Day 6: Wednesday
The big day. We made our way to the piazza designed by Michelangelo outside Capitoline Museums at 10am. It’s right next to the steps Mike and I climbed up the first night. Our discoveries on that little adventure keep turning up. We met Tobin Craig and waited for our tour guide to show up. Thankfully she was English, or at least spoke it like it was her natural language. She took us on a chronological tour of the Roman Republic and Empire. I’ll try my best to recount the facts from the tour, but if I’m completely wrong I apologize. First we saw the evidence of the very beginnings of Rome, dated to about 6,000 BC. She showed us the development of the area through drawings as people transitioned from hunter/gatherer to agriculture to infrastructure. Then she showed us what the Temple of Jupiter used to look like, and we learned an interesting fact about the Romans: They never went inside their temples, which leads some to believe the Pantheon is not actually a temple because it is obviously intended to go inside of because there’s the oculus. She also told us, although the temples appear to be made out of completely marble, early ones were made out of wood with terracotta covering, which made it only slightly more weather and fire proof than regular wood. Next she took us to a display where there were busts of Roman senators, consuls, and emperors. She told us how, during the Republic, men would give themselves attributes to make them appear older in their sculptures because old age and wisdom were more valued. We also saw a bust of Brutus (the man who saved Rome from the tyrannical rule of the Tarquins and helped establish Rome as a republic in about 509 BC), which was very different from the others because his eyes were white and the rest was bronze. It was so creepy, I thought he was going to wink at me. We also so an interesting painting depicting the story of the war between the Romans and the Albans where the battle was decided by a combat of two pairs of triplets, one from each side: The Curiatii and the Horatii. At the beginning of the fight, the Curiatii managed to kill two of the Horatii, but all three of them were wounded, while the remaining Horatius remained unscathed. Knowing he could not defeat all three at once, he cunningly decided to begin running. The three brothers began to chase him but because of their injuries they ran at different speeds, and Horatius was able to fight and defeat them one by one, giving victory to the Romans over the Albans. I enjoyed seeing that painting merely because I knew the story behind it and its significance in Roman history. Next we entered a room which held the famous shewolf statue, but what was more interesting to me in the room was the list of every consul of Rome along the wall. One interesting thing we did learn from our tour guide, however, is that shewolf was also another word for prostitute, so, as our tour guide said, “the man who found and raised Romulus and Remus may have just had a wife with a night job.”
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| Shewolf Sculpture |
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| Cupid and Psyche |
Next we were led to a beautiful view of the Forum, which is blocked in the plaza by the second building of the Capitoline Museums because Michelangelo designed it to take attention away from the Forum and focus it on the Vatican. Another statue we saw but was not talked about by our tour guide was the statue of Cupid and Psyche. It was my favorite, despite the fact I know nothing else about it. It just looked so elegant. My favorite stop was a room full of busts of philosophers, but we spent barely any time there. They had Socrates and Aristotle and many more. Other things we saw include: The Dying Gaul, a giant bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius that was only saved because it was thought to be Constantine for some time, the Venus, and other assorted statues of various Roman emperors and rulers. By the end of our two hour tour of the Capitoline (barely enough time to see anything, and there’s so much beautiful and interesting art), we were hungry, so we began to make our way toward the Colosseum for our next tour, but stopped on the way to eat. We picked up sandwiches in a tiny little side shop, and ate a picnic lunch overlooking the Roman Forum.
After lunch it was time for our tour of the Colosseum! It is so large and impressive from the outside, but I was less impressed after we entered. We were given headsets so we could hear our tour guide, and they made us look like Secret Service agents. We made our way from the senators’ level up to the plebs’ level, the level which I thought had a better view. We got to listen to all kinds of little conspiracy stories from our tour guide, including a theory that the Colosseum was flooded during the 100 Days Games and then drained. She also told us a few nasty stories of certain things that went on in the Colosseum, but despite the grotesque reputation is has, only about 5% of the gladiators died during the spectacles. Interestingly, they had to pass laws saying senators could not fight, implying that fighting was seen as an honor, so many slaves chose the life of a gladiator because one could earn fame and honor.
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| Colosseum |
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| Colosseum |
By the time we left the Colosseum it was about rain o’clock (between 3pm and 4pm because it rains without fail everyday at this time), and the ominous clouds had begun to move in. We made our way to the Forum nevertheless, but we didn’t get to see much before the rain hit. We did get to see where Caesar was cremated, and, interestingly enough, we also found out that the ruins with the kitties from the first day is actually where Caesar was assassinated. Mike and I had no idea how important they were when we were looking at them. We also got to go inside the Senate house, although it was the one built by Caesar since he moved it. By now it was pouring, so our tour guide decided to leave it there, but I feel that we didn’t get to see a large portion of the Forum and I really want to go back, despite the fact that it’s really just an extensive pile of old rocks.
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| The Forum |
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| The Forum |
After the exhausting day of a basically five-hour tour, we siesta-ed the next couple hours at home. Around 7pm, we went down to the boys’ room to see if they wanted to go get dinner and try to see The Hangover 2, but they were already making dinner, so they invited us to join and we had delicious pasta made by Dylan. Then we set out for gelato and the movie, only one of which was successful. I got caramel gelato and even tried to order in Italian, but when we got to the movie theater they told us the entire thing was in Italian with no subtitles. Big surprise, we’re in Italy! Luckily I found a movie theater online that plays movies in English, so we’ll have to go back and try again later. We just decided to go home, and we hung out in the boys’ room all night.
