Here are some random travels around Rome. Santa Maria Maggiore is a famous church around Rome and is one of the 3 main churches in Rome. Even though it is dedicated to Mary it doesn't have her body, but St. Peter's and San Giovanni do. Peregrinorum is a medieval pilgrim route for religious pilgrims coming to see St. Peter's. It starts from St. Peter's, goes to Castel Sant' Angelo, and eventually goes down to the Tiber Island, the world's smallest inhabited island. Villa Borghese is Rome's major park and one of the few green places left in all of Rome. Here we go...
This is the facade of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the three main churches in Roma. In other words, its important and its really nice inside with marble and frescoes galore...
The church is/was under restoration, although I couldn't notice. I wish this picture was legible enough to read about the restoration, but oh well...
And here we are, the glorious interior of the cathedral itself. I have actually completely forgotten how it looks, but this picture is accurate I'm assuming. The marble and gold inlaid roof throughout the whole church is fitting of such an important site in Rome. Although I always say once you've seen one church you've seen them all. Really after a while its gets to overload. But still the marble statues and intricate decorations are always worth the visit. When in Rome...
Here is one of the rooms in the church, with the gold inlaid and intricate decorations. This is the norm in every important church in Rome, but still...
Until the advent of the cemetery, churches were the main places to bury people, especially important people. That mean's someone is buried here, and I saw another skull in the church in Orvieto (that I got a picture of). Its always the skull with angel wings, which is pretty cool. This one was in the upper right corner of the church kind of hidden from everything else. I just wandered into it and took a picture before my friends told me we have to go.
Villa Borghese is the biggest park and I think only true park in Roma. This is really the only green open space in the urban sprawl of central Rome, and is a nice getaway from the city. It is located in the northern part of the city on the hill above the Spanish Steps, and thus has a really nice view of Piazzi di Popolo and of the city of Roma itself. There are lots of places for picnics and an arcade, a carousel, bicycle rentals, and restaurants dispersed in the park. There is also a villa, the Villa Borghese itself, and the famous museum which houses Bernini's works. And of course with this being Rome, statues/artwork are always everywhere.
Roma does not disappoint, with headless statues that are probably really old all over the place. Roma has enough marble to build a small city.
There are also statues with heads of course. This is a statue of someone significant, and that's about where this commentary ends...
More headless statues of course because I would never disappoint. And a close up soon...
Here is it. Enjoy...
And what would a park be withough a statue of a lion? Nothing. Nothing at all...
And here's a closer up photo that's not blurry like the last one. I really like animal carvings because you can only see so many carvings of Mary and Jesus and people just standing there. Fierce animals that have variety from different artists never get old. I definitely want animal statues for my future chateau, but the only problem is... which ones?
Now onto the Via Peregrinorum. This was the Pilgrim's Road for Medival pilgrims coming to Rome to see the Vatican. It starts on the Tiver Island, or the Isola Tevere, and goes northwest until it finally crosses the fiume Tevere (Tiber River) and gets to St. Peter's. I walked this route for my Urban History class, and thats where these photos mostly come from. As they say in Roma... andiamo! (let's go!)
This historic Medival route starts on I think the bridge going to the Tiber Island, Ponte Sisto (I don't even know the translation). And to the right of course is a view of the Tiber Island, the world's smallest inhabited island and the only place where the Tiber River halves temporarily. The building to the right is a Medival hospital and wellness center that would have been a hang out spot for Medival pilgrims. I forget what its called, but oh well...
Here is a statue of a bear, which is the symbol for the Medieval baronial Orsini family. Orsini of course means bears in Italian, and Rome is famous for its baronial families (such as Borghese) that all became popes. They just change their names when they become popes but its all about who you know and what blood you have.
Since we are in Roma, we immediately get ancient Roman ruins. This is the Theatre of Marcellus, which was built my Augustus himself in memory of his nephew Marcellus. It seated about 11,000 to 14,000 people, and it looks like a mini Colosseum with its own arches. It was completed in 13 B.C., which means that it is old. Really old. The sign says SPQR, which basically means the Senate and the Roman People. Under that of course it says Monumenti Antichi, or ancient monuments.
This is pretty much the same view but without the fences blockin the view. The theatre used to be part of an apartment building but Mussolini tore all that down so the ancient monument could stand on its own. See a future post for my other pictures with a better view of the theatre and the adjacent Portico D'Ottavia.
Right after the Theatre of Marcellus is the Jewish Ghetto, or the historic Jewish neighborhood in Rome. And even today it has the most expensive rent rates in all of Rome. While I was there with my class in early October 2009 a local man came and reminded my teacher that the 66th anniversary of the Nazis marching into the location we were standing on was about to occur. There are plaques and memorials all over the Jewish nieghborhood commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. There are also pictures of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers and statements declaring Rome's support for them in the Jewish neighborhood (and near the Capitoline Museum as well). There is a vibrant Kosher restaurant district there and of course the best bakeries in all of Rome as well. The statues in the walls are also common, as seen below.
This is the world-famous synagagoue in Rome. It is also the Jewish cultural museum of Rome and it has plaques and memorials around it. Check out a future post for more about this...
This is right on the edge of the former Theatre of Pompey, which no longer really exists but the building it used to be has a curved facade and is elevated from its surroundings, which are all signs of the former theatre that is now an apartment buildings. This building is currently a church I believe and my teacher said something about it but I forget now. Oh well...
And to finish off the route I saw another cat. This cat let me pet him and didn't run away, so he is cool. Black cats are some of my favorites because black is the best color to dress in.
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