Italian Interlude: Part Quattro

The Yellow hostel was decorated with scenes from various movies. Our room had Tie-Fighters, Star Destroyers, and stencils of C-3PO and R2-D2. Our bathroom had a Blade Runner theme, if you call this

a theme. It was a regular hostel. Our room held six people total. We didn't really meet any of the people our first night there as they were either asleep or not present most of the time.

We walked downtown to visit Trajan's Market that day. This was a large covered market adjacent to Trajan's Forum. It was constructed around 100AD. Many eras of Roman history are present in this location as Medieval structures were built among the ruins. The open area of Trajan's market (already in ruins by the Middle Ages) was the location of peasants' huts in the 1000s to 1300s. Here is a picture of the entrance to Trajan's Market with the original roof still intact:

Here is a model of what the Market looked like originally (the semicircular hall being behind this structure):

Here is the Market today as seen from the top floor:

Trajan's Market once held a colossal statue of Emperor Trajan which is now lost. A few fragments survive including some pieces of the hand which the curators of the site have semi-reconstructed with a frame. Here is a picture to give you an idea of how enormous the sculpture was:

Here is a picture of a medieval tower, part of a church on the grounds of Trajan's Market:

Here is a picture from the semicircular hallway:

Here is a picture of the Market from the main level. Like other ruins, cats were everywhere. See if you can find the cat staring at the ruins in this photo. I didn't notice it when I took the picture:

Here is a Renaissance-era loggia located among the ruins:

After leaving Trajan's Market we walked to the Colosseum. The city moved the stage they had set up in front of the ampitheater for the New Year's celebration so we got some more pictures:

After this, we walked around the city some more. Here is a street near Piazza del Popolo, Via del Babuino, which had many high-end retail stores:

Later that night I ate at a restaurant where I ordered a pasta with lobster. The waiter was on hand to fill my water from the bottle sitting on the table as soon as my glass went empty. Which felt strange.

After dinner I walked past a wine shop which displayed several wines with famous figures from twentieth-century history (the majority of whom did not seem appropriate for wine bottles, but as a history major, I found it funny):

The next morning we walked past the Piazza Barberini again and visited a church called Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. This is a church organized by the Capuchin Friars Order built in the early 1600s. From the outside it looked like an ordinary church, and the interior was equally unassuming, appearing like several other churches I've visited in Europe. However, once we walked into the basement
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These are the bones of the Capuchin Friars of Rome, collected between 1500 and 1870, with some peasants as well. There are more than four-thousand bodies in the crypt. The display was part of a death-reverence displayed by the church in this era. Depictions of death were meant to represent the transitory state of life. The friars visited the crypt as a place to contemplate life, among the fear of impending death, which was meant to precipitate repentance among non-Christians. There were five rooms all decorated with bones. The sign near the entrance was a Latin inscription translating to: "As you are, we once were. As we are, so you will be..." This was one of the eeriest places I have ever been. Europe has several other crypts like this, known as ossuaries, but this is the most famous.

After leaving the ossuary, I noticed another strangely dark item from the past:

This appears to be an image of Mussolini. Sometimes relics like this are left not out of a sense of nostalgia, but as a simple reminder of the reality of the past. Mussolini's National Fascist Party was dissolved following the Second World War by the succeeding government. A watered-down successor to the party still exists.

After this, I came upon something more cheerful, the Fountain of the Naiads in the Piazza della Repubblica. This was completed in the early 1900s by the sculptor Mario Rutelli:

From the Piazza della Repubblica, we walked to another piazza called Piazza Navona, which is one of the oldest in the city, dating back to the late 1400s. Many of the surrounding buildings are therefore from the Renaissance. Many vendors had set up stands for the Epiphany celebrations (which were the following day, January 6). This is the celebration of the baptism of Christ and the visit of the Three Kings. In Catholic countries it is the traditional gift-giving holiday, rather than Christmas. In Italy, the figure who gives gifts to the children is a witch called Befana. Many of the vendors sold puppets of her on broomstick and a woman was dressed as her in the center of the piazza. Many carnival games and a carousel also filled the plaza. Here are some pictures of the piazza with the Fountain of the Four Rivers, sculpted by Bernini in the 1650s with an Egyptian obelisk in the center:

Here are some pictures of the piazza with the Basilica of Sant'Agnese in Agone, also constructed in the 1650s:

Here are the two other fountains found on either end of the piazza. The first is the Fountain of Neptune, which was sculpted by Giacomo della Porta in the 1570s. The central statue of Neptune was later added by Antonio della Bitta. The second statue is the Fountain of the Moor, also sculpted by della Porta in the 1570s. The central statue was later added by Bernini.

We also saw this street performer in the Piazza Navona:

As you can see, he was a great fan of Michael Jackson. He used a radio to play "Smooth Criminal" as he performed a little dance with his Michael Jackson hand-puppet (patent pending).

I got a sandwich with some kind of spiced pork at Piazza Navona, then Cody and I headed back to Termini to visit the grocery store, Despar, so we could get stuff for breakfast as our plane left early. While at the grocery store, a girl dressed as the witch Befana who stood in the corner accosted us with several hand gestures and what seemed to be hexes. I replied with, "Non parlo italiano." When we returned to our hostel, we met our new roommates, two American girls who were attending college in Cadiz, Spain. We all visited the "Yellow Bar" on the ground floor of our hostel and talked about our experiences in Spain.

Cody and I had to get up at four in the morning in order to catch the train to take us to Fiumicino Airport. Our plane was scheduled to leave at eight in the morning. We got to our terminal and found out that the flight had been cancelled until noon because of an electrical failure on the plane. As we had no real need to be back at any certain time and, more importantly, no control over the situation, we sat back and watched as a Spanish woman harangued the mechanics and flight attendants for about fifteen minutes. We then watched the developments over the next four hours as the mechanics left to take care of more important things and the woman gathered a group around her and gave what appeared to be a speech designed to spark a revolution. They spoke among themselves in a circle, occasionally one would glance over his or her shoulder. For her second speech to her group, she sat upon the boarding-gate counter and spoke down to her followers, each of whom nodded gravely at certain points. She remained in this position as a Swiss man with gray slicked-back hair, a light brown trench-coat, and a briefcase walked to the counter to check the time for the next outgoing flight to Geneva, and paused to examine the rumbling ring of plebians, before turning to take a seat elsewhere. The group eventually retired to the nearby pizza restaurant where I follwed them and ate while the woman walked among the tables of her seated army.

I lost track of them after I left, but I later noticed smaller factions forming and the woman nowhere to be seen. She later appeared when we were boarding and asked someone why no one told her the flight had arrived. When we landed in Madrid, I saw the woman ahead of me saying a few farewells to her former companions.

We had arrived back in Spain on Epiphany (or El Día de los Reyes as it is called here). We had forgotten this was a major holiday in Spain and wondered why the train was so empty and all the stores closed. When we got back to the apartment, and I saw my Three Kings (or Reyes Magos) decoration on the balcony, it dawned on me:

I spent the next few days catching up on sleep an relaxing. After these days, and before returning to work, I made a tour of Madrid to see some of the places I hadn't yet visited to reacquaint myself with Spain. I'll post about this next.

Italian Interlude: Part Un

It's been awhile since my last post. I spent eight days in Rome, starting on December 29. It was an amazing trip. The weather was cloudy and rainy several days, but Rome has a certain quality that draws you in. While I was ready to return to Spain at the end of the eight days (living out of a suitcase for that long can be wearisome), I knew I would miss Italy and immediately wanted to plan a return.

Rome (or Roma as it's known in both Italian and Spanish) is a much older city than Madrid. While Madrid emerged as a city in the 800s AD, Rome already existed as a small village nearly 1,700 years prior. Madrid is the larger of the two cities, exceeding the population of Rome by 1.5 million people. There was much history to see in the city including the ancient ruins of the Roman Republic (510-44BC) and Empire (27BC-476AD), the remnants of the medieval city, Renaissance art and villas, monuments to the nineteenth-century wars of Italian Unification, and a few relics of the Mussolini dictatorship.

Cody and I left Madrid from Barajas Airport at six in the morning. Since the public transportation does not run all night and we had to be at the airport early, we stayed the night in our departure terminal. I stayed awake the whole night, wearing the swashbuckler goatee I had decided to have as a joke for the trip. Our airline was Vueling, a discount Spanish airline which offers flights all throughout the European Union. The flight lasted about two hours. When we arrived at the airport we took a shuttle to the main train station, Termini. From there I followed the directions from my hostel booking to our place. The directions told us to take the Metro to the stop called Valle Aurelia. Once there, the hostel was supposedly right down the Via Aurelia. The directions did not specify that our destination was located five miles down Via Aurelia and that Via Aurelia was nowhere near the Metro stop. After several hours of searching for maps and walking through the rain, we finally espied our place, Plus Camping Roma outside the city limits. We checked in to what looked like a typical camping resort found in the Ozarks, walked across the street to a grocery store called Panorama where we bought some food, then ate and slept until the next morning. Here is a picture of Plus Camping Roma:

After this rough start the rest of the trip went smoothly. There was a bus stop in front of the hostel which took us to the center of the city, at Piazza Venezia. When we got off the bus, the first thing we saw was the giant Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a unified Italy who took the throne in 1861. The monument also holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (from the First World War) and was built between 1911 and 1935.

To the right of this monument stood a large expanse of Roman ruins. The first we saw was Trajan's Column, which is part of the larger area known as Trajan's Forum. The column was constructed in AD 113 to celebrate Emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. Spiralling up the exterior of the column is a continuous frieze, depicting the events of the Dacian Wars. The interior of the column contains a spiral staircase which is now closed off. A statue of Trajan once stood atop this column, but vanished at some unkown point. In the late 1500s, a statue of St. Peter was placed on top where it still remains.

Here is a detail of the column's frieze:

After this, we walked past Trajan's Market, a large area of ruins adjacent to Trajan's Forum. The buildings seen above the semicircular ruins in the picture below were constructed in the Middle Ages. We went inside Trajan's Market, so I'll mention more about it later.

We next walked across the street to the area of the Roman Forum, the central location of the ancient Roman Republic:

We bought tickets to go inside the Roman Forum which were good for entrance into the Palatine and Colosseum as well. The Roman Forum, which lies at the bottom of the Palatine hill, was overwhelming. It included many ruins from the Republic and Imperial eras. One such ruin was the Arch of Septimius Severus, constructed in AD 203 at the behest of the Emperor for whom it is named:

The ruins of the Temple of Saturn (the Roman god of farming) stood nearby. These are the oldest ruins in the Roman Forum. The temple, from before the Republican era, was originally constructed around 500 BC. After the original's destruction by fire, it was partially reconstructed in the late 200s AD:

Here is a photo of the two ruins side-by-side:

Down an old road known as the Via Sacra stood the Temple of Vesta (goddess of the hearth). This was originally built in the 600s BC, during the Roman Kingdom (753BC-509BC). Like all temples to Vesta, the building was originally rounded as can be guessed by the picture.

Across from the Temple of Vesta stood the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (named after Emperor Antoninus and his wife). This was constructed in 141 AD. During the Imperial Roman era, traditional worship of the Roman gods (a religion adopted from the ancient Greeks) was replaced by worship of the Emperor. Once an Emperor died, they could be deified by their successor and worshiped by the people. Once Christianity took over as the religion of the Roman Empire, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina was converted into a church. Significant architectural changes were made to the structure in the meantime, but due to its continued use and care, the building remains in good condition. The church has since moved and the building is under the care of the city of Rome.

From here, we climbed up the Palatine hill where I was able to get a photo of the largest ruins in the Roman Forum, the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, built in 308 AD:

We continued on to the Palatine, the high area where many of the nobles of the Roman Republic and emperors of Imperial Rome lived. (Our word 'palace' derives from Palatine). Around 44BC a series of civil wars erupted in Rome which brought about the downfall of the Republic. The grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus eventually took over as the first Roman emperor. During the early Imperial era, which was the height of Roman civilization, the power shifted from the area of the Roman Forum to the Palatine. On this hill now stand several ruins of imperial palaces as well as ancient orchards and vineyards.

The Hippodrome of Domitian, an Imperial-era stadium is also located here:

As we headed back down the Palatine hill, we could see the Colosseum:

We continued on our way to the Colosseum. It was built somewhere around 70AD and is the largest Roman ampitheater. Part of the external wall was demolished during the Renaissance for use in several buildings. It was built under Emperor Vespasian and was initially used for a variety of organized events which drew large crowds such as exotic animal hunts, military reenactments, and, most famously, gladitorial combats. In the later years of the Roman Empire, the Colosseum was used mainly as a theater. Some accounts claim the Colosseum was once flooded and used to stage a reenactment of a naval battle. We walked inside the entrance of the Colosseum between the two walls as seen here:

Inside on the upper floor of this outer ring was a display about Emperor Vespasian with several statues of him and his family as well as several pieces of the Emperor's propaganda (which in Imperial times had to be approved by the Senate). We then entered the inner ring of the Colosseum where the network of rooms which originally lied under the center are now exposed. Only one section of the original seating remains and can be seen on the left-hand side of this picture:

From one of the openings in the Colosseum I could see the Palatine hill and the Arch of Constantine, the largest triumphal arch in Rome, which sits outside the Colosseum:

The arch was completed in 312 AD to commemorate Emperor Constantine's victory in a civil war. Also in the Colosseum, this fragment of a sculpture was on display. It was discovered just last year:

When we left the Colosseum we walked past the Arch of Constantine to get some close-ups of it:

I got a sandwich of prosciutto and salami from a street vendor near here, then we headed back to Piazza Venezia. We saw that there was a free exhibition at the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II and went inside. The exhibition was concerning Italian immigration to the United States and had several newspaper advertisements, personal photographs, and other items from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In another part of the monument (up several flights of stone stairs) was a museum of the Risorgimento (the Italian Wars of Unification). Throughout its history, Italy was a collection of several independent states. The wars, fought from 1848 to 1866 created the modern Italian state. A few places in the Italian Peninsula remain independent states such as San Marino and Vatican City. Many items from the wars were on display, including the sword of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the revolutionary commander and heroic figure of modern Italy. The museum led out on to a balcony of the monument where there were some great views of the city at night: