Giles Blog: Italy 2017

OUR FALL TRIP TO ITALY

We travelled to Italy this Fall and visited Rome, Venice, Cinque Terre and Lucca. We left Comox mid morning in September flying first with Air Canada to Vancouver, where we caught the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. A short time there before we caught another Lufthansa flight to Rome.

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Arriving into Vancouver before leaving for Frankfurt

Queen of the Skies

The trip was planned in January when we saw an extremely good offer on the Air Canada website. Business Class was available for a very short time at roughly twice the Economy fare. Normally Business Class is about six times Economy. It was an exceptional offer, we felt. Ticket prices are weird as it would have cost more to fly just to Frankfurt and not on to Rome. The reason was probably related to the fact that Air Canada was opening up a new Dreamliner route to Frankfurt in the Summer months, we came back with Air Canada.

There can be no question, Business Class really is lovely. A better seat, better meals, much more space, the use of the Lounges and Priority Boarding. We were in a Boeing 747 for the Frankfurt flight and we were seated upstairs. This is the quietest location in the plane. Well above the ground initially and well before the engines. The leg to Rome was on an Airbus 321. Not as impressive by any means, you sit in a row of three seats with the middle one empty, so you have some of the benefits.

We had been to Rome once before, but only for part of a day when we were on a Mediterranean cruise. So this was really new territory. We had been to Venice twice before, so this was return visit to one of the most amazing cities in the world. The Cinque Terre as new ground completely. We had read about the five towns on the Western coast between La Spezia and Levanto. It promised great scenery and some challenging walks. Lucca was also a return visit which we were keen to make.

All the internal travelling was done by train and we stayed in four different apartments using the VRBO (vacation rental by owner) system. All turned out very well. Our final night was in an excellent B and B close by Rome Airport.

We took the Airport Express to Rome Termini where we bought a cheap SIM card for the cell phone. We then took a taxi to our apartment and were introduced to the cobbled roads of Rome.

ROME

On our first full day we had a day ticket on one of the many and popular hop on hop off buses. This allowed us to get a good idea of the lie of the land. We used the ticket twice.

On the first circuit we saw or were very near

Stazione Termini and the Piazza della Repubblica

Santa Maria Maggiore - an ancient Basilica

The Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill
The Circo Massimo
The Piazza Venezia at the Capitoline Hill and close by the Pantheon

Close by the Vatican City and the Castel Sant'Angelo

Close by Fontana di Trevi
Via Ludovisi & Via Veneto close by the Spanish Steps Piazza del Popolo and the Borghese Gardens

We now had a good idea of the geography of Rome and over the next few days we saw all these and more.

After we had finished our first circuit we wandered through the maze of streets and came to the Campo Fiori, a bustling affair indeed and we had a very nice lunch watching the world go by. Part of visiting Italy is, of course, the food and we had many excellent and hardly any poor meals.

It is a busy place

Flowers

Fruits

Vegetables

And, of course, mushrooms

On our way back to the apartment we came through the Piazza Navona and every day we would end our walk here as it was just a short distance home and there was an excellent gelato shop there. The Piazza is always busy and is a great people watching place. It has artists and buskers and it has three fountains along its length and there are many restaurants eager for your custom.

DAY 3

This was the day we visited St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, the latter includes the Sistine Chapel. We knew that there would be long queues for the Vatican Museum so we "Skipped the Line" by buying our entrance tickets before we left home. The numbers allowed in at any one time are strictly limited and you are given an entrance time. We chose an early afternoon entrance time which we had read would be when the museum was supposed to be slightly less busy. That meant we were visiting St. Peter's in the morning. There is another trick here. If you book a tour of the Museum you can end at the Sistine Chapel and then there is a secret door for tour groups only that opens into the square with quick entry to the Cathedral. We didn't do that as the tours were really quite lot of money (at least $80 each) and we had our guide to the museum. The downside was, of course, that we had to queue for the Cathedral, and what a queue it was, it snaked across the square and you shuffle slowly forward to get through the inevitable security. However, it was a nice warm morning and we quite enjoyed watching the world go by, for an hour an a half!

The original St. Peter's was commissioned by Emperor Constantine, built around AD 349 on the site where St. Peter is said to have been buried between AD 64 and 67. It fell into disrepair until the mid 15th Century when efforts were made to restore it. In 1506 construction began but little progress was made until Michelangelo appeared on the scene in 1574. He was 72 at the time and the dome became his greatest architectural achievement. The basilica is huge and St. Paul's in London will fit inside! The basilica was finally consecrated in 1626.

St. Peter's Basilica

It is a large building

A general view of the main altar

The baldachin, over the papal altar, created by Baldini

Michealangelo's Pieta

The dome

Detail of the dome

It was by now lunchtime and we found a pleasant cafe near the Vatican Museums. Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display. The Vatican City is surrounded by a wall and the entrance to the Museums was a short walk around the wall. There was the usual queue but we had our tickets that gave us speedy entry.

This is a very large complex of museums and you cannot expect to see it all on one day, consequently you leave some of it out and in other places you move quickly on. Even with a limitation on numbers it is crowded wherever you are.

After a very efficient entry procedure including the regular security checks you enter the Cortile della Pigna - named after the large bronze pine cone at one end.


The bronze pine cone

In the centre of the courtyard is a large polished sphere, actually two spheres. Leaving the large courtyard you enter the Museo Chiaramonti, which contains many statues. and other sculptured pieces.

The Museo Chiaramonti

It was then upstairs into the Cortille Ottagono, (the Octagonal Courtyard). The courtyard was designed to accommodate the collection of ancient statues of Pope Julius II in 1772. Of particular note are the Laocoön and his sons and the Apollo Belvedere statues.

Laocoön and His Sons

Apollo Belvedere

The next room was the Sala Rotunda (Round Room). Around the outer edge are a series of statues.

In the middle of the room is a very large porphyry basin - the so-called 'bathtub of Nero' - that was found in Nero's Golden House. Porphry is from Ancient Greek and means "purple"
It is a term for an igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals.

After a couple of long crowded galleries you reach the Galleria della Carte Geografiche (Map Gallery). The gallery was commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII as part of other artistic works commissioned by the Pope to decorate the Vatican. It took Danti three years (1580–1583) to complete the 40 painted panels of the 120 m long gallery. It has a remarkable roof.

The roof of the Map Gallery


One of the maps - Italy

You are then given a choice - direct to the Sistine Chapel or into four rooms where the walls were painted by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael) said to be a warm up for the Sistine Chapel. The Raphael Rooms form a suite of reception rooms in the palace, the public part of the papal apartments. Some of the rooms were under renovation.

Disputation of the Sacrament

All four walls and the ceiling are covered in paintings. In some ways these rooms are more stunning the the Sistine Chapel, about to be revealed. Before reaching the centre piece of the Museums, you pass through a series of 55 rooms inaugurated by Pope Paul VI - the Collection of Modern Religious Art in 1973. We were not able to do justice to this collection, there is a limit to your endurance in the Museums.

Finally you reach the Sistine Chapel along with the crowds. The chapel was originally built for Pope Sixtus IV in 1483. Frescoes by the leading artists of the day adorn the walls, the vaulted ceiling was coloured to resemble a blue sky with golden stars and the floor is marble. The lower sections of the walls look as it they are hung curtains but these are frescoes and very realistic indeed. Not too much of the original art work is to be seen as the ceiling and the one end wall was painted by Michelangelo. The ceiling was completed between 1508 and 1512 and the Last Judgement occupying the wall end was started in 1535 and completed in 1541.

No photography is allowed (theoretically, so the photos you are looking at now are pirated).

Critics were outraged when Michelangelo destroyed two Perugino frescoes when preparing the wall which was tilted inwards to stop the dust settling on the surface. Its dramatic swirling mass of 391 predominantly naked bodies provoked outrage at the time. So fierce were the feelings that at a meeting of the Council of Trent in 1564 it was ordered that the nudity be covered by fig leaves and loin cloths.

The Last Judgement

A detail from the Last Judgement

Part of the side panels

Part of the roof

There are two ways to leave the chapel. Those on tours can leave by a side door and are close to the security check points for St. Peter's. Everyone else, us included, make their way back to the entrance, which is quite a long way. Finally you reach the exit down a rather impressive double spiral staircase.

It is unlikely that the Vatican realized, when it commissioned Giuseppe Momo to build the staircase in 1932, that it would become one of the most photographed pieces in a museum that boasts nine miles of art. But it did. Originally it was designed to provide one path up and another down.

The double helix staircase

It had been along and somewhat exhausting day so we made our way back the apartment, which wasn't too far away passing Castel Sant'Angelo, built as a mausoleum for Hadrian and converted in the 6th Century into a papal fortress.

The Castel Sant'Angelo

DAY 4

This was the day to explore Ancient Rome. We started out the day walking to the Colosseum. Again we had learned about "Skip the Line". Rome is full of tourists and as result there are queues for anything of real interest. So you plan ahead by getting your tickets before you leave home which then means you can go straight to the entrance and in you go.

The Colosseum is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city. Built of concrete and sand, it is the largest amphitheatre ever built. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in AD 72 and was completed in AD 80 under his successor and heir Titus. The Colosseum could hold, it is estimated, between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators. It was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunt executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology.

The Colosseum's huge crowd capacity made it essential that the venue could be filled or evacuated quickly. Its architects adopted solutions very similar to those used in modern stadiums to deal with the same problem. The amphitheatre was ringed by eighty entrances at ground level, seventy six of which were used by ordinary spectators.

Originally the floor extended over the entire basement, the hypogeum. It consisted of a two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages beneath the arena where gladiators and animals were held before contests began.

There were four levels of seating

Next to the Colosseum is the Palantine Hill, which is an atmospheric area of towering pine trees, majestic ruins and great views. According to legend this is where Romulus and Remus were saved by the wolf and where Romulus founded Rome in 753 BC. It was ancient Rome's most exclusive neighbourhood. Emperor Augustus lived here all his life and he was followed by a succession of other emperors who built even more opulent palaces. After Rome fell it fell into disrepair and in the Middle Ages churches and castles were built over the ruins. The principal ruins are the imperial palace and the emperors's private quarters. It is all a bit of a jumble and not well signed for the tourist.

The Stadio, used by the Emperor for private games

General view of the Palantine HIll

Domus Augustana - the Emperor's residence

Below the Palantine hill on a flat plain is the Roman Forum. It was a grandiose district of temples, basilicas and vibrant public spaces. It was originally a Etruscan burial ground and it was developed in the 7th Century.

The Arch of Septimius Severus is a white marble triumphalarch dedicated in AD 203 to commemorate the Parthian victories of Emperor Septimus Severus and his two sons.

The Temple of Saturn was originally erected in 497 BC and later rebuilt between 360 and 380 AD. It served as the public treasury and was the focus of the popular December festival of Saturnalia.

Another general view over the Forum

The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina adapted as a Roman Catholic church, the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Miranda

We left the Forum for home and on the way we came to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon

The Oculus - hole in the dome

People ask about the rain coming through the hole. This is handled by a series of small holes in the floor.

Raphael's tomb

DAY 5

We took off early on foot, as usual, and the first port of call was the Trevi Fountain, an always busy place at all times of the day. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. It is fed by an aquaduct bringing pure water some 13 km into the city. Work started in 1732 and it was finished in 1762. It really is very elaborate.

The Trevi Fountain

Fairly close by are the Spanish Steps, another place on every tourists itinerary. There are 139 steps on a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinita dei Monti church at the top.

The Spanish Steps with the Trinita dei Monti Church

We were now close the Villa Borghese Gardens, a large park containing the Villa Borghese Museum and a number of other attractions. The park is in the northern part of the City and there we found a tram terminus.

The lake in the Villa Borghese Gardens

View across Rome

It is a very peaceful place

Amusements for all

Rome used to have a large tram system but it has withered leaving only two lines into the centre of the city with the rest in the suburbs. However Line 3 runs around the outer regions of the city ending in the South West suburb of Trastevere. We found fares very reasonable all over Italy and Rome has a flat fare for all buses, trams and the Metro. We travelled on the tram for about 45 minutes for C$ 2.25.

Tram 3 to Trastevere

Once off the tram we walked to the Piazza Di Santa Maria with its church, the Basilica Di Santa Maria is one of the oldest churches in Rome. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the AD 340 , and much of the structure to AD 1140-43.

Basilica Di Santa Maria in Trastevere

Inside the basilica

A detail of the wonderful ceiling

More ceiling art

We found a nice restaurant for dinner and walked home via the Piazza Navona for the customary evening gelato.

DAY 6

For our final day we chose to spend a little more time in Trastevere. We started out through the Piazza Navona and the Campo Fiori and reached the River Tiber where we wanted to look at a church on Tiber Island - the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island. In Roman times, the Temple of Aesculapius stood on the site of the modern church. The entire Tiber Island had actually been covered in Marble in an effort to make the island look like a ship.

The Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island

Inside the church

The Ponte Palatino over the Tiber near Tiber Island

We continued the walk to Gianicolo (Janiculum), although quite formidable it is not one of the famous "seven hills of Rome". This meant a longish climb up to the top of the hill where we found a memorial to Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in 1807. He was an Italian general, politician and nationalist
who played a large role in the history of Italy.He is considered one of the greatest generals of modern times and one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland".