the crossroads and turn right, there will be a pedestrian crossing, cross slowly, I’m waiting for you all there”... the one who walks 30-50 meters away he still cannot see the crossroads behind him, but he already knows that it will be somewhere, and there he must turn right. Very convenient, for all 5 days no one was lost anywhere. The guide always walked in front, and the escort of the group with a red flag behind or almost behind, in some cases also in front, indicating the direction, but this is when without headphones.
Then we head to the Castel Sant'Angelo, to this majestic tomb monument, there is no time, we only get to know each other from the outside. The first impression is an impregnable fortress (preserved from time immemorial) although it was conceived as a mausoleum for the remains of Emperor Hadrian. At the top of the castle is a statue of the Archangel Michael. The guide tells a lot about the castle, about the interior, tiny chambers, central halls, Angel's Court.... It's a pity that we didn't have time to wander inside, maybe some other time. On the magnificent bridge of the Holy Angel, decorated with 10 statues of angels, we cross to the other side of the river and move to Piazza Navona. While we were filming all the statues, the group had already gone ahead, but we were not lost: we were constantly given information: we are going straight, we are crossing the street, we are turning left, etc. Because some slow down at the bridge, like us, others at the shop windows, but you never know where, and thanks to general information, you always know where to go. I really liked the bridge, I would have stayed there longer, and the view from the bridge to the castle is completely different, but there is no time, no time.
Navona Square as an elongated rectangle with three decorative fountains: the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Moor Fountain, and the Neptune Fountain. Again, there are countless tourists on the square, it is impossible to take a decent picture so that no one bothers you: someone's hand or part of the head will definitely be in the frame. There are a lot of artists selling their paintings here, not even bad ones. All these places are called "Baroque Rome". Now we are approaching the Pantheon with the tombs of the Italian kings and the king of painting, Raphael. The left side of the facade of the Pantheon was under restoration, but this did not stop us from appreciating the temple on merit.
Everyone is tired, finally, the first pause. And on this square, one could linger in a cafe for a cup of coffee for the whole day: to see the fountains properly, watch the tourists, take decent photos, enjoy ice cream, here, we enjoyed ice cream, this is the only thing we managed to do on a break, and again on the road, further to get acquainted with Rome.
Then we visit the temple of Minerva, the appearance of which does not stand out with anything super-original or especially attractive. I already wrote about this in the first part of my story, this has already been observed in other cities of Italy. But inside everything is very richly decorated, there are many works of art, it is here that Michelangelo's statue "Christ near the Cross" stands. Tombs, many paintings, for example, the Ascension of Our Lady - this is what I remember. But the main thing that this church became famous for was the processes of excommunication, etc. (Count Cagliostro and Galileo Galilei).
Our path continues to Trevi Square with its grandiose and famous fountain of Rome - the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is very unusual, however, like everything in Rome. The fountain is decorated with various statues, the main one being Neptune. Behind the fountain is the faç ade of the Poli Palace. There is a belief that whoever throws a coin into the fountain will return to Rome again. And again, tourists, tourists, tourists... you can’t push through, you almost have to stand in line to somehow remove this fountain.
Here we have another pause. We are shown a small and, in my opinion, not expensive pizzeria, where pizza is sold by weight and costs 1.20 euros per 100.00 grams. After a rest, we head to Piazza Venezia. The Palace of Venice located on it is considered by the Italians themselves to be the ugliest building in all of Rome, and what do they not like about it? Maybe because Mussolini delivered his speeches from the balcony of this palace? And I liked it, as well as everything that we have already managed to see in Rome. On the way to this square, we went to a couple of churches, now I don’t even remember the name, one of them was the Jesuit church. They walked around the palace only around, even on the steps it was impossible to climb a little higher, everything was blocked. Further
Capitoline Hill, at its top is a square created according to the ingenious project of the same Michelangelo. There are 2 stairs leading to this square, of course, we climbed the one that is more gentle, and everyone was already tired. This is the so-called "ancient Rome". There is the Palace of the Senators, the Palace of the Conservatives and the New Palace, there are now museums with rich collections of works of art. Again, due to lack of extra time, we did not visit these museums, but we were told a lot about them. There are famous statues there, for example, the famous statue as a symbol of Rome - the Capitoline Wolf, figurines of the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, paintings by Rubens and Caravaggio, I don’t remember other artists, just the names are not well known. The original statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius is also kept there, and a copy of it is located in the center of the square. Our guide, well, just an inexhaustible source of knowledge, told a lot of things that you can’t find in books.
And ahead of us is the Roman Forums and the Colosseum. It was starting to get dark, so we didn’t get decent photos with our amateur equipment. We went further and stopped at the observation deck. Looking down at all these ancient forums, it seems that time has stopped here altogether. And again, pictures from films pop up in my memory: gladiator fights, meetings and trials... Julius Caesar....Mark Antonio... the legend of Romulus and Reme... Emperor Constantine... Emperor Titus....the goddess Venus and... and... and... It’s impossible to list everything. You could buy tickets and see all the arches and the remains of palaces and temples down there, well, again - there is no time. Would come back here for more than one day! It's getting dark, we slowly go down the hill, continuing to photograph everything around on the go and head towards the Colosseum. We do not go inside, this visit is postponed until the next visit to Rome, as usual, there is no time. We hear about the Arch of Constantine, about the reign of Nero, the Flavius amphitheater (Coliseum), about the system of entrances and exits, about underground corridors. . . The bus is already waiting for us, but we don't want to leave. This is the first city in Italy, from which I did not want to leave at all. We still pass by some temples and churches, past museums and fountains, our tireless guide tells about everything along the way, but little is already deposited in our memory: so many impressions, emotions, information... late in the evening we arrive at the hotel, one desire: sleep, because tomorrow is a new excursion day, Pisa and Florence are waiting for us.
