Pieta Statue

Pieta Statue

Self-guided walking tour of Rome and the Vatican

TravAddict has put together a self-guided walking tour of Rome and the Vatican.  All you need is a map and our walking tour.  We have provided you with plenty of interesting facts and advice about a number of attractions.  Have fun!

VATICAN:

St Peter's Square and Basilica.
St Peter's Basilica was once the largest church in the world (now the second largest), and can hold 60 000 people for one mass service.  The Vatican is where the Pope resides and the Vatican is its own ‘Country' with its own citizens and passports.  The Pope does an outdoor service every Wednesday in the square (if he is in town).  Check online to see if he will be around while you are there.  You can get free tickets to sit down at the service, but if you don't want to stay for the whole mass just get there early and stand and wait till he comes out and drives around the crowd in his little car.  You will get some good pics.  The church (Basilica) was built on the site where St Peter was crucified (Peter being one of the 12 apostles).  This is why most things are decorated in red (St Peter's color is red).  The remains of St Peter are in a gold box under the alter (the huge bronze piece you will see inside)…..It is free to go in, and even if the line looks long it doesn't take long to get in.  You have to have your knees and shoulders covered to enter, and they are quite strict about this so make sure you are prepared.

The Pope's that you see lying in the glass coffins inside are actually real.  They have been stuffed and embalmed.  There is also a really famous statue inside done by Michelangelo.  It is called the Pieta, and it is Mary holding the body of Christ at his death.  (directly on the right as soon as you walk in).  This is the piece that made Michelangelo a very famous artist in Rome.  It is the only piece of art he was ever believed to have signed.  It is a bit hard to see from behind the bullet-proof glass, but he has written ‘Michelangelo Florentine' on Mary's sash.  Supposedly he signed it because when the Pieta was first un-veiled in Rome everyone thought he was a Roman.  He was a very proud Florentine and wanted everyone to know it, so he engraved his name on Mary's sash.  You can also go down into the tomb of the Basilica to see the past popes.  You have to pay to climb to the top of the tower, but it is worth it (if you are not claustrophobic).  The dome was built by Michelangelo….he died towards the completion of it 2 days before his 90th Birthday.  ***you can't go into the Basilica while the pope is doing his service.  So if you go on a Wed you will have to wait until it is over.   

St Peter's square is pretty cool, the church represents the body of Christ, and the pillars that wrap around the square represent the arms of Christ welcoming you into the church.  There is a spot outlined on the ground to the right of the square, and when you stand here all of the pillars on each side line up and it looks like there is only one. The statues all around the top of the pillars are saints, and the ones on the top of the Church are the apostles of Christ.  In the middle of the square is an Obelisk.  This is an Egyptian monument, and any of them that you see around Rome (there are lots) are real.  They are some of the oldest monuments in Rome (about 2000-3000 years old), and most of them were stolen from Egypt (some of them given as gifts).  When you look at the top of them, most of them have a religious symbol on the top - like a dove or a cross.  This is because it is a pagan monument, and when Christianity was made the sole religion of Rome they put religious symbols on all of them.

The Sistine Chapel is where you will see Michelangelo's ceiling and the Last Judgement wall.  Both of these pieces are very famous mostly because Michelangelo never used helpers.  Most renaissance artists had approx 10-30 helpers, but Michelangelo always worked alone.  He was not a painter; he was a sculptor, which is what makes its perfection even more intriguing.  It is also a Fresco, a style of renaissance painting where you paint on wet plaster before it dries, so there is no room for error.  The ceiling is the story of the creation of man.  So the first scenes are the making of the night and day, the land and the sea etc, and the famous one where they touch fingers is God creating Man.  The Last Judgement is on the altar wall and was done a few years after the ceiling.  The ceiling took Michelangelo 4 years to do (most artists would do this piece with a crew of helpers in about 6 months).  The Last Judgement is the story of the recent dead who get judged on weather they will be sent to heaven or hell.  There is said to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo on the wall, and it is the only one he ever did.  It looks like the skin of someone's face and it is being held by St Bartholomew (on the left side of the wall).
The Sistine Chapel is also where they hold the meetings to decide on a new Pope, and it is where the smoke comes from when the meetings are in progress.  Black smoke will blow until they have reached their decision, and then white smoke will blow.  They don't use real smoke anymore, because it was ruining the paintings.
The Sistine Chapel is inside the Vatican museums, which holds a lot of other art pieces collected by past Popes.  Most of it is very similar, but there are a few famous pieces especially by Rafael.  The Vatican Museum closes around 3pm, and sometimes earlier if there is an event going on, so I would suggest doing it earlier in the day.  ***if you have the time we recommend a guided tour of the Vatican Museums.  This way you will be taken to see the most interesting and valuable pieces in the museums.
If you are really interested in Renaissance art, we suggest you take a trip to Florence…if you have the time.  It's only 3 hours from Rome.

ROME
Everything in the list below is in order, you can do it all by walking from one to the next………if you have a map:-) It should take you about 4-6 hours if you take your time.

Piazza Del Popolo.
Means ‘the square of the people'.  There were a lot of gatherings and announcements made in this square during Roman times.  The arches at the end of the square are one of the original main entrances into Rome (the city used to be surrounded by city walls).   There are a few significant statues in this square.  When you face your back to the city walls, Augustus Caesar is on the left - He was the Roman Emperor that is said to have turned Rome from a city of stone into a city of marble.  A lot of the success of the empire was because of him.  On the right is the god of Neptune (god of the sea).  When Rome became a Christian society they made all Neptune statues lose the pitch fork (sign of the devil).  This is one of the only Neptune Statues you will see in Rome that is holding the pitch fork.  The two identical buildings at the back of the square are both churches.  In the middle of them is the main street of Rome, the Corso.

Spanish Steps/Piazza de Spagna
The Spanish Steps are famous for a few reasons.  The main being that this is the area where people believe street performing began.  When you face your back to the steps you are looking right down the main shopping street in Rome (where the top desingers have their stores).  When the steps were built, models used to hang out at the Spanish steps hoping to be discovered by a top designer.  They started dressing up and doing acts to get noticed, and that's where they say it all started.  Street performing is now forbidden on the steps.  You will see them all around Rome, but never on the steps.  They are called the Spanish steps because the Spanish embassy is just down the street.  If you are facing the steps, when you look to your right you will see a large monument with the Virgin Mary on the top.  The pope comes here every year and blesses a wreath of flowers to be placed on Mary's arm.  You should see last year's wreath still there……..

Capuchin Monk's (Hard to find.  Near the Babberini train stop on Via Veneto)
This is a room inside a church that used to be where the Capuchin Monk's resided.  The cappuchino coffee drink was named after these Monk's because the drink looked like them (brown robes with a white scull cap).  The Capuchin Monks don't practice here anymore, but it was always their tradition to collect the bones of the dead monks, put them in a kiln and decorate the church with them.  It is free to go in, but you are asked to give a donation (about 1 euro).  The room is on the second floor; go up the right steps at the front of the building.  Their motto is ‘what you are now we once were, and what we are now you one day shall be'.  This is one of our favourite places in Rome:-) Don't go in the middle of the day because they are closed for siesta…..and closed all day on Thursday's.  They also ask you to cover your shoulders when you enter.  They have a few shawls that they will hand out to visitors, but if you can take one with you it makes it easier.

Trevi Fountain
This fountain is built on the foundations of an old Roman Aqueduct around the time of Augustus (more than 2000 years ago).   An aqueduct is a water source from afar that transports water to the city.  In the 1700's the Pope decided to cover up the aqueduct opening with the Trevi fountain.  The statues on the fountain tell the story of the aqueduct.  Towards the top you should see a square on the right that shows you the Virgin Trevi showing the Romans the spring for the aqueduct.  On the left you should see another square that shows you Agrippa (the architect) showing Augustus Caesar the plans to build the Aqueduct.  The Romans say that if you drink from the small spouts of water on the sides of the fountain then you will revert back to a virgin!  The water is good to drink.  They also believe that you should always throw at least one coin when you visit the fountain over your left shoulder.  The first is for a wish, the second means you will return to Rome, and if you throw a third it means that you will marry a Roman…..

Pantheon
Originally built in 27BC.  This is one of our favourite buildings in all of Europe.  The Pantheon took 7 years to build and it is the only fully in tact, still in use building from Ancient Roman times.  It was built as a dedication to all gods, and when Rome became a Christian society they re-dedicated it to all saints on the 1st of Nov, which is now all saints day.  The writing on the front means ‘Markus Agrippa, son of Lucius, consul for the 3rd time built this'.  Agrippa was Augustus Caesar's architect.  On the front you will also see that the pillars look warn and there are holes on the facade.  This is not damage; this is from the lead pins that used to hold the marble on the walls.  This entire building was once covered in marble, and on the inside the square indents in the roof were once filled with gold and bronze.  This building, like most buildings in Rome, were pillaged by the Catholic Church to build the Vatican.  So much of what you see in the Vatican was once a part of a building from Ancient Rome.  The dome of the Pantheon is a huge architectural feat for its time, and no one else was able to build a dome this size until 1400 years later.  When you go inside you will see that there is a hole at the top of the dome, and there are no windows.  The Romans often did not use windows since they had no glass for security, so they would usually build sun roofs.  When it rains the water comes through the roof and runs into little holes that you will see in the floor.  There are two famous people buried in the Pantheon.  Rafael (the artist), and Victor Emmanuel the second (the first king of unified Italy).

Piazza Navonna
A main square in Rome.  There are some really cool restaurants in the back streets around here.  The square is built on the site of Domitians Circus from 86AD.  The ‘Circus' was a stadium where they had festivals and sporting events, mostly horse racing.  The stadium could seat 30000 people, and the square is still in the exact same oval shape as the original arena.  Be careful about buying fakes on the street around here, it is illegal, and you can get a fine if you are caught buying from them.  The fountain in the middle of the square is called the fountain of the four rivers and was built in the 1600's.  The four statues represent the four rivers:  Danube, the Ganges, the Rio de la Plata and the Nile.  The statue with the cloth over its face is the Nile, because at the time the fountain was built they didn't know where the source of the Nile came from.

Victor Emmanuel II Monument.
Located in Piazza Venezia, the square was named after the Venetian Embassy (from when Venice was not a part of Italy).  The square is actually the busiest round-about in Italy.  The best place to stand for taking pictures is right in the middle of the round-about.  When you are facing the monument (it looks like a big wedding cake) you will see a building to the left that has a winged Lion on it (that is the symbol of Venice).  If you stand with your back facing the monument you will see a green balcony at the other side of the roundabout.  This where Mussolini used to reside, and he would do speeches from the green balcony.  The Victor Emmanuel monument itself is dedicated to Victor Emmanuel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Italy being unified for the fist time (that was only in 1861).  The Horse has Victor himself on it, and it is the largest Equestrian Statue in the world.  The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is also here, and there is always someone guarding the eternal flame, you should see two soldiers standing toward the bottom of the monument.  You can climb to the top during the day for free.  It has a museum below it that is not worth the visit.  It is really just a big monument.

Trajan's forum

This is one of ancient Rome's forums.  Rome had 5 forums, and this was one of the main ones.  A forum was basically a market place.  You should be able to see in the distance stories of buildings with arches…….these were the stores where people would sell their wares.  Romans couldn't read, so the store owner would put pictures of what they were selling on the arches.  At the end of the forum you will see a large green column.  This is Trajan's Column.  Trajan was the emperor in power when this forum was built, so he built this column in his honour, and the pictures around the outside are said to be the first forms of cinematography.  The forum was three levels, so people would read the story by looking at the pics on the first level, then going to the next level to read the rest etc.  There used to be a statue of Trajan on the top, but when Rome became a Christian society they replaced it with a statue of St Peter.

Roman Forum (across the street  from Trajan's forum behind Victor Emmanuel monument).  
This is the first forum of Rome.  There are so many stories to tell about this forum, so we suggest if you have the time you try to meet up with an English tour conducted by an American student.  They are free, but they ask for a tip at the end.  Otherwise, there are these little books you can buy at the forum entrance that show you what the forum looked like before and after, and it tells you some of the stories of what it was like in the forum during Roman times.  You will notice with both the Trajan and the Roman forums that the level of the ground in the Forum is much lower than the streets.  That is because when they pillaged Ancient Rome to build the Vatican, a lot of the buildings from ancient Rome were abandoned.  Eventually they became fields for cow farming, and as the soil rose they began building on top of the old ruins.  Most of what you see has been excavated, and there is still a lot more below the ground.  
If you want to see some incredibly in tact ruins, I suggest you look into going to Pompeii (if you have the time).  It is three hours from Rome.  Definitely get a guided tour if you go to Pompeii, otherwise half the time you won't know what you are looking at.

The Colosseum
Built in 72AD.  Architectural feat of its time.  Could hold 55 000 people, and it is said that they could all exit within 8 minutes out of the 80 arched entrance ways.  Even the metal pins that hold the blocks together weigh 300 tons.  When it was first opened they held a 100 day festival where 5000 beasts were killed.  The more exotic the animal the better.  They used to bring a lot of the animals here from Africa.  The first Gladiator battle is believed to have been held in 264 BC, so they started Gladiator fighting long before the Colosseum was built.  Before they used the Colosseum the fights were usually held in the Roman Forum or in Circus Maximus.  If you have seen Gladiator the movie, the story is similar.  If you won 5 battles as a gladiator you won your right to freedom.  Gladiators were simply slaves, and most of the fights were biased, ie they would tie up the gladiator, then release all of the hungry tigers.  They are not sure exactly how things were conducted in the Colosseum, for example they are not entirely sure where the Emperor sat, or if he used the thumbs up or thumbs down when a Gladiators battle was over.  Some of the battles would get really gruesome, so they had what they called vomitoriums – rooms where you could go to throw up, and then return to your seat.  When a Gladiator died two men dressed as fairies would come out with a hot poking stick and a mallet.  They would poke the gladiator with the hot stick, and beat his head with the mallet just to make sure he was dead before they carried him away.  Only men were allowed to sit in the seats, women had to take the standing positions way up the back.  The latin word for sand is Arena, and that is where they believe the work arena came from, because the Colosseum floor was covered in sand.  Underneath the stage was a series of tunnels, trap doors and lifts.  They were so advanced that they could lift a tiger up onto the floor through a trap door without the Gladiator even seeing it from behind…….there is so much more to tell but we won't carry on.

If you want to go inside, don't wait in the ticket line if it looks long.  If you face the Colosseum you will see an arch to the right.  If you walk towards this you will see a walkway that leads up the hill on the right hand side.  This leads up to Palentine hill (part of the Roman Forum).  At the top of the walkway you can buy tickets to both the Colosseum or the Roman Forum.  It takes a few minutes to get up there, but once you get your ticket you don't have to stand in the line at the Colosseum, you can cut right past it and go straight in.

That completes our walking tour of Rome.  You can do it going in either direction.  We recommend doing Rome and the Vatican on separate days in order to see everything.
Other suggestions if you are looking for more to do are:

The Catacombs – a series of tunnels of graves.  It was a requirement in Rome for a long time to never bury bodies in the city.  So they are built outside of Rome in underground tunnels.  Later the Christians used these catacombs to secretly bury their families in order to avoid being persecuted by the pagans.
Caracalla Baths – 2nd largest bath complex from ancient Rome. 
Circus Maximus – the outline of where a large arena used to be that was originally built in the 6th C BC, and could hold up to 250000 people
Mausoleum St Augustus – if you have read Angels and Demons you would know this building.  It was a safe haven for the Pope if he was ever in danger

One other thing:  There are a lot of pick-pocketers in Rome, and they will rob you blind without you even knowing it.  So be really careful with your stuff, and be aware:-)

On behalf of the TravAddict team, have a great trip.

 

About the Author

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Art and faith? All are welcome to answer....?

I was born of a group of scientific minds. My parents never gave me any religious instruction. And yet, when I see The Pieta, (see this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo) ) I am stricken with an inexplainable pain. My heart grieves at the look on Mary's face. My soul screams at the utter horror of losing a son (I have a two year old son.)

My question is this: What does this mean? Am a simply a mother, sympathizing with another mother's loss? Or is this divine in nature? Why do I hurt so much when I see this statue?

It is both a connection on the human level and divine. The human, obviously, because you have that connection of motherhood.

But the divine is from the sacrifice. Mary knew what would happen to her son. Jesus knew it also. But they both knew Jesus had to die, so that we could get to heaven.

The sacrifice is truly touching, on many levels. But Jesus even said "No greater love is there than this--for a man to lay down his life for his friends"

If you look at the story of Jesus as a story, it is a strange story. A man, who teaches great things, claims to be the son of the One and True God. But, he doesn't come down as a general, a rich king or a wizard. He came down to serve us. He came down to offer his life for us.

It is very touching to think that such an all powerful being would love us and sacrifice himself for us.

If nothing else, it is a very touching story...

But, there's more. It was presented as truth, and written by people who were actually there. The claim is that this is no fictional story, but truth. And the story is so crazy--that it just might be true.
And if it is, then you have just stumbled across on of the greatest cosmic mysteries of all time.

All from a glance at a statue. Jesus, shouted through time, to you. Amazing.

PIETA STATUE DRAWING