29 June

Friday 29 June 0700  Tyrrheman Sea   

We have travelled 6624.9 Nm   from Dubai and we have to travel 1.6 Nm to our next Port of Civitavechia.  Heading 65. Temperature on desk is 23.5 degrees. Speeding 8.2 knots.  Wind speed 7.7 knots across the deck.

Rome is about 1 ½ hours drive from the  Port of Civitavecchia along a highway.  Today is a special Public Holiday in Rome as it is the Celebration of Saints Peter and Paul who are the Patron Saints of Rome and as a result the traffic was light as most people were travelling out of the city to spend the long weekend in the country. 

We didn’t see much of the modern city of Rome we travelled straight to the old portion of Rome and proceeded to drive past all the old buildings that you have seen in movies and in books.

We left the bus and proceeded to walk through the cobblestoned lanes to the St Peter’s in Chains which is a basilica dating back to the Imperial Age.  The chains that Peter was held in before he was killed were in pride of place there and the building houses the “Mausoleo di Gulio II,” created by Michelangelo.

A further walk through the city we entered into the Pantheon which is a well preserved 2^nd Century temple which was built to hour the Roman gods, the Pantheon serves as the final resting place of many Renaissance figures.  The original temple was built in 27 BC, King Hadrian added the enormous dome in 120 AD.  This is a huge area and they are continually digging up new ruins.  They have dug down about 10 metres and they just keep finding more ancient temples. It is hard to describe what you see as it so overwhelming and the numbers of years and figures become blended into one. This is another great spot to spend more time next time when I come back.

Just another short walk through the narrow, cobbled lanes of Rome and we lined up to get the tickets to enter the Colosseum, yes the place in movies where they killed the Christians.  It is a huge complex and almost all of the surrounding walls were still intact.  The amphitheatre was built in the first century and was used for a number of centuries, there could be as many as 50,000 spectators and they could enter in less than 20 minutes as there are 76 numbered entrances.  The centre of the amphitheatre has a lower level which held cages in which the wild animals and humans were kept and when it was time, the cages would be lifted by pullies up into the centre of the arena. I found out the meaning of ‘arena’ it means sand, at the end of the day the sand from the arena was covered in blood and had to be changed.  The centre could also be flooded to have naval combats.   

Cages below the floor

After a quick bus trip we travelled to the square where we walked to the Vatican which is the world’s smallest independent state, the 16^th Century Vatican museum boasts legendary collections of Renaissance art, classical sculptures and treasured antiquities.  It is a strange feeling crossing from Italy into the Vatican, the home of the Pope since 1377 and the base of some many films and books.  We stood outside of the St. Peter’s Basilica and was shown by the guide where the Pope lived and where he stood when he spoke to the people every Wednesday, it seems that he actually addressed the crowd the morning when just before we were there as I mentioned before, it was a public holiday which was to honour both the apostles Peter and Paul.  It is told that both preached here before their execution by the Emperor Nero around 67 A.D.  Their graves are marked today by the basilicas bearing their names in the St. Peter’s Basilica and when we walked through the Basilica the statue of St Peter was specially decorated.  The inside of St Peter’s is enormous and is absolutely spectacular and below the main floors are the “grottoes”, with the tombs of Peter and many more recent Popes.  

Border between Rome & Vatican

Michelangelo designed the huge dome and many other famous architects and artist were involved over the many years.  Michelangelo was then commissioned to decorate the ceiling with scenes from the creation of the world. Twenty years later Michelangelo was hired again to add another work to the wall behind the alter, which was the Last Supper.

The Vatican is guarded by the Swiss Guards who have to meet certain criteria, height, age, single for the first two years of service and of course Catholic. 

It seemed all too soon before we had to leave this magnificent chapel and return to the ‘real’ world.  I bought some rosary beads and posted some post card home and we then commenced our journey back to the ship.