“Bold strategy Cotton.  We’ll see if it pays off.”  Our thoughts exactly 12 days ago when we first were put through the trials of Gino (similar to the labors of Hercules but with less physical requirements).  Today marked the final day with our faithful guide as he led us through bits of the Diocletian Baths and the Roman National Museums.  So here we go!

 

An early departure at around 9 in the morning, we all grabbed our headsets for what we hope was the last time.  Those bulky tourist beacons have very annoying headsets.  Our destination, the Diocletian Baths, were not far enough to justify a bus, so we headed off to the subway for a quick ride.  It wasn’t long before some members of the group were left behind after not making it onto the tram in time.  Eventually we reconnoitered at the appropriate stop and surfaced.

 

Outside the subway station is the large, circular Piazza della Repubblica that had a fountain at the center around which traffic circled in the mad and unorganized fashion that is Roman driving.  In front of us, the arching buildings.  Behind us, a church.  It wasn’t always that way, so let me explain.  Way back in the days of Rome, that entire area was a part of the Diocletian Baths.  The baths were a public area for Romans of all classes to clean themselves at any temperature they saw fit.  The arching buildings I mentioned used to be walls at the entrance of the structure and the church was the tepidarium.  As for the piazza, that, along with a massive square area on its sides, was a garden.  Hard to believe, right?  After the short explanation, Gino lead us into the church, properly named the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (let’s just call it the Santa Maria).  As I mentioned before, it used to be the tepidarium, the room temperature baths of the complex.  When the baths were in disrepair, Michelangelo redesigned the interior to be a large, highly decorative church which in later years was used by monks but is currently a regular church and tourist attraction.

But that’s not all.  In 1702 a meridian line was placed in the floor and a hole drilled into the wall.  That meridian line served the purpose of telling the date fairly accurately by having the sun hit the line at noon at varying degree marks corresponding to months and dates.  At the end closest to the wall is an ellipse that was supposed to track and predict star movements, but unfortunately that one no longer works.

 

Some time later, we exited the building and walked around the block to the other side of the ruins to arrive at the entrance to one of the branches of the Roman National Museum.  The first one we entered was the smallest.  It had its own small security check but it was totally unnecessary.  Inside were remains of statues, pieces of the original structure, and the frigidarium portion of the baths.  There were two small squares that branched off but looked like they had received renovations.  One had a well in the center and the other a fountain.  The museum also had a strange modern photography exhibit for some odd reason.  It didn’t exactly fit in with anything…

We didn’t spend much time in there because there wasn’t a ton to see.  About a block ahead of us was the next, larger branch of the museum.  It had four floors with one of the four dedicated to coins.  At that point, Gino took his leave and we all meandered through the museum at our own paces.  There was a ton to see, but a lot of the same types of pieces like statue heads and mosaics.  Some of the art stood out, but those pieces were few and far between.

 

That pretty much wraps up our Saturday.  Tomorrow is a free day, so nothing will be posted unless something extraordinary comes up.  Monday marks a milestone in our journey.  It will be on that day that we leave Rome, only to return on the night before coming back to the states.  Now I don’t know how the wifi is going to turn out at our upcoming hotels, so I can’t guarantee posts will be regular, but we’ll do our best.  Have a good one!

 

– Chris Apfeld