Imperial Rome
Careful where you start digging ...
Our tour continues with a look at ancient Rome — the Colosseum, the Forum, the Senate, the arches and the ruins.
Gotta love the new hat.
In a day of bright sunshine and brilliant blue sky, we took another walking tour. While more sunscreen might have been advisable, the new hat performed admirably. I was afraid it would be hot, not allowing air cirulation about the head, but in reality it wasn't that bad, probably because it prevented the sun from beating down directly on me while still taking advantange of breezes. Got only one comment about being ready to tackle the desert and no Indiana Jones jokes that I recall.
We still went through plenty of water during the day. It didn't start out that quickly, but by the time lunch rolled around, the big bottle was almost gone. But first, the morning's included tour.
Starting with the tour of the Colosseum, we walked around the site of the great gladiator games. Nowadays, you can see through the old arena floor (the English word arena comes from the old Latin word for sand, which is what covered the floor of the Flavian amphitheater, with is what the Colosseum was called in ancient times, since no one had heard of a Colosseum then.) Incidently, it was the world's first retractable dome stadium — a host of specially trained sailors could pull a tent over the stadium, providing shade for the 80,000 spectators.
The walk through the Forum, with ruins on all sides and throughout, gave another picture of ancient times and, with imagination, massive buildlings of tribute to all sorts of figures, both spiritual and governmental.
We decided to head for lunch before visiting the Pantheon and then determining our afternoon.
Lunch: Pizza Napoli. Mostly tomatoes and cheese. And Fanta :)
The Pantheon: In addition to an amazingly well-preserved interior, the obelisk in the square is also home to our first experience with a public drinking fountain. While we're pretty sure we ran across one in Florence, this one wasn't off in a corner somwhere. And this water was cold — a welcome addition to the afternoon sightseeing.
From there, we discovered what seemed to be a secret: The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, one of the few examples of gothic architecture in the city. It was built over a pre-Christian temple to Minerva (http://www.cathedralminerva.it)
There was impressive collection of art, maybe not what you would see in the big, always advertised tourist spots, but quite a collection nontheless. A lovely discovery quite unexpected.
Making our way around back to the river and on to the hotel, we ran across another little square with a fountain that may have had colder, clearer water than that at the Pantheon. (By mentioning the water so often, I'm hoping to impress upon you the importance of staying properly hydrated during the Roman afternoon. This is why the locals take naps.)
Walking around the palace of justice, we spent some time in the Pallazzo Carvalo just sitting in the shade before heading back to the hotel with a quick stop at a gelatto stand.
Dinner took us to a neighborhood ristorante when there were quite a number of fine dishes sampled. I had Spaghetto de Gagnano: A thick spaghetti in a white sauce with varied shellfish, which I suppose is a repeat of a dish I had in Venice, but this sauce was butterier (probably not a word) and creamier.
Yum.
Can't decide whether I'll need a big steak upon return to the States, or if I should just ditch red meat from my diet almost all together.
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