Walking around, Rome

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This is just a welcoming place for U.S. military - full of information and lots of free perks - PC/internet, TV, staff to assist you, free snacks, drinks. Show your military-related ID at the street door and you will be admitted.
From their service description:
The USO Rome Center is located in the heart of the capital city of Italy. Conveniently located near the Vatican, our center's goal is to make Rome one of the most memorable and positive experiences of our patrons’ military service by offering a "Home while in Rome." Our center offers a wide range of FREE services including: area information, guidebooks, maps, Internet cafe w/ Skype, American canteen, comfortable TV lounge, luggage storage and the cleanest bathrooms in Rome. Want a Roman Holiday? Let the USO do the planning for you. Book one of our all inclusive vacation packages, which includes hotel, tours and meals! Check out our tours page for more information. And even if you are visiting only for a few days, we offer discounted prices on all hotels and tours booked through the USO Rome Center!

* Note - If you do plan to vist, be sure to have your military-related ID with you - you will have to hold this ID up to the front door window as requested before you will be admitted.

USO Rome Center
Via Vespasiano, 44
Roma - 00193 (Vatican Area)
GPS Coordinates: N 41° 54.43' EO 12° 27.498'

Hours of Operation:
Monday-Saturday: 0830-1700
Sundays: Closed

Tel: 0039-06-397-27-419
Fax: 0039-06-397-54-249
E-mail: inforome@uso.org

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I'm realising again that writing tips helps me see where I was... in Rome perhaps more than in anywhere else. I'll have to build Roaming from the Pantheon in a few separate tips to keep everything readable.

The Pantheon itself is not off the beaten path but the streets and alleys I chose from there certainly were for me, albeit still in a most touristy part of Rome (Ancient Rome after all.)
On this last visit to Rome, filled with a kind of "VT spirit", I was determined to note everything of importance and to return with useful stuff... Once back home, I faced the fact once more that I'm not gifted for writing useful tips. I can write about what I liked but it doesn't mean I knew where I was whenever I liked something.
Anyway, starting with the Pantheon: there's a real buzz around the place as one approaches the entrance, but still a very Ancient Rome feeling even with all the tourists. Stones like these are overwhelming.
Seeing the inside is a MUST. The grand portico with its eights columns is linked to the rotunda by a massive brick construction. A gigantic bronze door lets you in. There you will be amazed! The celestial vault, nine meters of open sky, is the only source of light in the temple and is absolutely awe-inspiring.

The niches inside used to be decorated with statues of gods. Today they are chapels, one of them dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto Primo. Very beautiful, and it all seemed quieter inside.

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Walking from the Pantheon, I saw this famous work by Bernini, by chance. It's a small obelisk carried by an amusing marble elephant sculpture called Il pulcino della Minerva (Minerva's chick) for its small size. I'm sure I heard a Roman friend refer to it as "l'elefantino" too.

The obelisk was found in a nearby garden and is the smallest Egyptian obelisk in Rome, dating to VIth c. BC. Pope Alexander VII asked Bernini to draw a support for the obelisk. Bernini took his inspiration from a dream figure in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by Francesco Colonna (a book I'd never heard of until now but if I ever happen upon it, I'll remember now!) The title means "The Strife of Love in a Dream".

The baby elephant was done between 1667-1669. The concept was Bernini's but the realisation is attributed to Ercole Ferrata, probably a student of Bernini. This obelisk-bearing sculpture stands on the ground of an ancient temple to Minerva.

The Church behind the elefantino is Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which is *the* church of Tuscan glories! The only Gothic church in Rome, its two Domenican monks architects modelled it on Santa Maria Novella in Florence, on which they had also worked.
Once back home, checking my photos, I was disappointed to have focussed only on the elephant, using too much zoom. I saw more beautiful shots by others across the web, that incorporated the Church in the background... I'll do better next time!
Inside, feast your eyes on the ogival vault, blue skies! See the moving tomb of Fra Angelico, in a dark passage left of the chancel. Truly worth exploring but this tip is about the baby elephant so I'll stop here.

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Near the Pantheon, I took a small street off Via del Seminario, called via dei Pastini. There I found a magical artisan shop called Bartolucci, where working with wood is an art. (Bartolucci has shops all over Italy.) Here, Pinocchio is king! very amusing and great photo opps!

(Without knowing it, I was approaching Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, and Bernini's elephant and obelisk, which I've already written about here.)

I followed Via del Pie' di Marmo, left on via di San Ignazio then slight right on Via del Seminario. Here you face Piazza San Ignazio, a stunning small square straight out of a movie set! or rather, a theatre décor. I'm very sorry I didn't take a pic of the square and only got the Church of San Ignazio... by then, I wanted a restroom... I stopped for a pastry on the square, at a rather famous restaurant with terrace called Le Cave di San Ignazio (in Restaurant tips.)

The Church of San Ignazio has a famous cupola in trompe-l'oeil, It is a Jesuit church, like the Gesù. On the ceiling, the influence and diffusion of the Jesuit vocation is illustrated by the words of Ignace de Loyola "Go and light up the world!"

Also somewhere within Rome's historical center (centro storico) is this fragment of a giant statue symbolizing a foot - in hard, solid marble. Ancient Rome was bedecked in giant statues and this one was part of a statue celebrating the ancient Egyptian gods Iside and Seripide. Not as exciting or as sexy as Pasquino (see tip above), but still a vivid visual reminder of the many layers of Roman history and civilization.

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1. Never saw curbside gas pumps anywhere in the US. It might catch on. 2. The romance of the Fountain of Trevi is ruined by persistent, ravenous hustlers with cameras who swarm around you like bees on honey. If you politely say no, the rest of them take turns, revolving like boomerangs around you. I nearly had to push them off me. 3. How good were these ancient Roman architects anyway? They build a facade, but no walls or ceilings?! 4. If you keep walking in Rome, you will meet famous American actor Bill Pullman. He was very gracious to stop the shoot and pose for a pic. 5. In New York City, subway graffiti is a thing of the past. This was stamped out in the late 1970's. In fact, there is a tiny handful of European "artists" who apparently fly here just to supply us with their "subway art" at no cost. How jolly of them.

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“War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.”
— Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

THE COURAGE OF A LEO Perhaps Italy’s most infamous Leo, Il Duce, was born on the 29th of July.

Is your astrological sign Leo, the lion? If it is, or if you travel with some who is a Leo as I do, here is a fun way to honor that person and that birth sign and to make unique photos: pose with lions, not real ones, but architectural ones, decorative ones.

The Eternal City does not want for lions: indoor, outdoor, ancient, modern, large and small, on doors as knockers and integrated into fountains, in Rome, there’s a lion for every Leo.

The lion, the king of animals, was mainly associated by the Romans with Hercules, who was always portrayed wearing a lion’s skin. This association was not lost and was used again in many Renaissance works. Lions protected the dead in the Roman sarcophagi. Ancient Romans were fond of scenes that showed a lion hunting and killing a deer.

Photo #1 — The lions that flank the steps leading to the gardens of the Villa Medici are copies. The originals had stood there since they were sculpted by Flaminio Vacca in 1600. At the end of the 18th century, Villa Medici was sold by Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the originals were moved to Florence. When, in 1803, Napoleon relocated the French Academy to the Villa Medici, the copies were added.

Photo #2 — The lion detail from Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 1650 marble grouping “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” in the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo.

Legend says that the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) will cut off the hand of any liar who dares to place it in its mouth.

I let my imagination carry me away and went out in search of the Bocca. For some reason, we wandered around and around and around it before giving up, then actually noticing it was there.

If you are out, wandering through the streets, just drinking in Italy... maybe take a wander to the Bocca and test it out.

The Bocca can be found in the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church in Rome. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_in_Cosmedin).
Piazza Bocca Della Verita, 18
Rome