May 24

Baths of Caracalla

interior of baths with intact mosaic floorsVia Appia
Villa of Maxentius - circus turned hay field
Capitoline Wolf
Theater of Marcellus
interior of Pantheon

This morning we walked over to the Baths of Caracalla. The baths once covered 27
acres; they were built in the early 3rd century AD by emperor Caracalla who, after
assisinating his brother, gave all inhabitants of the Empire citizenship. The baths
were a HUGE public work for all the people of Rome. It took 9000 men 5 years to
build them. There is quite a bit of the structure still standing and there are some
very large, colorful floor mosaics still intact. Owen liked the large open spaces where
he could run.
After quite a wait, we caught the Archeobus down the Appian Way. We got off at the
Tomb of Caecilia Metella. Then we walked back toward town to visit the ruins of the Villa of Maxentius, who was succeeded as Emperor by Constantine (the Great).
Owen picked up hay from the circus which had been recently mowed. Heading
closer back to town we tried to visit the Catecombs of St. Cecilia, but alas, we arrive
around 12:30, and they are open 9-12 and 2-4. What is it with a 5 hour work day? At
least they had their hours posted; we have found countless establishments that seem
to open and close randomly with no posted signs. Often places are closed after lunch
time, but that is not always the rule.???
We caught the Archeobus back into town and were dumped at the main train station
while the driver and attendant had a 40 minute break – no warning that the route
was not continuing on its regular circuit! We felt rather gypped out of the 20 Euros
we paid for the bus as they were very infrequent, the head phones (for the audio
commentary) were testy, and they didn’t keep running.
We took our sleeping baby, boarded the metro which is dependable, and went to the
Capitoline Museums where, among other things, we saw the Capitoline Wolf with Romulus
and Remus and the Dying Gaul. Owen woke up to recognize all the penises on the
statues; he pointed them all out for us. The pieces in the museum, like many things
here were sorely lacking signage. If there was identification, it was generally
translated into English which was nice, but many, many pieces, and whole rooms
lacked identification. We have noticed a general lack of interpretation and
identification at other locations, but its absense was particularly noticable in such an
important museum.
We walked by the Theater of Marcellus and to the Pantheon then headed back to
Trastevere for some Indian food Abram had noticed on our walk last night. We
picked up some things for breakfast (grapefruit, salmon, dried tomatoes in olive oil,
and grilled zucchini with olive oil) at a grocery on the way. Of course they weren’t
open until 6:30, so we walked to the Piazza of S. Maria Trastevere where Abram and I
took turns looking inside the church (which we hadn’t been able to do last night) and
playing with Owen in the Fountain. Owen finds fountains like he finds parks! The
inside of the church has an amazing mosaic completed between 1140 and 1143 –
Mary and the adult Jesus at the center of a dome over the altar with lots and lots of
gold tiles. We also learned that much of the marble in the church was "mined" from
the Baths of Caracalla.
On our walk back home, we walked over the Tiber Isand, then over the Capitoline
hill past the modern capitol building of Italy. Owen pointed out the Colosseum for
us, and as we rounded the corner, he announced, “I see my monastery!” He was also
informing us as we walked that he is not a cat because he does not have wiskers and
has two legs.