18. November 2011: Off To The Races

I spent most of last night expelling the contents of my stomach and therefore did not get much sleep. I suspect it was a combination of a super rich dinner, exhaustion, dehydration and the fact that I hardly ever drink wine (or any alcohol for that matter) but decided last night was a special occasion. When in Rome, though, you power through. So I walked up the stairs designed my Michelangelo and gazed upon the copy of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius with the rest of my group. The fresh air did me good so I felt better and better as we walked down from Capitoline Hill and toured the Fori Imperiali. All of the ruins of these ancient imperial buildings were amusing to learn about because even then, each emperor wanted to build something grander than the next. In many cases they even built right on top of the previous building. That ended up being good for us because they would fill in the buildings with dirt to make their building structurally stable, thereby preserving all of the frescoes and art work in the first building.

 The Forio Imperiali led us straight to the Coliseum where we got to climb all the way to the top level. We had it all to ourselves along with a spectacular bird’s eye view of the Forum. We looked down towards where so many slaves lost their lives, being sprung out of the ground by elevators to face their worst fears. The Coliseum once fit 40,000 spectators who could be all be evacuated in 15 minutes. Our tour guide told us that Gladiator is probably one of the most historically accurate films depicting any ancient Roman time period. Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra on the other hand shows Cleopatra arriving in Rome through the Arch of Constantine, which was certainly not built yet.

Next we traversed Palatine Hill where Romulus supposedly founded Rome before killing his brother, Remus. We saw some of the famous Roman aqueducts, the Domitian stadium and the house of Augustus Caesar. The most exciting part for me was when we saw Julius Caesar’s temple. Our tour guide pointed to the blocks of stone that we were sitting on and told us that we were on the very spot where Marc Antony gave his famous funeral speech for Julius Caesar. Some of you may recognize it as beginning with, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

 We finally got a chance to rest our feet after seven hours of touring Roman ruins. I only rested for an hour before taking a walking tour of Rome. Our first stop was the Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. In English, that means the church of Saint Mary on top of Minerva because the church was literally built on top of a temple honoring Minerva. The ceiling was painted a brilliant blue night sky that was reminiscent of St. Francis’ church in Assisi. We viewed the brilliant Filippino Lippi family chapel, the tombs of the Medici popes and the relic of St. Catherine of Siena (senza head, we already saw that displayed in Siena). Near the altar stood Michelangelo’s Risen Christ which portrays a fully finished Christ with an Adonis-like body. It is the gentlest portrayal of Christ that I have ever seen.

Next up: the Pantheon! Of course it was beautiful—an expertly designed building that could fit a perfect sphere inside. As we stood inside learning about the history of the Pantheon, I started thinking about the pagan religion that the empire of Rome was built upon. Pantheon, of course, means “all gods” because this was the temple where all of the Roman gods were worshipped. Each of the loggias in the walls had housed a statue of a different god. Today these loggias are filled with altars to various saints and Christians. Of course I understand the religious turn-around that occurred in Rome and I am not trying to change history. I simply found myself mourning the loss of such beautiful history and wishing that I could see the Pantheon as it was designed with all of the various gods. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen so many Italian Renaissance churches at this point, but I found myself longing for the simplicity that imagined was once housed in the Pantheon.

After wandering by the tomb of Raphael inside the Pantheon, we visited a 1950’s gelateria called Giolitti’s. Hands down, it was the best gelato I have ever tasted. For two euros you could order three different flavors in heaping scoops on top of a delicious cone (I know that sounds strange but you can get some pretty cardboard-y cones if you’re not careful) all topped with homemade panna montagna (whipped cream). I tasted biscotti, tarrone and Italian opera. Yum.

 Next we visited the Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesi where Caravaggio painted three frescoes depicting the life of St. Matthew. His lighting effects are famous but they are really stunning to see in the flesh. We didn’t spend much time there before wandering towards the Piazza Navona and Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi fountain. It is quite a spectacular fountain, especially all lit up at night, which depicts the four biggest rivers on the four continents that had been discovered at that point: the Nile (Africa), the Danube (Europe), the Ganges (Asia) and the Plate (the Americas). The fountain is next to the Chiesa di Santa Agnese which is patronized by the same family. Bernini began the fountain for this patron, then fell out of favor with the family so the patron chose another artist to design the façade of their church. Bernini eventually returned to finish the fountain, but he had a distinct rivalry with the façade artist. Many viewers can see this rivalry reflected in the designs of each respective work. There is a statue of Santa Agnese on top of the church, looking straight at the fountain and pointing to herself in supposed pride of the artist. The figures closest to the church on the fountain are cringing away from the façade, some say in horror of the design, others say in fright of the instability of the façade. Either way, it’s an amusing story.

At this point, the entire tour group had left except for myself so, with the three professors, I entered the church. It was the essence of a baroque interior: theatrical and energetic. My favorite was a marble sculpture of Santa Agnese being burned at the stake. The marble flames were artistically perfect, I was awestruck. Awestruck and exhausted, so I headed back to the hotel with my professors, stopped at Insalate Ricca where I had a huge salad and then headed to bed.