Rome part Due

This post is intended to continue where I left off in Rome, and to hopefully finish it up through London.

Day 1
Our first full day of Rome began with a visit to the National Museum of Rome. Here, we saw many sculptures of ancient Roman politicians and emperors, along with regular people and some Greek bronze work. We then visited a church built over the ruins of one of the largest public baths in ancient Rome. Ancient Romans were very hygenic, and the baths were accessible to pretty much anyone. Besides getting clean, they were also places to get other services such as haircuts. We then met up on our tour on the Crypts and Catacombs of Rome.

Like I stated before, Rome was very hygenic, and traditionally, bodies were forbidden to be buried inside the city. So instead, they were moved out to the countryside, and extensive crypts were dug out of the soil, composed of volcanic ash. This soil is very soft, but when exposed to air, hardens, making it very easy for building subturranean tunnels. Some stairs lead our tour to the first of many floors of this particular crypt. Along these tunnels, small alcoves would be dug, where bodies would be placed and covered with concrete. This was typically a practice of early Christians. Pagans would cremate their bodies, but these Christains believed that any day now, Jesus would come back and claim the dead to bring to heaven, and they thought they needed their bodies to get into heaven. Therefore, many of these concrete slabs would be decorated with simple, hidden Christian symbols. These crypts could go on for miles; this one in particular held up to half a million bodies.

The cuts along these hallways once held bodies.

Our next tour lead to a 12 century church, built on top of the ruins of several older buildings. Rome was no stranger to disaster; an earthquake could come and bulldoze down the entire town, and the city would just build on top of the rubble. This leads to what our tour guides enjoyed calling the "lasagna" effect; simply layers and layers of Rome built upon one another. Travelling down, we toured a 7th centrury church, and then a 2nd century pagan church below it, built on top of a 1st century public building.I found this to be pretty awesome, as if we were traveling back in time through the centuries.

We then visited the Capuchin crypt. The Capuchins were originally offshots of the Franciscans monks, who left because they believed that the order was not following their strict vows of poverty. So, when they finally received a church, they had to of course decorate it. And being poor, they decorated it with bones. Of about 4,000 monks. Entering this was like stepping into a horror film. Bits of bones were arranged in decorative shapes. Mummies, dressed in the rags of friars, bowed before their audience. Bones littered the walls, was built into arches, and hung down from the ceiling into chandeliers. In the last room, among the remains were the complete skeletons of three children. Two sat in the back of a room, with their grim grins, holding up another skull and winged hourglasses, to remind it's viewers of the swiftness of death. And on the ceiling, the skeleton of a young boy looked down, holding a scythe as a symbol of death. In his other hand he holds scales, symbolizing how God will weigh your good and bad deeds.This grim decor was not meant to frighten, but rather to remind it's viewers of the fragility of life; and that death could come at any second, it had no favorite age. A placard in the last room reads:

"What you are now we used to be;

What we are now you will be..."

The last room. Notice the child of death above.

In the alcoves along the wall are the mummified monks.

The child with the scythe and scales.

This ended our first day.

Day 2

Our second day consisted of a full day tour, to visit Pompeii, and it's executor, Vesuvius. A long bus ride out in the country revealed rolling hills, punctuated by mountains, covered in small red villages along it's side. When we arrived at Vesuvius, we found ourselves in the middle of a thick fog. Barely able to see in front of us, we climbed past a tiny shop and begin to climb the loose gravel up to the crater. Vesuvius today is a mere shell of it's former self; after the famous eruption in the 1st century, most of it's top was completely blown away. Today, only a crater remains at the center, but the volcano is still active. It's actually the most studied volcano in the world. Upon reaching the top, however, we found ourselves looking only into the fog; after about 15 feet of visibility, we could see nothing.

What we almost saw...

We had to make do with the picture on a postcard.

Before reaching Pompeii, we stopped in Naples to eat pizza. Pizza was actually invented in Naples. Supposedly, the modern day example of a pizza as a bread base, tomato paste, and cheese, was invented when the King and Queen were touring their country. Rich cities would give lavish gifts of gold and jewels, but Naples was a very poor city. So they decided to make food using the colors of the Italian flag, with the red tomato paste, the yellow mozzarella cheese (this region is famous for mozzarella) and the green basil. The Queen, Margherita, loved it so much, they named this pizza the Margherita pizza.

After dining upon pizza, we left for Pompeii. Pompeii, as you know, was destroyed by Vesuvius in the 1st century  and was covered in volcanic ash, preserving it until it's excavation more than a thousand years later. The streets, shops, houses, and amphitheaters are all remarkably well preserved, and it was thrilling to see how civilized the Romans built their city (although the city was actually founded by the Greeks.)

I thought this was one of the neatest pieces of Pompeii The streets were made to allow water to flow down them, so they could be cleaned. Those giant stones in the middle were to allow pedestrians to cross without getting wet. But they were also regulated so that chariots had enough wheel space to cross between the stones without getting stuck.

No doubt, however, the most famous relics of this city are it's inhabitants. Some of these poor people were casted in their last moments of agony, and plaster models remain today for us to view, including a dog that had been chained. These plaster casts even show bits of the skeletons of it's inhabitants, such as toe or finger bones.

Perhaps one of the funniest places was the brothel. Being a port town, it could be home to several languages. So in order to break the language gaps, rooms in a brothel were decorated with detailed pictures hanging above them. So a client could see which picture he wished to partake in, pick a girl (specially trained for this position) outside, and the door, and continue with his business. Surprisingly, this scenario is not often cited in the history books.

A picture above a brothel door.

So after a long trip back, we fell asleep.

Day 3

Day 3 was fairly unplanned, so we decided to explore the Roman forum and palatine hill before our tour on Wednesday. The Forum was the centerpiece of public Rome; senators, regular people, anyone could be found here. Although most of it is left only in ruins, with a little imagination, one can picture the place as it used to be. We also saw the temple of Julius Caesar, where he was cremated. Flowers are still placed on this place, by those who wish to honor his memory.

Flowers where Caesar was cremated.

We also saw some of the original Senate building, and even saw some ongoing excavations being carried out by archaeologists. One interesting area was the temple of the Vestal Virgins. A sacred flame was carried out in this temple by a collection of virgins, chosen around the ages of 6-10. Although they had strict rules, they were treated as goddesses. They were able to ride chariots inside the forum (which was a huge deal, especially for women,) and could even give amnesty to people who were about to be executed. After a few decades of service, they were freed and allowed to marry anyone they wished.

These statues are of leading Vestal Virgins, located in the temple.

Palatine Hill was the residence of most of the emperors of the empire. This area was huge, and many of the ruins that remain show just how powerful these people were. They were filled with expensive marble, fountains, gardens, its really hard to describe just how rich these people were. This place also oversees the Circus Maximus, where chariot races were performed, and Christains were martyered.

After we walked through some other areas, we spent the rest of this day relaxing, and slept for a good bit of the day.

Day 4

This day, we took a tour of the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Cathedral, and Sistine Chapel. Vatican City is not part of any country; it represents itself as it's own country. Huge walls seperate it from the city of Rome, encompassing 110 square miles, and 800 citizens, including of course the Pope. They even print their own euros and stamps. After entering, we first toured the Vatican Museum. The Museum encompasses objects the Pope has deemed to be less important; regardless, we found ourselves in a hallway lined with rare Roman busts and statues, marble worth a fortune, and priceless tapestries. As you might know, many of the original Roman statues were originally in the nude. However, one of the popes decided that such display of genitalia was unclean, and as a result, many of these stone men became eunuchs.

One piece of the Vatican Museum that stuck out to me. Using modern methods, we can cut 3 centimeters in an hour of this priceless red marble. And they still aren't 100% sure what it was made to do.

Unfortuanately, everything in Vatican City can be changed at the whim of the Pope or other higher ups, and the Raphael hall we were supposed to view was closed. Instead, we quietly shuffled into Sistine Chapel. This infamous church is home to the ceiling done by Michelangelo. At the time, Michelangelo had not even begun to paint, but his talent was already beginning to shine. An already established painter, worried that Michelangelo's talent would surpass his own, recommended to the Pope that Michelangelo paint the ceiling. His hope was that Michelangelo would fail, and therefore be disgraced. However, Michelangelo took this as a challenge. After learning how to paint from his crew, he fired everyone but himself, and continued on his own. One can actually see how he improved his painting skills as he worked, when you view the ceiling from one end to the other. The Pope gave him instructions to paint from the 12 apostles, but Michelangelo secretly altered this, painting scenes from the Creation and Book of Genesis. It took four years for it to be completed, and the pope was so impressed, he was later asked to paint The Last Judgement, taking six years to complete.

The ceiling. The genesis paintings are in the middle.

The Last Judgment.. Jesus is in the middle, bringing the holy to heaven with his right hand, and banishing the wicked with his left.

After the awe-inspiring Sistine Chapel, we moved into St. Peter's Basilica. This church is often considered the greatest church in the world, and supposedly harbors the remains of St. Peter, the apostle of Jesus and the first Pope of the Catholic Church. Among the remains of Peter, it also harbors the holy relics of other saints, as well as the bodies of many Popes. Some of these Popes are kept in a glass coffin on the main floor, mummified, because they supposedly caused miracles after their death.

John Paul the II. Looks to me kinda like a creepy Santa Claus.

 St. Peter's was simply awe-inspiring; everything was covered in marble and gold. Building it took a hundred years to complete, it's so huge. It also hosts the giant dome of St. Peters, which one can climb, if they can climb the 515 steps to the top. Completing this does give you a marvelous view of the entire city though.

The dome.

Although Vatican City was very impressive, I found myself disappointed. The value of even the lesser items are priceless, and at a certain point, I begun to wonder why the Church valued buying more of these items rather than buying food for the hungry or medicine for the sick. I don't mean to insult any Catholics, but the amount of wealth was fairly disgusting, and I wonder how many less fortunate people died during the construction of the Basilica. I apparently wasn't the only one with these thoughts either. One Pope announced upon receiving his seat, that he would sell most of the wealth of Vatican City, that the Basilica was enough. He died several days after receiving his promotion, and some believe he was perhaps murdered because of these ideas.

After Vatican City, we looked at a few sites, and that summed up our fourth day.

Day 5

For those weary with my Rome stories, this is the final day of Rome. Today centered around a tour of the Colosseum, The Forum, and Palatine Hill. We began with the Colosseum. Although it was easily spotted during other points in our trip, walking into this behemoth can take your breath away. Obviously, it was used as a public arena, that could host animal hunts, battle re-enactments, and of course, gladiatorial games. The Colosseum is a mere shell of it's former self. Stone is most of what remains, as most of the original marble and other decorations were removed by plunderers of varying types. An earthquake also caused a huge chunk to collapse.However, multiple restorations have taken place, even by Mussolini. After it's use as an amphitheater, it was also used as a church, quarry, and even a fortress. Our tour even stopped by the lower level of the Colosseum. This area was used to setup games, as it was setup under the sand-on-lumber- stage above. Here, workers can hoist up participants like animals up to the top. It was also the site of one of the sewers beneath the building.

View from inside. The stones in the middle would have supported a wooden stage.

Our tour also lead us through the forum and Palatine Hill, but I included most of this information on the previous paragraph. This sums up my Rome Trip, thanks again to my lovely mother for going along with me. I'll add the first couple days of London later on. Let me know what you think.