Rome, After the Vatican

After a brief stop at the Vatican bookstore, where I bought an art history of the Vatican, we headed on foot to the Castel St. Angelo and across bridge into Rome proper.  There was a wedding party having pictures taken on the bridge.  Everyone's attention was on the bride.  Michael sought out the groom, standing nervously to the side, and congratulated him.  The groom gave him such a smile of pleasure and relief at the recognition.

 

We walked through back streets, some of them pedestrian only, to the Piazza Navona. This very rococo rectangle is decorated with high renaissance art and appears to be the location of a permanent street fair.  Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers is the centerpiece.  We paused to admire the sculpture and fountains, watch the people and take pictures.

 

I plotted a route on the map to take us to the Pantheon by the shortest route.  Little did we suspect that it was a government district.  There were armed guards on the streets and in guardhouses near big imposing grey buildings.  We saw several black limousines pulling out from one building.  Later when we stopped at a tiny café for lunch, Michael noticed the same scene on a local news channel.  Neither of us speaks Italian but it appeared that the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, was on his way to one of his many court appearances.  Three trials are underway alleging corruption and there is another trial over a sex scandal. He has even more problems than Obama. It's fortunate that I did not try to take pictures there. I might have lost my camera.

 

I was eager to see the Pantheon because it has been in continuous use for almost two thousand years. The dome is the largest such structure of unreinforced concrete ever built.  The Pantheon was initially a Roman temple to many gods.  A seventh century pope converted it to a Catholic church.  Over time, its gilt bronze ornamentation was stripped away.  The exterior is simple and austere. The interior is beautifully ornate, lighted only by the doorway and the oculus, the "eye" or opening to the sky at the top of the dome. My interior shot shows the tomb of Raphael, the renaissance painter.  A number of notables are entombed in the walls including Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of unified Italy.

 

After a short lunch of salami in a tiny café on a side street, we headed toward the Trevi Fountain.  We came across a tiny piazza with a large rococo church fronting it.  Michael and I ducked inside to escape the heat for a while.  The church was a stunner!  We had stumbled upon the Church of St. Ignatius di Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order.  We spent a marvelous half hour admiring the statuary and paintings.

 

We finally arrived at the Trevi Fountain in the early afternoon.  It was beautiful but was difficult to see because of all the people crowded into its smallish square. On my next trip to Rome, I'll try to see it early in the morning before the crowds block the view.

 

A surprising thing about Rome is that most of the major tourist attractions are within walking distance of each other.  Part of the fun of walking from one to another is the opportunity to see the Rome that is not tourist land.  I'm sure Rome has more churches per square mile than Venice. The number of architectural styles of the various buildings is amazing.