Touring Rome - Places to Visit

The Colosseum

If you intend Touring Rome your trip is not complete without visiting the Colosseum. Il Colosseo as the Romans refer to it began life as the Flavian Amphitheater, an enormous elliptical stadium capable of seating 50,000 spectators within its six acre domain.

During the 1st century AD, and for hundreds of years thereafter, the Colosseum was host to grisly spectacles of human-human and human-animal combat. Slight evidence of those activities remains among the ruins, chiefly the underground vaults and tunnels that served as storage and entrances for the combatants.

Though the building has suffered repeated fire and earthquake damage over the centuries, remnants of its ancient glory can be seen in numerous places.

Looking over the huge arena from atop its 48m (157ft) height, it isn't difficult to imagine the show below as if it had happened only yesterday. True, the red brick arches are crumbling and the slaves and lions are long gone. But this popular Roman site remains alive with the ghosts of battles past and the many tourists in its present.

The seats are arranged in layers, almost all of which look out over the many levels of arch upon arch surrounding this vast expanse. Sitting in one, a visitor can almost hear the roar of the crowd as the Emperor's retinue enters through one of the four entrances used solely by them. The other 76 were for the average Roman citizen.

Opening in 80 AD after eight years of labor by 15,000 slaves and engineers, the Colosseum gained its now-common name from a 40m (130ft) nearby statue, the Colossus. Thought to have once had Nero's likeness, the statue displayed the face of a succession of Roman emperor's down the years. Evidence of the base of the bronze giant can still be seen between the Colosseum and the Temple of Roma and Venus not far away.

For 100 days after its debut, the arena was host to celebrations both noble and barbarian (to modern eyes). Fights to the death among enslaved gladiators, Roman versions of lion taming, considerably harsher than modern circus acts and many other displays of violence were common fare.

Seating was arranged by rank - the Emperor had a box near the base and women who were not part of the Royal party were relegated to the upper levels. But even from there it would not have been too difficult to see the results of the combat. Even from that height it would not have been to hard to see rhinos, hippos and elephants who were used in the 'shows' along with the more well-known lions and tigers.

The masts and velarium - a canopy covering part the large area to provide shade - have disappeared, long ago succumbing to the changes of the ages. But the immense columns and walls remain, ranging from Doric on the first story, to Ionic on the second, finishing with Corinthian on the third.

Visitors will marvel at the rest of the architecture, as well, that even today forms the basis of arenas around the world. It was one of the first, and certainly the largest and most well-known, to be free-standing. Most prior examples had been dug out of a hillside, of which many exist in and near Rome.
 

Touring Rome - Places to Visit 

The Sistine Chapel

Though named after Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned the chapel construction, the Sistine Chapel was given everlasting fame by Pope Julius II. For, in 1508, it was he who commissioned Michaelangelo to paint frescoes to cover the 10,000 square foot ceiling.

But on the way to the ceiling there are many delights for visitors to Rome and Vatican City, of which the Sistine forms a part. The chapel is nearby the Vatican Museum, itself worth a day or two. And, St. Peter's is also not far away with another Michaelangelo masterpiece, the Pieta not to mention the  dome of the basilica.

The chapel itself is on the small side, only 41m (135 ft) by 13.4m (44ft). But within these walls are works of art that would happily be acquired by any of the major art museums in the world. All have benefited from a large restoration project carried out from 1979 to 1999.

Many famous names are represented and many others that should be better known. There are several Botticelli works here, including the 1482 Life of Moses and The Punishment of Korah. Alongside and nearby are Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli, master artists of the period.

Of course, the main attraction - and properly so - remains the Sistine Ceiling. Formerly decorated only with a bland covering of painted stars, after four years of literally back breaking labor, Michaelangelo transformed it into the glorious nine-panel magnum opus it is today.

Drawing from stories in the Old Testament, Michaelangelo festooned the ceiling with Sibyls, prophets, Noah, obscure nude males, and - not least - Jehovah giving life to Adam with the touch of a finger.

Cleaned and restored in the 1990s, the ceiling shows the magnificent colors of one of the five greatest painters the world has ever seen. As Goethe described it:

"Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving."

Spending four years on a specially constructed scaffold, the paint nearly making him blind, the great artist had to devise and supervise a dozen innovations. Just as one example, an entirely new plaster - intonaco, still in use today - was created to resist mold and hold the paint properly.

Though the main sections were completed in 1512, Michaelangelo returned to the work more than 20 years later to paint the Last Judgment, beginning in 1535 and finishing the work in 1541. It too is not to be missed. Nor can it be, really, since it covers the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel.

Among other fascinating aspects is the depiction of St. Bartholomew, a self-portrait that shows the figure having his skin flayed. Michaelangelo was heavily criticized at the time, and by powerful figures, for his frequent depiction of nude figures. Though he won a temporary victory, the genitalia were later painted over.

Even those not usually interested in fine art come away from seeing the Sistine Chapel with a sense of awe. No visit to Rome is complete without a viewing of this site of so many masterpieces.

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