I can honestly say that I love Florence and that I’m very glad to be spending my time abroad here, but sometimes it seems a little small. Rome, on the other hand, has somehow been able to maintain the feel of an enormous living and working city in spite of its very apparent tourist industry. Even though I only spent two days there, I fell instantly in love with it.
Part of Rome’s appeal for me is its modernity, but reminders of its history are everywhere. Monumental ruins left from the Roman empire are scattered throughout the city. Our first stop was the Vatican. We rushed past pre-Renaissance altarpieces in order to focus on what our guide considered the highlights: paintings by Raphael such as “The School of Athens,” a hallway full of ancient maps of Italy and marble copies of Roman statues that were originally bronze. The sheer amount of items was astonishing: room after room was full of priceless art. And of course, we visited the Sistine Chapel.
My first impression was that the ceiling was smaller than I had imagined, but upon entering the room, it still has an immediate impact. Michelangelo’s figures have such weight and life to them, and the colors are as bright as they were when painted, thanks to a recent restoration. Patches on the ceiling that were left untouched for comparison are nearly black with soot and dust. Saints and biblical figures surround the main panels, which portray the story of Genesis in increasingly large and expressive figures. I stared upwards at the ceiling so long that my neck began to hurt, and I still could have spent longer taking in every detail.
Next was St. Peter’s Basilica. Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer immensity of the cathedral. The dome was the largest in the world until the 19th century, and letters near the ceiling that appear quite small are actually six feet high. An unimaginable amount of marble and gold went into its construction. Interestingly, there was not a single painting inside. Instead, there are sculptures and micro-mosaics so detailed it seems impossible that human hands could have manipulated the miniscule stones into place. Michelangelo had a hand in the basilica’s construction as well; he designed the dome, and his Pieta (my favorite of his statues) rests inside. None of the copies of this statue I have seen achieve the softness and sadness created by Michelangelo’s hand. The sculpture may be made of marble, but the Madonna and Jesus seem fragile and human. Bulletproof glass protects the duo, as a consequence of an incident involving a mentally disturbed geologist with a hammer (thankfully, the damage was reparable).
The second day we visited the Colosseum, symbol of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, due to an earthquake, much of the Colosseum has been destroyed, and what remains is bolstered with brick — but it is of course still a grand sight. Standing inside and looking upwards around the arena, I was able to somewhat imagine the crowds and the bloodthirsty games that had taken place, although I have to admit I’m now itching to rewatch Gladiator and see the arena reconstructed as it must have been.
The Pantheon and the Roman Forum were just as breathtaking. The forum originally served as a city square, full of the remnants of temples, basilicas and arches. Surveying the forum, it is undeniable that ancient Rome was an advanced and powerful civilization. A column inscribed with “umbilicus urbis romae” sums up Rome’s influence at that time: Rome was the absolute nucleus, or “navel of the world.” The ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in particular made an impact on me. As the largest building in the forum, the walls and vaults that remain are impressively gigantic. When our guide told us that these ruins are only a third of the original basilica, I was absolutely blown away. I found myself wishing I could go back two thousand years in time, just for a moment, and witness the city in its prime.
One of our last stops was to the Trevi Fountain, an incredible classical structure which flows seemlessly into a series of waterfalls and statues at its base. Oceanus stands in the center in the middle of a shell, while tritons tame seahorses on either side of him. There is a myth that anyone throwing a coin into the fountain is ensured a return to Rome, so metal glints everywhere beneath the water. One of those coins belongs to me.
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