Day12 - Roma

Saturday, we still have not located Margarita, as anyone can imagine, it has changed the tone of our tour. Everyone is praying she will be found soon and safe. 

Saturday morning we visited Vatican City with our local Specialist, Tiziana. This is the year of the Jubilee (every 25 years) when Catholics make the pilgrimage to the Vatican and it is almost Easter. This makes it nearly impossible to get tickets inside Saint Peter's Basilica, so we did not even try. 

We did get a nice tour of the area inside Vatican City and it was easy to see they are setting up seating for Palm Sunday services tomorrow, this place will be jammed. 

One cool thing that Tiziana pointed out was that Jean Paul II (JPII) commissioned a Madonna to overlook St Peter's square because he believes she was responsible for allowing him to survive the attempt on his life in 1981. There are many squares in Rome with Madonna over looking them. 

A new sculpture since we were here last is "Angels Unawares", a bronze sculpture by Canadian artist, Timothy Schmalz.  The statue depicts a group of 140 migrants and refugees, inspired by the biblical verse in Hebrews 13:2: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares". It's hard  to make out, but there are angel wings coming up in the middle.

After Vatican City, we were given a driving tour of the Area including the Circus Maximus, we could see Ben Hur racing his chariot. 

After the driving tour most of the group continued on with a guided tour of The Forum, the four of us decided we would do a self guided tour. 

We walked a circle that took us past the colosseum and around The Forum, it was a gorgeous day and it reminded us of our trip to Greece when we wandered Athens. 

This is our walk about. 

Walking in Rome, one will pass many interesting 'old structures, this is the Temple of Hercules Victor or Hercules Olivarius, standing at the Piazza Bocca della Verità. The temple was built in the 2nd century BC. That makes it about 2700 years old...and still standing. 

We walked along Circus Maximus, it is a testament to the Italians commitment to the preservation of history that they have kept this property open, it would be prime development property. 

Our walk took us by the Colosseum. We did not try to go in since in the afternoon we have a guided tour of the Colosseum. 

As we continued our walk, June spotted a ramp that went off to our left, not on our way, but we decided to explore where it led. 

It led to Basilica Di Santa Francesca Romana, 10 century Catholic Church. It was beautiful and open to the public.

The inside of the church is something to be seen in person. 

Beneath the altar there is a Shrine that can be accessed via stairs that descend on either side of the altar.

(via Google) In the Shrine is the relics of St Frances in the crypt. Her skeleton vested in the habit of her Oblate Sisters, is on display. They used Wax to make her look like a person, interesting. 

There is much more history to this church on the internet, it was worth the diversion to go see it. 

From almost everywhere in this area one can see the Victor Emmanuel II National Monument. A large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honor Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in Rome.

Eventually we came upon The Forum. This was the center of town in the days of Caesar and where Romans, did their day to day activities including; triumphal processions and elections; public speeches, criminal trials and gladiatorial matches; and the nucleus of commercial and legal affairs.

The rest of our tour group got a guided tour of this area up close, they said it was very good.

We even found another replica of the bronze statue Capitoline Wolf. The Capitoline Wolf is a bronze sculpture depicting a scene from the legend of the founding of Rome. The sculpture shows a she-wolf suckling the mythical twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. According to the legend, when King Numitor, grandfather of the twins, was overthrown by his brother Amulius in Alba Longa, the usurper ordered them to be cast into the Tiber River. They were rescued by a she-wolf that cared for them until a herdsman, Faustulus, found and raised them.

We eventually completed our loop and were close to our bus pick up location but had plenty of time for a nice lunch at an outside cafe. 

We met the rest of our group and shuttled back to the hotel for about a 1 1/2 hour break before going back out to tour the Colosseum. 

We were split into two smaller groups for our Colosseum tour, it is nice to be part of a tour group because you have your tickets and bypass the lines to enter the Colosseum. 

It is a spectacular sight.

We learned a lot, that we will soon forget, about the construction, the abandonment, the barbarian pilfering, and preservation of the structure from our guide. The original name of the Colosseum was Flavian Amphitheater. It was commissioned and built by the Flavian emperors, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, thus the name (1st century AD). When Emperor Hadrian moved Nero's 30' bronze statue, The Colossus of Nero,  near the Amphitheater, the people associated the Amphitheater with the statue and just called it the Colosseum. Today, only ruins of the Nero statue pedestal remain.

It truly is 'colossal' inside and out. This picture shows the partial stage with all the rooms underneath that housed the entertainment; including Slaves, Gladiators, and Wild Animals. Everything was moved up to the stage with human powered mechanical elevators. 

Here a German Engineered representation of the ancient elevators. 

Just outside the Colosseum is The Arch of Constantine (315AD), a triumphal arch dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312. 

This picture was taken from inside the Colosseum. 

After our tour of the Colosseum, we waked to a local restaurant for dinner. 

It was one of those places we would never find on our own, down an ally, below the street. 

The restaurant is in a space that was likely a Roman bath in roman times, it is a very unique setting. 

In addition to good food they had singers on and off throughout the meal. Restaurant Video

This guy was a singer and a comedian. 

We had a very nice dinner and set out for the hotel around 2045.

On the way we dropped Matt off at one of the Hospitals he had yet to check for Margarita.  

After dropping off Matt the Entertainment system on the bus was turned over to one of our group, one of the youngsters, we became a party bus, it made the ride to the hotel quite entertaining. Party Bus

When we got back to the hotel we were all relieved to hear that Matt found Margarita, she was well but a bit disorientated.  Matt sent a taxi for Alberto to go and reunite with her at the hospital.  We all celebrated at the bar and even moved the party to the roof top terrace.  Everyone was relieved. 

Sunday we make our way to Venice, the weather has finally turned and rain is forecast, but we really can not complain about the weather; it has been beautiful.