The first place to check out was Trajin's Market. This was a huge market place with 2-4 stories worth of shops. However, for our shopping sake, we were a little late. This market closed it's doors centuries ago. It's ruins are nested just behind that of Ceasar's Imperial Forum. Looking upon the once splendid walls, you can imagine the Romans roaming and selling in this, the first mega-mall. We stayed for a little while to admire the many stalls that once housed shops and merchants before moving on.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
By now, Sarina was pretty ready for lunch, so we made our way to the Isola; a small island that divides a portion of the city's Tiber River in two. Our original intention was to follow the advise of Fromers and have a splendid picnic on the Isola. We found out when we got there that this was not really what the island was intended for. The island, tho perhaps a very long time ago green, is mostly a concrete leaf that suspends itself inside the path of the river. On it are a few shops, a restaurant, some kind of Israeli Embassy and a hospital. The hospital was originally put there because the Romans felt the river had the power to heal. However, we were not ready to abandon our picnic.
We went back to the main land and found a spot up amongst the tree filled hill of Campidoglio. The spot was perfect: many trees, the ruined remains of an old wall fountain, a thick marble slab that had been adopted as a bench, along with another marble block about the size of a cafe' table. We set out our blue nylon Sketcher's bag once again as our table cloth and filled it with all sorts of tasty things. In honor of Sarina's childhood with her great-grandfather, we included a bag of bread sticks, which went great with the goat cheese and olive tempanade. Having filled our selves on bread, cheese and sangiovese wine, we tossed our crumbs out to the swarm of pigeons and made our way down the hill.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
Our next stop was just down the road. The reddish brick bell tower of Saint Maria in Cosmodian was unmistakable. Outside, the crowd formed a line for one of Rome's trademark tourist stops: the "Mouth of Truth". The Mouth of Truth, or Bocca della Verità , had a decent sized line to it. Thankfully, our trip is technically the off-season for tourists, so we didn't have to suffer the reputed lines that would wrap around the side of the church. One by one, the visitors step up to the cracked and worn face to lay their hand within it's tired mouth. Years of tasting the dirty fingers of the local and touring passerby has worn on the ancient guardian of the church doors.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
Inside the church, right away you notice the space to be much more simple than some of the other churches of it's time. Still full of marble and columns, however it is not very colorful. What decoration it has is little, and mostly in the form of mosaics. This otherwise dull interior only makes one of it's treasures jump out at you even more. A fabulous mosaic portrait of Madonna and Child stand alone amidst the uninteresting walls. Highlighted by candles, the red and gold tiles reflect back at you and make the pair come alive. We stand and look upon this surprisingly mesmerizing image before making our way back out the unassuming doors.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
On our way to the next stop, we find ourselves walking along what used to be the ancient Roman racing track for horseback and chariot races: Circo Massimo. Little is left of what was once a great and intimidating stadium. Grass hills are all that is left of the marble stadium seats that wrapped around the long straight ways. Down below, where horses and men would race at the risk of death, now only a pastural park resides with remnants of a dirt path where locals run on foot the same course that chariots would rumble. Looming above are the ruins of the immense palace Palatina. The two ruined giants seem now like old broken men that sit together discussing the grander times of their lives, watching the youthful buildings rise around them.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
The mood is broken by what sounded like someone had slammed a folded lawn chair against a garage door. A scooter had rear ended one of the mini-cars at a stop, launching the man and woman off their scooter a few feet away. They both got up, and everyone met on the side to take measure of what had happened. Really, it sounded worse than it was. Almost no damage to the vehicles or their drivers, but it was enough to remind Sarina and myself why we decided against driving in the city.
Our last stop was to the very famous church San Pietro in Vincoli. In contrast to the church from earlier, this one lived up to the expectations of grandiose. The inside is all carved marble, with the ceiling above where the priest would stand painted in frescoes depicting the New Testament. Tall columns span the length of the space, and when standing within the pews, seem to frame the art and memorials that are set about 10-feet behind them. All along the walls, about a dozen or more statues, paintings and other works mark the depths of the church interior. One piece in particular is among the reasons for this church's fame: Michelangelo's Moses. In my opinion, I found this to be more impressive than his David [which right now resides in Florence. Italy].
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
The other thing that makes this church so important is it's relic. Now, all catholic churches that are approved by the Vatican [regardless of their location inside or outside of Rome] are required to house at least one holy relic. If that relic is very important, it will generally be displayed. In this case, San Pietro in Vincoli houses within a gold and glass case, the chains (or at least a portion of them) that Saint Peter wore upon his return to Rome. These chains would see him through his final mortal days and the moments of his death.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
After some time in San Pietro in Vincoli, we returned to the hotel to rest up and get ready for our dinner on the river. Once at the river, we took some night photos of the Castel Sant' Angelo. MTV was holding some kind of talent search stage to the right of the castle; so we were able to use their lighting to make our shots more dramatic. Then we boarded the boat and enjoyed a dinner that would take us up and down the night-lit Tiber river.
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
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| From Italy Honeymoon |
2 comments:
you pics are amazing!!! So glad you found the church of "St Peter in Chains"...forgot to tell you about that...and what a tiny out of the way place, huh!!! We almost didn't find it!! Have you had gelato every day??
Your pictures are beautyful. Wish I could see them.
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