I had another fun day in Rome, this time concentrating more on the South of Rome. I started off at the outdoor markets of Porta Portese in the Trastevere area. This place was a riot and has to be the largest outdoor market in Rome, held only on Sundays. (Thanks for the tip Marty!) I thought I was a good haggler but I was nothing compared to these Italian street vendors. What a hoot! I then went over to catch the Metro to go further south and what do I find but an Egyptian-style Pyramid! A rich Roman magistrate named Gaius Cestius had this built as his tomb, complete with a burial chamber inside. The Metro then took me to the Appian Way, ancient Rome's first highway. As you can see in the picture, the original pavement stones still line the street. An added bonus was that they close it to cars on Sunday so I rented a bike and cruised down it like the ancient Romans did! I stopped off at the Catacombs of San Callisto. Talk about a spooky place! A guide leads you underground through the tunnels where early Christians were buried. This place was where 16 Popes had been buried but they since have moved their remains to other sites. By law, no one was allowed to be buried within the walls of Rome and since the land was so expensive, a few wealthy landowning Christians allowed their property to be used as a burial site. Rumor has it that they got some of their money back by holding annual Halloween haunted houses!! (Just kidding!) After that I stopped by the St Paul's Outside the Walls church. What's cool about Rome is a lot of the great art, sculptures and visually stunning buildings are in the churches and they're all free! This one was amazing and so I included a picture of both inside and outside. You can't really see it along the long center hallway of the church but above all the columns are mosaic pictures of all 280 Popes. Wild stuff. From there I ended my day by touring thru an area called E.U.R., which stands for Esposizione Universale Roma (Universal Exhibition of Rome). It was planned by Mussolini for the 1942 World's Fair but never happened since Italy entered WWII in 1940. If Hitler and Mussolini had won the war, our world and it's buildings would look more like the Fascist architecture of what's referred to as the "Square Colosseum" in the picture. Well that's all for today. I'm off for the Amalfi Coast tomorrow and the town of Sorrento. Hope everyone had a great weekend! Jeff
The Wandering Italian 