15 October ’05, Saturday.
What a day…arriving in Rome first thing in the morning (10:30), we headed for the Spanish Steps, took some of our first pictures, and then headed for the Borghese Gallery. Now every guide book tells us that “YOU NEED TO SET UP AN APPOINTMENT” to visit the Borghese…who, us ??? Finding the Borghese wasn’t too hard, but it was quite a walk from the Spanish Steps. The up side, it was like walking through “Central Park” in any town USA. Hoping that we would be lucky enough to get right in, but knowing that it might be a slim chance in hell, we headed on. When I walked into the ticket counter I found out right away, that what we had read, was right on…NO WAY JOSE !!! “Call us at this phone number and we will see what we can do for you on Tuesday”…Tuesday?, that is a long way off…OK, Tuesday… Hiking off dejected, we headed to see some of the Roman ruins, but first we had to find our way out of there. We went looking for the underground metro which wasn’t too much of a problem. The big surprise, was that in finding the underground, we also found a large grocery store and a short-cut back to the Spanish Stairs. Finding the grocery store is always one of the important things we will store in the back of our mind. Now we are on our way to see the ruins…first, the Pantheon. At one time way back in antiquities, the Pantheon was a place dedicated to all pagan gods of Rome. It was also one of the only ruins that wasn’t used as a quarry. Then, in 608 it became a Christian church. Michaelangelo also went to the Pantheon to study the huge dome. This was then used as a model for St. Peters Basilica. The difference is, St Peters is much higher but 3 feet less diameter. Then it was off to find the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Well it was nothing that wasn’t expected, the Forum and the Colosseum are as advertised…”Amazing” !!! I could go into a lot of detail about the different highlights of the Forum and what we saw, but I just want to say that it is HUGE!!! You could just see the chariots running through the streets. Then comes the Colosseum. It could hold over 55,000 people that came out to see the “Gladiators” fight to the death, whether fighting another Gladiator or a wild animal. They even tried to fill the Colosseum with water a couple of times and put 2 fifty foot fighting ships to fight to the end. The problem with that, was the ships were too large and wouldn’t sink in the depth of water available and also couldn’t maneuver inside the area. Oh yes, we also learned that there were no wives brought into see the excitement of the Gladiators, but sitting in the highest levels of the Colosseum were the “ladies of the night. And then sitting next to the Emperors box, was the “Vestal Virgins”…we’ll tell you more about them later… We did join a tour guide for the Colosseum, and found it to be worth while. With the sun setting, I gathered my “Vestal Virgins”, headed across the street, had a beer and snaks while watching the lights accent the Colosseum and the city. Then back to the van. When finally getting back, we found just how tired we were…absolutely wiped out !!! Well, tomorrow is another day in Rome, and we had better get used to that wore out feeling.
What a day…arriving in Rome first thing in the morning (10:30), we headed for the Spanish Steps, took some of our first pictures, and then headed for the Borghese Gallery. Now every guide book tells us that “YOU NEED TO SET UP AN APPOINTMENT” to visit the Borghese…who, us ??? Finding the Borghese wasn’t too hard, but it was quite a walk from the Spanish Steps. The up side, it was like walking through “Central Park” in any town USA. Hoping that we would be lucky enough to get right in, but knowing that it might be a slim chance in hell, we headed on. When I walked into the ticket counter I found out right away, that what we had read, was right on…NO WAY JOSE !!! “Call us at this phone number and we will see what we can do for you on Tuesday”…Tuesday?, that is a long way off…OK, Tuesday… Hiking off dejected, we headed to see some of the Roman ruins, but first we had to find our way out of there. We went looking for the underground metro which wasn’t too much of a problem. The big surprise, was that in finding the underground, we also found a large grocery store and a short-cut back to the Spanish Stairs. Finding the grocery store is always one of the important things we will store in the back of our mind. Now we are on our way to see the ruins…first, the Pantheon. At one time way back in antiquities, the Pantheon was a place dedicated to all pagan gods of Rome. It was also one of the only ruins that wasn’t used as a quarry. Then, in 608 it became a Christian church. Michaelangelo also went to the Pantheon to study the huge dome. This was then used as a model for St. Peters Basilica. The difference is, St Peters is much higher but 3 feet less diameter. Then it was off to find the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Well it was nothing that wasn’t expected, the Forum and the Colosseum are as advertised…”Amazing” !!! I could go into a lot of detail about the different highlights of the Forum and what we saw, but I just want to say that it is HUGE!!! You could just see the chariots running through the streets. Then comes the Colosseum. It could hold over 55,000 people that came out to see the “Gladiators” fight to the death, whether fighting another Gladiator or a wild animal. They even tried to fill the Colosseum with water a couple of times and put 2 fifty foot fighting ships to fight to the end. The problem with that, was the ships were too large and wouldn’t sink in the depth of water available and also couldn’t maneuver inside the area. Oh yes, we also learned that there were no wives brought into see the excitement of the Gladiators, but sitting in the highest levels of the Colosseum were the “ladies of the night. And then sitting next to the Emperors box, was the “Vestal Virgins”…we’ll tell you more about them later… We did join a tour guide for the Colosseum, and found it to be worth while. With the sun setting, I gathered my “Vestal Virgins”, headed across the street, had a beer and snaks while watching the lights accent the Colosseum and the city. Then back to the van. When finally getting back, we found just how tired we were…absolutely wiped out !!! Well, tomorrow is another day in Rome, and we had better get used to that wore out feeling.
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