The Romans throughout time seem to have had one thing in common - when you build something, it should be the biggest. All their public buildings, fountains, memorials etc are massive - the scale of their structures is much grander than anything we have seen anywhere else.
Today we resorted to our usual big city strategy - get the open top "hop-on-hop-off" bus and get an overall picture of the highlights and where things are. Worked OK but the crowds are just so huge here that we found ourselves waiting in lines of people waiting for the next bus and often having to wait for the next one as the first was full. Made it a big day but we saw the things we planned as well as a trip right around the highlights.
After the overview, we headed to "Santa Maria Maggiore" a large church (of which there are scores in Rome of course) with the added attraction that the ceiling is lined with the first gold brought in from S.America - an amazing sight. We then headed for the Victor Emanuele memorial. For those not familiar with Italian history (shame) he was the one who formed Italy into a united country from the 20 provinces that previously existed - ("Il Padre della Patria") - the father of the nation - anyway, they built him a MASSIVE memorial - it is 80 metres high and 120 metres wide - have a look at the people in the photo to get some idea of the scale of this structure.
We then headed for the famous Spanish Steps (anyone remember "Roman Holiday"?) where there were so many people sitting on them we could hardly find a way through. The "Trinita dei Monti" church at the top of the stairs is again huge and contains the famous marble statue of Christ being taken from the cross - it is absolutely beautiful.
Along the way we also saw the Colosseum, St.Peters and the Vatican, Circus Maximus etc. from the tour bus. Plan for tomorrow is to visit the Colosseum in the morning (we're booked) and the Vatican/St Peters etc in the afternoon. Hopefully the Monday crowds are a little smaller than the Sunday version!!
Dinner tonight (at 8.30 mind you) was at a little family run ristorante on the corner. Lasagne tonight - home made and beautiful Elizabeth is on a tiramisu crawl - different from last night's but still terrific. I had something the waiter chose for me - no idea what it was but orange and cream and crisp pastry featured. We had a discussion on why all these restaurants are SO good - came to the conclusion that they all just seem so commited to and passionate about their food and their service - they love doing it, it is not just a job. The service is fantastic and the food quickly delivered and fresh - not good for weight control!!!
Cheers all
Trivia: The Spanish Steps (so called as they connected the Spanish Embassy to the church above) were built in 1721 and it is the widest stairway in Europe.
Pictures:
*the Victor Emanuele memorial
*the gold ceiling of Santa Maria Maggiore
*The Spanish Steps
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