there are breathtaking plazas and beautifully-hued, colorful Italian buildings. We started our second touring day (Saturday) with a 3-hour walking tour beginning at the gate that Julius Caesar entered Rome after conquering the French. This important gate is located at the “Porta del Popolo” Piazza meaning The People’s Square. The Piazza (Plaza) also contains one of 3 original Egyptian obelisks that the Romans brought home. It is one of the largest public squares that we have visited so far in our travels. We continued wandering the narrow streets stopping at Augustus Caesar’s memorial (he is considered the greatest of the emperors as he “turned Rome from a city of clay to a city of marble” with his extensive building projects and 100 years of peace). This mausoleum looks very unkept and we were told that it was once home to a vast colony of cats in the 1980’s. Although we saw no signs of renovation, apparently, this mausoleum is now being restored.
We then proceeded to The Pantheon which is absolutely an amazing construction feat. The large round hall’s roof is an engineering masterpiece since it contains no visible supports and has a large center opening in the ceiling. It is the largest brick dome in the history of architecture. While strolling over to the The Piazza Navona, we came across the Fiumi fountain (Fountain of the Four Rivers) which represents the 4 most significant rivers of the 4 continents at the time of its construction. The marble that was used to create these impressive four river gods even has small veins in it. They actually look like the blood veins of the statues! We passed by some ancient Roman baths on the way to Castel Sant’Angelo. The interesting fact about the baths is that there was an army of hundreds of slaves, that were kept out of sight of bathers but scurried along the tunnels feeding sometimes 50 ovens with tons of wood a day to heat water surging through a network of underground channels that arrived via an aqueduct from a source 60+ miles away. The slaves had to continually keep the appropriate heat for the spas hot; so, they spent lengthy hours underground.
Our last stop on our walking tour was the Castel Sant’Angelo. It was originally commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. This rotunda-type building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle and is now a museum. It was surprising to find out that the Castle was once the tallest building in Rome!
We finished the day with a walk along some of Rome’s most prestigious high-end shopping areas near the Spanish Steps. The crowds were massive but many more looky-loos than shoppers. There are numerous revitalization projects within Rome and many large buildings are draped in scaffolding and cloth to hide the work. The one consistency was the Samsung Galaxy 7 billboards on these buildings-so historical!
