Tuesday, October 13, 2009 – Rome, Civitavecchia, and Grand Princess

Tuesday was going to be another busy day, big surprise. Our plan was to go to the forum and coliseum in the morning, then take the train to Civitavecchia to get on the ship. Our plan was to get on the train between 12:00 p.m and 1:00 p.m. since it was about an hour ride to Civitavecchia. The ship sailed at 6:00 p.m., but we did not want to cut it too close. So we planned to leave around 8:00 a.m. to accomplish everything.

It felt like it was very early when the alarm went off, but thanks to the additional water I had drunk the night before and sleeping with my feet elevated all night, they felt (and looked) much better then when I had gone to bed. They will still a mess, but not quite as bad. We both got ready, and once again packed up all our stuff. The check out time for this hostel was 10:30 a.m., unfortunately they did not have a place to store our luggage and we knew with our schedule we could not be back by 10:30, so we had to check out before we started our day, and find some place to store our luggage. The proprietor of the hostel told us about a Laundromat down the street that also stored luggage for a reasonable price. So we decided we would try there.

We were ready pretty much on schedule and left Liliput and Friends hostel for the last time. On the way out we took some pictures.

First up is the elevator – it is your typical small, old, European elevator – where you had to shut the doors yourself. When we first got here it was new to us, but now a couple days later we thought nothing of it. We each rode down separately with our luggage.

Here is Shan getting out of the elevator.

Here I am, not sure what that expression on my face is, maybe just tired?This is the courtyard of the building – it was very lovely!!
A close up of the center island. This is the building from the gate – we stayed up on the 3rd floor.The Laundromat was just a few doors down the street. We paused before we went in, not sure about this whole situation. As soon as we walked in a girl asked if we were there to store our luggage. That eased some of my concern, until she led us to the back of the store and had to move stuff to open a door. She led us into this small back room that was filled with junk and told us this was where we could store our stuff. I did not have a whole lot of confidence in this situation, but we did not really have any other choice. So we moved some stuff around and put our luggage in the most secure place we could find and were on our way.

The coliseum and forum, including Palatine Hill, are located right next to each other, about a 20 minute walk from where we stayed. Just a few minutes past this area is the Mouth of Truth, so the plan was to walk past the coliseum to the Mouth of Truth and work our way back.

I found it interesting how the traffic seamed much less overwhelming that morning. We were getting used to it, and become much braver. In Rome, you can’t wait for a break in traffic to cross, it just not happen. You have to dart out when ever you get a chance and trust you will make it across. The first day we tried to wait and it became frustrating. Now we were crossing the streets like natives and thinking nothing of it.

I enjoyed our walk that morning, seeing different sections of the city. This is a corner that had old buildings on the left side and really old ones on the right side. It was also our first view of the coliseum. I was pretty excited to see the coliseum for the first time so I took a few pictures as we approached. There it is up the streetCloser This is the Arch of Constantine

Arch of Constantine (Arco di Costantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome, situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312. Dedicated in 315, it is the latest of the existing triumphal arches in Rome.

Here is the Arch and the Coliseum.

Here I am with the Arch and Coliseum – this is one of my favorite pictures!!! We continued on our way to the Santa Maria in Cosmedin, the church were the Bocca della Verità – the Mouth of Truth is located.

La Bocca della Verità (in English, "the Mouth of Truth") is an image, carved from Pavonazzetto marble, of a man-like face, located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy. The sculpture is thought to be part of a 1st century ancient Roman fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover, portraying one of several possible pagan gods, probably Oceanus. Most Romans believe that the 'Bocca' represents the ancient god of the river Tiber.

This is the Mouth of TruthFrom the sideThe most famous characteristic of the Mouth, however, is its role as a lie detector. Starting from the Middle Ages, it was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off.

Unfortunately we got to La Bocca della Verita before it opens at 9:00 a.m. and we didn’t have the time to wait around. So we did not get a chance to see if it would bite our hands off.

Here is Shannon with the Mouth of Truth in the background

On our way back to Palatine Hill we passed the Circus Maximus

The Circus Maximus (Latin for great or large circus, in Italian Circo Massimo) is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest Chariot Racing Stadium in ancient Rome. The site is now a public park and retains little evidence of its former use. The Circus could hold over 1/4 of the city's population, over 250,000 people, allowing for this Circus to be a popular viewing place by the Romans. The Circus measured "621 m (2,037 ft) in length and 118 m (387 ft) in width.

While it was impressive in its day, it is not much to look at these daysNext we were going to explore ancient Rome.

Who goes out for Chinese food in Rome?

We turned from the Wedding Cake monument and started on our way. Shannon had intended to walk all the way back to the hostel, but I had just had enough. My poor feet were not happy with me. They were just not used to having shoes on and now had blisters on top of blisters and bruises. After walking all day long, I just was done. Plus we had purchased a day long pass for all the public transportation; we might as well use it. So I had a mini break down and insisted we take a bus back. We quickly found the correct bus stop and got on the bus.

I have to say my little fit worked out for the best. Midway through our ride back to the transit station it started to pour. Had we been walking we would have gotten caught in the middle of it and had been drenched. We both just look at each other and were very thankful we were on the bus. We got back to Termini and walked the few blocks to the hostel.

When we got back to the hostel we decided to take a little rest before we went to dinner. I pealed my shoes off my feet, another day of walking around and not drinking enough made my feet so swollen and bruised; I did not even recognize them. They looked even worse then my right foot had looked the year before when I needed to get tested for a blood clot. Since that test had come back negative, I figured it was just from the strain of the past few days. Not to mention the lack of water. On a regular day at home I drink 1 – 2 liters of water plus other stuff, but due to the fact that I was buying all my water and not drinking any of the local water, and water was not cheap, I had only been drinking a fraction of what I normally drink. I had also been eating a lot of salty food and my body did not know what to do and I was not sure how to fix it. So I called my Mom. Until this point I had only communicated via email, but needed to talk to my Mom. After a few minutes on the phone I felt a whole lot better at least emotionally and took my Mom’s advice to lay down with my feet up for a while.

After we rested for a while we got ready to go to dinner. We had heard from more than one person, including the owner of the hostel that we should go to the Trastevere area for dinner. This is an area with lots of good, authentic places to eat. We walked towards the bus station to catch a ride over to Trastevere and along the way passed a Chinese restaurant. We both kind of paused and I think it was Shan who said, Chinese food sounds good, I have not had it in forever. I agreed it sounded good and Shan said do you just want to go there instead of going over to Trastevere. By this point we had been going non-stop for 5 days and this was the first night we were not traveling somewhere. This would be our first chance to actually have a sit down dinner somewhere. Part of me wanted to go have an authentic Italian meal, but a bigger part of me was happy to not go any further and just have Chinese. So we decided to go in.

Here is Ristorante Hong Kong. We got seated right away and decided to order a couple of meals to split. We also had to order our rice separately and split a bottle of water. While we were sitting we talked about how ridiculous it was that we were eating Chinese food in Rome – who does that? So we decided to take pictures with our food to commemorate it.

Here is Shannon digging in Me showing off our yummy dinner As good as our food was, I was equally as excited to be drinking the amount of water we got with dinner.

After we finished we walked over to the other side of the train station to find the hostel we would be stay at after the cruise. I also grabbed another bottle of water. At this point I decided I should have put a line item in my budget for water.

On our way back to our hostel we stopped at the internet café our hostel owner had told us about and we spend some time online catching up on emails and facebook. I did quick log in to my work email just to check a couple details on my boss’ trip that I was concerned about. Once I saw those had been taken care of, I did not check into work again.

We then headed back to the hostel to call it a night. Tomorrow was going to be a great day – the coliseum and forum in the morning and then to the port to get on our cruise ship for the next 12 days. We both were so ready to unpack and settle into one location for a while.

Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and The Monument of Victor Emmanuel II

The route from the Pantheon to the Spanish steps took us through a retail section of Rome. We passed lots of high end stores, but also found a Body Shop where I was able to pick up a bath sponge for the rest of the trip. In London Shannon had discovered a great store called Accessorize – we had looked around one in Knightsbridge, and then discovered they were all over Europe. Shannon took a picture of one as we walked by.Hopefully they will come to the US some day!

At this point we were 4 days into our trip and in our 2nd country and 3rd city each with its unique culture. We had not given ourselves a lot of time to assimilate to the any of the cultures and were feeling it a bit. I know being tired did not help the situation and neither did Rome’s crazy traffic. We started a list of things we missed about the USA and/or things we would never see back home. The list included things like public trash cans and benches and of course public rest rooms. It also had the ability to form or stand in a line, personal space, and basic civility. As we were walking to the Spanish Steps I was once again reminder we were no longer in America.

There was a school group of elementary aged kids, maybe 7 or 8, walking down the sidewalk. It appeared they were on a field trip. What shocked me was all of the kids had neon orange hats on their heads with their names in neon yellow. I actually had to do a double take, I could not believe that a school would allow, much less facilitate these little kids walking around with their names on their hats. Talk about a pedophile dream…. Hi little Gina, you mom asked to come get you, or Hey little Marco, your teacher told me I could buy you a gelato. Seriously, this is exactly the type of situation we, back in The States, do whatever we can to keep our children out of. Can you honestly imagine a group of kids walking around New York City or Los Angeles with their names on their hats, no way, it is not safe. Innocent kids get taken riding their bikes or walking home from school, how much easier would it be if the kidnapper could call them by name? It was just crazy. I was appalled! After the kids passed, I asked Shannon if she had noticed it. She had not, but it got us talking, we wondered if there was not a problem with kids getting kidnapped in Italy or what they told their kids about avoiding strangers, or maybe they just did not care – it was quite baffling to both of us.

After the shocking scene on the sidewalk we walked a bit further and arrived at the Spanish Steps.

The Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti. The Scalinata is the longest and widest staircase in Europe with 138 steps.

Here are the steps As you can see there are lots of people around – it is a popular tourist spot. Here I am on the Spanish Steps And Shan – just next to Shannon was a big group of tourists trying to get a group picture, I tried not to get them in Shan’s picture, but just could not, so you can see them on the left.

After we took our pictures Shannon asked me if I wanted to climb the steps, I said, nope, I am good. We had done so much walking already, I did not need to climb 138 steps just for the novelty of it. Shan agreed and we were off to the Trevi Fountain.

The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 25.9 meters (85 feet) high and 19.8 meters (65 feet) wide,[citation needed] it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city.

The Fountain is located in a small square, or more like the intersection of three streets. It pretty much takes up the entire area, which was packed with people. I was surprised about its location, I thought it would have been in a bigger area, it looks like it is literally on the back of a building.
As you are approaching the fountain you can hear it, both the rushing water and the masses of people. Here are some close ups of the fountain – it is very ornate!!

The top A close up of one of the statues The water Here is Shan with the fountain Here I am at the Trevi Fountain

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. We climbed down to the edge of the fountain and together threw in our coins. I chose to throw in a coin I received as change in London – no one was quite sure where the coin was from or what it was worth. One store clerk in London try to convince me it was an U.S. coin - it was not – I am pretty sure I know what those coins look like. So now it was in the Fountain for someone else to figure out where it was from. An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.


Near Trevi, there was a street market with several carts of merchandise. We briefly walked through it and both thought we would like to stop back over here on our last day in Rome if we had time.

Before we left Shannon did some research on the best gelato in Rome. She discovered it was a place called San Crispino and it was only a few blocks from the Trevi Fountain. So we set off to find it. I was not planning to get any gelato, since I had already had some that afternoon. As I stood in line with Shannon I looked over the flavors, it is really interesting to see the flavors of gelato in Italy – pistachio is the most popular flavor over all- I never dare try that. The flavor that caught my attention was cocoa rum. Shannon got a caramel flavor and at the last minute I decided to get small cocoa rum. It was so good!!!!! Shannon and I exchanged a bit of each of ours, and the caramel, cocoa rum mixture was wonderful! I must agree it is mighty good gelato.

Our next, and final stop for the day was The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II).

The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy, located in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885; sculpture for it was parceled out to established sculptors all over Italy, such as Angelo Zanelli. It was inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935.

This monument is not with out controversy…

The monument was controversial since its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a Medieval neighbourhood for its sake. The monument itself is often regarded as pompous and too large. It is clearly visible to most of the city of Rome despite being boxy in general shape and lacking a dome or a tower. The monument is also glaringly white, making it highly conspicuous amidst the generally brownish buildings surrounding it, and its stacked, crowded nature has lent it several derogatory nicknames. Romans sometimes refer to the structure by a variety of irreverent slang expressions, such as "Zuppa Inglese", "the wedding cake", and "the false teeth."

Even with all the controversy, it remains a popular tourist site. Here is a close up of the statue in front. Here is Shannon with the monument. While I was trying to take pictures, there were two police officers or traffic guards who kept getting in my way, every time I had a clear picture one would move and get in the way – they became my nemesis. So it is only fitting that just as Shannon was taking my picture they both moved and now appear on either side of me. After a long day of sightseeing, covering many locations we were ready to head back to the hostel.

Piazza Navona and the Pantheon

We made our way from the Tiber to the Piazza Navona walking down the streets of Rome. The weather was not the greatest, and as soon as we got to the Piazza Navona it started to pour, a little cloud burst, so we took refuge in a gelato shop. I can’t remember what kinds we got, but it was good. After a short while the rain let up a bit and ventured back out in the Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in first century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena). It is believed that over time the name changed to 'in agone' to 'navone' and eventually to 'navona'.

Defined as a public space in the last years of 15th century, when the city market was transferred to it from the Campidoglio, the Piazza Navona is a significant example of Baroque Roman architecture and art. It features sculptural and architectural creations: in the center stands the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini and Girolamo Rainaldi; and the Pamphilj palace also by Rainaldi and which features the gallery frescoed by Pietro da Cortona.

Here is a Piazza Navona sign

The Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) stands in the center of the Piazza. The four gods on the corners of the fountain represent the four major rivers of the world known at the time: the Nile, Danube, Ganges, and Plate. The design of each god figure has symbolic importance. It also has a large Egyptian inspired obelisk in the center.

Here is the fountain

A close up of one of the corners Here is the base of fountain
This is another fountain in the Piazza – Neptune’s fountain.This is the basilica of Sant’Agneses in Agone After looking around the Piazza Navona we left to take the short walk to the Piazza della Rotonda, where the Pantheon is located. On our walk we passed a drug store and I quick popped in. Even though I had intentionally left a ton of stuff in Venice to lighten my luggage weight, I had accidentally left my bath sponge hanging in the shower to dry out. I knew I would have a hard time getting through the next couple weeks with out one, so I wanted to pick one up in Rome. Unfortunately the drug store did not have bath accessories, so we continued on.

When we got to the Piazza della Rotonda it was raining quite hard again. This piazza is surrounded by restaurants and we could not find any place to take cover so we made a dash for it.

Here are some pictures of the Pantheon in the rain. As you see there are crowds of people taking cover under the portico. It was actually pretty crowded there and we had to work our way to the door.

Here is the door from the portico to the rotunda. Normally the first reaction of people to the Pantheon is how big it is, and how high and large the dome is, but my first impression was that it was raining inside. The oculus at the top of dome is uncovered and it was raining as hard in the building as it was out of it. You would think after all these years they would put glass there to protect the building from the elements, but I guess that is not a high priority. I took a video of rain falling.


They did rope off the marble floor where the rain fell. Once I got passed the fact that it was raining inside and worrying about the marble floor getting ruined by the rain, I was able to take in the history and magnificence of this place.

The Pantheon is a building in Rome, commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft). A rectangular structure links the portico with the rotunda. It is one of the best preserved of all Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda."

Here is the ceiling of the dome

Here is the marble floor
Here is a shot of the interior of the Pantheon Here is a painting in one of the niches A statue The tomb of King Victor Emmanuel II A crucifix The Pantheon is current a minor basilica and is used for many catholic events and holidays – here is the alter The tomb of Raphael The tomb of King Umberto I and his wife Margherita di Savoia A sign telling whose tomb it is There is a guest book at the Pantheon that you can sign. Here I am signing it, marking my name in history as a visitor By the time we left the rain had let up considerably and we took our pictures outside.
Here is Shan with the Pantheon.

This is me.

Next up was the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain….