Roma the Second

"I thought your Dad said it was going to be hot here.
I'm actually worried that I only brought one sweatshirt."

-Adrienne

We were warned by many people that it was going to be hot here. Really, unbearably hot. Someone (not Marco's Dad!) told us it would be, and I quote, "hotter than f---". I don't really like the heat. I like shade and a nice breeze so I was a bit nervous about summer in Rome. However, I think we got lucky. The temperature today didn't go above 21 or 22 and as a result, walking around was great and not the heat-stroke-inducing sweatfest that I feared. Huzzah!

We started our day with Piazza Navona, built on the ruins of the Stadium of Domition where they used to have chariot races (in one race, the head of the winning horse was lopped off as it crossed the finish line and was then carried by runners to be offered as a sacrifice by the Vestal Virgins atop the Capitoline.) No horse heads today.


Instead of disembodied noggins, there are three baroque fountains in the piazza (way more sanitary). This one is Bernini's Fontana del Moro (Fountain of the Moor):


This is the obelisk of Bernini's other fountain (in the centre) called Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), whose four stone personifications symbolize the world's great rivers (Ganges, Danube, della Plata and Nile).

Next, it was on to the Pantheon, built in 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa. The Pantheon was a temple dedicated to all Roman Gods until the 5th century when it was re-dedicated to Christian martyrs.

This is the oculus in the domed ceiling (an architectural wonder of its time), the only source of light in the building.


This is but a sliver of the inside.

Due to some navigational difficulty (stemming from the fact that someone wouldn't let me take the GPS with us because doing so would be "dorky") we overshot the Trevi Fountain and ended up at the Spanish Steps.

Here was where we made our first mistake of the trip. A certain husband wanted to go to Mickey D's here because Frommer's described this particular restaurant as "the most sumptuous McDonald's we've ever seen". I have news for the readership: there are times when even The Fromm is wrong. McDonald's is the same fast-food armpit the world over. Yes there was some marble interior and yes, it had a nice grotto-esque entrance with a mosaic wall. But it had the same, fast-food reek as home and served a substance that, while advertised as "gelato" was more reminicent of ice cream truck soft-serve.

Back-tracking, we then visited the Trevi Fountain.

Again, the above photo was only able to capture a piece of it, given that the fountain is huge and the square it's in is small (this seems to be a theme here). Interestingly, and ickily, the church in this square houses the hearts and intestines of several centuries of popes. Less culturally interesting but of practical importance was a garbage can with it's contents aflame that we discovered we were standing directly beside.

On the way back, we stumbled upon Piazza Colonna, appropriately named for the giant column in the middle of the square.


Tomorrow we will be touring Ancient Rome and shopping for a "dude scarf" for Marco and his guy buddies back home (we know they all secretly want one, especially M).