The sun shone full force today to my great pleasure! We decided to go to the Colosseum today. Once we reached it, we realized that we had passed by it already plenty of times without realizing or noticing it! When we arrived, we were not really keen on standing in the line for an hour. Luckily, a good looking Italian man came up to us and sold us on a tour that would let us skip the mile long queue. Our guide, unfortunately, was not the handsome, well-spoken man that had sold us the guide, but a short Italian woman who spoke with a stronger Italian accent. She was still a great guide, and I thought that she was funny. The problem was that I was usually the only one laughing. I did notice that she particularly liked discussing the prostitution and orgies that went on behind-the-scenes at the Colosseum when there were not twenty men and fifty exotic animals getting slaughtered every morning. Apparently, according to her, I murdered my mother-in-law and was executed one afternoon in the Colosseum as well. Hmm, I would at least have liked to have know my mother-in-law, let alone to have known that I had a mother-in-law before I murdered her.
We had a rather quick lunch of aubergine pizza in a pizzeria nearby, and I must say that I think our pizza was healthier than the Eggplant Parmesan from yesterday. They were both yummy to the umpteenth power, though!
At 13h30, we met with David, the man who was supposed to be our tour guide for the rest of Palatin Hill and the Forum. When we arrived at Palatin Hill, he split us up into two groups, and Grammy and I ended up following the other tourguide. Alex, as he is called, turns out to be a gorgeous Scottish-Italian mix who was raised in Johannesburg and has been giving tours around Rome for at least eight years. (Sadly, he is way too old for me and married.) He was probably the best tour guide we could have requested! He explained how that Palatin Hill was originally a palace, but when the earthquake hit, the palace collapsed, and the marble and building materials just bounced over and created the Vatican.
He then diverted our attention to the ancient communal toilets where the Romans shared a sponge on a stick for toilet paper. Often, however, the sponge fell off; this created the original curse, “I hope you get the short end of the stick.” Eew and Ouch!
He then talked about the origins of the handshake being the main part of the Roman marriage ceremony, hence creating the request for someone's “hand in marriage”.
He did not actually give us a tour of the Forum, but his stories from Palatin Hill were enough to tide us over for the rest of the afternoon!
We actually liked his tour so much that at 17h30, we met up with him again at the Column of Trajan for a nighttime, off of the beaten path tour. Apparently columns like the Column of Trajan were ancient movie theaters because one would start at the bottom and climb the stairs, reading around the pillar all the while.
Our next stop was at the Church of the Saintly Twelve Apostles. I now have the urge to walk into every random church that looks plain on the outside just to witness the wonders within. This church was breathtaking on the inside.
Plus, it holds the remains of two of Jesus' original apostles Phillip and James.
Next door to it was the Franciscan monastery where we were allowed to enter because we were with Alex. There, he showed us where Michelangelo’s body was originally supposed to be buried. The Medici's stole his corpse and moved it before it could be placed into this resting place, but evidently, this was the only real depiction of Michelangelo himself!
We went next into Madonna of the Little Arch, the smallest Marian Sanctuary of Rome. Why did we go in here? Well, not only was it a church made for six people, but it was constructed to be the smallest replica of Saint Peter's Basilica. In fact, the woman in the image in the dome on top is the same woman who sits beside George Washington in the dome in the Capitol Building in D.C. because the archictect of this church left Italy and became world-renowned when he designed, constructed, and painted our Capital Building dome.
I then touched naked Jesus' foot. Yes, Michelangelo sculpted a naked Jesus that was lost for over 300 years. Today, it is the only touchable piece of his artwork available to the public in the Church of Saint Mary's of Minerva.
We finished the tour with a misshapen Elephant of Bernini, the court around the Pantheon, another column, and the Spanish Steps.
If you haven't picked up on it by now, I LOVE ROME!!!
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