Vatican't!

Today began with much screwing around, to use a technical travel term. The POSSLQ and I had planned to visit the Vatican Museum, but we didn't really get going til about 11 and then learned that the museum closed at 2:45. Since we hadn't even begun walking over to the place, the plan was killed. Turned out this was probably a good thing, because when we did get to the museum the next day (at opening time) we left at about 12:30 and the line to the museum snaked all the way around the Vatican and nearly back to St. Pietro Plaza.

So, couple-day destroyed, we went with the parents and quickly despatched three sites you "must see" in Rome, just in case someone back home asks you about them. These are the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon.

I'd say the Pantheon was the coolest of these spots; the POSSLQ would disagree - she was angered that it had been catholocized. No amount of arguing that if it hadn't been catholocized it would have been knocked down as a quarry could un-knot her tiny little fists of balled impotent rage. The Pantheon was originally built (in 27 BC-25 BC) as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome. The original was destroyed in a fire in AD 80, and the current building dates from about 125, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian,but it has been a Christian church since the 7th century. It is the best-preserved of all Roman buildings and the oldest important building in the world with its original roof intact. Although the identity of the Pantheon's architect is uncertain, it is traditionally assigned to Apollodorus of Damascus.

The Pantheon is not well-served by the fact that Rome has built right up to it on three sides. If you approach it from the rear, as we did, it looks like a tatty heap of bricks infested with a tattier collection of pigeons. Not to mention the tatty Italians, who swarm about the place like they live here. The front, on the other hand, is pretty cool, and the inside is cool in a physical sense, so it is a nice break from the Italian sun.

As you turn around and look the other way there is a traditional apartment building with stores below, and a lovely swath of bouganvillia (sp?) flowers cascading down it. There is also the unavoidable obelisk, right in the middle of things.

We moved on to the Trevi Fountain, 85 feet high and 65 feet wide. Very pretty, but swarming with people. And I just hate people, so that didn't work at all for me.

I was impressed by the gladiator dude over there to the left. Who knew that Gladiators smoked delicious Marlboro cigarettes.

We watched idiots cavort in front of the water and then walked down this exceedingly lovely alley -- lovely because it leads away from the Trevi Fountains. We wandered about for a bit, both because we have limited map reading skills and because Bax was trying to figure out why he could no longer use his Wells Fargo card. Apparently Wells Fargo has decided that it has been stolen and has cancelled its use. He gets a message saying that he must contact his local branch, which is certainly not in Rome. This is a slightly worrisome thing for me, since my card is also a Wells Fargo one and if the swine were to hold me up I'd have to have the parents..... pay...... wait a second... have the parents pay....... for everything!

Come ON Wells Fargo!

Anyway, we wandered around looking at various things and as we got closer and closer to the Spanish steps the shops got tonier and tonier and also more expensive. Nothing I would buy in any circumstance, but just like around the Vatican it is funny to watch tourist money inflate prices.

The Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna) is 138 stairs ramping a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti. The Spanish Steps were designed by Francesco De Sanctis after generations of argument over how the steep slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be urbanized.

Unfortunately, when we were there the church at the top was under some kind of reconstruction and its facade was covered in scaffolding and canvas. This made the steps rather unnatractive, except for the young couple which was canoodling at the edges of the thing.

The steps are supposedly more colorful at other times of the year and they also have some sort of historical provenance among hippies, but today they just looked like steps.

POSSLQ and I ran up the steps, looked down them, ran down them, and then it was off to a rather fine lunch.

After lunch we decided to walk back to our flat, a thing that took just about 3 hours to do and included a fortuitious and completely accidental trip up a hill to the Borghese gardens (once a vineyard, now the second largest garden in Rome). These are on top of a hill and we had a lovely view of Rome looking towards the Vatican. The gardens are studded with busts of famous and not so famous Romans and are nicely shaded in addition. A nice place to have a picnic, really.

After a walking tour we descended to the city floor and soldiered back to Aurelia.

POSSLQ and I ended up having a lovely pizza dinner by the flat and wandering out to take pictures of St. Peters at night, one of which you see below you can click here for a big version)