Day 4 Roma, Part I

Arriving in Rome is a dizzying experience. A modern building with expensive shops and offices is next door to a 2,000+ year-old stone fountain from Roman times still providing drinking water through the aqueduct system from the mountains. The old, the older, the oldest are built on top of and alongside each other. Every stone tells a story. From the ancient to the old to the newer to the new, each age brings its ideas and philosophies into form through its architecture. Archeologists will never be finished uncovering, preserving, and understanding all there is to know about the city. The Roman, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque and every other age to the present are represented, sometimes within one line of sight.

As the Roman Empire conquered the world, they brought back spoils from every land—resources (marble, gold, jewels, etc.) as well as the slaves needed to build giant temples to honor the gods and monuments to honor the rulers and warriors.

John Fort, editor of the new edition of the Companion Guide to Rome, led us on a five hour walking tour of Rome. Because we had seen St. Peter’s on a previous visit, we focused our time on other sights. The weather was perfect: blue sky and 70 degrees. Modern day Romans moved purposefully to begin their day alongside the tourists—obvious with cameras around their necks and guidebooks in hand, and pointing, always pointing to another important building or statue or historical point of interest.

We began at the Church S. Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major) which ranks fourth among the great basilicas of Rome built by Sixtus III in 432 A.D. From the intricate Renaissance gold leaf ceiling (said to be gilded with the first gold from the New World) to the thirty-six mosaic panels high on the walls to the tile floor and everywhere in between, this church has exquisite examples of art through the ages, from icons to mosaics to Renaissance paintings.

S. Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) is dedicated to the founder of the Christian church, St. Peter. Built in 432-440 A.D. to house the chains that had bound St. Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, and those which bound him when imprisoned in Rome, the chains are on display above the altar. The famous Michelangelo sculpture of Moses (1514) adorns the crypt of Julius II, surrounded by a throng of onlookers with cameras snapping. Moses is seated and holds the ten commandments the ten commandments, an angry face turned to the Israelites for worshipping false gods The great skill of Michelangelo is obvious in his depiction of the human form—Moses arms and legs are perfection—powerful sinews and musculature refined in marble. The rest of the sculptures surrounding the Moses are of much lesser quality (even though created by students of Michelangelo and fine sculptors in their own right).

The Colosseum, elliptical in shape, was built in the first century A.D. on marshy ground that had been drained—an engineering feat of the highest caliber. The stadium seated 50,000 who entered through eighty gates marked with Roman numerals—just as today’s sports arenas mark their gates. The significance of the building is even more jaw-dropping when realizing that there were no machines—only slaves—to move and place the thousands of huge stones into position. The Roman dictators of the time believed in “bread and circuses” in order to keep the people happy and occupied (and not plotting to undo the dictator). Up until the 1800s, the massive building was a virtual quarry, where stones were carted away to use in new construction. After the Colosseum was no longer used for blood sport (animals against humans, humans against humans, animals against animals), the building became overrun with trees and vines and it became a botanical garden with exotic species and trees from seeds brought in fodder for the animals. We stood at the bottom and looked up against the one area where two of the three concentric walls still exist and marveled at human engineering. But the Colosseum began with an idea—that gathering people together for entertainment was a good thing to do (despite the fact that the purpose of the gathering was brutal and savage and appealed to the most ignoble of human appetites).

To be continued.....