This morning, we decided to get up early and take another stab at trying to see St Peter’s. We arrived promptly at 8:15 to find lots of security as well as chairs set up in the square. We suddenly realized it was Wednesday, the day the Pope holds an address in the square if he is in residence. Naturally, it meant St. Peters was closed until the afternoon. I supposed many tourists would have been thrilled to see the Pope in the flesh, but it would have meant waiting in the square for a couple of hours with thousands of others. Since time was precious to us, with so many other sites to see, so we quickly rearranged plans and headed for Castel St Angelo.
We were glad we did so, as we may not have made time for it otherwise. Castel St Angelo was originally a mausoleum for Hadrian, and eventually other emperors as well. Later, it was added onto by various Popes and it became a fortress, the residence of a Pope and later a prison. A such , it is an interesting combination of an Etruscan style tomb on the bottom and a renaissance living space on top with fortress walls and ramparts all around it. It is quite a structure and not to be missed! At the top, there is a café with wonderful views of St. Peters. We stopped for an espresso and some fresh-squeezed orange juice and could just barely hear the Pope’s address from St Peter’s.
After Castel St Angelo, we took the train to Repubblica station to see the Baths of Diocletian. This is another example of Romans creatively using ancient Roman ruins as the foundation for new buildings. The Baths of Diocletian were once the most beautiful of over 900 public baths in Rome. Much of the ruins are still standing, but a large church has been built entirely inside of them! The church was unique in that, upon close inspection, what looked like marble columns actually turned out to be tromp l'oeil. Some were real, some were painted – and one had to see them from fairly close range to tell the difference!
From there, we travelled back to Piazza Spagna. On our first evening there, we had spotted several street vendors with scarves (which I love) and other nice wares. But they seemed to have all evaporated. The only vendors around were selling sunglasses. We found it amusing that the same vendors who were out in droves with umbrellas a couple of days ago, had so quickly been able to change their product to fit the weather!!
But while we didn’t find the scarf vendors at the Piazza Spagna we were rewarded in the end. When we were heading back St Peters, walking from Ottoviano station, we came across a vendor with absolutely beautiful scarves and shawls at superb prices! Of course, I went crazy and made Nick buy about 8 of them – mostly as gifts for Iran, since they are much used there – but also 1 or 2 for myself! Nick even got very brave with his Italian and tried to negotiate for a better deal, ultimately without success, but it was fun neverthelessAfter a booster of gelato, it was on to St. Peter’s and the very long flight of 551 steps to the top of the dome. What a sight from there – all of Rome was stretched out before us. Inside St Peter’s was stunning. I love mosaic, and St Peters has it in abundance.
But the crowds eventually got to be overwhelming. Tired after such a long day, we sat in St Peter’s square for a while, soaking up the blue skies and brilliant sunshine. As we did so, a one-legged pigeon hopped over to us. The poor soul, it truly couldn't walk, having one leg severely crippled. So we fed it with some bread we had with us until it decided to fly away to a higher perch. We said our good-byes to Rome that afternoon, and headed back to the hotel. Naturally, I couldn’t resist and bought another couple of scarves on the way back as well as a small souvenir to hang on our holiday tree as a memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment