Nov 22 – 25, 2008 – Rome, Italy – Emperor Hadrian’s villa (Tivoli, Italy)

The Roman emperor Hadrian who ruled from 117 – 138 AD, decided he needed a retreat from the swirl and complexity of Roman court life.   Hadrian’s Villa is the result and the seat of his rule of Rome.  Its located just outside the city of Tivoli which is near (45 minutes train ride) away from Rome.

It sprawled over 300 acres and contained lots of structures – many of which are still easily recognizable.  This was the theatre.

 

Here we are grabbing some lunch in the shade of some 1900 year old columns.

 

The following two photos are of the most impressive ruin on the site – The Canopus.  This was a water feature that was a creation of Hadrian’s – it was not a feature of the typical Roman city town plan and even in 2008 it was breathtaking, particularly since on this date and time our family were the only visitors enjoying it.

  

Nov 22 – 25, 2008 – Rome, Italy – Rome street scenes

We always try to take pictures of images we’ve seen that we’d like to remember. 

This is a gas station that seemed to designed to fill up scooters (of which there were a large number).

These workmen were sorting street stones into piles for, I assumed, potential reuse in a street resurfacing project.  Another job I’m glad to leave to others.

I saw this elderly gentleman drive up in his car, open a wrought iron gate, position these ramps and drive his car into this courtyard after which he moved his ramps inside and closed the wrought gate.  I was thankful once again that parking space is not at such a premium in Victoria (or Canada).

 

Laura-Lyn and I both saw this gentleman looking in the window of a high-end men’s clothing store and both thought the same thing – ’sharp dressed man’ (I’m thinking of the ZZ Top song here).  She was quicker getting her camera out and captured this image.

This set of ruins, in the heart of Rome, could not be redeveloped into something useful and there probably was not the money to return them to their former glory so someone had established a cat sanctuary.  I’m not kidding.  There were daily tours at 4:00 pm.

Nov 22 – 25, 2008 – Rome, Italy – Other Rome sights

This church was extremely modest compared to some of the churches or cathedrals we saw on this trip but its site was on top of 2000 years of construction on this spot and visitors could descend through these various layers and learn about what had built here throughout the history of construction on this site.  The image is like taking an elevator through history.

The oldest part of Rome, Palatine Hill lies next to the Forum and Colosseum and contains an impressive number of ruins.

Is a trip to Rome complete without a visit to the Trevi Fountain?

You can walk through major cities like Rome and not bump into tourists every second step except when you’re near sights like the Trevi.  They are magnets for the tourists.  The crowd on the steps are constantly recycling themselves – people arrive, take their pictures, make their wishes, and leave – to be replaced by others.

Laura-Lyn, Charlotte, and Allister making a wish.

Over 2000 years old, the Pantheon seemed to be one of Rome’s best preserved building.  We learned church services are still conducted here.

 

It had a hole in the roof which was the sole source of light for its interior.  A small drainage system built into the floor under this opening took care of rain that came in through this hole.

You can see from the following two photos that the hole in the roof, even though Rome was overcast this day, still provided sufficient light. 

 

The Victor Emmanuel monument celebrates Italy’s 50th anniversary since its unification in 1870 and is impressive in its scale and Italy’s memorial to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

 

Looking up the Spanish Steps.  This place has the reputation as a meeting spot.  The day we visited a couple was getting married at the top of the steps.  Tourists swarmed around them, snapping photos like they were invited to the wedding or that the couple getting married were just another part of the site.  I thought it was a little tacky (I took my photo from a discreet distance )

 

There is a good view down a pedestrian street (lined with expensive stores).

The top of the Steps also provides a good view across Rome’s skyline.  The large dome in the distance is St Peter’s Basilica.

Nov 22 – 25, 2008 – Rome, Italy – The Vatican

This marble bath tub apparently belonged to Nero and was a huge piece of polished stone.  Almost looked more like a swimming pool than a bath tub but I guess Nero did everything on a bit different scale.

This was the map gallery, a long hallway with exciting moments in the church’s history illustrated on the ceiling and maps of different regions of Italy on the wall.

As I mentioned above, along the walls were maps of the different part of Italy.  This map is of the islands of Venice.  Other maps were easily identifiable as particular regions of Italy such as Sicily, etc.

This sculpture is Rodin’s , The Thinker.  I’m going to check and see if this is an original and will add an update later.  Update: I checked and the Vatican’s is a copy.  The original is in the Musee Rodin in Paris.

To build suspense for the Sistine Chapel, visitors were walked through a large number of rooms, each of which were numbered.  Allister and I thought it was humorous at the way the museum route counted down rooms.  This was the sign before entry into room 38 of over a hundred.

At last, the next room is the Sistine Chapel!

Photographs are technically not allowed in the Chapel but we spirited Charlotte’s slim camera in with us and took some discrete photographs as we used our guide book to interpret the incredible scope of art on the walls and ceiling of the Chapel.

We didn’t take any photographs of the crowd below this art but the Chapel was jammed with people.  This is the opposite end of Chapel from the photo above.

Charlotte and Allister are standing on one of two spots in St Peter’s Square where all the three deep columns that surround the Square all line up and appear to be a single layer of columns.   Take a step or two in either direction and all the columns surrounding the square reveal themselves.

 

This is St Peters Basilica.  The small balcony above the main door is where the pope will appear on public occasions.

Everything in St Peter’s is larger than anything you’ve seen before.  A church service was underway in one corner while we were visiting.  The priest conducting the service is visible under the left side of the enormous sculpture in the background.

This appeared to be the main altar (don’t quote me) and was located right under St Peter’s main dome.  Again, the photos don’t do justice to its size.  St Peter’s seems to be a fitting symbol of the Catholic Church’s important role and influence in the world.

Nearing day’s end we hiked up hundred’s of step to the top of St Peter’s dome.  This was the view of St Peter’s Square from there.

Nov 22 – 25, 2008 – Rome, Italy – The Colosseum

The view from outside the main gate to the Colosseum.  Even at this time of year, there was a long line up for tickets that we bypassed because we had purchased a Museum Pass.

 

A view of the interior from the first level.

This view from the second level shows the structures beneath the Colosseum’s floor.  This is where the animals and gladiators and others participants of the various Colosseum spectacles prepared for their time in the spotlight.  We also learned that there was some impressive technology that allowed them to rapidly change the event taking place that was integrated with this underground network.

They had restored a section of the seats to enable tourists to visualize what the Colosseum looked like in its heyday.

Charlotte and Allister from an observation point on the second level.

 

Rome also has an Arc de Triomphe.  In Rome’s case its called the Arch of Constantine, pictured here through a ‘window’ on the Colosseum’s second level.

Nov 22 – 25, 2008 – Rome, Italy – Zagarolo

Laura-Lyn’s cousin, Sharron Bates, had told us of a B&B in Zagorolo, a small city about 30 minutes by train from Rome and the wonderful hospitality she had received from its hosts, Ivano and Terhi.  We took Sharron’s recommendation, contacted them via e-mail, and they said they’d be happy to have us as their guests.

They were terrific hosts; they fed us one night, they provided us with train and museum passes and dropped us off and picked us up from the train to and from Rome from Zagorolo.

Between their house and Ivano’s parents who live at the other end of the property, there is a lovely olive garden and the two bedroom cottage we used for our 4 night stay in Zagorolo and Rome.  Ivano is hard at work on an addition to the main part of the B&B to create a common room and additional spaces for their guests.

On the day we left Zagorolo, Terhi (she is Finnish, worked for the Finnish airline and has spent time in Rome since 1984 during which she met and married Ivano) was kind enough to take us on a tour of the city of Zagorolo.

The Zagorolo old city and sited on a ridge.  There is one main street that runs down the middle of the ridge.  The houses and businesses in the old city are on either side of this main street, in some cases clinging to the side of the ridge (see second picture below).

This is a view down the main street in one direction.

This view shows the houses on one side of the Zagorolo old town ‘ridge’.  The front of these houses would not be on the main street; there is a small network of pedestrian lanes that link about 3 rows of housing to the main street.  This picture would show about the third row of housing off the main street.

Part of Terhi’s tour included a visit to a bakery that has been in continuous operation by the same family for over 100 years and a number of generations.  This is the current patriarch, apparently in his 80s, who has passed the operation of the family business to his son.  He stands beside the wood- burning oven that is used to cook the break and other items that they sell.

The container to the left of the photo below contains the ashes of the wood that has burned to heat the oven.  A special broom sweeps them out of the oven and onto this metal ledge and then, through a hole in the ledge, into the bin for disposal.

The wood that will be burned to make next day’s bread was arriving for storage until it would be used to start the fire in the oven in the middle of the night.

There were a number of butcher shops along Zagorolo’s main street – one of this one’s specialties was horse meat.