Rome - Day 2: Vatican and the Colloseum

Colloseum
Originally uploaded by radix999

A full day in Rome!!

Early start at 7.30am heading to the Vatican. We get to go in before it opens to the public at 10am. That's one of the advantages of going in a tour group. Despite that, it was still a fair queue of bus loads of people from various tour groups.

We met up with Carlo, who would be our local tour guide for the day. Cheerful Italian guy, who was an absolutely excellent tour guide. You could almost believe that he was one of the Romans, hearing him talk about the Colloseum.

Now the Vatican is a country inside Rome. It is the world's smallest country at 1118sqm, with the Pope as head of state. A fair bit of security there, with visitors having to go through metal detectors and x-ray screening of bags. The crowd was fairly thick by now, even though it was only open to tour groups, and being a hot day outside, it was really warm. Each of us had our 'FBI headsets' on, to enable us to follow what the tour guide was saying in the noisy crowds. Really cool idea as it means everyone can hear clearly and the guide does not have to shout.

We started at the Marble statues, followed by the cool tapestry room. This particular areas was air-conditioned to protect the delicate tapestries. Huge pieces of art hanging up on the walls, absolutely stunning. Following on to that was the Geographical Maps Room, a long corridor lined with painted maps of each section of the world on the walls. Interesting to see and I tried to pick out Malaysia on one of them. It had a similar shape, based on the other countries around it. The big highlight was the Sistine Chapel. No photography was allowed in this area, just time to admire and absorb the beauty of the place. Michaelangelo took 4 years to complete the big wall painting, and a further 3 years to complete his painting of the ceiling. Each had its own story to tell from the bible, which was explained quite extensively by Carlo, allowing those of us who are not 100% familiar with the Holy Bible to gain a better understanding of the paintings. In the bottom right corner of the wall painting, Michaelangelo was quite naughty, and painted the face of one important person he did not particularly like in hell. Artistic license, eh?

Next we went down to the burial chambers under the Vatican. This is where the Popes and important Catholic kings and queens are buried. Each had their own sarcophagus elaborately decorated. This is where Pope John Paul rests as well. He had a marble headstone with potted plants surrounds it, very nice.

After this we head over to St Peter's Basilica, passing the Pope's personal Swiss body guards. The Pope has Swiss body guards who serve him for 2 years only. The Swiss are renowned for their mercenary skills, and historically have been hired to protect Kings and castles. Interesting though they had on some really funny uniforms, colourful and striped and almost clown-like. They did have pretty cool gold swords though, and quite good looking! :P

St Peter's Basilica is the biggest church in the Western world. When you stand just outside the doors of the church, you are flanked by 2 of the most influential Emperors for Catholicism. Inside the church, there is a throne for St Peter straight ahead, being lifted by 4 personages from the Bible ( sorry I do not remember their names, maybe my Catholic friends can help fill this in? ) and a dove with stained glass, giving it a haloed effect above the throne. When the light from the sun hits those stained glass windows the whole church is illuminated, reflecting off the gilded paneling inside the Church. To the left is a Baptism fountain ( no water now though ) and to the right is a statue of the Virgin Mary holding on to Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. This symbolises the Holy trinity, water/baptism, blood and we see the light. I was very impressed with the whole story line for the decorations inside the church. On the top of the church there are letters 7 feet high, made out of mosaic, although it looks almost painted. This was why it does not fade, as it is not paint.

After our tour of St Peters Square we had some free time. The restaurants and cafes in the Vatican are extremely expensive - don't be surprised if you get charged 6 euros for a glass of orange juice in this neighbourhood! So we walked along...mind you it was a very hot day, in search of cheaper food.

Not far away from St Peter's Basilica, there is St Angelo's Palace, with a full moat and all. We didn't get to visit this place, just a quick drive by. However, what is interesting is that St Peter's Basilica had a secret tunnel to St Angelo's Palace, in case the Pope was attacked he cold escape via this route. Cool stuff! It'd certainly be interesting if they opened up this secret tunnel for people to visit!

Then we hop on the bus to be driven in air-conditioned comfort to the Collosseum. What an amazing structure!! It is located smack in the middle of the city, so there are roads and cars driving past it every day! Imagine that... This place was slowly being vandalised and torn apart. One of the Pope's wanted to save this structure, so he declared that Christian blood had been spilled here, during its days of glory when it was used as a fight-to-the-death ring, so it was considered scared ground. There is no documented evidence of this, but nevertheless, a cross was erected in the Colloseum and it was a crime to further tear apart this amazing place. Thus the Colloseum could be preserved till this day for us to admire. Its actual name is Amphitheatrvm Flavim.

The cobblestones surrounding it is put on an iron spike and then driven into the ground. The hot metal contracts, leaving loose space, hence allowing it vibrate if there was an earthquake, thereby preserving the structure. Pretty smart for thousands of years ago!

The Colloseum itself is made of limestone, with lead poured into the centre to strengthen it. It was then covered with marble pieces, secured by iron rods, hence the holes in it, as per the pictures. The marble has since been "recycled", i.e. torn down during the time when it was vandalised and used in other buildings built in olden times. The top floors are made of brick, layered into thick brick walls. The floor was built upon a labyrinth of little corridors. This enabled them to flood the area for water themed performances, or to let exotic animals out from cages during a fight as a surprise element. A rather bloody and cruel practice, but that was what the Colloseum was all about. It is really amazing, you have to be there to truly experience it!! Helps that we were shown the movie Gladiator before we got to Rome!

All in a very very tiring day, plus the heat had us all exhausted, but very satisfied being able to see these little glimpses of history.

Note: in Rome, it is common to see the old ruins that has been excavated, left there to be seen. Current day Rome is built upon olden day Rome, hence this city cannot have an underground subway system, as there is countless archaeological sites beneath this city that will never be excavated and explored, due to the buildings on it now.

- YM