Obelisks and Obika

I've had a great relaxing weekend in Rome. The weather has been clear and sunny (albeit cold), and there's been a good mix of study and leisure.

Saturday started with a school trip up to San Giovanni in Laterano, the "official" church of the papacy. One of the great things about my language school are the cultural trips, usually involving some aspect of ancient Rome. These take place every Wednesday evening and some Saturdays, and are usually led by Silvia, a historian engaged by the school. Silvia's enthusiasm and knowledge of ancient, medieval and baroque Rome is fantastic. And her italian is slow, clear and easy to understand :-)

Quindi, Saturday morning saw me crossing the Tiber at the Ponte Garibaldi and haring off to the Lateran for our meet-up. Despite the cold and my lightweight coat, I was almost steaming by the time I sped up towards the obelisk of San Giovanni.

Don't you find the obelisks of Rome fascinating? Trophies of Rome's conquering heroes, 13 of these giants exist in piazzas all over the city. Eight were shipped to Rome from Egypt between AD 40 and AD 400, using specially constructed ships to carry the weight of the stone. The obelisks were transported down the Nile to Alexandria, and across the mediterranean sea to Ostia. Pliny wrote about these ships in his Natural History, and it's thought ships carried the obelisks suspended under the water to bear the weight. 

At 11am, our small group huddled at the base of the obelisk under a bright blue sky and listened to the exploits of the Emperor Constantine - his creation of the original church in the 4th century and his battle against Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge - and the remodelling and enlargement of the  church under Pope Sixtus V, and further embelishment  by Borromini in the 1600's. And we learned too that the Lateran obelisk originally stood in the Temple of Karnak in Thebes before Constantine had it shipped to Rome in 357. Standing first in the Circus Maximus, the obelisk was moved to its present location in 1588. As Rome's tallest, it can be see directly from the Colosseum taking the approach along the Via di San Giovanni in Laterano.

 

The interior of the cathedral of San Giovanni is certainly magnificent but we were all captivated by the cloister. Curved and twisted columns, inlaid with mosaic, line the covered porticos of the cloister, guarded at each of the entrances to the central garden by stone lions and tiny sphinxes. Along the walls of the cloister, sarcophagi, statuary and fragments of columns are embedded.

We crossed over to the Scala Sancta, the sacred steps, and watched groups of people climb the ancient steps, thought to have been brought to Rome in 326 from Jerusalem. Medieval legend says these are the steps Jesus Christ ascended to meet Pontius Pilate. Pilgrims and the devout climb the stairs on their knees as an act of holy indulgence. At the top of the stairs is a sanctum containing an ancient relic, the icon of Santissimi Salvatore Acheiropoieton (or "not made by human hands" - that is, the work of angels). During Easter the Scala Sancta are climbed by thousands of pilgrims who make the journey to Rome.

 

Our Saturday tour was a long one, with about four hours touring the Lateran complex. We had a late lunch on our way back down to the city, afterwards walking down though the late afternoon sunlight to the spot that always seems to be Rome's marker, the Vittorio Emanuele Monument.

 

As always, after a few hours of italian my brain is tired. But on Saturday I was bodily tired too - a lot of walking (10-12 kilometres)! Today has been a relaxing day, with a walk through the Largo Argentina onto Rome's Via Condotti and the Spanish Steps.  The winter sales continue: Hermes, Armani, Max Mara,  Prada and Furla are clearing their stores for Spring.  Bargain hunters are everywhere and the Via del Corso was packed with people.  There were so many people sidewalks were abandoned; most were walking along the city streets.

 

It was all a bit crazy, so for sanity's sake I dropped into Obika, the mozzarella bar in the Campo de' Fiori for a glass of wine and a plate of San Daniele prosciutto and fresh cheese:

 

before heading back for a long and newsy Skype with Jim, followed by an hour with one of my conversation exchange buddies, also via Skype, on my weekend in italian. 

Monday marks the beginning of my fourth school week, with an exam at the end of this week to (hopefully) move up into the next level.

Wish me luck!