By Karen Kenyon
It was mostly the great art that drew me to Rome. I had wanted to go since my first art history class in Renaissance architecture with a teacher who was so enthusiastic that he would sometimes jump up on the desk. It took me several years to finally make it to the so-called "Eternal City," but nothing really goes away here. It just becomes even more interesting.
Our hotel, which was recommended by a friend, was in the ancient center of Rome. It was owned by a Canadian-Lebanese woman for more than 40 years, and my son, daughter-in-law and I felt at home from the minute we entered. Mrs. Kahn was a true hostess, even fixing coffee and drinks when we arrived though it was past midnight.
Our sixth-floor room with its cut marble floors had Chinese screens to separate our sleeping areas. Our terrace, with its view of the Coliseum, had a small lemon tree, and the fruit hanging there in the moonlight of the warm Roman night seemed to have an inner glow.
The first night Rome seemed to introduce itself to me with sounds. Strange cries filled the night. Could these be the feral cats I'd heard had taken over Nero's house and perhaps much of this ancient area? A lone seagull, a siren? Or were these the ghosts from the nearby Coliseum?
It was not fearful, just — as the phrase from Shakespeare goes — "wondrous strange." And then soft rain began to fall.
I couldn't sleep — either because of excitement or Mrs. Kahn's coffee — so I pulled out my iPad, and in the comforting dark I wrote two haiku:
3 a.m. in Rome
Suddenly showers fall on
Beautiful ruins.
A cat cries below
Are you waiting for Nero?
Quick! Find some shelter!
By 4 a.m. birds started their songs, and soon black swifts were wheeling in flight around the courtyard below. Nearby church bells began to chime.
Morning breakfast was downstairs under beautiful Venetian glass chandeliers. After that we hit the streets, walking to the Coliseum and past the ruins of the gladiators' quarters.
Images of the Virgin Mary gazed at us from the edges of stone buildings on many street corners. These Madonnelles, I learned, are tiny shrines found mostly in the historical part of the city, but hundreds are in Rome and in other Italian cities.
Two churches near our hotel beckoned. The Basilica di San Clemente is an early Christian basilica dedicated to Pope Clement. It's notable for its three historical layers — the 12th-century basilica is built on top of a well-preserved fourth-century church with mosaics that is built next to a third-century temple. The Basilica of the Santi Quattro Coronati, which dates to the fourth century and is also nearby, is filled with frescoes and is still a monastery.
I had been told that if my visit to Rome was going to be short it would be a good idea to hire a guide, especially for the Vatican, so I hired Guiseppe, whom a friend had recommended. When he arrived at our hotel that afternoon he was all smiles and ready to show us this city where he'd lived all his life.
He drove us to the Borghese Gallery, where I'd especially wanted to see the Bernini sculptures and the Caravaggio paintings. This gallery was the home of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who was an ardent supporter of Bernini, in the 1600s.
One of the first pieces we saw was "Apollo and Daphne." I'd seen images of this great sculpture, but seeing it in person touched me to the core. Mostly it was Bernini's magnificent flowing lines of cloth and reaching fingers that resulted in the dynamism of this extraordinary work. Equally dramatic and moving was "The Rape of Persephone. " Another of Bernini's works not to be missed is his "David."
The Caravaggios were next — five in all, including "Boy With a Basket of Fruit," "Sick Bacchus" and "Madonna of the Palafrenieri." Next Guiseppe drove us to the Conaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria to see Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Theresa." Her moment of ecstasy forever fills the beautiful and ornate chapel.
In the evening our hotel offered a family-style dinner on the lower patio, so we took advantage of that — and the chance to meet others from all over the world, including a couple from Russia.
The next morning my daughter-in-law and I walked to St. Peter in Chains basilica (San Pietro in Vincoli), not far from the hotel, to see Michelangelo's "Moses." Inside the basilica are chains in a glass reliquary over the altar that are relics of the chains that bound St. Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem.
The fifth-century church is best-known for the "Moses," originally created for a planned 47-statue tomb of Pope Julius II in 1515. The piece was just to the right of the altar and looked as if it had leapt from a slide I'd once seen in that art history class.
When it was time to visit the Vatican, storm clouds had gathered, and once Guiseppe arrived, the rain arrived, as well. Grabbing umbrellas offered by the hotel, we set off for this historic visit.
A large model of the Vatican is on view near the entrance. The enormity of the Vatican complex is impressive — more than 110 acres — and actually considered a separate state.
A mandatory stop was, of course, to see the "Pieta" by Michelangelo. Because of vandalism, however, the sculpture is kept behind glass. Visitors gather in front of it, but it is impossible to see it close-up.
We headed toward the Sistine Chapel, and once inside were greeted with "Silencio, silencio!" Visitors are not permitted to speak and may not take photographs. It was not nearly as crowded as I'd heard, however, so we were able to sit around the edge and look at Michelangelo's ceiling with binoculars.
Michelangelo, created this masterpiece 500 years ago when he was 33. He considered himself a sculptor, not a painter, and he had no background in fresco painting. On one wall was also "The Last Judgment," created in his later years. Paintings on the walls here include those by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino. The chapel serves a function, too, for it is here that new popes are chosen.
Not far from the chapel are the Raphael rooms with the grand frescoes that mark the high Renaissance in Rome. They are the public part of the papal apartments. Pope Julius II commissioned the young Raphael in 1508 to redecorate the interiors. Perhaps the most famous is "The School of Athens." These floor-to-ceiling works are not to be missed.
Our last stop was St. Peter's Basilica, with its sculptures and columns. The high point was the baldachin by Bernini — the 95-foot canopy modeled on King Solomon's temple. It is believed that St. Peter is buried directly beneath this work.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Piazza Navone to see Bernini's "Fountain of the Four Rivers." Travertine rocks rise to support four river gods — of the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and Rio della Plata (representing the Americas) — and above them an Egyptian obelisk.
Men and women on Vespas buzzed by as we walked to our early dinner — men, often in suits and with their suitcases balanced on the handlebars, and women and girls in high heels, their skirts hiked above their knees. Everyone wore helmets.
In the morning it was time to take the train to Florence. Two days isn't nearly enough to see all of Rome, but the rich images linger. Saying "Arrevederci Roma" filled me with the seeds of longing to return to see the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and so much more I missed, and to revisit all I saw and loved., to hear the night sounds and see the black swifts, chirping and circling every morning.
WHEN YOU GO
www.lancelothotel.com
www.limousine-roma.com
www.galleriaborghese.it
Karen Kenyon is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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