Sorry for the wait!!
Today was a slow start and we only left the apartment a little after 10:30. We had a plan to walk to the Campo de’ Fiori, which was the start of an audio walking tour led by Rick Steves.
It was a relatively uneventful 40 minute walk from the apartment to the Campo de’ Fiori, but the Campo de’ Fiori itself was quite cool, it had a bustling produce and clothing market with a lot of different stalls and a very large statue of a monk who was considered a heretic on ancient times because of his open minded way of thinking and traveled all over Europe.
We split up for a little while, Dad and Mom went to a cafe to find a bathroom (parent note: making us feel obligated to buy a croissant and a glass of wine, oh darn!) while the rest of us explored the market. After we met back up, we split up again, dad needed a little more time to finish his wine, and so mom stayed with him and the rest of us went in search of a gelato place that we ended up not being able to find. We went back and met up with mom and dad again, and started in the tour, well, most of us did. Griffin had forgotten to download the tour so he couldn’t listen to it on his phone. So dad ended up giving his phone to Griffin, and he and MacClain used that instead to listen to the tour.
We started walking and ended up at another square which had a huge palace. It was called the Palazzo Farnese, and was built by Pope Paul III of the Farnese family. The top part of the building was designed by Michelangelo. This palazzo now houses the French embassy.
The tour then brought us back across the Campo de’ Fiori and out the other side, and just outside of the piazza, we found a gelato place that looked quite good, so we stopped and got some gelato.
Continuing on the tour we ended up at another piazza, this time the Piazza Navona. This oval shaped piazza was once a racetrack, which was a part in a training center built by Emperor Domitian in 80 AD, the same year that the Colosseum opened.
The only fountain worth mentioning is the fountain in the center of the piazza, the Four Rivers Fountain. This fountain is topped by an ancient Egyptian obelisk covered in hieroglyphs. This obelisk was erected in 80 AD in the temple of the cult of Isis. When Rome fell, the obelisk did too, but the Popes then decided that they liked the obelisks and re-erected several of them. The fountain also has statues representing the four great rivers, the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube, and the Rio de la Plata. Continuing onward, we headed out of the piazza towards the Pantheon.
The Pantheon is perhaps the most magnificent building surviving from Ancient Rome. It’s absolutely massive with 40-foot granite columns, a 30-foot bronze door, and a massive symmetrical dome for a roof.
The Pantheon was amazing on the inside. From the outside you couldn’t really see the grandeur of the dome, but from the inside you could see how huge it really was. The Pantheon was a temple to all of the Roman gods, “pan” means “all”, and “theos” means “the gods”, so Pantheon means “all of the gods”.
However, this temple was a temple to more than just the Roman gods, it was also a temple to all gods, meaning Egyptian merchants and peddlers went there as well to pray and appease their gods. After the rise of Catholicism, the pagan gods were cast out, and the Pantheon became a temple to the martyrs. A couple of Italian kings were buried in the church Pantheon as well, Victor Emmanuel II, and his son Umberto I. It also holds the tomb of Raphael. Standing directly outside of the Pantheon is yet another ancient obelisk.
Pantheon ceiling from below. Yes, that is a hike in the roof, to let in sunlight (and rain)
Inside of the pantheon, we met a very nice couple whose names were Ron and Sheila. We talked to them for a while and then continued the tour.
In the Pantheon with our new besties, Ron and Sheila!
After leaving the pantheon, I had more to listen to about the plaza of the Pantheon, so I stood around for a minute and turned my back on everyone else to look at the piazza. And when I turned back around to continue the tour… everybody was gone. So I started walking in the direction that the tour said to go to try to catch up to them, but after like a minute of walking, I hear my name being called, so I turn around, and it’s Griffin, calling me over to this other street that everyone had gone down in search for a lunch spot(they forgot me). (Parent note: we did not forget Gage. We all took a wrong turn and he went the right way. As soon as we figured out he wasn't with us, it was Griffin who went rushing back to find him, but he will not admit that it was out of concern!)
Lunch was delicious as always, we went to this nice pizza and pasta restaurant. People got pizzas and pastas alike.
After lunch we continued the tour and ended up at yet another piazza. This piazza had another obelisk and also held the Italian parliament building.
After that the tour brought us to the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is huge and very very ornate. We stayed at the fountain for Connor and Kayla to drink from an adjacent fountain, and it is said that if two people drink from the fountain at once, they will have everlasting love(cheesy).
The fountain was built in 1762 by Nicola Salvi using the Baroque style. The central figure is known as the “Ocean”, he stands in a shell shaped chariot pulled by pegasi that represent creating waves, in front of him are two tritons blowing their conch shells.
I personally think that this fountain was modeled after a statue of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. In Greek mythology, Poseidon is the father of the Pegasi and the Tritons, and in the fountain, it appears that the statue was once holding some spear-like object in its hand, and the trident is a symbol of Poseidon as well. But that may be just me.
After the fountain we walked to the Spanish Steps, named as such because of the Spanish embassy adjacent to them. the view from the top of the steps was quite nice, and we were able to see most of the landmarks we’d come across since we’ve been in Rome.
We walked up the Steps and then up to a park that had a couple tiny fountains and a lot of greenery. We then split up again, Connor, Kayla, Griffin, and MacClain went to find a spot to watch the sunset while Mom, Dad, and I walked around the park a little more, and then we found our own little spot for watching the sunset.
After the sunset we stayed split up, Mom, Dad, and I started walking back to the apartment, while the rest of them went shopping. When we were almost back to the apartment, Mom and I went off to find some dinner, while Dad went back to the apartment. We decided on a kebab place and ordered a massive kebab. We returned home and ate it, and it was DELICIOUS. After dinner we went out and got some phenomenal gelato(that was peanut butter flavor, sorry Connor!). A little while after we got back, the rest of the troops returned with their goods, Griffin and MacClain had each gotten a shirt.
They then went to the store to pick up their dinner, then we went to bed because by that point it was past 11.
-Gage
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