Christian Rome

Hop on, hop off bus tours have been something we've always really enjoyed when travelling to new cities... but with Rome, one of the most amazing things was the number of different companies that do these tours - all of which i'm sure would have been great. We elected to go for the 'Christian Rome' tour which on the whole was great, however it was exceedingly difficult to understand at times so not as relaxing as it might otherwise have been - the english being spoken in a very broken fashion by someone for whom English was clearly not their first language. Despite the difficulty understanding the commentary it was wonderful to sit for a couple of hours and just relax (relax everything other that that bit of the brain that works on comprehension...) and take in the sights and some of the history of the Eternal city. Without a doubt this is an incredible place to be in - and so so so so so much history from well over two thousand years. I hadn't realised that Rome was actually a walled city - with parts of the walls remaining intact at various points around the city, such as this bit, of the old walls and the new (smart) car! love it.

Where to start though... we did do a fair bit of exploring of this vast city, over a couple of days - both via this bus tour and on foot - the Bus actually did two different tours, one that went mainly around the inner city which we did on the Wednesday afternoon after visiting the pope, and a slightly longer tour which gets you right to the outer reaches of the city where St Paul's Basilica is, and even outside the city to the catacombs, where the early Christian's were buried... I'm not going to do this in order, both cos it will be really boring and long and meandering (like many of my other blogs) but also cos the memory is now fading a little and i'll probably get it wrong. Instead I thought I'd do a bit of an overview of the various monuments and places we went to, or were impacted by, and why. I'll start with the tombs of the popes...

The tombs of the popes is a brief tour that you can do (for free) through the crypt underneath St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican State in Rome, Basically it is as it sounds, a whole load of tombs of many of the various popes from the past 2000 years. Quite incredible really. I'm certainly no scholar when it comes to Catholic history, but I did find it surprisingly moving to be down in this room with all the bodies of what i'm sure were largely very holy and outstanding men. Pope John Paul II is down there, who has been personally credited with the fall of communism, as of course is Peter who tradition has it was personally instituted as the first leader of the christian church on earth, and who (in my view far more impressively), walked on water with Jesus, amongst a load of other famous names - John XXIII who was responsible for calling together the second vatican council, Pius XI who formed the vatican state... Having never been overly interested in Pope's before, I was quite taken by the fact that in that one room were buried a whole load of amazing History Makers - like them or not - you've got to acknowledge their incredible impact on World history, of course some more than others... So I was inspired to be in the presence of such men. It does make you wonder how your own life will be remembered (if in fact it will be remembered at all), whether such remembrances are indeed important even? why so many humans desire to leave some permanent sign of themselves on a fleeting and transient world? Of course Christianity has an answer for these questions: 'God has written eternity into our hearts', and, as Augustine said it in the 4th century: 'our hearts are restless until they find rest in Him.' Anyway interesting place. Moving even.

Moving right along the next interesting place was St Paul's Basilica. Now up until we stopped outside it, it had never actually occurred to me why St Peter's Basilica was so famous and St Paul's so not, after all, Peter only wrote a couple of books in the new Testament, where Paul wrote probably more than half of it... But we decided to have a gander inside anyway. Again the place is vast - second only in size in Rome, to St Peter's Basilica, yet placed almost at the outskirts of Rome - perhaps apt for a man that was execute by the state, mind you, so was Peter. Anyway, I digress. Visually the place is gigantic. I was quite taken with the statues of Paul outside the basilica, the sword i'm assured is the sword of the spirit - a metaphorical image for the 'word of God', yet used by this man with an almost militant efficiency. Interesting considering this was a man who had such reverence for sacred scripture, yet he unknowingly wrote a whole load of what is now considered to be sacred scripture. These larger than life renditions give something of an impression of this shadowy figure who contributed so much by his life and death. I found it quite incredible to ponder at this man who first made a career out of killing christians, then later converted and was stoned, run out of countless villages, towns and cities, imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked etc etc all on account of the delivery of this message he deemed so important. And now his remains are in a small box, beneath a gigantic and decandent building, gold paint used without spare here there and everywhere, that seemed conspicuous more to me on account of its emptiness than it being filled with devoted followers of his style of living. Radical. Extreme. One-eyed. Entirely unbalanced. This was not a man to complain to about work-life balance - his way was 100% for whatever he was persuing. I think we need more modern heroes like that, or perhaps just to be reminded from time to time of the ancient ones. We knelt very reverently in front of his tomb... I'd like to say I was praying, but in reality my mind was just trying to fathom the incredible impact of this one life on the world. Incredible. So we're kneeling, minds boggling to and fro, and the few others that are there are i'm sure lost in being holy or something, and Abbey lets out this gigantic fart. Followed by some gigantic squelches. Did I mention the place has AMAZING acoustics? Abbey then giggles at her impudence, sending both Mez and I into a fit of giggles and both of us exiting somewhat hastily, amid the scowls of those much holier than we. I'm sure if St Paul could have laughed he would have, possibly uproariously!

The Catacombs I found particularly moving. For a number of reasons. Back in the days of the early church, it was forbidden to bury people inside the city walls of Rome, hence the Catacombs were built - essentially just mass graves, but as the christian persecutions began, these became mass graves for the early christian people though not (as some have suggested) a refuge for the early christians, for the Romans knew of their existence. Due to the christians' respect for the dead and their inclusion of the poor - people from all levels of society were buried in the one place. They are incredibly sophisticated - huge blocks of land that go sometimes 4 stories beneath the ground, which if you entered without a guide, you would almost certainly remain within such is the lack of light etc. There were family graves, graves for little children, some decorated with porcelain and paintings, symbols or various inscriptions. Quite amazing. The most common symbols used are those of the christian fish, the chi/rho which are the first and last letters of 'christ', the anchor (which contains a cross and was meant to symbolise anchoring in the divine harbour) and the good shepherd, pilgrim soul across his sholders. Again I was exceedingly moved, with the thought that had these thousands of people not gone to their deaths without renouncing their faith, there is a strong liklihood that my own life would be without the same richness I consider my faith gives it. I guess I was moved to gratefulness. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos so I can't show you what they look like, so you'll just have to go for yourself. A definite highlight for me, and again, an unexpected one.

St John Lateran is the official church of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), which is something I had not realised before visiting the city. Apparrently there is still a network of underground tunnels that link St John Lateran to the Vatican too, which is handy for old B16 to avoid the rush hour traffic I guess. Again, it's a massively imposing structure. Interestingly there was a radio station doing some kind of promo work outside it when we were there, so there were loads of kids outside, and perhaps not all that surprising, almost none inside. Incredibly ornate inside, with loads more incredible statues and the remains of St John the Bapist, another immense figure in church (and thus world) history. I wonder if they got his head though, or if that is still missing in action. As the story goes, he lost it thanks to being truthful to herod about sleeping with his brother's wife (he told him it was bad form!), which the wife was unimpressed with... She bided her time though and later managed to convince her daughter to ask for John's head on a platter when Herod (stupidly) granted her anything she wanted at a dinner party where she pleased his guests with a suggestive dance. Crazy story.

Again the lashings of gold paint make an appearance, again the massive tomb as the centre piece to the church, Statues of the twelve apostles line the main chamber of the building, and little annexes around the periphery are like mini altars for smaller services. Abbey liked the pillars, but I was a bit churched out to be honest, a little sick of seeing gigantic halls built to reflect the Glory of God, but now populated more by tourists who are more impressed by their historical nature and architectural style, than the quaint, but irrelevant religion meant to be contained therein! Still, i'm sure there are also many who visit and are inspired to find out more about these men whose statues adorn the walls of these great halls and the way of life they propagated.

Next on the list of places to visit is the Collosseum. Built as a giant amphitheatre, it is the largest of its kind in existence in the world, but as mentioned earlier in the Blog (see Pula) not the most complete. Interestingly enough, the Collosseum in Rome was not named due to the enormity of its size, but due to a gigantic statue of Nero, that Nero had built, that stood just outside it. Seeing the size of the collosseum, one's mind boggles at the possibility of something dwarfing that in size, yet supposedly that was how it was named - kinda shows you the size of the ego of the man Nero, who once commanded this ancient empire. Anyway, the Collosseum was an interesting place, interesting for its contradictions. For example, it the official auditory commentary, the tour guide explains that there is no evidence that any Christians met an untimely end in the games of the Collosseum, however the same commentary later refers you to the gigantic cross erected to the memory of the Christians who lost their lives in the Collosseum. The Roman guards outside were kinda funny - one of them offered mum a 'sexy photo' and lifted his skirt to flash his wares. Unluckily for him she wasn't interested in either the photo, or his wares, and instead hightailed it away from him. Not the best advertisement for the city, nor smart tourism... So on the whole we weren't overly impressed by the Collosseum. Too bitsy in the way it has been excavated and loads of attempts at reconstructing various parts of it have left it just looking less than authentic, in my humble opinion. Railings around the top were a wee way off being straight too, which amazed me - amazed me that after nearly two thousand years, stone plunderers, acid rain, excavations, volcanic eruptions and more it is still standing. That being said, Go to Pula to see an amazing Amphitheatre. Go to Rome for the catacombs and Vatican...

Palatine Hill is home to loads of old Roman Stuff, this was the epicentre of ancient Rome, where the Roman government was (the Roman forum), among other things, and not too far from Circus Maximus, the home of the chariot races, which could seat up to 250,000 people. Constantine's arch is there, and while not quite as impressive as the Arc De Triumphe - it was built a lot earlier, and is pretty darn cool. There are also a number of temples and other stuff. Abbey again liked the pillars, but it was a hot day which started to wear thin with her. The photo right has mum doing a splendid job of smiling while looking like Abbey is taking the water, the reality as I recall it was a little different, with Abbey hollering at the top of her lungs. I think possibly the problem Rome has is the amount of amazing historical stuff all in one place - it simply boggles you, you can't possibly take it all in, so you simply snap a few shots and then head on your way. You head through the arches at the end of this area with all the Ancient ruins, and immediately stumble on the damp/dank underground prison where a shackled St Paul was held for a couple of years, prior to his execution. Indeed it was probably from that place, that loads of his letters, now held as sacred scripture, were penned. History eh?

Just a stone's throw from Paul's Ancient Roman prison, is the modern centre of Rome - the italian parliament, with a magnificant bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback outside, and huge chariots sitting atop the building on either side. Cool place, but not much more that can be said.

The Trevi fountain we found, which is nestled between a whole load of markets and other shops in an exceedingly bustling part of the city... Good gelato nearby, and the fountain itself is quite impressive. Not sure I would call it Rome's most impressive feature, but it's certainly impressive. The fountain depicts Neptune, flanked by two sea-men who are trying to tame two sea horses, one of which is very placid, the other of which is going completely beserk... this is meant to represent the two differing moods of the sea. Fair enough. Icecream. Photo. Onwards!

The Spanish steps, we totally didn't get. Maybe it was because we had been walking all day, maybe it was because... well... they're just steps. Evidently famous, certainly not bad looking as far as staircases go, but certainly not worth all the raving that they receive in guidebooks for the city! At least if I was showing someone the city, I wouldn't be at pains to point them out! Just near the spanish steps though is some amazing shopping places - we saw this saucy wee outfit in a shop window for a cool €600!!! that's a whole lot for not a lot of fabric. The mind boggles at who would pay that. Hmm the (male) mind also boggles at who would wear it... or perhaps what they would look like while doing so. But that's an entirely different story. Amazing though that this was in the window of a really really expensive shop. I guess it was exceedingly hot weather, and such garments would do well from a practical point of view, which is i'm sure what the (male?) designer was thinking when creating it...

The Pantheon we saw only by night, and realistically, only because I got slightly lost trying to direct us back. Looked pretty though. And is evidently more impressive on the inside. Impressive and renowned as being the biggest domed ceiling built by any ancient peoples... again it's been around for a long long time, and was put there without the help of any cranes etc, which is what really makes a lot of these structures so impressive. St Peter's by night is also an impressive sight, and a long awaited one when you've been walking most of the day and it is now dark - we were only to glad to see it cos it meant we were a mere couple of blocks from home. Where a most excellent nights sleep was had by all if I recall correctly - one of Abbey's rare ones all the way through! Nice. Definately the highlight for me!