Tuesday, July 24, 2000 Day 10
We didn't have a wake up call today. It was good to sleep a little later. We went to breakfast at 9:30 and then we went walking basically the same route we did for Rome By Night. We bought Scopa cards and we stopped by some small shops. Rome has 13 miles of Roman walls. They are 1007 years old. We saw the Panthenon.
We also saw the Trevi Fountain during the day.
We walked to the Church of the Immaculate Conception. We had to wait until 3:00 for it to open so Maureen and I left Kathy and Stephanie here while we walked to the train station so she could get here tickets validated because she did not need them. She was able to get on the flight with us instead of flying into Rome and then taking the train to Lugano. On the way we took pictures of:
PIAZZA BARBERINI: Fontana del Tritone
It was thought to be one of the most beautiful Roman fountains, it was built in travertine by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1643. Between the dophins' tails which support the shell on which the Triton crouches, Bernini placed two coats of arms of the Barberini family. The Triton which blows in the shell pushes out a jet of water, which, falling on the valves which direct it into the basin below, creates an incredibly choreographic effect. It was restored both in 1932 and 1990.
The next picture shows the Fontana delle Naiadi in the PIAZZA DELLA REPUBBLICA. This is the most beautiful of all the modern Roman fountains. Built in 1888 following the designs of Alexandro Guerrieri who placed four chalk lions around the large circular basin. These were then replaced in 1901 by four bronze groups by the sculptor Mario Rutelli which represented the Lake Nymph with the swan, the River Nymph riding a river monster, the Ocean Nymph, known as "Oceana", on a wild horse which symbolizes the breakers, and the Underwater Nymph, lying on the back of a dragon. In the center is the "Glauco" group, carved by the same Rutelli and added in 1912 substituting another sculpture, and representing the dominion of man over the forces of nature. It was moved to the gardens in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele because it did not please its purchasers.
Here are some of the other sites:
It's a monument entitled to Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia, first king of Italy. The project started with G. Sacconi in 1885 and was completed in 1935. The "Altare della Patria" (the central part of the monument) opened in 1925. There was buried the Unknown Warrior, symbol of all people dead during First World War. The style of Vittoriano follows Greeks and Latin criteria. This is also known as "The Wedding Cake".
This is Zeus. Zeus is the ruler of the Olympian gods. He is also known as Jupiter and Jove (both Roman). His attributes in iconography include the lightning bolt, the eagle, and the sceptre :
On the way to the station we saw Via Amendola (my family name). I don't know if he is any relation.
This was the train station we walked to: I couldn't find a good picture of this.
TERMINI STATION
This is the principal railway station of Rome, as well as the cross roads of all public transportation in Rome. The railway platform has been in use since 1864, but the current building which houses it was inaugurated in the Holy Year of 1950. The architecture is characterized by the extremely long, modernist facade in travertine stone, and by the gravity-defying double curve of the roof.
We went back to the church to pick up Kathy and Stephanie. By that time, the museum was open so we went inside. Fran and Bob sent an article about it. Here is a summation. In this church are the remains of 4,000 Capuchin monks. Their bones-fingers, vertebrae, skulls, shoulder blades, etc. are used to decorate five rooms linked by a 20 foot corridor. Their bodies are not intact. The Capuchins begain work on their cemetery in the late 1700s and finished it about 100 years later. Their purpose was to create an artistic impression of "our sister bodily death" . Their are lamps made of jaws, rosettes made of shoulder blades and a clock crafted from vertebrae, fingers and foot bones. The crypt of the skulls ir row on top of row of skulls. In the last room, the crypt of the three skeletons, a plaque on the floor begs respect for the dearly departed: "What you are now, we used to be. What we are now, you will be". Creepy isn't it?
We walked a little afterward trying to find the famous gelotti place to no avail. So we hopped in a cab and returned to the hotel to get ready for supper. Today we ate at La Maddalena. We were entertained by a little troupe of players bidding farewell to the people in our group who would be leaving us tomorrow to return home.
We returned to the hotel and I went back to the room. There was a message light on. Aunt Theresa and Andrew had called. I called them back. It was good to hear their voices. I returned back downstairs. Everyone was in the bar. Stephanie bought me a Limoncello. It was delicious. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday".