Rome Part Four: Museums, Catacombs, Churches, and Baths

Continuing our week in Rome after our day trip to Florence, we spent some more time exploring a few museums and historic sites. There are a lot of things to see in Rome, so it's hard to prioritize. We found it was best to do a lot of research ahead of time, but then stay flexible. Even with seven full days in Rome, we still didn't see everything on our list. On our last few days we set out to visit some of the key sights we hadn't seen yet. We started the day with an early morning visit to Crypta Balbi, part of the Museo Nazionale Romano. It's a small and uncrowded museum that highlights the layers of Rome's history. Throughout the building you can see evidence of ancient Roman ruins (the theatre of Balbus) and the subsequent changes to the site over the centuries. There are interesting artist renditions of how the neighborhood looked during the Republic, the Empire, the middle ages, and in to modern times.

Down in the basement, where you can view old Roman foundations and latrines.

The main exhibit area of Crypta Balbi.

After the museum, we walked back to the apartment and went with Betsy, Chad, and Paul's Mom to the Baths of Caracalla. Although they're in ruins, this was a very impressive archaeological site. It was much larger than we expected, with the remains of soaring walls and quite a few mosaic floors still in place. You can even go into the basement and see where they would heat the pools from below. We made friends with a bunny rabbit hanging out on the grounds, and had a quick snack before continuing to our next stop.

The impressive mosaic floors.

The baths were very grand and large in scale.

The huge remaining walls of the baths.

The entire place used to be covered in marble, art, and mosaics. It would have been stunning.

More of the cool mosaic floors.

Group picture at the baths. On "mom quality" cell phone. :)

After a quick snack/lunch from a cart, we caught an Uber to the Catacombs of Domatilla. A few days earlier we had toured the nearby Catacombs of San Callisto. The Catacombs of Domatilla had more pieces intact, including a couple of tombs that were still sealed, some early Christian paintings of saints, and an underground church. The guide wasn't as good and it felt more like a commercial operation than a historic site, but it was still interesting. The tour only took us to part of the second level of the sprawling (11 miles long!) catacombs. Once again, no pictures were allowed inside. If you have to choose between the two, we'd recommend the Catacombs of San Callisto. On the way home we found an Italian Ice store near our apartment, which Maggie had been craving. David's was a spicy chocolate flavor and was pretty delicious.

Mmm! Italian Ice (snow cones).

Later that evening, the two of us set out to visit another museum while everyone else rested before dinner. Luckily, Palazzo Altemps is open into the evening. The museum is also part of the Museo Nazionale Romano and is included on the same multi-day ticket as the Crypta Balbi. This museum is a must see in Rome. It has some amazing works of art, dramatically lit statues,  and was relatively uncrowded. Some of our favorite pieces here were the statue of The Galatian Suicide ("The suicidal Gaul"), and an intricately carved sarcophagus. The building itself was also interesting, with many painted ceilings and walls, and even a small church.

Walking in the lively Piazza Navona.

The courtyard of the Palazzo Altemps.

Some of the impressive artwork and painting within the palazzo courtyards.

Lots of ancient statues.

The building itself is a work of art.

The Galatian Suicide - another Hellenistic copy from the 2nd century.

Close-up of a sarcophagus.

There, there.

Crossing the river at dusk on the way back to the apartment.

Our next stop was dinner, which was organized around the fact that David E loves meatballs. If we learned one thing about him during this trip it's that he will literally eat nothing but meatballs if Christina lets him. So, that evening we hopped into a cab with Chris, David E and David's parents and went to the Southern end of the non-touristy Testaccio neighborhood to eat at a trendy meatball restaurant. Unfortunately, it was a bit too trendy: everyone else in the neighborhood had the same idea and there was no seating available at Polpetta. Instead, we ate at a nearby restaurant called Gasomestro 38. The food here was very good! So, while David E was a bit disappointed in the chicken meatballs, everyone else was pretty pleased. The neighborhood itself was more modern and filled with more locals than the center of Rome. There was a lot of street art and more of a New York feel.

On the way home we strolled past the pyramid of Cestius and found a well-reviewed gelato shop called Il Gelato. This was probably the best gelato of the trip with very unique flavors. David got a very spicy habanero flavor that nearly burned his tongue off. There was also a delicious malbec flavor to counter the heat from the habenero. We topped off the evening with a drink at Garbo. The interior was very cute but there were only a few patrons and they were all tourists, so we left after one aperol spritz.

A potato and sausage pizza at Gasomestro 38.

David's mom was clearly very hungry today!

Possibly the best gelato of the trip!

The next day, we woke up before everyone else again and took the bus to Piazza Republica. We walked by a fountain and a few churches on our way to the church of Santa Maria della Vitoria, famous for Bernini's statue the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

A church that we didn't even go in - the church of Santa Susanna. So many churches in Rome!

The Fontana dell'Acqua Felice.

The over-the-top interior of the church of Santa Maria della Vitoria.

Saint Teresa in ecstasy. Very edgy for the time.

The next church on our whirlwind church tour was the Basilica of Santa Maria of the Angels and Martyrs. It was designed by Michelangelo and built within the remains of the baths of Diocletian. Inside was a really neat meridian line - essentially a sundial that traces the calendar year. It had a huge interior, thanks to it's original use as public baths. From the outside the building doesn't look anything like a basilica, as it still has the original brick walls of the bath complex. We appreciated that a lot of the art in the church was dedicated to science.

As if we hadn't seen enough churches in one day, we walked to Santa Maria Maggiore but the line was too long (it's basically Rome's main church). Instead we went to the nearby basilica of Santa Prassede to see its famous mosaics. It's a small church, but has very intricate mosaics covering most of the space above the alter and a few of the side rooms. Since the mosaics are medieval with a byzantine influence, this church offers a refreshing change of pace from the renaissance and baroque frescoes and art that decorate most of Rome's churches.

The cavernous interior of the basilica, which utilizes the structure of the baths.

The meridian line. Sunlight shines on it from a small hole in the wall.

We saw the outside of Santa Maggiore. That counts. Not pictured: 1,000 tourists in line to enter.

Some of the 8th century mosaics at Santa Prassede, in the San Zeno chapel/ 

The interior of Santa Prassede.

Mosaics above the alter.

We were near the train station at this point, so we walked over to have lunch at Mercato Centrale. The neighborhood around the Roma Termini train station isn't great, but the station itself is nice enough and the food hall is excellent. It's inside Termini, but kind of attached to the side. It's very modern and trendy. We had some veggie burgers and beer, then strolled to the nearby Pasticceria Regoli for delicious cannoli and cream puffs. Probably our favorite bakery of the trip, and we tried a lot of bakeries.

Heading in to the food hall attached to Roma Termini.

Yay, cannoli!

Our next stop on this very busy day was the Pallazo Massimo alle Terme, another museum of the four-part Museo Nazionale Romano. The basement had a huge ancient coin collection. We also really liked a bronze statue of a boxer and several impressive mosaics. It's worth a visit. A block away is the Termi di Dicleziano (Baths of Diocletian) - a sprawling museum and our final branch of the national museum. This museum isn't laid out very well and there is very little direction - so we did a lot of wandering. It was still impressive, but probably our least favorite of the four national museums.

The bronze boxer statue. Very few bronze statues survive because most were melted and re-used.

A neat mosaic. That cat looks agitated!

Close-up of a discus thrower statue.

Another crazy sarcophagus.

Fun with mosaics!

Is this was they thought dolphins looked like?

Another huge impressive mosaic.

The soaring interior of the Baths of Diocletian.

Courtyard at the Baths of Diocletian Museum

This is also part of the museum in the Baths of Diocletian - it's really a massive museum.

I just see two masks hanging on a wall in this photo!

An interesting painting.

Still some original paint on this relief.

Well that's enough museums and churches for one blog post! After a while they start to blend together, and writing this blog is mostly for us to remember where we went and what we saw. Up next - our last day and a half in Rome.

A Day in Florence

After spending a few days exploring Rome and the Vatican, we hopped on a high speed train for a day trip to Florence, the capital of Tuscany.

View of Florence from the campanile.

First - a day in Florence isn't enough. That being said, if you're limited on time, it's definitely worth the trip and it's very easy to take the train between cities. The high speed train was really nice. We paid a little extra (about $10 per person) for business class, which has nicer seats, more space, power plugs, and drink/snack service. We had some nice views of the Lazian and Tuscan countryside, but didn't have long to appreciate them as we sped along at 250 kilometers per hour, reaching Florence in just 90 minutes.

One of the high speed trains in Roma Termini.

Everyone looks excited! Actually it was pretty early and people were still jetlagged.

High speed countryside view.

David on the train.

The train station in Florence is right next to the historic center, which is very convenient. There's no need to take a taxi or transit; we walked everywhere. After checking David's parents in to their hotel (since they were staying the night while the rest of us were just on a day trip), we went straight to Il Duomo, Florence's cathedral. It's a masterpiece of architecture, and a widely recognizable symbol of the city. Construction began in 1296, but it wasn't until almost a hundred and fifty years later that they figured out how to build the dome. It was completed in 1436, claiming the record for the world's largest dome. Previously held by the Pantheon in Rome for 1300 years, the record wouldn't be broken again until 1881. Random aside - the Georgia Dome in Atlanta held this record for about a decade after its construction in 1992. The front of the cathedral is covered in green and pink marble, so it looks pretty different than the other churches we saw in Italy. The interior is actually pretty plain, although the inside of the dome is painted with frescoes from the 1550s.

The dome dominates Florence, and is visible throughout much of the historic center.

The view from David's parent's hotel.

It's an imposing and beautiful building.

The front façade of the cathedral.

The baptistery, and the replica doors.

Close-up of a door panel.

The inside of the dome is so high, it's hard to see the frescoes from the ground.

This is when we discovered that just about everything in Florence needs to be booked ahead of time. The tickets to the main museums were all sold out for the day, and tickets to climb the dome were sold out for the next three days. We even checked a "last minute ticket" place that was recommended by David's parent's hotel. We had almost resigned ourselves to skipping these sights, when we found "tour companies" that sold day-of tours... at only four times the cost of normal tickets. It's legal because it's not scalping, it's selling a guided organized tour. It still felt like a bit of a scam, but it was the only way to get in, so four of us signed up for a dome tour. Keep in mind that prices can be negotiated on some of these tours. With only a day in Florence, none of us had all the time to see everything we wanted, and some people weren't too keen on climbing over 400 steps, so we split up. Paul's Mom and sister took an open top bus tour while we climbed the dome.

The last minute dome tour ended up being a great deal. We had a private guide, Eliza, for just four of us. She gave us some history of the cathedral and the baptistery, showing us the replica bronze doors. The original doors, made by Lorenzo Ghiberti over the course of twenty years in the early 1400s, are safe in a nearby museum. From there we began the long climb up the dome - a total of 463 steps. There were good views of the frescoes on the interior of the dome, and then the final steep climb to the top. Our guide made a joke about being lazy, and that the only exercise she gets is while working as a guide, saying "my friends say I have to be paid to do sport." She also noted that regional Italian dialects are quite different, and it's hard for her to understand people from Sicily. We hadn't realized there were such large regional linguistic differences. She also said people in the South tend to be nicer, and the North is stereotyped as being less friendly. It's just one person's opinion, but we enjoyed getting her take on Italians while also learning about the Cathedral.

When we reached the top, the view was amazing. All of the buildings in Florence have red tile roofs and there are no skyscrapers, so it's a sea of historic buildings stretching to the forests and mountains. Climbing the dome should be on your "must do" list in Florence.

Looking down into the scantily clad cathedral...a contrast to the style of church's in Rome.

Close up view of the frescoes on the dome. The top part was painted by an artist who died; the bottom part was completed by another artist.

You can clearly see the difference between the two painters' style...quality.

Not a great fresco...but the painter had imagination! This reminds us of a painting we saw in Fukuoka, Japan! 

View of another church through a porthole. Almost at the top!

The bricks of the dome were laid in a "herringbone" style, to be self-supporting.

It's actually a double dome. Here we're climbing between the inner and outer domes.

The last part goes straight up the side of the inner dome.

The view from the top is incredible.

Looking over at the people on the campanile - we'd be here later in the day.

David's parents at the top.

Looking down the dome to the church and campanile.

Us at the top.

Climbing back down the stairs.

Our next stop was a late lunch at mercato centrale. It's an indoor market with food stalls and a few shops. The market is a little bit gritty and reminded us of a bigger version of the Sweet Auburn curb market in Atlanta. Since it was already mid-afternoon, a lot of the places were starting to close up, but we found a place (called "pork") and had some porchetta and a delicious lasagna made with béchamel. Chris and David E found a place with a good meat and cheese tray. We wandered around the adjacent streets for a bit, which were full of stalls selling leather goods. One great thing about Florence is that most of the center of the city is pedestrian only, so there were a lot of great public spaces filled with artists and tourist stalls. It's clean and pleasant to walk around.

Another view of il duomo down the streets of Florence.

After we pointed David's parents to their hotel, we went with Christina and David E to the Galleria dell'Accademia, a small  museum that holds Michelangelo's David. Again, pre-booked tickets were sold out. There was a long standby line that stretched the length of the block, but we again booked a tour with some guys on the street and were taken directly inside. This time we were in a small group of about 10. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable but not as spunky as some of our other guides. There's not much to the museum - some paintings, and a few statues, but the star of the show is clearly Michelangelo's famous David. This statue actually sat outside for over 300 years before being moved inside. It's an amazing sculpture, with incredible detailing. Our guide showed us some close-up pictures in a book that helped us to understand the importance of the sculpture.

Spiderweb on a statue in the museum.

David is surprisingly tall, and of course surrounded by crowds.

Classic view!

The moment before David hurled a rock at Goliath, captured in marble.

Someone drawing David.

Next the two of us walked back to the cathedral. We planned on going in the Museo del Duomo, which was included in our dome ticket, but it had closed early. Instead we climbed to the top of the belltower (campanile) for sunset views of the city. The campanile was actually completed in 1359, a few generations before the dome was completed.

Heading toward the campanile.

Part way up the campanile.

Sunset view of the dome.

Hey, we were there earlier!

Porthole view of il duomo and Florence.

David in the belltower.

The campanile has good vantage points of the detail on the cathedral.

The cathedral at sunset.

At this point we only had a few hours left in Florence. We met back up with David's parents and made our way to the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval stone bridge lined with shops spanning the Arno River. We walked through Piazza della Repubblica on the way, stopping for gelato popsicles. This part of Florence, just south of the cathedral, was full of high-end shops. It was very clean and organized and with very little vehicular traffic - a stark contrast from Rome and especially Naples. It's kind of a Disneyfied version of Italy, but full of real history and incredible art. The twilight views from the ponte vecchio were lovely.

The lively Piazza della Rupublica.

High-end shops in historic buildings.

A gelato popsicle!

Evening on the River Arno.

Ponte Vecchio

Dusk on the river, seen from Ponte Vecchio.

After our stroll, we parted with David's parents and had dinner on the way to the train station. It was a good pizza place, and of course we had an aperol spritz or two as well. We met up with Betsy, Chad, and Paul's Mom and waited for the train, which was delayed by about 20 minutes. What a whirlwind day in Florence!

Pizza for dinner...again.

They brought us some bubbly. Fancy! Business class all the way!

The trains are really fast. We made it up to 300 km/h at one point.

Florence is a cute smaller city with a lot of touristy areas, and most of the big attractions are clustered right in the center. It's definitely much cleaner than Rome and Naples, but also has less of a lived-in feeling and could seem less authentic or local. The architecture is amazing, especially the stunning Il Duomo, and the renaissance art is also incredible. The heart of Tuscany is a place you should definitely try to visit while you're in Italy.