The Children's Day

The oculus of the Pantheon

Sunday, 8 July, 2012

Last night, the children were given the task to plan our day today.  The three of them pored over the guide book and map and, keeping in mind entrance costs, plan our day.  They even wrote up a list complete with rest times, and Annie carried the map to direct us through the city.  It was very cute and a great activity for them.  They felt more a part of the planning, and it taught them to be more familiar with Rome and how to plan trips and be flexible.  

We started out going to to Castel Sant’Angelo.  We had walked past it, but had not entered in before.  One thing about entrance fees to many places in the European Union.  Some give discounts for children (or even free!) or for families.  Many however, only give discounts for children, students, and teachers that reside in the EU.  So for our children, we have to pay full adult price.  Hmmmm--doesn’t seem quite fair.   So anyway, we saw the museum in the castle.  We weren’t expecting much, so it was fine.  The Castel began it’s life as a place for the remains of Emperors (Hadrian’s was the first), because in ancient Rome, the emperors bodies could not be buried in the city walls.  Then, the castle elements were added and a wall leading to the Vatican for the pope to escape through to the castle in times of trouble.  All over Rome, we keep saying, “remember in Angels and Demons . . .”    We did a lot of that at the Castel Sant’Angelo.  Evidently in the distant past, there was a plague and the pope was holed up in the castle.  The archangel Michael appeared to release the people from the plague.  There is a stone and copper statue in the courtyard and another done in gold leaf on top of the castle of St. Michael.  The art was nice, but not wow.  It was fun seeing inside the castle and going up on the terrace to get great views of Rome.  Although, since we had been indoors, I had my glasses on instead of my sunglasses, I felt like my eyes were on fire and were going to melt out of my head--they hurt so much!  Had to switch back to the sunglasses.  

The view of Rome--see all the domes!!

The children then led us to Piazza Navona to the Fountain of the Four Rivers (another A&D reference) where we took our photos, then moved on to the Pantheon.  I didn’t get any photos of that from the outside, but the inside has a huge dome with a large oculus inside (an opening, or eye, in the center of the dome).   From Randy, from when this dome was built, it was the largest dome for 1500 years until the dome of the cathedral in  Florence was built.  It has squares in the dome that appear to be done for aesthetic reasons.  They are, but also for structural reasons--they take some of the weight out of the dome.  Also, the stone used in the top is a lighter stone and is cut much thinner.  I believe it was built as a pagan Roman temple, but now has a Christian (Catholic) alter and pews in one area--darn Christians, taking over everything!  ; )   If you continue the curve of the dome to create a sphere, the bottom of the sphere would touch the floor in the center of the room.  Pretty cool for people with no formal education or power tools!   The Romans were amazing!

The light from the oculus shining down in the Pantheon

From there we went to Piazza Barberini to see the Church of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception.  They had a small museum of the Capucchian friars and then you went into the crypt.  Reportedly, during the French Revolution,  a group of Cappucciani from France escaped to Rome and stayed at this church (they had a huge organization with hundreds of acres then) and had to hide out in the crypt.  Well, one of them decided to “express” himself and created art, complete with symbolism using the bones from the many friars that had been buried there over the years.  I think he was losing touch, but who am I to judge?  There are many rooms with the celings and walls “decorated” with symbolically rich “art” made of bones.  To tell the truth, it was kind of weird.  Not worth the money for admission.  We had heard of a similar thing in Paris (except not art), but this was just weird and kind of creepy.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures, so I can’t share this with you.   (Lucky you!!)  Ooops--I just found out that Randy took a sneaky photo of the bones, so for those of you that don't read his blog:

Some of the "art"

Aren't they great?