Rome Day Three: The Pantheon and The Palatine

I am happy to report that no children (or grown-ups for that matter) suffered from nightmares last night stemming from our tour of the Capuchin Crypt. At the time, Micaela and James were more interested in figuring out which body part certain bones were from rather than thinking about the bones coming from actual people.

The kids got a kick out of working our building's old-fashioned elevator.

David was the only one brave enough to push the pedestrian crossing button. We were happy just to have a pedestrian light at all. Here in Rome, zebra or pedestrian crossings with no traffic light don't mean a whole lot. I said to David at one point, "The orderly way people drive in Germany makes Rome look like the wild wild west!" In fact, I had renamed pedestrian crossings "pity crossings" because a driver had to take pity on you for you make it across the street.

In Germany, drivers come to a screeching halt for pedestrians. Here in Rome, it doesn't matter if you're in a the pedestrian crossing zone halfway across a 3 lane street; cars, scooters and even buses will zoom right by you. I even saw a very elderly lady stranded in the middle of a 4 lane street, with vehicles going about 50 mph passing within a foot of her. A driver with some sense finally stopped and let her cross. Even then, if one car stops, it's no guarantee others will to let you make it all the way across the street, though they usually do.

It's a constant game of chicken, and with each crossing, we're getting bolder and bolder, inching our way further and further into the traffic. I just would have thought that having four kids in tow, including one in a stroller, would have given us an automatic pass, but no.

The Temple of Hercules Victor dates from about 120 BC. and is the earliest surviving marble building in Rome. This area was the cattle-market for ancient Rome but before then, Hercules had had some nasty dealings here with a local bad guy named Cacus involving cattle. The Temple of Hercules is the object of a folk tale claiming that neither flies nor dogs will enter the holy place because they detect that Hercules had once rested his famous club here.

Our first stop today, directly across the street from the Temple of Hercules, was the church Santa Maria in Cosmedin, built in the 6th century and located on Piazza della Bocca della Verità (Square of the Mouth of Truth). Our objective wasn't to see something inside the church, rather something outside in its porch.

So, how many of you have seen Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953)? That film first brought the legend of the Mouth of Truth to English-speaking audiences.

This marble carving is thought to be part of a 1st century ancient Roman fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover, portraying a pagan god. The most famous characteristic of the Mouth, however, is its role as a lie detector. Starting from the Middle Ages, it was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off. The piece was placed in the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin in the 17th century.

We were second in line waiting for the porch to open, and by the time it did, there were two busloads of noisy tourists behind us. Emilie chickened out, and with good reason. Dave stuck his hand in the mouth, declared that he loved his children, but when he pulled his arm out, his hand was missing! He grabbed his wrist and screamed in terror. The Italian teenagers waiting behind us laughed heartily. His hand was magically restored from his sleeve moments later.

As we were leaving, we noticed that the church had another claim to fame.

Inside were relics of St Valentine. There are apparently three different St. Valentines, but seeing that we were only 2 days away from St. Valentine's Day, it didn't matter to us which St. Valentine we were seeing.

Time to catch the bus. We needed to do a dry run for our busy morning tomorrow. We had tickets to visit the Vatican Museums tomorrow, but there was no way we were going to be able to get everyone up, fed, packed, find a place to store our suitcases (probably the train station) then cross from one end of the city to other in order to be at the Vatican by 9:30. There was no way. So, I was going to see if they could let us take a tour today or ask if they knew of a place closeby where we could store our luggage.

We made it to the Vatican, but in the end, the receptionist told us it was impossible for us to change the date or time of our tour, but there was luggage storage right there at the museum. Perfect. That would save us a major headache. Back on the bus!

The Castel Sant'Angelo. This tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian was built around 135.

Emilie and what could be the world's smallest delivery truck. It's hard to tell from this photo just how tiny it was.

The Piazza Navona plays a part in the upcoming Dan Brown movie Angels and Demons. The square was covered with artists wanting to sketch tourists' portraits (someday we should just do it) and sell artwork of Rome.

An acquaintance had once told me that every time she and her husband took a trip, they bought a print as a souvenir. Their home was decorated with artwork from all over the world. More recently, my friend Kathy showed me the watercolors she buys on all her trips. What a great idea! I had bought some watercolors of Germany on our trip to Neuschwanstein and here in this square in Rome, we picked out four small monochromatic sketches on fabric of Roman sights. We have to have something to show for having lived in Europe once we move back!

Micaela, James and Emilie posing dutifully, if not happily, in front of the Fountain of Neptune.

Just a block from the square was our next destination: the Pantheon, originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt circa 126 AD during Hadrian's reign. It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It is also the oldest standing domed structure in Rome.

Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church. People tossed coins at this manger scene, with the Baby Jesus being the main target. Only a few coins managed to land on his little legs and tummy.

The building has many small niches, lovely statues and painting and we also saw the famous Renaissance artist Raphael's tomb. There is something about being in this round building that was so soothing and welcoming. It was definitely my favorite sight in Rome.

The Pantheon's central opening (oculus), the Great Eye, opens to the sky. When the doors are closed, the oculus admits the only light.

Detail of the fountain outside the Pantheon

Eating McDonald's, listening to a saxophone player and surveying the crowd outside the Pantheon. I was happily surprised by the fact that the McDonald's was modestly trimmed (no huge golden arches on the outside) and that my burger didn't come with pickles and onion bits for me to scrape off.

The bus took us past the square Largo di Torre Argentina with its ancient ruins. This is the place Julius Caesar is believed to have been killed in 44BC.

The Circus Maximus was first used for mass entertainment before the 2nd century BC. Chariot races were the most important event here and the Circus could hold 270,000 spectators. One gruesome detail I had learned on my previous visit was that early Christians would be crucified along the edges of the Circus and then lit as human torches to shed light on nighttime events. The last race was run in 550AD.

The Circus Maximus still occasionally entertains the Romans. The Rome concert of Live 8 was held there in 2005, as was the Italian World Cup 2006 victory celebration, when over 700,000 people packed the park. On July 14, 2007 Genesis gave a free concert at the Circus in front of 500,000 fans.

Today we saw people jogging around the track, playing soccer and exercising their dogs. Hundreds of thousands of spectators were not present.

The building in the background is the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill.

We made our way back to the Colosseum area for our tour of the Palatine, the "Beverly Hills" among the seven hills of Rome. People have lived on the hill since 1,000BC, but more recently, it was the home of many affluent Romans of the Republican period (510 BC – c. 44 BC) and then of the Roman Emperors.

Entering the Palatine Palace area. In fact, the word palace comes from the ancient Latin word for the area palatinus.

We had to climb many steps to begin our tour, so this ancient drinking fountain was well used.

According to Roman mythology, the Palatine Hill was the location of the cave, known as the Lupercale, where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive. According to this legend, the shepherd Faustulus found the infants, and with his wife Acca Larentia raised the children. When they were older, the boys killed their great-uncle (who seized the throne from their father), and they both decided to build a new city of their own on the banks of the River Tiber. Suddenly, they had a violent argument with each other and in the end Romulus killed his twin brother Remus. This is how "Rome" got its name - from Romulus.

Hippodrome of Domitian. This arena would have been too small for chariot races, so it was probably used for horse and foot races. It had been lined with statues, which are housed in a nearby museum. According to our tour guide, we would see a great deal of material from the Palatine, include the marble used to decorate this arena, at St. Peter's. The Vatican doesn't like to hear the phrase stole material from other locations. It prefers the word recycled.

James standing on some of the rare marble flooring that still exists.

Detail from a column or wall

Octagonal foundation of a fountain

View of the Forum, the central hub of ancient Rome, including the 1st century Arch of Titus, from the Palatine Hill.

Ruins of the 4th century Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, the largest building in the Roman Forum.

The Temple of Romulus (4th-century AD). The original key still turns in the original lock of the original bronze doors of the temple. In the 6th-century AD, the temple was Christianized.

Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, became Rome's first emperor in 27BC and saw himself as a new founder, Romulus and Remus combined. He wanted to build a new residence on the Palatine Hill in a place which was sacred for the city of Rome. Legend has it that he chose to built his new home over the Lupercale, the cave where the she-wolf nursed Romulus and Remus in 771BC. The cave had long-been a sacred place to ancient Romans. Every year on February 15, a Roman pastoral festival, ancient priests killed a dog and two goats and smeared the foreheads of two boys from noble families with the sacrificial blood as part of the Lupercalia celebration. The ceremony survived until 494AD, when Pope Gelasius put an end to the tradition.

In January 2007, archeologists were working to restore Augustus' decaying palace and drilled down to survey its foundation, right underneath this scaffolding. You'll never guess what they found.

A cavity. And not just any cavity. They had found a cave whose vault is encrusted with colorful mosaics, pumice stones and seashells. The center of the ceiling features a depiction of a white eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus. Archaeologists are still searching for the entrance of the grotto. The cave is fragile and at this point can only be investigated with endoscopes and laser scanners.

This discovery does not prove that the story of Romulus, Remus and the she-wolf is true, but it does indicate that this is the cave believed by 1st century Romans to be the Lupercale. That's good enough for me.

I was overcome by how old everything was around us, material we could actually touch. I said, "Can you believe this, guys! Don't you just want to hug something?" So, with some prompting, James hugged a hunk of marble.

I double dog dared Em to crawl into this hole, underneath sharp, pointed bricks. As I took pictures, a security guard, the only one we saw the whole time there, walked by and mumbled for us to be careful. Timing really is everything.

View of St. Peter's from the Palatine.

Striking carved pleats on a statue in the Palatine Museum

Preserved wall paintings

Just another stroll under an ancient structure as we headed home

Sculptures on a bridge that are so old, the features have eroded away

It was now 4:30pm, the kids were hungry and we were three hours away from eating dinner. What to do? David mentioned that we had not yet had our daily intake of gelati, so we ate more ice cream while sitting outside in 45-degree weather. We did not hear a single complaint.

Making our way back to the apartment, we came upon a restaurant with a sign that read "Nonstop service." David wondered, "Does that mean they're serving dinner now?" Indeed they were. We knew that once we were back in our toasty warm apartment resting our tired feet, the kids would not want to venture back outside to hunt for dinner. So, ten minutes after finishing our gelati, we filed past the restaurant's hostess whose minute-long enthusiastic welcome was liberally littered with the word bambinos!

Becca immediately put her napkin to good use.

Em would not be outdone. If you click on the photo, you can see remnants of the very recently consumed chocolate gelato on her face. On second thought, you may not want to click on it.

One thing we had learned from our first dinner in Rome was to bar the kids from ordering soft drinks. That first restaurant seemed very reasonably priced until we got the bill. Each 8-oz sized Coke had cost about $6.50. That was more expensive than the wine David and I had ordered. The kids would have to settle for water from now on.