Day 6, February 5, our first full day in Rome, we got up early to go and see the Trevi Fountain. This is one of those ‘must see’ sights of Rome. We found out that no one gets up early in Rome so if you want to have a lot less people at the popular spots--get there EARLY in the morning--haha!
If you throw a coin into the fountain with your right hand over your left shoulder you will return to Rome again someday. Here’s my throw:
After seeing the Trevi Fountain we headed over to tour the Pantheon. The Pantheon was built around 113-125 AD over another site of an earlier temple--built around 27BC-14AD--after it burned down. It is one of the best preserved of all ancient Roman buildings. It has been a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs known as Santa Maria Rotunda. It is still regularly used as a Catholic Church.
I loved the ceiling the most about it. The oculus or opening at the top is completely open. So when it rains it rains inside too, but there are a series of drains in the floor that help drain the water. The oculus is sundial that tells time with the light beam throughout the day.
Next we walked over to check out Piazza Navona. The space of this piazza is interesting. It is an elongated oval because it was built over the site of an old Roman stadium. This is a pretty piazza with lots of interesting people around. While we were there we noticed the church and decided to check it out.
The church was named Sant’Agnese in Agone. We walked in and looked around. The dome and ceilings were beautiful!
There are 135 steps in total with a 95 feet elevation.
Next we wandered over to the Villa Borghesa gardens which a HUGE public park. It is the third largest public park in Rome. We walked around for a bit then decided to rent a tandem bicycle to see even more. It was fun, but we definitely got a workout in!
After that we were relatively close to our hotel so we walked over there to take a potty break and to grab some fruit from our complimentary fruit bowl. I had been eyeing the persimmons fruit from the beginning so I decided to try it out. I had never eaten one before. I was pleasantly surprised. It was crispy like an apple but sweet tasting, a bit like honey.
Next we wandered back to the Villa Borghesa Gardens to a beautiful point called Terrazzo del Pincio. From this point we had a beautiful view of Rome especially over the Palazza Popolo and watched the sunset. A million other people had the same idea (Instragrammers are the WORST!!) so it was pretty crowded. Luckily we were able to a get a spot in front and watch the sunset without any obstruction.
Here’s a view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica during the sunset:
After sunset we made our way down to Palaza Popolo and walked around for a bit. This plaza was a place for public executions throughout history. The Romans loved Egyptian things. There are 13 different ancient obelisks around Rome that have been brought here from Egypt. This is one of them.
There was a church there we decided to check out. It was called Church of Saint Mary of Miracles.
We then grabbed a yummy dinner in a local restaurant. I don’t have any pictures, but I still remembered what we ordered. I ordered Cacio e Pepe which is a pasta like Alfredo with pepper. Aaron ordered carbonara. They were both delicious! Then it was time to head back to the hotel. We did stop by the Trevi Fountain again:
We started walking down to our meeting spot for our tour for the day when we happened to notice we were walking by the American Embassy. I have never seen one before so I thought it was pretty cool!
Our tour for the day was going to be of the Museum and Crypt of the Capuchin Friars and of the Catacombs. We met our tour guide at Piazza Barberini and walked over to the museum. It is attached to a church called Santa Maria della Concezione. We walked through the church to get to the exhibits of the Capuchin friars. The first section of the museum takes you through life of the friars in the convent. It also has displays of robes and artifacts they used daily. The last portion of the museum you visit the crypt/cemetery. It consists of a long corridor with five chapels decorated with the remains of nearly 4,000 friars dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Their bones are used to create rosettes, stars, hourglasses, clocks, butterflies, chandeliers, crosses, etc. The floor of many of the chapels contain holy earth which is dirt that has been brought in from Jerusalem.
I won’t lie it was a bit eerie to see all the ‘artwork’ and know it was from bones from a former living person. They felt they were honoring those that had passed with this macabre artwork. Here’s how some of the chapels were decorated using the bones:
Here’s part of the ancient wall around Rome that is still standing:
Here’s the outside entrance to the Callixtus catacombs.
After being in the catacombs you pass through a partially dug out ancient section of a roman house and then come up into a church. Here’s the chapel of the church:
ceiling:
They also had a display case of all the ancient everyday items they excavated during that time in some display cases. I didn’t get a picture of the display cases, but it was interesting.
It was cool to see how everything worked. Unfortunately during this self guided tour Aaron bent down to look at something and his pants ripped right down the crotch. DOH!! Luckily we were almost done looking around so we left shortly after.
After that we started walking back to our hotel so he could change into some different pants. We went by way of the Spanish Steps again.
Next he took us to an area with a lot of ancient roman ruins called Largo di Torre Argentina. He talked to us about the history and pointed out different interesting things to notice.
Next he drove by the Vittoriano. This is a national monument that was built between 1885-1935 to honor the first king of unified Italy. It was a monument to freedom.
Next we drove by the Colosseum. It looked really cool lit up at night. The Colosseum is the largest ancient ampitheater ever built and still standing--mostly. Construction was started in 72 AD and finished in 80 AD. They have had to make modifications through the years to help keep it standing, but it is still quite impressive.
We then drove by the Temple of Venus and Roma. They think this was the largest temple in Ancient Rome. It was dedicated to the goddesses Venus Felix and Roma Aeterna. Construction started on this temple in 121 AD.
Our guide took these pictures for us.
He then took us to Circus Maximus. This was an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and entertainment venue. You can’t see the oval track very well, but it was HUGE and cool to see. Anciently they think this was built to hold over 150.000 spectators.
Next he took us to the Mouth of Truth. It is an ancient Roman marble mask found outside the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church. According to legend it will bite off the hand of any liar who places their hand in its mouth who utters a lie while their hand is in the mouth. It was roped off while we were visiting so we didn’t get to try it out--haha! One of our earlier tour guides told us it ended up being a cover to the sewer, but I don’t know if she was 100% correct. Either way it was an interesting thing to see.
Here are some stairs that were made for horses to pull carriages up which was neat:
As you walk in there is a HUGE mirror where you can pay one Euro to have the lights on the ceiling light up so you can see the beautiful artwork through the mirror. We had noticed a huge line earlier in the day and didn’t want to waste time waiting for it so we left. Amazingly enough when we walked through the front doors there was absolutely NO line for the mirror so we walked up and put our Euro in and got to enjoy the artwork on the ceiling through the mirror for 1 minute before the lights on the ceiling turned back off. It was pretty cool!
We walked around for a few minutes looking at some other things we hadn’t see earlier and was able to enjoy them more now that we had some history about it.
They didn’t allow any pictures to be taken inside the catacombs, but here’s a few I pulled from the internet:
When we were dropped off after visiting the catacombs we headed over to the Trastevere area/Jewish Quarter to grab a yummy lunch. After that we speed walked over to visit the underground archeological area beneath the Trevi Fountain. I was excited to see what it looked like underneath. To be honest it was a bit underwhelming, but still interesting to see. Back in 1999-2001 they started an archeological survey to renovate an old theater. That is when they discovered a large ancient residential area. They opened it up to the public in 2004. After you get your ticket you can go underground and see the different stratification or levels that Rome has been built over. Down under the Trevi Fountain you can see how the Romans got their fresh water pumped into the city from the Aqua Virgo aqueduct. You can also see a partially intact old apartment from ancient times.
After changing his pants we grabbed some gelato. Then we headed down to the meeting place of our scheduled evening golf cart tour. In doing research for this trip I was intrigued when I read about doing a Rome golf cart tour. I eventually decided that it was something I would like to try out. I am so glad I did!! It was one of the highlights of our trip! However, when we went to the arranged meeting spot we were a little nervous. It was a random corner in the middle of a really busy street. When we booked this tour we assumed we were going to be with a group of people. So as we waited and we were the only ones there we started worrying that we were in the wrong location--Roman addresses are not straightforward. Anyway, our golf cart drove up and we were the only customers of his for that evening. Wahoo! I guess we were going to get a private tour. However, I must admit I was a bit worried that we might get kidnapped and murdered since we were the only ones and our driver could do whatever and we wouldn’t even realize anything was wrong until it was too late. After having that short, quick thought I realized that I think I have watched and listened to way too many true crime/murder shows and podcasts and maybe I should cut back--haha! Thank goodness nothing like that happened and this tour really was awesome!! Our driver talked to us before we started and asked what we have seen so far and what we had scheduled. He didn’t want to duplicate many things we had already experienced so he customized our tour and added in a bunch of things we would have never gotten to see otherwise. He first took us to the Piazza Navona. We had been here earlier, but he gave us a very in-depth history lesson about the area that was interesting. Here is the Fountain of the Four Rivers in the middle of the plaza.
He drove by the Arc of Constantine. This arch was built in 312 AD to commemorate Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Melvin Bridge. People would take this route under the arch to get into the city so it was in a prominent location.
He then took us to a cool location to get pictures of the Colosseum. Let me just add that we were SO COLD!! The evening was cold already, but then zipping around on the golf cart with the icy wind made us feel like icicles, but it was worth it even if I can’t move my fingers well enough to take any good pictures--haha!
He also walked us over to the free running water fountain and told us the history of why these are found all over Rome. I decided to try out the water straight from the fountain just to say I did it. It was cold and tasted good.
Next he took us over to see the amazing view from the keyhole of the Knights of Malta on Aventine Hill. There is a nondescript door in the middle of a residential neighborhood with a keyhole that perfectly lines up a view of Saint Peter’s Basilica dome. By looking through this keyhole you can see three different countries, Rome, Italy, Priory of the Knights of Malta (which is their own country even if they don’t have any actual land outside of this embassy) and the Vatican. It was pretty cool!
Next he took us by the Pyramid of Cestius. Like I had mentioned before the Romans loved the Egyptians. This pyramid was built for a wealthy man named Gaius Destius Epulo in 12 BC. It was completed in 330 days and was meant to be his tomb--where he wanted to be buried.
Temple of Hercules was found in the same area as the Mouth of Truth. This area used to be a huge cattle market where people bought and sold cattle.
Here is the Temple of Apollo Sosianus and Theater of Marcellus. It used to be an open air theater.
Here’s an old lion that has been around forever. I can’t remember the history of this one, but I am sure it was cool!
Here is the huge staircase up to the Santa Maria in Aracoeli church by Capitolene Hill. Our guide told us not to let the plain outside of the church fool you. It was supposed to be really pretty on the inside. We made note of it and would return back here later to check it out.
Here is the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church. The church’s name comes from the fact that it is built directly over the ruins of a temple that was dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis which had been mistakenly ascribed to the goddess Minerva.
Then he took us over to the Pantheon to get some good night pictures. Again if you go to these awesome places early in the morning or late at night there really aren’t very many people around!! It was great!
Here is the fountain outside the Pantheon that was built in 1575. The Romans really loved their fountains and ability to have running water and liked to show it off through the many fountains.
Here is the Sant Ignazio Church. We had been to the church earlier that day, but didn’t know much about it. Our guide sent us inside and told us to really look at the artwork on the ceiling. It showed the four main rivers in the world in each corner of the ceiling.
St Peter’s Basilica dome from the same sunset viewpoint we watched the previous night.
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