We awoke to a very fine day, blue skies and sunshine. We were happy about this because today we wanted to do a walking tour around the heart of Rome. I had copied a map from the Rick Steves travel website that went around to a dozen or so locations in the heart of Rome. There was audio to explain about the sights. So, after breakfast we started out to find the start of the walking tour. Along our way we had some nice views around the river.
We found the starting location at Campo di Fiori, a town square that was having a big market day. The square was crowded with locals doing their weekly fruit and veg shopping and loads of tourists milling about.
We listed to some of the audio that Rick Steves did, but I couldn’t control it very well so we kept having to start from the beginning, which really annoyed me. I then figured out how to download the mp3 file. After doing that, at least I could control the player. One of the beginning places on the tour was a palace of some sort, but the entire front of the building was covered in scaffolding and netting, so you couldn’t see it. So we walked back to the Campo di Fiori to catch up with the walking tour audio. The problem was, we couldn’t figure out which street to exit from the square. As we were wandering around trying to get our bearings, Christine saw a sign for a Leonardo di Vinci museum, so we decided to go see what that was about.
First of all, it was in this big building with an interior courtyard with pillars and archways. It must have been something in its day.
The di Vinci museum showcased working models of many of Leonardo’s inventions. I knew he was a genius, but I didn’t realize how many things we was interested in. It makes me want to read more about him. It was a lot of fun to be able to try out some of his inventions. There were many displays of various pulleys and turn screws and things he developed to aid in mechanizing work. He also did work on developing more affordable mirrors from which he kind of invented using mirrors to create infinity. We stood in a mirror box Leonardo developed and had fun looking at a hundred reflections of ourselves.
I liked one of his inventions that he called a carillon, which was like a player piano roll. The barrel had these little wedges of wood inserted in various places that would cause a bell to be struck.
There were quite a few models of Leonardo’s concepts for flying machines, including a prototype for something like a helicopter which Leonardo called the aerial screw.
Leonardo spent a lot of time studying birds and although he first tried to develop flying machines that had wings that flapped, he eventually realized that flight for humans had to have fixed wings. But what was really interesting to me is that in Leonardo’s time, the concept of lift had not been recognized yet. If Leonardo had figured that out, for sure there would have been human flight long before the Wright Brothers.
We know that Leonardo was a prolific writer and sketcher. We saw some displays of his work around anatomy that were really fascinating. Leonardo feared people stealing his inventions and ideas so he wrote mirrored backwards from right to left and he used his own shorthand.
I didn’t know he invented so many war machines, including the first armored tank and a gigantic crossbow. And, I didn’t realize that he was so interested in water. We saw weird boats, floating shoes, the first diving suit, webbed gloves and a buoy.
It was a really interesting exhibition and we both enjoyed it. I will definitely do some reading about Leonardo.
After the museum we found a pizza shop and had lunch. It was good to sit down for a while. Christine was having some foot pain and wasn’t walking too well. Walking miles over cobblestone gets to you. Our legs and feet were weary. I decided to ditch the map and mp3 stuff and just make our way to a couple of places that I wanted to see.
The first was Piazza Navona, a large public square ringed by old historic buildings There is also a very large church on one side of the square, St. Agnes.
The most famous thing in the square is one of three fountains, the one in the center of the piazza. The fountain is called the Fountain of the Four Rivers. It was sculpted by Lorenzo Bernini in 1651. There are 4 river gods representing the 4 rivers of 4 major continents, the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges, and Rio de la Plata. Above the river gods stands a copy of a tall Egyptian obelisk. It’s a beautiful fountain with each of the river gods in various demonstrative poses.
There are two other fountains in the piazza, one at each end, Fountain of the Moor and Fountain of Neptune.
The next stop was the Pantheon, which was a mob scene. The square in front of the Pantheon was partially blocked off due to some renovation being done on the obelisk in front of the building, so that reduced the available space for people in the square. The line to enter the Pantheon was really long and the square was packed. We simply looked at the building and moved on.
Our final stop was the Trevi Fountain, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Rome. We had heard from someone that there were barricades up around the fountain keeping people away. Fortunately, that was not the case. As we got closer to the fountain, there were steady streams of people traveling down the narrow streets toward the fountain. Once you walked out into the little square around the fountain, it was shoulder to shoulder. However, with some patience, you could get fairly close to the fountain. We actually made our way down some steps to the edge of the fountain and then found some empty spots on a short wall so we could sit and look closely at the fountain, and all the people posing for selfies.
The fountain is fairly new, in terms of Rome, having been completed in the 18th century. The Trevi is the largest Baroque fountain in Rome, which is a city of fountains. The fountain’s location has to do with the terminus of a Roman aqueduct that brought water to the city. The Trevi is a magnificent fountain and despite the crowds, I’m glad we took the time to see it.
Although the Spanish Steps was on my list of sights, we were just too tired to trek over to them. We’ll save that for another visit. So, we started our walk back to the hotel. Christine had been a trooper all day and we made a deal that since I dragged her around all day, that I’d buy her gelato as a prize for being a tourist today. But believe is or not, we didn’t pass by any gelato shops. After looking for a while, getting more tired and frustrated, I finally said, “let’s just get a taxi back to the hotel.” And that’s what we did.
Upon arriving back at the hotel, Christine said, “what about my prize?” So off we went in a more familiar neighborhood. We checked out a couple of places but didn’t find gelato. Christine said, “let’s forget it.” As soon as we started to head back to the hotel, a lovely little gelato shop appeared. We picked our flavors and sat on a wall by the sidewalk and enjoyed an afternoon treat. Seemed like a popular thing to do because we were two of about a dozen people sitting on the wall eating gelato.
Back at the hotel, we began organizing and packing for our departure Sunday morning. We then went down to the restaurant and had a really good fregola pasta with calamari and shrimp. It was delicious and a kind of pasta I have never had before.
Our time in Rome is coming to an end. It’s been a great visit and we accomplished quite a bit of sightseeing while here. Rome is a really interesting city and we learned that there is no central business district and no skyscrapers. It’s a collection of about 15 various districts or neighborhoods, most being very old. We’ve certainly enjoyed the Trastevere district. I’ll end with just a couple more photos of what it was like walking around the narrow streets.
Arrivederci, Roma!