Italian Flavours Cruise, Thomson Majesty, 29 August - 5 September 2014

This is a series of articles covering a cruise around Italy's south and west coasts on the Thomson Majesty cruise ship in 2014.

Click on each of the photos below to link to the associated articles and photographs.

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When In Rome... Blog!

Tuesday 2 September 2014. I've already described the first part of our day in Rome which was spent in the Vatican. We left St Peter's Square in a long straggly crocodile.

Castle Sant'Angelo. Built by Emperor Hadrian as his mausoleum it was built 130-139 AD. It was converted to a fortress in 401 and as the Goths sacked Rome most of the statues upon its walls were thrown down onto the attackers in 537. However the cap stone of a funerary urn, thought to be Hadrian's, was found and now covers the baptismal font in St Peter's Basilica.

There is a legend that the Archangel Michael appeared on top of the fortress in 590, sheathing his sword as an outbreak of plague came to an end. This is commemorated by his statue on the roof. Another version is that during the plague, Pope Gregory I heard that the population had turned to worshipping a pagan statue. The Pope led a procession to the statue which fell apart with a clap of thunder at his approach. The angel then appeared wiping blood from his sword before sheathing it.

The popes converted the fortress to a residence from the 14th century but it was also used as a prison. Giordano Bruno, the defrocked monk who previously fled to England, ending up working for Queen Elizabeth's spy-master, Walsingham, was imprisoned here for six years. It is linked by a covered passageway via the Vatican Wall to St Peter's Basilica, the hero's flight along this being a memorable episode in Dan Brown's book, Angels and Demons. And before we move on totally, let's have a closer look at a portion of this photo...

A brilliant bit of hokum! One man holds a stick in one outstretched hand only, bearing all the weight of another man perched on top of it. Very effective, but...

The strongman is sitting on a metal plate and from it a welded iron pole up goes under his robes up his side and under his arm so he can rest his arm on it. Holding the next right-angle hides it and makes it look like a single stick. The other guy is sitting on a second plate, probably shaped so he doesn't move off the balance point. Others on the tour were oohing and aahing but I'm just a touch cynical... ha ha!

St Angelo Bridge over the River Tiber, the famous river of Rome, 252 miles long. Rome was built along it's eastern bank. It's been cleaned up a bit since the ancient Romans used to throw the bodies of executed criminals into it. Not only ancient Roman criminals... In January 897 Pope Steven VI had the last but one pope, Formosus, exhumed and regardless of his death put the rotting corpse on a throne and on trial for performing the rites of pope whilst deposed. The corpse was found guilty, had the three fingers used for performing a blessing removed and was reburied. Presumably nettled because the corpse had shown no remorse at all, the Pope had it dug up again and thrown in the Tiber. The St Angelo bridge is one of a very few ancient surviving bridges, though not all of the bridge is all that old.

Horti Palantini, the entrance to the Farnesi Gardens, the first private horticultural gardens in Rome. They were created by Cardinal Farnesi, brother to Julia, the mistress of Pope Alexander VI - the Borgia pope.

The Arch of Constantine, raised by the Senate to commemorate the victory of one Roman Emperor, Constantine I over another, Maxentius, at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 A.D. Maxentius was killed in the battle and... thrown in the River Tiber...

The Coliseum (or Colosseum), built 70-80 AD and the largest Roman amphitheatre in the world. It could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 people and was the site of games, gladiatorial combat, executions and re-enactments of Roman battles (complete with actual slaughter...).

It is one of the most instantly recognised of any building on the planet and receives millions of visitors every year. All around you can hear guides in all languages saying "Hold onto your handbag! Watch your cameras!" It's worth a couple more photos...

Taken pretty much from the same spot as the last photo of the Coliseum, this shot looks up the Via Sacra with the Palatine Hill on the left and the Arch of Titus in the distance. The arch is much older than the previously shown Arch of Constantine, dating from around 82 A.D. and commemorating Titus' victories which included a siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. With only a single arch, it has been the inspiration for many subsequent arches including the 19th century Arc de Triomph in Paris. The Palatine Hill is the central hill of the seven hills of Rome and there is evidence of occupation from as far back as 1000 B.C. Its name is accepted to be the origin of many languages' term for palace, palazzo, palais etc. The Roman Forum is below it on one side, Circus Maximus on another.

We got back onto the coach at this point and were dropped off again around the corner from the Trevi Fountain. This wasn't the best time to visit... Any visit to an ancient city or any capital city is bound to include at least one site obscured by scaffolding and the Trevi Fountain was ours in Rome. But hey! It will be sparkling the next time we visit!

We trooped to a nearby restaurant for a meal. We don't tend to eat huge lunches so we ordered a pizza each and had to laugh when we saw it. Should have just ordered the one then... and shared with another couple... It was excellent but we declined a dessert (would have needed a mortgage in fact for a dessert...) and set off for a mooch around as we had about 45 minutes free time.

I can't resist Italian ice cream, but somehow the name of the street was putting me off and we walked around the block first, before buying a couple of absolutely huge lemon-flavoured ices at another of the small Bibite vans. At this point, around ten minutes before meeting with the rest of the tour, a chap from our coach came up and asked us where the Spanish Steps were. We had to tell him that he wouldn't have time to walk there and back.

We now started a walking tour through a maze of narrow streets and larger piazzas at a pace that didn't allow any following on the map. There were lots of tours all doing the same thing so just making sure we kept within sight of our own guide was hard work enough. We could hear him on our ear pieces, but that doesn't help you follow without keeping them in view!

This ancient Roman "something" had been tastefully joined by more modern buildings. Bad taste obviously... The Roman soldier was kept busy pointing his sword at grinning kids and having his photo taken. He must have totally lost contact with his own guide...

Whatever this building was, it had a railed area at the front with a view down a couple of metres to what was the pavement or ground level in ancient Roman times. A bit of dust has settled and hardened since then.

We came to a halt outside this building. This is the Pantheon, built by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus, adopted son of the first Emperor, Julius Caesar (27 BC - 14 AD). Or not. It is now thought that only the facade - perhaps only the inscription - is in its original form. The temple itself was destroyed by fire at least twice and the current building is thought to date from Trajan, around 114 A.D.

We know from Pliny's writings that Agrippa's version had columns in the form of Caryatides, the female forms seen still holding up the Porch of the Maidens, on the Erechtheum on Athens' Acropolis. Also we know that one of Cleopatra's pearls was cut in half to be used as earrings for the statue of Venus.

The interior of the Pantheon. The dome is shaped as a perfect hemisphere and at such a height that a perfect sphere could stand on the floor at its centre. It had been converted to a Christian church in the early 7th century which has probably been the main factor in its preservation. Whilst the interior has remained remarkably intact the exterior has undergone a bit of asset stripping and shape changing over the centuries. At one point it had twin bell towers over the portico. Derisively known as "the ass's ears", they were removed in the late 1800s.

The dome is of concrete and an incredible feat for its time. The stone used for the higher sections is volcanic pumice and small pieces of pot to keep it light enough to stay up and the thickness of the dome wall gets thinner as it gets higher. The structure of spars and square segments also adds strength and reduces weight. At the apex is an oculus, a hole open to the air to allow light to enter. The opening also saves a bit of weight. This does allow rain to cascade down into the building of course and the floor is shaped so as to allow water to drain away.

The sarcophagus of the artist Raphael (1483-1520) containing, according to the inscription, his "bones and ashes". Rather touchingly, the body of Maria Bibbiena, his fiancée who died before he could marry her, is buried just at the side of his resting place.

The walking tour continues, taking us to the Piazza Navonne where we are given 30 minutes free time. We treat ourselves to some fruit (oh ok, ok, there was ice cream involved...) and a latte machiatto. "Latte" means "milk" so if you ask for a "latte" in Italy you either get asked "solo latte?" ("only milk?") in a wary tone - or you get a glass of milk...

Following this free time we met up with the coach for our trip back to the Thomson Majesty at the port of Civitavecchia.

Italian Flavours Cruise Index

A Morning Visit To The Vatican

Tuesday 2 September 2014. Thomson Majesty parks itself at Civitavecchia and we have a full day excursion to Rome. I'm going to split this into two articles. This, the first, will deal with the morning of our visit which is spent mainly in the Vatican and includes a visit to St Peter's Basilica. The second will deal with bits of ancient Rome and touristy bits.

The coach ride from Civitavecchia took about an hour and a bit and our guide, Roberta, told us we would be meeting with another local guide in Rome who was very knowledgeable about the sites we would see. This would be much more than me... I am not particularly religious and not Catholic, so I'm not well up in saints and popes. I've written the next sentence about ten times and scrubbed it so have given up and will leave it at that...!

Our first look at St Peter's Basilica is shown above. The chap is in our party and we all have those little green ear pieces which are attached to a small radio receiver so we can hear the guide, Francesco's voice. Well I could if my ear were shaped so that ear pieces didn't drop out all the time... I felt like a security man with my finger to my ear all the time...

The canopy in front of St Peter's is the spot from where the Pope gives his weekly Wednesday address. It's not always from this spot, so check before you go. Binoculars would be a good idea.

We enter St Peter's where bags are searched and scanned. We are in a large room running along the length of the front of the building with the main doorway into the basilica proper in front of us. This is the ceiling of this reception room.

This is our first glimpse inside. A mass of people, many of whom have arms raised - not for any religious reasons, but because they are all taking photos on equipment like phones or whatever that must be held at arms length to see the viewfinder. It's one of modern technology's bug bears - and getting worse with some people holding i-Pads up so they can see what they are photographing on a TV screen...

It's always worth looking at the ceiling in any cathedral and St Peter's does not disappoint. We'll come to the dome in a bit, but there are a few other smaller domes, some of them elliptical to watch out for too.

By turning to the right as you enter St Peter's, you come to Michaelangelo's statue of The Pietà. The body of Jesus after the Crucifixion, resting on His mother, Mary's knee. Sculpted by Michaelangelo in 1498-99 and the only example of his work that he signed. He apparently overheard someone admiring it and thinking it was someone else's work so he carved his name into the sash that Mary wears over her left shoulder. Mary is given a much younger face than a woman who had a son in his thirties, but Michaelangelo said that so pure a woman would not age as a normal person. The statue is behind bulletproof glass now, following an attack by a mentally ill person in May 1972 who repeatedly hit it with force using a geologist's hammer, causing much damage.

St Peter's Baldachin, directly under the dome and over the high altar and the tomb of St Peter below, it was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII and designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was built 1623-34 in bronze with gilding. Behind it is the "throne of St Peter", a chair apparently dating from the 12th century but claimed as being the actual chair used by St Peter. Deteriorating, it was placed in a throne of bronze held up by statues of Saints Ambrose and Augustine for the Latin Church and Athanasius and John Chrysostom for the Greek Church. At the rear is the Gloria, a window of yellow alabaster with the Dove of the Holy Spirit at the centre.

The famous dome is the tallest dome in the world. Not the widest, though. It is slightly smaller than the dome of the Roman Pantheon (which we shall see in the next article), but is slightly larger than the dome of Hagia Sofia in Constantinople (today's Istanbul) which had been completed in 537 A.D. Whilst designs were started in 1506, Michaelangelo took over the project in 1547 and redesigned the dome creating an ovoid shape taller than it is wide, thus reducing the outward energy of a hemisphere.

Michaelangelo died in 1564 having completed the drum upon which the dome was to sit. Work was continued by his assistant Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, but so slowly that in 1585 Pope Sixtus replaced him with Giacomo della Porta who redesigned the outer layer of the dome, raising it to produce the profile that we know today. The dome was finished in 1590, leaving the next two popes to complete the lantern and then the crowning cross. The letters of the inscription, black upon gold are two meters tall.

The monument of Pope Alexander VII (d.1667) over a doorway. Bernini's last work, it has the Pope supported by four female figures representing virtues. Only the front two are properly visible. Charity nearest to us, holding a child and Truth with her foot resting on a globe, pierced by a thorn rising from England - Alexander spent much effort trying to suppress the growth of Protestantism. The skeleton of Death, his head covered by a shroud, holds up an hour glass, reminding the Pope that his time is limited.

Along the floor of the nave, in a strip of flooring kept free of the wear of passing feet by a double timber partition are marks showing the comparative length of other significant cathedrals of the world. This is the marker for St Paul's cathedral in London and the exact length denoted by the gold star.

And a small reminder that things don't have to be famous or have any special meaning to be beautiful. This was a random glance upwards, just as a ray of light caught the ultimate angle.

My earpiece dropped out at this point and I didn't hear what Francesco was telling us about this monument. I took a photo and looked it up when I got home. It would have been worth hearing. This is the monument to the exiled Royal Stuarts of Scotland, James (who would have been James III of England) and (Bonnie Prince) Charles amongst others. This is a monument, the tomb is below in the crypt.

Charles II had no legitimate heirs but many illegitimate ones who were either French or Catholic or even both. The throne passed to James II who had two wives. From his first wife two daughters, so the line would pass normally to his son, James, by his second wife. However, in the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1689 the throne was claimed successfully by James II's son-in-law, William and daughter Mary, ruling together as Protestants. The dynasty of Stuarts was ended and the short-lived House of Orange would rule only until the death of William and Mary's daughter Queen Anne, whereupon the House of Hanover took the British throne in the shape of King George I.

We leave St Peter's and head down the steps on the left of the Square in front of the Basilica. The Swiss Guard check visitors who head for a special tour of the crypt. There are two of these. On one tour you see where the body of St Peter used to rest. On the other, involving uneven footing and tight spaces, you see the final resting place and indeed, the Apostle's remaining bones, sealed in clear plastic containers. Only 12 people at a time can take these tours which must be booked months in advance.

Looking back at St Peter's from the massive piazza. On the right of the basilica we can just see the gable end of the Cistine Chapel. The gable end is all we are going to see of it...

The Romans removed the obelisk from Egypt, one of several taken after a spot of disagreement with a certain Cleopatra. It was close to here when St Peter was brought to his crucifixion by Nero. Hadrian, the first Christian emperor had it moved to the spot of the crucifixion and it has been here ever since, revered as the only "surviving" witness to the event.

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All Roads Lead To Rome

Tuesday 26 August 2008. The Island Star docked in Civitavecchia - try saying that fast - and we took a coach trip around Rome.

We had Mum with us so couldn't do a lot of walking but unfortunately the coach wasn't allowed to stop at all in Rome so all my photos had to be taken through the window, which meant lots of reflections of the windows behind me and silhouettes of other passengers taking their own photos!

Not to worry, there's a couple of better ones to come. As we enter the city we start to see the occasional impressive chunk of masonry.

And then the big sights start to appear and crowd us all at once as we enter the centre of ancient Rome. This is Circus Maximus where the chariot racing took place.

The area of the Forum comes next and around us are the seven hills of Rome.

The Arch of Janus is just one of a very many triumphal arches. Janus was a god with two faces, the god of beginnings and of gateways. He is unusual in that the Greeks had no similar associated god.

The coach passes a rather more modern imposing building. This is the Palazzo Venezia with the equestrian monument of Victor Emanuel II ('Il Vittoriano'). It was built between 1855 and 1911 to celebrate the Italian Unification.

We are back in the middle of ancient Rome. We noticed a few of these small mobile refreshment stalls.

The Arch of Septimius Severus is one of the more famous arches. Built in the year 203 AD, it commemorates the victories of Emperor Severus and his sons, Caracalla and Geta, in Parthia, the decade before. After his death, Caracalla and Geta ruled jointly as Emperor until Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212, after which the relationship somewhat fell apart... All mention of Geta was removed from monuments throughout the Roman Empire.

The Colosseum was high on my list of want-to-see remains. I was impressed by just how many remains of ancient Rome there are.

London has gleefully built over much of its remains over the centuries though of course the Great Fire of 1666 wouldn't have helped! As always on tours like this I merrily snapped away without a hope of remembering what I was taking photos of.

Towards the end of the tour we came to the Vatican and this view of St Peter's. There were so many things to see and forget the names of that visiting Rome on foot is a must for the future. It could be on the cards for next year I think! Meanwhile the coach takes us back to the Island Star and Civitavecchia or "Chivvy" as it seems to be shortened to. There is a fortress and a tall ship in the port - after a morning stuck on the coach I might have to jump ship again and stretch my legs!

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