Roman Pilgrimage

Visiting the Pantheon during Mass, when a choir broke into Mozart's Ave Verum. Having a communion service in the Catacombs of Domatilla. The amazingly beautiful Bernini sculptures of ancient myths in the Borghese Gallery. The Sistine Chapel.

Quick Tips:

You can't do it all in a short time. We had four full days and nights and just scratched the surface. Plan to come back. Give yourself a full day for the Vatican. We did not, and were disappointed at missing some things we did not want to miss. Check opening and closing times and days for everything, and when you get there and it is not open even though you think it should be, have a sense of humour.

Best Way To Get Around:

Take the bus and have some patience. Rome is not a place you want to be driving, so if you can easily walk and figure out the busses. Unfortunately the subway system is limited, since when they built the two lines they have they ran into so much archeological treasure that they had to stop with two lines. Public transport is available and easy to use, but bus stops can be tough to find sometimes. Save a few Euro for a taxi when it becomes too confusing.

P.S. WHERE THE SUBWAY GOES, TAKE IT. IT IS VERY EFFICIENT. But watch your wallet. A friend was pickpocketed getting on a crowded Roman Subway train.

The accomodations here are very nice. Plus room with very comfortable bed. Smallish baths with bidet, small shower, sink, toilette, but very well appointed. Very close to public transport and the Borghese Gallery.

Breakfast here is a really good buffet with a vast variety of food, including museli and rolls and cold cuts for northern europeans, as well as fruit, danish rolls. Excellent coffee, juice, yogurt, and some cereals.

They have lobby access to the internet for 4 euro for 20 minutes, very reasonable. We had a group dinner in their dining room which was not bad.

It was a bit pricey, but then, so is all of Rome!

We ate here our first evening in Rome. As we sat we had friends who were traveling with us wander in and join us. Our table for two ended up expanding to a table for eight! Our waiter, I think the owner, took it all in stride, and let us, the first to arrive, hang around until the latecomers were done.

We ordered a bottle of red wine. We had olive brochette to start (it was one large slice, which Mark and I cut and shared and was just delicious. Mark had veal, scallopinied and rolled around mozzarella that was then baked. He also had asparagus. I had risotto with mushrooms and a mixed salad. It was 9pm when they finally showed up to the restaurant. We ate dessert largely to hang out with friends. I had creme caramel and Mark can't remember what he had for dessert. But it was quite delicious.

Pizzeria Gaudi, was near our hotel and recommended by our contact from the American Embassy. Lunch there was pizza of course. I got the salad bar and Mark a Sorrento Pizza, with Mozzarella and Arugula and tiny fresh tomatoes (pommodorini). It was all yummy.

We ate in a large group and they did separate checks for each couple of for which was very nice.

When you know what to order, you need to turn on a switch on the light above the table.

We went to the Callista Catacombs on the public bus (660) to Appia Antica. Unfortunately we got off the second bus two stops early; we walked at least a couple kilometers.

The tour of the Callista catacombs was very nice. An Australian priest named Father Owen led us. He is a member of an order dedicated to preserving and caring for the catacombs. He gave us a quick overview of catacomb history and then of the symbology. Callista is the oldest catacombs, and has 13 popes, many martyrs (including St. Cecilia), and four levels underground (note that we found out at Callista, that one of the levels has completely collapsed, the one closest to the top.)

The catacombs are named that way because the word means something about the garden (double check this). It was named this because the catacombs of Saint Sebastian fit this description. Most people in Rome in that day were buried in similar structures (although the pagan Romans were cremated first). Often families would be buried in subterranean vaults. The difference with the Christians was that they wanted to be buried together as a community, hence the vast catacombs, with tens of thousands of people interred. They dug out the Tufa, a volcanic rock that was fairly easy to dig, wrapped bodies and anointed them with oil, then closed up the shelves with marble slabs (or stone/brick in some cases) which they mortared in.

There is a certain amount of art in the catacombs, from sculpture (the good shepherd sculpture, now in the Vatican museum is a good example) to painting. All incorporate positive Christian symbols like the good shepherd, the holy spirit, the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. The symbology, no surprise here, is very oriented toward the resurrection.

If you are a interested in early Christian history, the Catacombs are a must, but most any catacombs will do. If you are particularly interested in the Art, these are the ones to go to, since they had the best art of the three Catacombs we visited.

Web site for the catacombs is: http://www.catacombe.roma.it/

We headed to the catacombs of Priscilla, very early in the morning. They are located less than a Kilometer and a half from the Villa Borghese. The fact that they are in Rome rather than out on Appia Antica makes them very accessible. If you don't want to take the long trip out to the Catacombs, these may be more accessible.

The Priscilla catacomb had some lovely art, some in better shape than the art in Callista, although it was less diverse in subject and there was less of it. The Priscilla has a couple of Popes and some Martyrs also. A very nice nun led us through the catacomb for about three quarters of an hour.

Unfortunately, again we could not take pictures, so we have little to share except memories. The tour was very intimate, just the six of us guided by the nun, which made it in some ways the best catacombs tour of the three we would take.

Priscilla's web site is at: http://web.tiscali.it/catacombe_priscilla/

We moved on to the catacombs of Domatilla. This was by far the least impressive of the three catacombs we saw. Domatilla has four levels, 150,000 burial spaces. Something like 17 kilometers of corridor. There is, however, very little art in the section that we toured. Otherwise we learned much of the same stuff that we learned in the other catacombs, and the group was the largest that we have see, which is quite a problem in the catacombs, since there were many places we just did not fit! The big special thing here, however, was that if you are a church group, as we were, you could have a communion service in the Catacombs, in a little underground room set up for worship. We had a nice communion service there in the catacombs, which really made the trip feel like a pilgrimage.

After the service we went to the gift shop, where I got oil lamps for us and the girls, and then back to the hotel in the bus, passing many landmarks of Rome, the Baths of Caracalla, the Circus Maximus, and other places.

Their web page is at http://www.catacombe.domitilla.it/

The Borghese Gallery is a beautiful art Museum with some wonderful Bernini sculptures including Apollo and Daphne, and some works by Caravaggio and Raphael's Sacred and Profane love. The gallery is really wonderful, and we spent almost all of two hours enjoying it.

You need to either make reservations in advance, for a two-hour window, or wait in a very long line to get tickets that are not claimed. Since we all had reservations had no problem getting in quickly. We waited in a moderately long line for less than 10 minutes to get our tickets, prior to the entrance time checked our big bags (mostly my backpack and Mark's camera bag) and entered.

We started upstairs, seeing rooms full of art, from the ceiling frescoes to the statuary, to the paintings on the walls. It was awesome. Since we could not take pictures, we bought a book and some postcards to make up the gap. Highlights of the visit were the Bernini sculptures, including Apollo and Daphne, which captures the moment when Daphne, to escape rape by Apollo, turns into a tree. It is really very beautiful, very emotional, very baroque.

The forum was the center of Ancient Rome, and sits in the shadow of the Emperor's palaces on the Palatine Hill, one of the seven Hills of Rome (the Capitoline Hill borders the forum on another side. It is pretty overwhelming.

The story is that Romulus and Remus were abandoned by their mother, a nymph and raised by a shepherd and a she-wolf. They founded Rome in 753 BC on the Palatine Hill. Romulus drew a circle and said that within that circle there was civilization. Remus went outside the circle and Romulus killed him. Our guide told us that archaeologists had indeed found a circle/city border that dated to the right time period, about 730 BC.

We started at the Capitoline Hill end, and passed the temple of Saturn, the open part of the Forum. We saw Julius' Caesar’s tomb, which we had missed before, and which people still leave flowers on, and saw the bronze doors of the temple of Romulus (not the same one as the one who had founded Rome.). These are the oldest bronze doors in situ in the world. We continued on past the Vestal Virgins, to the arch of Constantine and the Coliseum.

I found the Vestal Virgin's home, the Basilica, and the arches to be the most interesting, especially the arch with the story on it about the sack of Jerusalem.

San Clemente is a wonderful place to begin a visit to Rome, since in many ways the church of San Clemente reflects the history of Rome. The architecture of Rome is constantly built, both figuratively and literally on what came before and this is true in San Clemente, whose physical roots reach back to pre-Christian Rome.

This is one of the oldest churches in Rome, dating from the fourth century. We entered the top, which dates from medieval times, and is dominated by beautiful mosaics with tons of gold. The mosaics were so beautiful that I got a book just on the mosaics, knowing that my photographs would not do them justice. There was also in the upper church, which is an ancient basilica in structure (big rectangle with columns separating out side sections) a chapel to Saint Catherine of Alexandria with some beautiful early Renaissance frescoes, including ones with Catherine (of Alexandria) with her wheel.

We descended into the rough church below, which was used between the fourth and eleventh centuries. There were some wall paintings there, also, particularly of Clement and some other saints.

We descended even further to an old Roman village and the temple and school (seminary) dedicated to Mithras. The highlights of this were an altar to Mithras that is in very good shape.

Saint John Lateran is the seat of the Bishop of Rome. This is a huge beautiful church with some great artwork. Note the statues on the top of the grand facade. Just inside we stopped and looked around, mostly to see two bronze doors that came from the Curia of the Roman Forum, and are with the doors on the temple of Romulus the oldest bronze doors in existence. These, however, are not on their original hinges.

Then went into the Sanctuary. We saw the 12 statues of the apostles, carved by Borromini, who was a rival of Bernini, who did much of the design work for the church. Bernini's sculptures can be found throughout the city, some of the best at the Borghese Gallery, and his fountains dot Rome.

The ceiling is beautiful mosaic with many papal symbols. The floor is Cosmati style, that is made up of mosaic-like designs of pieces of colored marble. There are paintings of Old Testament prophets above the statue level and large windows. I was pleased to also see two organs and a whole wall devoted to musical symbols. The Apse is, of course, very impressive, and there are multiple chapels off the main area. I was not able to get a book but hope to do so soon.

We went into the sacristy where the priests and popes robed. In addition to a large tapestry and vestments, there was an original Palestrina manuscript displayed in there. We also saw the cloister, which is a big square with columns, some of them with Cosmati style mosaics. Every one seemed to be different.

We started in St. Peters, which is the largest Christian church in the world. Of course we entered through the Bernini courtyard with all the saints (140) on the columns. The welcoming arms of the mother church of the world, the guide called it.

t is the largest but never feels huge. The dome is beautiful. As you enter Michelangelo's Pieta is on the right, behind bulletproof glass. It is an amazing statue, both beautifully and movingly capturing a tender moment as Mary holds the lifeless body of her son in her arms.

There are very huge statues of founders of orders in the main halls. One of them was Juliana Falconieri, so I had my picture taken with her. It was good that I noticed where the names were. We also saw where bishops and cardinals regularly renew their vows. We saw the statue of Peter which pilgrims touch the feet of, and the intact body of John 23rd.

All of the "paintings" in the church are mosaics; beautiful, and they enabled us to take flash pictures, but a tad shiny, especially when using a flash.

After St. Peters, we took a trip to the Vatican museums. It felt very much like a run-through. We did see a lot of the ancient sculpture, which included the famous sculpture of Apollo and Laacoon, being devoured by snakes with his sons. The map rooms, which have maps painted on the wall, and the tapestries made from Raphael's drawings were beautiful, but we rushed past them. Then we took the shortcut (with the help of a guard) before the Raphael rooms ( :-( ) to go to the Sistine chapel.

The chapel was indeed glorious. We'd had an introduction to the chapel earlier in the garden, all of which I already knew from reading "Michelangelo and the Pope's ceiling." The detail of the ceiling can't be described adequately, but the central panels with the stories from Genesis is the most amazing. One of them includes God creating the sun and moon, and God is actually mooning the people in the chapel! Below the ceiling the walls also are solid frescoes, most by other artists but in the case of the back wall the Last Judgement by Michelangelo is painted. It is a much darker vision of God and humanity done by Michelangelo much later than the ceiling.

I recommend that you do NOT do what we did in seeing the Vatican. Do not rush through. Spend some time, come for a fuller day. I really felt a tad cheated in this, and hope very much to return some day.

We started at the top of the Spanish Steps, in the old center of Rome. We descended them noting, at the bottom, the Bernini fountain of a semi-submerged boat. I think that one of my guides that it was inspired by an actual boat that was grounded there. This is a huge beautiful staircase, and it seems like half of Rome is just hanging out here on a sunny May afternoon. People sitting and talking, lying down and sunning, or just climbing down.

Then we headed about 4 blocks south on to the Trevi fountain, where I threw coins in, my husband took pictures, and we did a gelato stop. While the Spanish Steps was larger than I expected, this was much smaller than I did, and the fountain is right up against a wall. It is pretty amazing, if crowded with people throwing in the obligatory coin.

Next we stopped at San Ignatio, a Jesuit church about 4 blocks west and one south of The Trevi fountain. It has an amazing trompe l'oeil ceiling, including a dome that is not there. The church ran out of money before the dome was constructed, so the artist painted a dome. If you stand on a particular spot, you see the inside of a beautiful dome, as you move you become aware that it is only an illusion.

Next, we headed down a long block toward the Pantheon, which was a Roman temple to all gods, but stood idle after pagan worship in Rome ended for a couple hundred years, until it was made a Christian church. They were having a mass at the time, so we only stood in the back and spoke very quietly. While we were exiting the choir began Mozart's Ave Verum. The choir was very good, well balanced and blended, with sopranos like bells (though I think they were women, not boys. The acoustics were such that the music just filled the place, and there was no indication of directionality, so one is surrounded by this music as if angels are singing it to you. I wanted to stay, but we were with a group and I feared that the group would leave without us!

After we finished we headed for another Bernini fountain about four blocks further west. We went to Piazza Navona, which was once a circs (racetrack) so it is long and oval in shape. It has three fountains, the center of which is Bernini's masterpiece, the fountain of the four rivers (Nile, Ganges, Danube, Tiber) depicted as reclining men. (David said rivers always recline because that is what rivers do.) It was lovely and is all on photo and tape.

After that we headed for Largo Argentina, which has roman ruins of three temples (about which they know nothing) and a cat sanctuary. We were supposed to catch a bus there, but it was not to happen, since we could not find the bus stop.

Located in the heart of Central Rome, the Pantheon was built in ancient Roman times as a temple to all of the Gods. It was built in the early second century. Of course, it was not long that it actually housed worship to the Olympian Gods, as Christianity became the state religion in the early fourth century.

When Olympian worship effectively ended, the Pantheon essentially stood idle for a couple hundred years, before being used as a church again. Indeed this pagan building has been a Christian (Catholic) church for most of its history.

It's also famous in the history of the Renaissance because builders of two famous, domes, Brunelleschi (who built the dome in the Duomo in Florence) and Michelangelo (who designed the dome of St. Peters in the Vatican City) both studied the dome.

And the dome is indeed the overwhelming feature of the place, large, strangely graceful despite being made of essentially ancient concrete, it rises large and far above you. We were there in mid afternoon, and light streamed through the dome down into the building itself. It is open to the world and yes, when it rains, it just rains in.

Columns remain from the original construction, in remarkably good condition (the entire place is in incredible condition for a building that is close to 1900 years old). Most of the interior decoration, particularly sculpture, is Christian in nature, although you can see where the statues of the Olympian Gods would have been.

When we visited they were saying mass. This does not preclude visiting, though it limits where you can walk significantly. One needs to remember that this is indeed a church. As we were visiting as pilgrims, it did feel a little intrusive to enter as viewers, but while we were in there an unseen choir burst into a beautiful rendition of Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" which resonated off the stone and the dome and filled the place with great spiritual beauty. With the sunlight filtering through the ceiling, the candles flickering soundlessly and the heavenly statuses around us, it felt like a true moment of worship.

San Ignatio is a fascinating little church in the center of Rome, only a couple blocks from the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. (Directions are in my walking tour journal) It's most amazing feature is it's ceiling. The ceiling is frescoed in Trompe L'Oeil style, with most of the architectural features painted on, and the ceiling appearing to go much higher than it really does. The saints and angels on the ceiling seem to be actually hovering up there. It is amazing.

But the really amazing feature of the ceiling is the dome. There is a bronze dot on the floor between two stars. If you go stand on it and look up, you will see a beautiful renaissance dome arching above the floor. Really a lovely one with lots of architectural details. If you walk forward until you are under the dome, you can see that there is indeed no dome; the church ran out of money before it was installed. Instead there is the carefully painted illusion of a dome on the ceiling, which becomes obvious only if you look at it from the right angle.

Our previous experience of Europe led us to be in favor of the train. So we planned to go from Naples to Rome on the fast Eurostar.

We waited until the last minute on Sunday to go to get tickets, and the 7:30 Eurostar was full, so we ended up on the 8:30 one. We got our tickets and picked up a roll and some cappuccino in a bar in the station while we waited.

Despite the jokes about the trains in Rome, this train came and left on time. We of course had seat reservations (these are mandatory and part of the price of any of the high speed trains in Europe, not only the Eurostars but also the TGV.

We had no problem finding our car on the train, settled into our seats, and within two hours we went from central Naples to Central Rome, nonstop, in great comfort.

At about 20 Euro for the whole trip it seemed a bargain.