Caput Mundi - Roma

That is - The Capital of the World. The Roman Empire didn't quite achieve total world domination, nor have the Roman Catholic Church.  The Vandals from what is now Germany took advantage of corruption cracks in the first and a German priest put the Papacy's monopoly on Christianity into question. Yet Rome is still the 'Eternal City'. The ruins uncovered in the middle of town will keep the echoes of its past alive forever. Her layers of Empire and Church reveal courage, vision, integrity, corruption, greed and cruelty. Today Rome is the capital of Italy and it is being cared for with the respect she is due.

A blistering hot day in St Peter's Square. The Firemen are hosing down anyone who comes close to the fountains.

No hiding from that sun - St Peter's oblex
opposite the Vittoriano. Great photo of M's.

As we rolled the suitcases from the train station down the hill on another hot day all I could think was - hope it's cooler when we have to push them back up here! We passed through Piazza dell'Esquilino that had narrow streams for traffic and a pedestrian area that just looked like Sydney. The baked earth, pebbel-creted traffic bollards and concrete balls, the thin shade from the acacias and the ringing tones of cicadas made us feel right at home.

Turning onto Via Urbana we passed two churches facing each other, reminding us that we were in a city with over 900 churches and found our hotel.  The Raffaello greeted us with a blast of cool air and a giant gold and black etching of Raphael's 'School of Athens' covering the entire wall behind the concierge; the news that there was free wifi in every room lifted the spirits even further.

Top left: Buildings from all ages. Foro di Traiano in the foreground forms a triangle with the domed S.N di Maria(Top right) and the Vittoriano (right below). Left below: Peter with his keys looking over the city from his Colona Traiana(opposite .Maria Top right)  Right below: Girls are standing in front of  Piazza Piazza which is a wild place for cars - no line markings and pedestrians - scooters think they can just make it in front of you! Behind that traffic mayhem is the Vittoriano which was built in honour of the first King of a unified Italy. The tomb of the unknown soldier out front is guarded by armed guards 24/7. 

Lots of layers of Rome - excavated ruins, a neighbourhood church, a hotel and a restaurant all squeezed together.

Willow squawked and jumped when a
blast of air by her ankles was in sync
with a rat running up the narrator's leg
on the film.

That first afternoon Poss and I took the girls to 'The Time Elevator' - a 5D film synopsis of the city in a dirty ally off one of the main shopping streets. It began the tale with a beautiful priestess of the hearth(keeper of the flame) who had given birth to twin boys, Romulus and Remus. When the King of this small state discovered this he punished the woman(who was expected to remain a virgin to perform her duties) by ordering one of his warriors to take the babies out to the forest and cut their throats. The man responsible for this grisly task came across a pack of hungry wolves and left the babes there so he didn't have to kill them himself.  Sounds like the seeds of Disney's Snow White!

Instead of tearing the babes apart for food, one of the she wolves adopted the boys and they survived with her as their wet-nurse. When they grew up they had rallied many bachelor men around them and decided to build a city.  When choosing a site the twins argued and fought.  Some versions of the story say Romulus killed Remus to become the supreme leader. The Sienna story was that Remus escaped and established Sienna, which is why there are statues of the she wolf and the twin boys there. After building a city the gang of boys realised that they needed some women so threw a party for all the surrounding villages.  When everyone was suitably drunk the Roman boys abducted the young girls of the villages and held them - fighting off their families until Romulus' Roma was established as the power of the region.

Left: Temple to the Goddess of the Hearth, fire was difficult to source in pre-Empire Roma.
Right: Ruins of the temple complex that Julius Caesar was assassinated in.

Not being a scholar of Ancient Rome I discovered that I was guilty of a lot of misunderstandings during our visit. One of them was that the Colosseum (the Flavian Amphitheater) was around when Julius Caesar took the laurel wreath and made himself Emperor.  In truth the build wasn't even begun until 120 years after his death. We saw the site where he was assassinated by his friends who despaired of him ever relinquishing his dictatorship for a return the utopian dream of a Republic. We discovered it had been a temple complex of fairly small dimensions not the large senate space I'd seen in 'educational films'.

The bus stop closest to our hotel was opposite the S.Maria.Maggiora Bascillica, seen from the back here.

We bought 24hrs on the hop on hop off bus with the intention to do just that and orient ourselves on the first day. Unfortunately the company was really struggling to cope with the amount of tourists and the tourists (ie us!) were really struggling with the  huge waits in the searing heat to be able to even board the bus at any of the many stops. We sat on one bus for about 45mins - apparently waiting to get back in sync with the bus carousel at the train station.

Italy has been flooded with folk escaping horrors in Africa and the middle east - many of the young men take their chances by illegally hawking fake designer handbags, selfie sticks, jewelry, sunglasses, scarves, fans, paper parasols and cold water bottles. Their cry of "selfie, selfie, bling, bling", regardless of what goods they carry reverberated around every tourist spot and bus stop in Florence, Rome and Naples. Usually we politely refused but perched up in the open top bus, the cold water and parasols were a blessing. They would throw up the item then catch the cash raining down. I saw one poor guy throw up some water to a passenger on another bus who had been watching the loading process and timed his request just before the bus drove off.  He must have short changed the water seller who shook his fist at the departing bus and almost got hit by the next one pulling into the stop.

Top Left:first glimpse of the Colosseum. Top right:Town Hall, enthusiasts of the lampoon vacation films(which I am not) may recognise the stairs from the scene where dad is chasing a red convertible to rescue his kidnapped wife just after discovering that they have been driving around with a tied up banker in their boot.
Left below: The Opera                                      Right Below: Castle Sant'Angelo

Statues on the Pont Vittoria Emanuelle II crossing the Tiber (Tevere in Italian) leading onto the avenue that runs between Vatican city and Castel d'Angelo

We contented ourselves with the fine views and photo opportunities the bus provided and rarely committed to queues. This meant we didn't get to see inside the Colosseum, I had tried to buy jump the queue tickets on line and at several other outlets we had visited but everyone had sold out for the week we were there - so many people! I couldn't face the 2hrs needed to stand and shuffle for the privilege of peering through the crowds inside so we walked around the outside of it and saw what we could.

Gate into the arena for guests - all entries for competitors and prisoners were subterranean.

As close as a non ticketed soul could get.  I still do not understand how anyone finds death and torture entertaining.

A big earthquake in the 1800s, pilfering marble for new building projects and monuments over the centuries, bullet holes from war and general weathering have really knocked this mammoth building around. Currently is it undergoing a restoration where modern bricks are being used to rebuild the whole building whilst still showing where the ancient remains.
Top right: There was so much Oleander in bloom around the town. A cheap sight seeing spot.
Bottom right: Ancient pavers lifting.

 We did manage to secure 'jump the queue' tickets for the Vatican Museums so we thought our quest for viewing the Sistine chapel would be fairly straight forward. How ignorant we were. First we had to find the Hop on Hop off store to get the tickets we had purchased at the hotel validated. The map wasn't very exact but we managed to find it after asking at many tourist bling stores before we got there. It was opposite the columns of St Peter's square which made its free, clean toilets probably our most frequently visited spot in Rome! The cashier pointed out the back door and gave a series of instructions which proved to be optimistic as far as both distance and direction were concerned. Luckily there was a lovely man waiting at a fairly crucial corner giving guidance and advice. M and Petal filled their water bottles at a nearby fountain and we set off around the Vatican walls to a back entrance for their museums.

St Peter's square from the top deck of the Hop on/off bus.

Marching past the long queue was pretty good - actually getting into the museum was a series of more queues; through the ticket check point where tickets of all sorts were converted into Vatican official ones with a barcode, through metal detectors, through turnstiles requiring the barcode to turn, then slowly, slowly up a never ending circular ramp with anthropological exhibits from all the countries around the world with Roman Catholic missions thoughtfully displayed at the sides. Then the crowds in the labyrinth of treasures.

Left: Going up.      Right Two: going down. Notice the bottle neck of crowds queueing but then hardly anyone on the ramps below - there was a one person at a time barrier there to remind people that stairs were beginning on the ramp.

Somehow M and the girls got caught on the tail of a guided tour and were lead through a quicker - secret route to the Sistine chapel but then had to wait an age for Poss and I to finish.  We saw way more through the twists and turns that everyone else is guided through to get to Michelangelo's masterpiece. You could easily spend several days looking at the vast, beautifully displayed collection.

The Raphael rooms were definitely a highlight.  To get there we were herded through steadily narrowing corridors and staircases. A couple of people around me were struggling with the very enclosed single file we were forced into because of renovations.  One lovely girl in her twenties started hyperventilating as we passed through what seemed to be a secret doorway - one person wide, heavy wood doors and walls with no way to be able to push forward or back because of the slow moving procession. A few of us managed to make room for her to pass through and get to an open air walkway hung off the side of the building that was the next level of the quest; just as well she wasn't scared of heights too!

Interpretive dance was alive and well in Ancient Rome and the Renaissance Vatican  it would seem.

These stunning ceiling frescos were so much better in real life than my camera has managed to capture.
Top: The Latin says something like - The skills of the Romans have happily been revived with the support of the Papacy.
Bottom: By God's grace and excellence the debate will be won.  Not sure what circumstances this statement was prompted by - perhaps it was the beginnings of Nessun Dorma.

The map corridor. Every known town and village is recorded on these maps.

Left: This is a detail from a ceiling fresco in The Room of Constantine - 'Triumph of the Christian Religion'. Although it is part of the Raphael rooms in the Vatican, all the work in this room was completed by the master's students from his sketches because he succumbed to a fever before they were finished. I think that the ceilings were left bare wood and this fresco was done much later by  Tommaso Laureti in 1585, the job entrusted to him by Gregory XIII.
Right: I heard a guide telling her tour that this was Michelangleo's favourite sculpture, rescued from the ruins of the ancient world. She said that he would come and stare at it for hours.  On his death bed he asked to be taken in to see it one last time - I don't know where it was then.

For me the confusion and stress were well worth it.  There are four rooms that Pope Julius II trialed and hired the 25yr old Raphael to decorate in 1508. His Library was one of the rooms; the Stanza della Segnatura was designed and painted solely by Raphael. He designed and sketched the others but didn't do all the painting himself - by that stage he had several talented students whom he trusted it to whilst he went off and completed other commissions. One time he went off, caught a fever and died - he was 37yrs old. By this time Leo X, a Medici from Florence, was Pope. It is said that he cried at the news of the artist's demise.

There are lots of reproductions of this on line to get close up views of the portraits. I haven't numbered all the known portraits - just the ones I knew about!   Many books have been written analysing the hidden meanings conveyed by Raphael's design of where people are placed and their postures connected to their theories etc. 

I think the Stanza della Segnatura is most amazing because it was the first time that muses, gods and famous personalities from antiquity had been painted since the fall of the Roman Empire. Remarkably they were in the room that the Pope signed Church laws and Theological statements into officialdom. The theme Raphael designed was Truth, Goodness and Beauty and the four medallions he painted on the ceiling were Philosophy, Poetry, Justice and Theology - giving them all equal space.  Before the Renaissance this would have been considered heresy and Raphael may not have lasted long enough to catch a fever. The room was full of people all trying to see past each other because every aspect was awesome.

I have room here only to show what is probably Raphael's most famous work - 'The School of Athens.' In it he not only remembers the creative and rational genius' of the past but also celebrates his friendship with Leonardo(as Plato) and Michelangelo(as Heraclitus) by painting in their likenesses. He had to wait until Michelangelo had finished the Sistine chapel before he could get him to model for the picture so Heraclitus was painted in after the rest was finished. He sneaks in himself as well, in a dark cap, 2 right from the right hand arch pillar he is listening to Zoroaster and Ptolemy discuss the sphere of the universe. Imagine the bustle as these genius artists roved around the Vatican organising their materials and students and calling for what they needed. Very different from the 'finished' and 'hallowed' - tourist and worshiper filled spaces of today.

The 'medallion' at the top of my photo is poetry - a good match for the most irreligious of the four wall frescoes.

Another chain of winding passageways, stairwells and a series of modern art galleries lead me to one last steep stair to enter the Sistine Chapel.  Two young ladies with spaghetti strap tops were being sent back the way I had just come - being barred from entrance. As I walked in, a crackly microphone kept announcing - Be quiet - no talking - no photos. At the entry my phone buzzed with a txt - usually I have trouble hearing it so the girls make sure it is always on full volume - a lot of people heard it! I backed away to read and answer it, one of the guards tried to push me through until I explained that I didn't want the send sound to upset others.... They had already reached the end and were waiting for me at the exit of the museum. Just as well really because the ceiling is huge, the paintings so far away and small compared to what I was expecting that I could easily imagine standing there mesmerised for an hour or so.

You know what this is!  Petal's first sneaky pic.

The Chapel was built by Giovannino de'Dolci to the specifications listed in Genesis for Noah's Ark. To enter I had to walk across a stage and looking out on the closely packed crowds all looking up as if expecting the second coming - it was easy to imagine a menagerie instead with gaping hungry mouths and glassed over eyes.

The frescoes along the walls of one side were of Moses and the other of Jesus.  They were painted by many different people, Botticelli did one of them. Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II. He is said to have painted the whole of the vaulted ceiling by himself over 4 years.  Whether he lay on his back or was standing with his neck back is unknown but both sound very uncomfortable.

The exact proportions and perfect perspective of the many scenes making up the story from creation to redemption is astounding. Just as I cannot even imagine how his brain and hands saw the shapes in blocks of rock to carve out, I cannot imagine how he managed this perfection.  A true master of the eye, philosophical thought and hand. Staring up at Adam lethargically half holding out his hand as God, stretched out, strains to give him life, I wondered if the artist had come to a point of disgust at humanity's apathy towards their relationship with their creator. As far as I am able to understand it the Renaissance minds did not throw God out with the new science of their age and the resurrection of ancient logic but strove to see God in the bigger picture that was available to them. A response that may save the faith of those today ping ponging between 1800's Christianity and Agnostic confusion.

Petal's close up - her second sneaky photo in the chapel.

Michelangelo also painted the Altar wall for Pope Julius II c1540 - he managed to match the blue of his sky perfectly with the other frescoes around the walls. No passive Jesus relying on his mum to make decisions here! She looks as nervous as everyone else in this last judgement scene but at least still has her clothes on.

Michelangelo's altar piece - soooooo huge.

A young woman not far from me decided to sneakily take a photo(which Petal was able to do) but forgot to turn the flash off.  Five security guards swarmed towards her and then escorted her out. Although she kept staring up at the roof as if nothing had happened, everyone (like me sorry) close to her turned to stare so it was easy for the guards to identify the flash point. I decided I'd better not keep the finished family waiting any longer so started to make my way out. I was horrified to find that  this huge mass of people had to channel onto a ramp that quickly narrowed to a 1m wide exit door??!! (I could just imagine what Poss had been thinking - 'Hate to be here in an Earthquake! The Christchurch disaster has left deep scars.)

While I was slowly ebbing towards this elusive gateway, a family in front lost a toddler in the swell. Crying, behind me, alerted the flustered parents to where the child was but the tide of forward motion could not be resisted. A couple of blokes lifted the child and she got surfed back to her parents, through the hands of the tall. A little miracle of human cooperation.

Not my photo, it was much more crowded than this. No one bothered sitting down, they wouldn't have been able to see a thing. I got the image from Google images but can't give credit because my computer wouldn't let me access the site because of 'dangerous content?!             The metallic 'curtains' on the walls are paintings.

Love a restaurant with aircon -even if there is a blackout and they forget to turn it back on again when the power comes back on.  Delicious Caprese salad - the others all had a break from Italian food much to the disgust of our waiter.

After the long winding exit past more amazing treasures (really a whole day in needed in the Vatican Museum, don't try and fit the Sistine chapel into an itinerary with other highlights) and spiraling down the ramp/stairs we decided it was lunchtime and found a lovely restaurant opposite the walls.

At a different restaurant I had both the best and the worst plates
of food chosen in Rome.  Left -Green olives stuffed with a
black olive tapinade, breaded and deep fried.
Right: watery polenta - no seasoning and bits of raw sausage.
Guess which plate I tasted once!

We headed back to St Peter's square to fill our water bottles up with holy water - Italy has fabulous public fountains and drinking water taps in every piazza. We saw groups of youths wearing uniform T-shirts and neckerchiefs. There were two teams of firemen using a fire hoses beside the two big fountains to spray water at them which caused much shrieking and delight.

This huge square that most of us have seen on TV is actually elliptical in shape and was added to the Vatican design fairly late. Bernini had been working on the insides of the Basilica for a long while and agreed to make a suitable site so as many people as possible could stand and receive blessings at Pope Alexander VIII's request in 1656. A Oblex of red granite taken from Egypt in the Empire days and eventually made it to this spot. Nero had moved it to where the Basillica now stands for his Circus(to the death games with Christians as the favourite bait.) Bernini incorporated it into his design and made it the center of his 4 Doric pillars deep raised and covered walkway. There used to be a gold ball on top that Medieval texts claimed held the ashes of Julius Caesar - some today claim that now there is a splinter of the True Cross on top.

Waiting to see what was going to happen.  Right: Top of the Oblex.

M went and asked one of the Swiss guards what was going on. They told him that the Pope was going to pop out to bless all the ministrants (I thought the song leader was calling them miscreants and wondered what the Pope was going to do to turn them into little angles.) at 6pm. Poss decided that the heat of the glaring white pillars and pavement had to be escaped so left us waiting for a couple of hours for His Holiness to appear. I rather like Pope Francis' attitude towards the world and his dedication to giving everyone a voice.

Around 5:30 we took a spot close to the barriers yet still in the shade and waited for his appearance beside the large throne looking chair that had been placed on the steps. There was lots of worship music from each nation represented, the Germans, Swiss and Hungarians were particularly parochial. We were able to follow along with what was going on because they all spoke in English - the one language everyone could speak a little of? One song leader would come out to rev the kids up 'Do you want to see His Holiness whoop whoop?  A couple of minutes later a different guy would come forward trying to settle the crowd into an attitude of prayer and reverence then the whoop whoop guy would come back out again - all filling time because their programme had ended sooner than they anticipated.

Worthy wearers of daVinci.

We noticed that secret service and Swiss guards were parading all the walkways and checking the surface and people beside the barriers very carefully.  Willow laughed and said it was because the Pope was going to come out in his buggy through the crowds. It turned out she was right! The people around us were very pushy - bordering on angry in their efforts to get as close to the barriers as they could. Then he came tootling up the pathway with the merriest and happiest face I've ever seen on a public figure.  He seemed genuinely pleased to see everyone there. Hands and rosaries were touched - eyes watered and the cranky souls were mesmerised. Most of the people around us (not in the youth zone) had never expected this audience. There was a little Irish girl beside us, in preparation for taking her first communion her family had diverted their holiday to Rome for one day to buy her rosary at the Vatican. Luck of the Irish for them! It is quite scary what a heavy and tangible thing an intense emotion in a crowd becomes. I'm glad it was a positive one!

Willow's photo of this moment was much better!

After seeing the huge amount of people visiting Rome for this Youth event we decided that a very early start was required if we were going to see inside the Basilica the next day. We got there in good time using the Metro to Ottaviano, S.Pietro instead of our red bus tickets. We queued for ten minutes but the line behind us grew alarmingly quickly and soon reached the Via della Concilliazione -  an avenue begun by Mussolini from St Peter's to the Castle Angelo as part of his grandiose designs for a strong Rome.

Left: Checkpoint 2,     Right: Poss waiting i the vestibule to see where we had all run off to.

We went through three checks before entering the foyer of the Cathedral where Petal was stopped. Her arms were deemed improper and she wasn't allowed to enter. As she wandered off, M remembered seeing a souvenir shop in the grounds. We both got scarves but when I went to look for Petal she had exited through the gate of no return and there was no grace with the guards. I explained what had happened - there was no one else around but they would not let her take the two steps required to cross that imaginary line - a lesson in probation! Feeling incredibly cross I returned to the Basilica and tried to calm down in order to appreciate the incredible works of art in this space. The largest Christian church in the world has not stinted on decoration and memorials to their own. Petal told me afterwards that the guard called her back after a time and let her go through - of course my scarf and I were no where to be seen so she was back to square one!  I should have been graceful and given the scarf to the guards so they could save another from Petal's fate but I didn't think of that until now!

Through the front doors into the biggest Christian church in the world.

Left: - toward the front door.  Right: The Bernini covering of the entrance down to St Peter's tomb.

The tourists are scuttled to let the Priests pass after taking mass. The little chapel they are walking past had a picture of a lovely young man and baby Jesus - I need to ask who it was but am guessing Joseph - maybe John the Baptist?!

If you watched the DaVinci Code movie you will recognise this glory as the stairs down to the first Pope's tomb.

To give an idea of size, the angels at the top are more than 2 times the height of the average man.
Bernini decorated the dome - I think.

Michelangelo's masterpiece, the only work he ever signed.
He carved the 'Peita' from the same Carrara marble as his David. Some think he was projecting the vision of Gabrielle's prophesy in the young Mary's mind.  Imagine the burden knowing that humanity would reject her son and Savior before he was even born. The shape and tilt of Mary's left hand seems to suggest an acceptance of this sacrifice and is offering it to those who care to look.  It is not just the perfect dimensions but the subtle and deep emotion his hands have managed to convey that lift this from skilled to genius.

This tomb for Alexander VIII was also designed and carved with assistance by Bernini.  It was the last thing he completed before his death at 80yrs old. Although Alexander VIII commisioned it and approved of the drawings 7 yrs bewfore his death, it wasn't put put itno the Vatican until after the death of the Pope that followed him. Pius had said for it to be put into Santa Maria Maggiore but the next Pope changed teh location which meant changes to the design had to be made.
Top left: Pope AlexanderVIII - experts agree that the likeness was carved by Bernini.
Bottom left: Death measures the time of your life but is half hidden in a 'fold' of red Sicilian granite. This is the biggest piece of sculptured stone I have seen anywhere.  The four white women represent his four virtues - with the babe is charity and with her foot on a globe - specifically England - is Truth, representing his fight to get rid of Anglicanism. Prudence and Justice support the back two corners.

Top left: the front of S.Maria Miggiore Basilica. The special light show was part of the annual celebrations in remembrance of a miracle. It snowed on this day(mid summer) and the locals decided it was a blessing.  Since then lots of white petals(dahlia's we heard) are released to fall like snow on Aug 5.  an orchestra, kids and a string quartet played to the huge crowd. People talked loudly through the whole thing - even the many priests many prayers. It didn't help that they were performing at the bottom of the stairs and not at the top - no one could see them.

We used the hour before our late check out to look inside S. Maria Maggiore. This church, like the majority of those we have gone into on our trip, is dedicated to Mary. It was the place that Pope Frances came to give thanks and seek a blessing on his new role as Pope before he went to the little hotel he was staying at in the area to pick up his things and pay his bill - a modest man.  The poor security guards must have a hard time when he pops out for pizza by himself.  This church was also the recipient of the first big haul of gold that Spain received from her troops in the Americas. It was gifted to the Pope of the time by Queen Isabella and he gave the lot for the decoration of S.Maria Maggiore. There is gold everywhere.

Jesus does make an appearance in Rome.
He stand atop the Library.

We jumped on board the Red Bus for the last time to cross the city to the Colosseum then walked past one of the seven hills of Rome - Esquiline Hill. A bump on this hill, called Oppian Hill, overlooks the Colosseum and used to be the site of Nero's 'Domus Aurea' (Golden House). The Seventh-day Adventist Church requested that a memorial to Martin Luther be put somewhere in Rome.

They hoped that something could be done by 2010, the 500th anniversary of his visit to Rome when he said of this ancient city "If there is a hell, Rome is built over it." Understandably the anniversary of this insult was ignored. Pope Francis has encouraged an openness to different churches, supporting the need for a unified Christian voice in Europe so with his nod the city has announced that next month a square on top of Oppian Hill will be named 'Piazza Martin Lutero'.  For a guy who was excommunicated by Pope Leo X 500yrs ago, for preaching salvation through faith alone and that Jesus is humanity's intercessor making confession to a priest and penance redundant, he's secured some pretty good real estate in town.

The creative collection of showers we came across in our trip were topped by the one in Rome.
It had lots of nozzles and lots of apparatus - they were laughing about what was going to happen when I tried to use it - yep first try got a yelp.

A little kiosk outside the Santa Maria Maggiore was crewed by a dog.

Mary icons on many corners.

Rome is a hilly place and so there are many many stairs. These took us past S.Pietro Vincoli.

There is a lot to see and think about in this city. The modern history, that I haven't touched on, is no less intriguing. Come off season or the crowds are exhausting with the time wasted in queues and the tops of a million heads in every view. Perhaps for this Capital of the World there is no off season?