Day 228 Thurs 31 May 2007 Rome, Italy
Today starts with a visit to the nearby St Maria in Cosmedin with its famous Bocca della Verita manhole cover and the C2 BC Temples of Hercules and Portunus, before catching the open top bus to Piazza del Campidoglio designed by Michelangelo and the Santa Maria in Aracoeli with its miracle-working Santo Bambino figure which daily gets mail from all over the world. After trying unsuccessfully to visit the new viewing gallery on top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument, its so new its closed as some bigwig needing a dozen motorcycle outriders and hundreds of cops to stop the traffic has just turned up to open it. Then its back on a bus to the Pantheon which is the oldest and most complete Roman structure in Rome, a vast circular domed temple which survived after being converted to a church.
Unfortunately the tour buses have stopped running due to a strike so we end up walking to the Piazza Navona with its famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers) by Bernini which is undergoing restoration. However the equally impressive Fontana del Moro is in full flood and after a slice of pizza which surprisingly is sold by weight, we wander through the laneways to the Trevi Fountain where some spare Turkish coins are dutifully thrown over our shoulders. Neptune doesn’t seem to mind and the Tritons attempting to subdue an unruly seahorse and lead a more placid one are unfussed. By now the buses are back in operation and we ride around the rest of the city as the sun is setting, pausing to watch firemen on the colosseum, which doesn’t appear to be on fire so perhaps they are doing abseiling practice or putting up the fireworks for Sunday’s parade. We have dinner in the third restaurant on the piazza before driving across the city to our new hotel for the evening, positioned to enable us to make an early morning dash to the ferry at Civitavecchia. There’s a full moon rising as we cross the Tiber passing the Vatican (does that mean we can count it as a separate country?) and head for the hills above the city.
Unfortunately the tour buses have stopped running due to a strike so we end up walking to the Piazza Navona with its famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers) by Bernini which is undergoing restoration. However the equally impressive Fontana del Moro is in full flood and after a slice of pizza which surprisingly is sold by weight, we wander through the laneways to the Trevi Fountain where some spare Turkish coins are dutifully thrown over our shoulders. Neptune doesn’t seem to mind and the Tritons attempting to subdue an unruly seahorse and lead a more placid one are unfussed. By now the buses are back in operation and we ride around the rest of the city as the sun is setting, pausing to watch firemen on the colosseum, which doesn’t appear to be on fire so perhaps they are doing abseiling practice or putting up the fireworks for Sunday’s parade. We have dinner in the third restaurant on the piazza before driving across the city to our new hotel for the evening, positioned to enable us to make an early morning dash to the ferry at Civitavecchia. There’s a full moon rising as we cross the Tiber passing the Vatican (does that mean we can count it as a separate country?) and head for the hills above the city.
Comments