Today was Day 1 of our two-day guided tour through Rome. The
alarm went off at 7:30am and after getting ready, grabbing some coffee, and a
one mile walk to the meeting place, we met our guide for the day. Guia has her
degree in history and was a fountain of knowledge about Rome. See what I did there? There wasn’t a
single question we asked her that she couldn’t answer. It was also nice to have
a private guide, as she had skip-the-line tickets for every place we went
during the day. This definitely saved us a good 2+ hours during the day. The
day was already hot, and the forecast predicted 100° for the day! I told the
girls that it would be a nice 38° out…. I just conveniently omitted ‘Celsius’.
The tour started off at the Colosseum, the largest amphitheater
ever built. All I can say is…. wow! We learned that the construction of the Colosseum
only took about eight years, as they used a design that had already been used
many times but just made it at a larger scale. It was finished in 80 AD. It was
really pretty mind-blowing to be standing in a structure that was over 1900
years old. It’s pretty crazy, too, that the Colosseum was used for gladiator
fights, humans battling animals, and public executions. For the executions,
they even made the execution itself part of a performance! There were people
getting slaughtered there all the time. So, in many ways it was much like a
similar structure: Cardinals Stadium. There’s also a complex underground where
they raised the animals and gladiators up on platforms so that they appeared ‘out
of nowhere’. Unfortunately, there were
two earthquakes (750 AD and 1348 AD) that caused significant damage to the
Colosseum. They have stabilized the existing structure and hopefully it lasts
for another 1900 years. Really cool stuff and definitely a site to add to your
bucket list.
Our next stop (after a zillion pictures of the Colosseum) was
the Basilica de San Pietro. This is the location of Julius II’s tomb, where you
can find Michelangelo’s Moses. It also contains the Chains of St. Peter. These were
the chains that they used to imprison St. Peter in Jerusalem. These chains were
sent to Rome, where they were given to Pope Leo I. The pope put them with the
chains that held St. Peter when he was in the Mamertine prison in Rome, and the
two chains miraculously joined together. Such an awesome story, and an awesome sight to see these at the basilica.
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| Michaelangelo's Moses |
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| The Chains of St. Peter |
We then wandered around Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. It
was so neat to think about how, centuries ago, people used to walk through the
buildings in which the remains of the structures still exist. It was also neat
to think about how much younger I am than these buildings. Not so true in the USofA. There
was also a church that had a door that was probably 25 feet up the side of the building
with no steps. Guia told us that the bottom of the door used to be street level
and over the years the excavations have brought the street level down
significantly. She described Rome as a “lasagna with many different layers.”
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| These floors are depressed because they used to heat the floors of the palace by creating space underneath the floor. The floors have since collapsed into these spaces. |
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| Miniature Town: Roman Ruins! |
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| There are almost 1,000 churches in Rome! |
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| The door to nowhere.... |
I was not going to let her make a comment about food, especially Italian food, just go
completely unnoticed, so we took a break for lunch. It was nice to get out of the
heat for a little bit and we were definitely hungry from all the walking.
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| Day 1 Rome Tour Beer |
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| Can it be?! Pizza?! |
Trevi Fountain was next. This huge fountain was built in the
mid-1700s and is at the end of the aqueducts that supplied water to Rome for
over 400 years! The fountain represents health and wealth, because if you are
fortunate enough to have water, you have both. (Speaking of which, there are public water
faucets all over Rome, and we really appreciate this because we have filled
our water bottles tons of times!) Also, It is considered good luck to throw a
coin over your shoulder into the fountain. Over 1 million euros are thrown in
every year, and the money is used to help feed the poor in Rome. I can tell you,
though, that the fountain is broken….I wished for the temperature to drop to
the mid-70s and nothing happened. If anything, it got hotter. Fake news!!
We then took an unexpected detour into a high-end department
store. I thought maybe Sherri had tipped the guide a bit early or something,
but it turns out that there is a spot in the store where they have the largest
preserved Roman aqueduct, which was completed by Emperor Augustus in 19 BC! They
found this aqueduct when excavating and renovating the shopping center. We then went up to the
terrace of the department store where we had a 360° view of the city....molto bella!
Sant’Andrea Basilica was our next stop. A gorgeous basilica
church built in the 17th century. It contains “Bernini’s angels” –
which are not at all like Charlie’s Angels. These angels were originally
supposed to be placed on the Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge, but the pope liked them
so much he had the originals put in the basilica and replicas made for the bridge.
Since we were baking at this point, we figured it was high
time for some gelato. Guia took us to a place called Giolitti and told us it
had the best gelato in Rome. Based on the crowd there, she had to be right. It
was awesome to have her with us, because she basically maneuvered her way to the
front of the can’t-consider-it-a-line, and said, “you definitely need an Italian
with you in this place!” The gelato was amazing!
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| Guia (to the left of me with the hat) working her way quickly to the front. Go Guia! |
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| Success! |
After gelato, we went to the Pantheon, which was built in
125 AD. 125!!!! Again, another amazingly beautiful church (which used to be a pagan
temple) which is also the world’s largest unsupported concrete dome. The
engineers in 125 AD were pretty spectacular. Michaelangelo believed the Pantheon to be so beautiful that he considered it “the work of angels.” The bronze from the outside ceiling of the Pantheon was actually used to create the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica. The
dome has an opening in the center, and they even built drainage in the floor
tiles for when it rains.
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| The Margherita pizza is named after Queen Margherita of Savoy...and the colors (red tomato, white mozzarella, and green basil) are for the Italian flag! |
Now, whenever we are in a place that has a dome, we put
an iPhone down in the center of the place and take a picture looking up at the
Hummel family. The first time we did this was at the Guggenheim museum in New
York about 7 years ago. So, naturally we had to take a pic this time. We all
got around the phone, set the timer, and stood there looking down and smiling.
All of a sudden, a sixth person entered the picture. We all registered that
someone entered the photo, but for some reason, we all stayed smiling and
looking down. So, we had an adopted sixth Hummel join us for a pic. She continued
to look down after the picture was taken, wondering what we were all looking
down and smiling at. We were cracking up! We picked up the phone and tried to
explain to her what we were doing, but she didn’t understand. She put her phone
on the ground and just looked at it quizzically. It was a pretty awesome end to
our Day 1 Rome tour.
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| Take 1: Mysterious Sixth Hummel! |
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| Take 2! |
We bid Guia farewell, grabbed a quick dinner (where Haley
had her first glass of wine!), headed back to our place, and took second showers
because it was so hot all day. We were thankful that Sherri thought ahead and
brought us all fans and umbrellas for the scorching day. We all probably went
through a few gallons of water, too!
Final step count: 23,602….a new record (and in record heat!).
We are going to sleep well tonight!!
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| The girls with our awesome tour guide! |
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| End of Tour Dinner Beer |
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| Wha?! Young lady, the drinking age is ...oh wait....16... |
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| Sister sneaks a drink too... |
