#A View of Rome from the Tiber with the Ponte Rotto and the Temple of Vesta | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jo-shanerome18 · 5 years

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Roma v’s Juventus

13/05/2018: It was a late start today as it was a late one last night and another late one expected tonight, watching Juve v Roma at Stadio Olimpico.

We had nothing planned so we wandered out the front door, veered left and kept to the footpath until reaching the traffic lights at the eastern end of the Coliseum. Straight across the road was Rome's foremost training academy for gladiators, Ludus Magnus. Built by Emperor Domitian in the late first century, the complex was just one part of a wider public building project undertaken by the Flavian emperors, however its closure came about five hundred years later when gladiatorial contests were abolished. Although only part of it was uncovered, it was enough to get a perspective of its size and layout. We weren't part of a tour but there were tours in the grounds. Still, a quick look from the top to appreciate the ruins was plenty.

Part of the Ludus Magnus, gladiator school with a tunnel linking it directly to the Coliseum. The rest is still buried under the streets and buildings

Negotiating the traffic was our first challenge for the day, negotiating the beggars on route to our next destination was the second. They were everywhere and driving us nuts already. Keeping the Coliseum, Arch of Constantine and Forum Romanum to our right, our next stop was along Via di San Gregorio and also to our right, Circus Maximus. Located in the valley between the Palatinus and Aventinus, another couple of Roman hills, the chariot circuit was apparently built during the sixth century B.C. by Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome. Also apparently, it was while these races were underway at some point that the rape of the Sabine women occurred. The Sabine men were so engrossed in the races that the Roman men abducted their unmarried women to be their wives. Good story anyway.

We were at the round end, the square end was quite a distance away. Over half a kilometre where the chariots would enter the stadium twelve at a time, six on either side of the entry that led from the Forum Boarium. Sitting above the entry was the presiding magistrate who would be either a praetor or consul and started the race by dropping a white starting flag. We were overlooking the sweeping curve or sphendone where the Arch of Titus was located and where the processions would pass through to enter the arena. There's not much left now but some remnants of the arch's columns are still around. The complex once held well over a hundred thousand people but was now a grassed over reminder of the power of the Romans.

The tower of Moletta, a medieval water mill built after the Circus Maximus became farm land. The remains of another Arch of Titus bottom left. It was part of the original complex through which processions entered the arena

Down at the other end of Circus Maximus, near where the chariots would have entered was void of anything at all. The dirt track adjacent and parallel to Via di Cerchi, toward the square end of Circus Maximus (where all the chariot prangs apparently happened) led us there but we couldn't get all the way as it was blocked off, forcing us to move onto the footpath due to tents having been erected for the eighteenth Komen Italia Race for the Cure (breast cancer), due in five days’ time and filling up the end of the stadium.

It was then down to a busy and confusing area where traffic came from everywhere and cars parked all over the place. This was Forum Boarium where the chariots would have come from to start the races. To cross the main road we had to walk a bit to a pedestrian crossing (not that it's any safer), crossed Via Luigi Petroselli and walked up Via dei Ponte Rotto, behind the Temples of Portunus and Hercules Victor and across the Tiber via Ponte Palatino.

Ponte Rotto (Broken Bridge) was known by several different names during its existence. It kept collapsing and every time it was rebuilt it was renamed. All but one span was demolished to build the current bridge. Tiber Island and the oldest bridge in Rome, Pons Fabricius in the distance

Coat of Arms of Pope Gregory VIII, pope for two months in 1187 was still there

The Tiber was interesting to say the least. Walking along the western promenade afforded a lovely view of the murky water and weir that ponded the murky water under Ponte Cestio, creating eddies that trapped litter and vegetation in what seemed to be a state of perpetual motion. The fascination of the spinning pollution soon became tedious so moving towards Ponte Cestio, we crossed the bridge and familiarised ourselves with Piazza di San Bartolomeo all'Isola where we would meet the guide for the food tour tomorrow. We then crossed the oldest Roman built bridge still in use, Pons Fabricius. The bridge was built during the first century B.C. linking Campus Martius and the Theatrum Marcelli to Tiber Island, named after its builder, Lucio Fabricius and adorned by two very weathered herms with four heads, hence its nickname, Ponte dei Quattro Capi.

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Temple of Apollo Sosianus at the back. Theatre of Marcellus to the right

Heading up Via del Portico d'Ottavia, we were looking for a feed. It was after one and everyone was hungry. The entire street was packed with tourists with not much room alfresco. We ended up getting a table at Il Giardino Romano up against the front of the building. The food filled a hole but was expensive and somewhat ordinary.

Lunch at Il Giardino Romano. Tourists a plenty

With filled bellies we headed further along until we turned into Via Arenu'a and found a confronting reminder of the past. As we had encountered in Berlin a few years ago, a couple of brass plaques were imbedded into the footpath representing a couple of locals who were long gone. They were local Jews who would have been rounded up by the Fascists and sent off to the camps. They didn't muck around neither as they were transported fifteen hundred kilometres to Auschwitz and gassed within a week of their detention.

Just as in Berlin, the footpaths recognise Jews who were marched out of their houses to meet an early demise. This time it was Angelo and Debora's turn

On that depressing note we moved on and almost immediately came across Largo di Torre Argentina, named after a character from Strasbourg which at some time carried the Roman name Argentoratum. The ruins contained Roman Republican Temples and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. They also contained a few too many cats, although one cat is too many, and someone to feed them from a room within the ruins at the southern end. Tom and Beau were quite interested in them. But most others weren't.

Temple B, dedicated to Fortuna Huiusce Diei

Here Kitty Kitty. The Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary

Piazza Navona was a few streets away and our next stop. The area was filled with all sorts including faceless clowns and mimes but we particularly enjoyed the buskers, old guys playing stringed instruments and entertaining all who would get involved. There were also the usual Africans trying the usual and plenty of artists selling their stuff. At the other end of the piazza were more stalls and Fontana del Nettuno. Beyond the fountain was a short lane that led to gelato and a rest.

Piazza Navona, ex chariot track

Soon after zig zagging through a few more streets we entered Piazza della Rotonda just near Fontana del Pantheon. The place was packed from where we entered through to the queues waiting for entry into the Pantheon.

Monumental complexes and such started to spring up in this area following Octavian's (soon to become Emperor Augustus) victory over Marc Antonio and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium off of the coast of modern day Preveza in Greece. The victory occurred in 31 B.C. and was effectively the final battle of the Roman civil war of the Roman Republic. From there on Octavian became Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. One of his initial projects was his magnificent Mausoleum, followed by the Pantheon a few years later. What we see today is a radically altered Pantheon constructed by Hadrian during the early second century.

There were as many people as expected. Several horse drawn carriages trying to entice tourists into a ride had to manoeuvre through the crowd by using their size, albeit politely. Queueing up with the crowd wasn't too bad as the lines moved fairly quickly but once inside the crowds were just as bad. Everyone going about their business, admiring everything and kinking their necks, looking up at the imposing dome and the equally imposing oculus well above. While we were there a mass was getting underway. It must have been difficult to perform but the priest was probably used to it. A rope barrier only allowed entry to the fair dinkum worshippers.

Chapel of the Pantheon

Back outside though, Tom and Beau were focusing on other matters. The old fella cutting prosciutto off the bone near the entrance to the salumeria.

Mulling over whether to buy some salumi

Trevi Fountain was next. Not being exactly sure where it was, we followed the crowd and the obvious narrow laneways that led a path to the again, crowded monument. Unlike most other monuments in Rome, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps are quite recent, eighteenth century in fact which is almost new by Roman standards.

Everyone was taking their selfies and as crowded as it was we could still squeeze through to access the lower and closest tier and manage to grab some seating. Then, Cec goes down, flat on her arse on the worn and uneven marble steps. We sat her down for a while until she recovered somewhat and then hung around and enjoyed the atmosphere for a while, as much as we could anyway. Then, down a side street for food, across Via del Corso and further on to GiaRoma1886. It was quite hot but we chose al fresco so Cec could have a vape, sitting on the footpath across a small laneway where the waiters would carry our tucker whilst looking out for traffic. We were in the shade so it was quite comfortable bar the noise. GiaRoma1886 was a pretty good restaurant. It gave the appearance of being small on the outside but upon entry was quite large and well set out on the inside.

We then separated. Jo, Shane and Tom towards Piazza Picolo while Cec and Beau headed back to base.

Trevi Fountain

From there Piazza del Popolo was our focus and the tram stop beyond the gate. Several stops along the way were necessary to watch the street artists, some extremely good like the hip hoppers and the dude with the glass balls and others a bit strange. One that come to mind was the person inside the box with hand puppets that would jump out and scare the shit out of people as they walked past. He didn't get us so it was quite funny to watch everyone else's reactions. The final stop before moving through Porta del Popolo and outside of the Aurelian Walls was the Roma football shop. There was plenty to look at inside but we were only looking for something to wear at the football. A cap and scarf for the football and a cheap Roma v Liverpool T shirt left over from the recent Champions League semi final. Liverpool won so they would have been keen to get rid of them.

The tram terminus was straight outside of Porta del Popolo, across a couple of very busy roads and into Piazzale Flaminio. We were a bit early so we headed to Tintori for a quick beer. Plenty of Roma fans meant that there were no seats, they took them all. There were almost as many cops keeping the peace. We stood on the footpath leaning on the underground access to the Metro, drinking beer and enjoying the goings on until it was time to leave. This meant queueing for the toilet in the bar. Even the cops were queueing for a piss so we all headed next door to Burger King. Even they were busy.

Ending up on the tram platform, we just missed out on the next tram but were amongst the first to catch the following. Unlike the last time when we headed to Lazio v Inter Milan, we went a stop or two further on and got off at Piazza Mancini.

Packed like sardines

Not knowing where to head after leaving the tram, we followed the crowd across the Tiber where we found plenty of vendors selling merchandise, food, beer and those shots of coffee that the Italians seem to love. We were right outside of Stadio dei Marmi, a fascist era open air stadium built under the direction of Benito Mussolini to compliment the annexed Fascist Academy of Physical Education. From a distance the arena was surrounded by classical statues but ended up being fake Greco-Roman ones. We grabbed a panini and beer before heading around the entry point and to Curva Nord to take our seats.

The security were much more organised than when we watched Lazio and Inter Milan last time. There was still security and police but it was a smoother entry. Shane still managed to lose his bottled water again at the hands of a police frisking. Once inside there were a lot more kiosks open than at the Lazio game. The only issue was the piss trough cascade that was overflowing all over the floor before the game had even started and only got worse during the night.

Our seats were located a fair way down the concourse and almost behind the goals. We were fairly early but as kick off neared the crowd thickened around us. At first we bought the beers at the kiosk but as the game commenced a team of vendors walked around with beers delivered. They were more convenient and the plastic cups were bigger. A win, win situation.

Pre match introductions

The atmosphere was excellent and although amongst Roma fans, we were at the same end as the Juventus fans. A point would have given Juventus the premiership. They were very rowdy and whatever they were chanting, the Roma fans around us would scream an emotional response of some sort. As if they could be understood.

The game ebbed and flowed with chances at both ends. It however ended scoreless which meant that Juventus had got what they had come for, a point. The only team that could have beaten them was Napoli who had won earlier and their score went up, on the score board. Everyone knew what was happening. The Serie A was in the bag.

Post match. Juventus players thanking their supporters

After full time the boys challenged the toilets again and we headed out, walking back across Ponte Duca D'aosta. It was full of vans selling beers and steak sangers. Tom grabbed a largey and we headed off down the street. Not wanting to take the tram home we walked well away from the venue until we hailed a taxi. First thing he said was that the beer had to go. After that it was straight back to the apartment.

It had been a long day. When we had arrived back Cec and Beau had just got back from a session down stairs and were quite rowdy.

A few reds and ice cream to finish the night off

A couple of more drinks and it was bed. Tomorrow an early one at the Vatican.

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