Our last day in Rome, a little cooler today but still over 30 degrees. Forget about wearing anything a second time, by day's end everything goes in the wash. As luck would have it, we have access to a washing machine at our Roman abode, and a cork screw as wine in Italy still has corks.
This afternoon's tour of the Catacombs allowed us to fit in a couple of must-sees before lunch. First up was the Pantheon standing in its own little square which already has a long queue snaking around it as we approach about fifteen minutes before the nine o'clock opening time.
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| Pantheon Rome |
Several vendors are walking along the line hoping to sell wraps to women who are unsuitably dressed for entering a church in Italy. I find it quite refreshing that a degree of modesty is required in our 'anything goes' world. Two older teenagers in skimpy tops are in the line in front of us and are ignoring the scarf-seller who is saying 'cover the shoulders', 'must cover the shoulders'. When they make it to the door they are turned away while their parents go in to see the church.
The Pantheon was once a Roman temple but in 609 AD it became a Catholic church dedicated to St Mary and All the Martyrs. It was built in the early 100s AD to replace a former temple which was destroyed by fire. This classic building is one of the best-preserved of all the Ancient Roman buildings and has been in constant use since the 7th century.
As you enter the church the first thing that strikes you is the exquisite symmetry of the building. It is round, topped with a magnificent dome—the world's largest reinforced concrete dome—which is open at the apex allowing rain to fall through. A drain set in the floor beneath the dome takes the runoff.
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| Dome of the Pantheon |
Geometry is the order with circles and squares being a repeating theme and marble the favourite building material.
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| Pantheon Rome |
When we leave the Pantheon, we head for the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. It's quite startling to walk around a corner and there is the world's most famous fountain, right beside you! And how wonderful it is, worth coming half way around the world to see. I think it must be the noise and movement of the cascading water tumbling over the Travertine stone sculptures of gods and horses that makes it so fascinating. Hundreds of others are admiring the fountain, some throwing coins in (right hand over left shoulder), and taking selfies. I believe the vast amount of money collected from the fountain each year has been used to fund a supermarket for the poor.
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Trevi Fountain |
The Spanish Steps are a 'view only' option for me on this hot day, as climbing up them with a weighty back pack (containing life-saving water) may be the end of me.
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| The Spanish Steps |
We walk on towards the the Villa Borghese Gardens. The gardens cover an area of about 80 hectares, so we will only see the bit nearest to the Spanish Steps if we are to make our afternoon tour. It would be perfect to spend the day here and hire one of the bikes on offer to cycle around the gardens, under the spreading trees, past the statues and fountains and around the lake but, that's not to be, so we settle for a short walk past several fountains and sit for a while watching the cooling water.
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| In Borghese Gardens |
Our meeting point for the tour of the Crypts and Catacombs is at Piazza Barberini beside Bernini's Triton Fountain. It is wonderful how daily life flows on around works of art like this impressive water feature.
Our tour guide is a young American woman who took her degree in Rome and has stayed on for the past six years, she tells us. She's full of enthusiasm for her subject which is always a good virtue in a tour guide. Walks of Italy have stood us in good stead providing small groups and knowledgable guides. Our first stop is the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, where first we tour an extensive display of artefacts of the Capuchin Friars who came to the church in 1631 bringing with them the skeletal remains of 3,700 of their long-dead fellows. The bones were placed in the crypt in six niche-rooms opening of a hallway and arranged as what we would now call an art installation. This is the strangest sight you're ever likely to see. Along the little hallway there are hanging lights made from what looks the bones of hands and feet, there is a display that features pelvises, one that uses skulls like a picture frame, bones are nailed to the walls in decorative patterns and whole bodies lie or stand draped in their monks' habits among this macabre display. Apparently, the Order insist that this display is not meant to be macabre (sorry, but I'm afraid it is) but rather to remind us that life is short and we should contemplate what comes next. Fortunately, we are not permitted to take photographs so I can happily blot this place from my mind after I post this blog!
Back in the land of the living (briefly) we now climb aboard a mini bus for a trip out of town to the Roman Catacombs. You will be sensing a common theme here as the Catacombs were underground burial chambers dating from the second to the fifth century. Pagans, Jews and early Christians were buried in these underground chambers which were cut out of the soft rock. I have nothing against a cemetery, in fact it's quite fascinating to read the inscriptions on headstones in old graveyards, but I do draw the line at the thought of nailing Great Aunt Whoever onto a wall in the shape of a flower!
The Catacombs of San Sebastiano are one of five open to the public and deemed to be the pick of the bunch. The underground tunnels in this catacomb are twelve kilometres long and nothing would take me down there without a guide! The atmosphere is pleasantly damp and these days all the bones have been removed from the burial niches (too many people souveniring them in the past) so no macabre element to be found here.
This catacomb was four storeys deep so we descend further into the earth stopping now and again to read inscriptions above the niches and eventually come to a larger open area where relics of Saints Peter and Paul were believed to be interred. It became a place of pilgrimage for early Christians and centuries-old graffiti on the walls testifies to that.
Above this catacomb is the beautiful Basilica of Saint Sebastian Beyond the Walls. The original church, built in the 4thcentury, was the Basilica of the Apostles, named for the temporary burial place of Saints Peter and Paul prior to their remains being removed to the two basilicas bearing their names in the City of Rome (St Peter's now within Vatican City).
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| Basilica of Saint Sebastian |
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| Ceiling at the Basilica of Saint Sebastian |
Saint Sebastian was a 3rd century martyr whose remains were moved to this place around the year 350 AD but removed in 826 AD when it was feared that the church may be attacked by Muslim Arabs. A wise move because the church was, in fact, destroyed. It was rebuilt in 858–867 and the church we see today is mainly from the 17th century.
In a niche to the right side of the nave is the beautiful 'Bust of the Saviour', Bernini's last masterpiece, executed when he was a very old man. But wait a minute, this is an imposter we hear from our guide, the real sculpture has been borrowed by the Fiumicino Airport and this one is a 3D replica! Well, what next?
A bonus tour has been added to our day for reasons that go unexplained, but no one is complaining about that. Our mini bus whisks us through the countryside to see one of the ancient aqueducts built by the Romans to bring water to the city of Rome.
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| The Claudio Aqueduct |
The Claudio Aqueduct in the Appia Antica Regional Park is regarded as one of the four great aqueducts of Rome. The construction of this aqueduct was begun in 38 AD and completed in 52 AD. It furnished a great deal of Rome's water requirements including supply to baths and fountains. There is a substantial amount of this nearly two-thousand-year-old structure still standing and we can view a cross-section of the water course where the arches have fallen away.
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| Water course at top of aqueduct |
It's been a big day and a fitting finale to our Roman Adventure. Tomorrow it's arrivederci Roma and bonjour Paris.
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