It has been a whirlwind couple of days, and this is the first time I've had a chance to sit down and digest everything that's happened. (Well, almost. I had time on the train to Florence as well, but I had some technical difficulties and ended up just listening to podcasts instead. But this is irrelevant, and I'll return to my narrative now).
Tuesday started pretty early, though not as bad as the day before. It was also a nice slow start: the Piazza di Spanga View, our hotel, provided a delicious in-room breakfast, which we sat and ate while enjoying our magnificent overlook of the Spanish Steps (due to more technical difficulties, no picture right now, but I'll put one up once I get back to Athens and a proper computer). Then, we went to meet Ilaria Marsili (www.ilariamarsilirometours.com). S's parents had met her before, on a previous trip to Rome, and so set it up. And thus began the quickfire trip through the city of Rome.
In the morning, we primarily looked at things around the modern city, that you can find just by wandering around. Ilaria pointed out some of her favorite architecture on churches and secular buildings, much of it by the artist Barberini. He was one of the first to produce a sense of movement in a building, using alternating concave and convex facades, and intricate floral and insect patterns. It was secondly some of the prettiest design I've seen abroad thus far: In Greece, all the buildings are either really new, or ancient ruins. There aren't very many Neoclassical or Art Deco type buildings, and no gothic or renaissance style stuff. Rome, on the other hand, is a jumble of architecture from antiquity to postmodernism. It was really quite neat to see, especially with a guide. There were several occasions where she pulled us into hidden corners, such as a monastery courtyard or the alcove of a palace, filled with statuary pillaged from Greece.
Another one of these secret places in the city ended up being one of the coolest of the entire tour. Below the medieval church of St. Nicholas in Prison are the remains of not one, but three Roman temples, all built around the first century B.C.E., although there is evidence suggesting they were founded over a century prior to that. Today, some of the remaining columns are built into the church walls, which is by itself is quite interesting. The really cool part, though, is underneath the church. In the past few years, the temple foundations have been excavated. It is possible to walk around the bases at the street level from 120 C.E., seeing the bottoms of the columns and the shops that existed below the podium of the central temple (to Juno Sospita). In places, where the water hasn't caused too much erosion, you can still see the carved detail in the travertine limestone blocks. They also still have some of the pottery fragments discovered during excavation, and pictures of some of the the more complete artifacts, which are now in a museum. This was not just a new site for S. and I; Ilaria had not been there before either, and was at least as excited as we were. It was a lot of fun to see, and a fascinating example of the continuity of purpose, even as the culture and religion change.
The other really interesting big thing we saw was the Pantheon, another ancient site-turned-Catholic church. The present iteration of it was built by the emperor Hadrian, but it was originally founded by Augustus and his friend, Marcus Agrippus. The building is constructed of a double wall with concrete in the center. Near the bottom, this concrete was made with heavy basalt; at the very top, pumice was used, because its so light. This was common practice in most large Roman buildings, but was particularly important for the Pantheon, as the building is domed. In the center of this dome is a massive 27 ft in diameter hole, which allowed light and air to get into the building, and also helped keep the roof from collapsing. Even from the outside, it's an extremely impressive structure. Inside, it's even better. While many things have changed, such as the added apse for the Christian alter, and the fact the statues of saints, the Madonna, and Christ now fill the 12 niches in the walls instead of statues of the 12 major Roman gods, much has been preserved. On the ceiling, the square patterning of the domed ceiling remains; on the floor, the colored marble tile work is still intact as well. Even though it now serves as a church, it is easy to imagine how it might have functioned as the major Roman sanctuary.
After the Pantheon and the Church of St. Nicholas, we moved on towards Capitol Hill and lunch, as it was around 12:30. We still had a whole lot more to see, though. But you'll have to wait, as this post is already far too long, and it's time for me to go to bed, before my second day in Florence. Ciao!
