Rome with Max

Day 8    Civitaveccia, Italy    Friday, August 1, 2014

We learned more about the Roman Colosseum and the Vatican from tour-guide Max than we ever thought possible. He was an excellent teacher and this was our favorite excursion day of the entire cruise.

Max met the five of us at 8 am at the ship, and we promptly drove off learning about Via Aurelia, the ancient Roman road (from 241 BC) linking Rome to Pisa. It passed through the port town (sections of the original town walls remained) and we drove on it until Max decided he needed to take the motorway to save time.

Our first stop was the back of the Vatican walls where the entrance to the Vatican Museum was located (we learned that the "museum" referred to all the galleries of artwork, including the Sistine Chapel). You can see Janet walking behind Chris, Max, and Angela. These massive walls date to the 16th century. Vatican City, the smallest country in the world, was granted independent status by the Lateran Treaty of 1929.

Max took this shot between his initial lecture and our entering the galleries. Of course, that is St. Peter's Cupola in the background, where our Vatican tour would eventually reach. Max carried with him an iPad that he used to teach and explain what we would be seeing or were seeing. He expertly navigated through it and its photos to enlarge and explain. He had lived in Boston for a while, so his English was great. He was also quite the savvy Italian charmer, and funny. So, the perfect tour guide.

I thought the ceiling in the Gallery of Maps was pretty cool. The artwork hung on the side walls (and they were renovating a large section on the left as you can see), but the ceiling was most impressive.

This Gallery of Maps, 130 yards long, had 40 panels showing what the entire of Italy looked like in 1580–1583 when they were completed. I took this photo of Civitavecchia showing its walls, which we had seen some of earlier that morning!

Max continued showing us special pieces of art and explaining them as we moved through the halls. Eventually we reached the Sistine Chapel and he explained, as always using his iPad, some features of what we would be seeing on the ceiling and in the Last Judgment. He had to do this before we entered because there is no talking inside. One of the things he explained was how there had been critics of Michelangelo's using nudes. In response, Michelangelo worked a critic's semblance into the bottom right of Last Judgment as Minos, judge of the underworld. It is said that when this guy complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so the portrait would have to remain. Michelangelo also painted his own portrait, on the flayed skin held by St. Bartholomew. Max showed us so many other interesting things, but I am now forgetting most of them. It goes without saying that we were stunningly impressed with the Sistine Chapel and so many other Vatican treasures because we got to learn the fine points of them.

 After leaving the Sistine Chapel we were in the portico of the cathedral, ready to enter. Everything was spectacular, even the ceiling of the portico.

Max is giving us explanations of what we are seeing or will be seeing. We are about to enter the largest cathedral in the world. Max explained that the Holy Door we are in front of is opened only on special occasions such as a jubilee.

On average the Holy Door is opened only about every 25 years, but they were opened in 1984, 2000, and recently, so lately it's been more like every 15 years.Once inside, Max showed us how they seal the door using cement, and it's a big ceremony to chip away the cement when it comes time to open them again.

Here we are inside St. Peter's. As always, Max explained interesting stuff to us. The masterpiece inside is Michelangelo's Pieta:

There is now a plexiglass barrier preventing people from getting too close after the incident in 1972 when a deranged man damaged the statue with a sledge hammer. Max pointed out Michelangelo's signature carved into the sash the Virgin wears on her chest. I tried to zoom in to take a picture of it, but they all came out too blurry.

Underneath the cupola is this "baldacchino", a monumental canopy sheltering the papal altar and the holy relics of St. Peter. Made of 927 tons of dark bronze (removed from the Pantheon’s roof in 1633) accented with gold vine leaves, the baldacchino stands 90 feet tall. The cupola is another Michelangelo creation, and is unbelievably tall - 131 yards, or 394 feet (so, just the height off the floor is 30% more than the length of a football field).

Underneath the baldacchino is the tomb of St. Peter. Max told us that St Peter was crucified upside down, and pointed out many representations of this in the cathedral's art.

Max got us "front row seats" to watch the changing of the Swiss Guard. I forget what he's pointing out, but he did explain the 300 colonnades, four deep, and how if you stand in a specific spot in the square, you see only the front ones and the others are completely hidden (Janet and I did this, and sure enough!).

Precisely on the hour they did their ceremonial changing of the guard. I got a video of it. Then we walked to the center of the square and Max took our photo:

After this photo, we wandered around while Max went to retrieve the van to drive us to lunch. He drove just across the Tiber River and double parked, with the help of a friend he tips, next to the Caesar Augustus Mausoleum.

This giant tomb for Rome's first emperor was built in 28 BC and Max said it's been in the process of renovation for 50 years now. It's still not open to the public, and you could not get very close to it. The photo opportunity was pretty bad, so I stole this one from the Internet.

We ate, minus Max, at this fairly formal place known for its pizza. So, we all ordered pizza, and yes, it was good with its thin crust. We then drove to the Colosseum.

With his iPad in hand, Max is explaining how the gladiators trained and came up through doors in the wooden floor using elevators on pulleys. Actually, Max spent LOTS of time explaining the history of the Colosseum, how it was built, who sat where (the poorest sat the highest up), how it was used almost daily, and so on. Built over 10 years from 70 to 80 AD, it's the largest amphitheater in the world and held more than 50,000 spectators. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering.

Max explained that all those pock marks in the walls are from later invaders digging out the precious iron used to bind one block to another.The entrance a Roman used was based on his social status and each entrance led to a specific section in the theater. The entire theater could be covered, and some of the tie-downs around the outside are still there.

A huge earthquake in 1349 caused the collapse of the outer south side, and it was never repaired. The tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches, hospitals and other buildings elsewhere in Rome. One thing we learned from all our tours on this trip was that "recycling" was a common theme throughout the ages. That is, temples or other masterpieces were torn down by subsequent rulers who used the materials to make their own new masterpieces.

This photo shows some restored marble bleachers that were meant for the wealthy upper class. They are nearest the floor level. The higher up, the lower the social class. The top section had wooden bleachers.

That cross was added to commemorate the Christian martyrs who died, but stands at the spot where the emperor would sit. I wish I could remember other interesting things Max told us, but I will go on.

Right next to the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine, built in 315 AD to commemorate a war victory. It's now surrounded by a fence, but Rich Hess and I got to stand right under it in 1971 and I remember telling him how the 1960 Olympic Marathon finished in that very spot (by an Ethiopian who ran the entire 26 miles barefoot).

Max drove us past the Circus Maximus, where chariot races took place; Max made sure we knew it was only Hollywood that depicted chariot races in the Colosseum, which was way too small an arena for that. We of course drove past the huge, white Victor Emanuel Monument, more formally called Altar of the Fatherland (Emanuel was the first king of unified Italy between 1861 and 1878). Max explained how it was controversial because its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with its ancient ruins and a medieval neighborhood. The monument is regarded as conspicuous, pompous and far too large. The locals derisively call it by the nicknames Wedding Cake, Typewriter, or False Teeth.

We then were given some free time to explore the Pantheon, which is one of the best-preserved of all ancient Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century has been used as a Catholic church dedicated to "St Mary and the Martyrs." The Pantheon was finished in 14 AD and rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian in 126 AD.

Once you walk in under the columned portico that you see in the picture with me above this one, the inside is just one large rotunda. In fact, it's perfectly round in that the height and the diameter are the same, 142 feet. Almost 2000 years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Interestingly, that illumination you see in the photo above is from a 27-foot-wide circular hole in the top of the dome, called an oculus (eye). The oculus at the dome's apex and the entry door are the only natural sources of light in the interior. Throughout a sunny day, the light from the oculus moves around the floor in a sort of reverse sundial effect. The oculus also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. During storms, a drainage system below the floor handles the rain that falls through the oculus.

Unbeknownst to Janet and me until we saw it was that the Pantheon houses the tombs of Victor Emanuel and Umberto I ( King of unified Italy after Emanuel), and quite a few other Italian dignitaries.

On our walk back to the van, we had to show how small some Fiats are. The way Romans drive, I'd need something that small too.

Max talked us out of going to the Trevi Fountain since it was all boarded up for restoration. Instead, we drove to Piazza Garibaldi on the top of Gianicolo hill, south of the Vatican, for panoramic photos.

Max loved taking our pictures - he insisted on taking three of us at different angles. You can see the Wedding Cake in the distance on the left.

The piazza had this big monument to Garibaldi (1807 –1882). He was a general and politician who played a large role in Italy's unification, thus he is one of their "fathers of the fatherland".

This is a telephoto shot from the piazza of the Baths of Caracalla. I was hoping to get to see it closer because I've been curious ever since I watched (on TV) the Three Tenors do their first concert there on the eve of the 1990 World Cup final (my mom and I watched the Three Tenors live in Dodger Stadium when they again performed on the eve of the World Cup final held in the Rose Bowl in 1994). Anyway, it was a huge public bath built in 212 - 216 AD, and remained in use until the 6th century. I was glad I at least got to see it using my telephoto lens.

Then we drove back to the port - eventually. We had not driven far when we got stuck in the worst-ever traffic jam. We moved one kilometer in about an hour, and Janet was worried we would miss our ship's departure. The ship waits for ship-sponsored tour groups, but not for private ones like ours. The ever-cool Max kept reassuring us. He kept making phone calls to friends for news on the traffic, and finally he too was worried but didn't let on. Eventually with much bad driving on his part (passing cars on the shoulder, forcing his way into lanes), we made it to the motorway and were the last ones back to the ship (but in time).

On the return drive, Max passed around this photo of him and Oprah Winfrey. He said that at that time he was a "tennis star". Now Max is recently married and was crazy about his new baby girl.

The Norwegian Spirit headed south again and we enjoyed our evening with another elegant dinner and watching the stage show with four opera-type singers. Just as the Three Tenors ended with Nessun Dorma in their 1990 concert in Rome, so did these singers that night.