Roma: Day 2
On our second day in Rome we decided to start early and get to the Colosseum before a massive queue appeared. We were partially successful as the queue was pretty short but we still had to wait a fair while to get in. To be brutally honest from the inside it was a bit of a let down and was made more frustrating by the mass of people who had already been able to get in before us. I did manage to get at least one nice shot of the interior (shown below).
Wandering away from the colosseum we headed for the forum, which with a lack of shade and an abundance of people was pretty hard work. There are loads of interesting buildings there and it was well worth battling the crowds. I found the Curia (Senate house) particularly interesting; it had an amazing floor and also made me wonder how they fitted so many senators into it throughout the years. While trying to find some shade and get away from the mobs of people in tours we found a nice vantage point, quite high up, that gave some nice views of the whole of the forum.
Our next target was the Pantheon, one of the highlights of the trip in my opinion. It is an immense structure with the most impressive roof I have ever seen; to think that it was constructed nearly 2000 years ago! The square in front of the Pantheon was typically busy but very nice to look at, one of the buildings had a very nice fresco of the Virgin Mary (thanks to Maria for pointing this out to me so I could get a nice photo of it).
It started to rain a little so we decided to head back to the Castle Sant Angelo, which apparently started life as Hadrian’s mausoleum. You can get right to the top of the castle and there are some very nice views of the city from up there. We also had a good vantage point for watching the impending storm roll in from the distance.
Since it was still raining slightly we figured that people probably wouldn’t be queuing for so long to get into the Vatican Museum/Sistine chapel, on arrival there was no queue at all; a slight change from the previous day. The museum itself was very impressive, an Italian version of La Louvre if you will. The halls were very ornate and filled with many treasures from times past. The Sistine chapel was hidden in the depths of the museum, it took a good hour or so to get there but it was worth the wait, although more than slightly surreal. As you enter the chapel you find yourself in a very simply designed room with some of the most detailed paintings I have ever seen on them; to think that one man painted all of this puts it in a different league to other parts of the museum. The surreal nature of the experience comes from the fact that this small chapel is filled, almost to capacity, with people murmuring (no talking was allowed but I think the human race as a whole has problems keeping quiet at the best of time) and looking straight up at the ceiling, interrupted only by one of the guards shouting in Italian for everyone to keep quiet. Below is a shot from one of the many ornate hallways that lead to and from the chapel itself.
Our next port of call was to revisit the Trevi fountain, only this time we went there during the night. Unsurprisingly it was as busy as it had been the day before, however, in my opinion it is far more impressive at night with all of the lights in the water and the surrounding square. At this point of the trip I had no tripod so long exposure shots weren’t very easy at all. I tried two places to shoot from, one on a pillar directly in front of the fountain, which made for some boring unlevelled shots, the other was right down next to the fountain looking at an oblique angle where I managed to capture some of the nice lights from the square reflecting on the water itself. Below is one of the resulting photos.
Wandering away from the colosseum we headed for the forum, which with a lack of shade and an abundance of people was pretty hard work. There are loads of interesting buildings there and it was well worth battling the crowds. I found the Curia (Senate house) particularly interesting; it had an amazing floor and also made me wonder how they fitted so many senators into it throughout the years. While trying to find some shade and get away from the mobs of people in tours we found a nice vantage point, quite high up, that gave some nice views of the whole of the forum.
Our next target was the Pantheon, one of the highlights of the trip in my opinion. It is an immense structure with the most impressive roof I have ever seen; to think that it was constructed nearly 2000 years ago! The square in front of the Pantheon was typically busy but very nice to look at, one of the buildings had a very nice fresco of the Virgin Mary (thanks to Maria for pointing this out to me so I could get a nice photo of it).
It started to rain a little so we decided to head back to the Castle Sant Angelo, which apparently started life as Hadrian’s mausoleum. You can get right to the top of the castle and there are some very nice views of the city from up there. We also had a good vantage point for watching the impending storm roll in from the distance.
Since it was still raining slightly we figured that people probably wouldn’t be queuing for so long to get into the Vatican Museum/Sistine chapel, on arrival there was no queue at all; a slight change from the previous day. The museum itself was very impressive, an Italian version of La Louvre if you will. The halls were very ornate and filled with many treasures from times past. The Sistine chapel was hidden in the depths of the museum, it took a good hour or so to get there but it was worth the wait, although more than slightly surreal. As you enter the chapel you find yourself in a very simply designed room with some of the most detailed paintings I have ever seen on them; to think that one man painted all of this puts it in a different league to other parts of the museum. The surreal nature of the experience comes from the fact that this small chapel is filled, almost to capacity, with people murmuring (no talking was allowed but I think the human race as a whole has problems keeping quiet at the best of time) and looking straight up at the ceiling, interrupted only by one of the guards shouting in Italian for everyone to keep quiet. Below is a shot from one of the many ornate hallways that lead to and from the chapel itself.
Our next port of call was to revisit the Trevi fountain, only this time we went there during the night. Unsurprisingly it was as busy as it had been the day before, however, in my opinion it is far more impressive at night with all of the lights in the water and the surrounding square. At this point of the trip I had no tripod so long exposure shots weren’t very easy at all. I tried two places to shoot from, one on a pillar directly in front of the fountain, which made for some boring unlevelled shots, the other was right down next to the fountain looking at an oblique angle where I managed to capture some of the nice lights from the square reflecting on the water itself. Below is one of the resulting photos.
posted by Rhys at 8:11 AM
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