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24 Oct 04: I only
slept till 10:00, and by 11:00 we were off for a fresh day of sights
and
sounds. Our first destination was the Colosseum - we once again
made the
one-kilometer trek to the Metro station from the hotel, rode all the
way into
Roma Termini to switch to another line, and traveled another two
stops, where
we emerged from Subterranea to find this behemoth of a building bulking
directly over us. It is
difficult to convey the enormity of this Wonder of the ancient world in
words,
or even in images, as the rounded sides present an artificial horizon,
albeit a
vertical one rather than the more familiar horizontal one. The
structure cannot
be grasped in its entirety while standing anywhere near it. We did the
best we
could and circumnavigated it on foot, but did not elect to enter.
Thousands and
thousands of people thronged about – tour groups, small groups,
singles and
couples, street vendors, costumed faux
Roman soldiers, and even a wedding
party. The
bride and groom posed on ancient relics for the photographer and then
sped off
in a vintage cream-white Rolls Royce. We passed by the Constantine Arch
and
climbed a
hill to descend into the Roman Forum.
We spent
quite a bit of time wandering around in the area of the Forum, looking
by turns
at what once were sumptuous villas atop the Palentine Hill where the
Roman
elite lived and played, broken columns from dozens of temples and Roman
administrative buildings on the Forum
floor, and a stunningly brilliant
set of black and
white mosaic tiles comprising the entire floor of a cavernous space
that
towered 30 meters overhead and was completely empty save for two black
marble
statues 20 meters away at the other end. Finally, we emerged from the
Forum and
climbed the hill to the top of Monte Capitalino, one of Rome’s famed
Seven
Hills. Just prior to attaining the broad hilltop, we ran across a small
shrine with
a sign outside proclaiming Priggione
(prison) – this turned out to be
the jail where Saints Peter and Paul were imprisoned just prior to
their martyrdom. To their credit as apostles, they did manage to
convert
their
jailers before departing this world for the next. We descended a narrow
flight
of stairs and found ourselves in a circular raw stone room 4 meters in
diameter
and 2 meters high and experienced a mild frisson before ascending once
more into the light. We next
made our way to the Trevi
Fountain, a lavish work covering the entire
side of
an 18th century building and again surrounded by
throngs. We took a few pictures and
admired
the crystal clear turquoise water, but the crush of people was so dense
that we
could not approach the pool closely, and we left after only a short
while. By
now it was getting on to be a little past 16:00, and my dogs were
whining that they were unwilling to bear me much farther. We decided to
return
to the
hotel, and I could see from our city map that a Metro station lay only
a few
blocks away. Regrettably, I made a wrong turn on a cross street and
we would
up in another piazza even
further from the Metro line than we had been
to start
with. Expertly eyeing the map, I wrongly navigated us once more in the
direction opposite to that required, and as we came up for air I could
see the
Colosseum in the near distance! So we walked another 500 meters or so
and found
ourselves back at the very same Metro stop from which we had started
the day. We made it safely back to the vicinity of the
hotel from there by about 18:00 without further mishap. Dinner at a ristorante not far from the hotel
consumed another 2-½ hours,
after which
we returned to
the hotel and managed to get to sleep by about 23:30. Click here to return to the Table of Contents. |
