Walking along the Tiber River in Rome!
Trip Start
Mar 15, 2012
1
5
70
Trip End
Mar 31, 2012
Where I stayed
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lots of tourists were walking on the streets. Everywhere we looked, there they were; young, old, various races and colors! In other words, you name it, they had it! I was greatly entertained to see so many of them all at once and me being part of the group! Plus guess what! We all had one thing in common! We all had these huge maps in our hands and looking like a bunch of lost tourists! Ha, ha, ha! Well, not really!
By walking down a few blocks from our hotel, this brought us directly to the "Bocca della Verità" a huge carved marble of a man-like face located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria. The most famous characteristic of this piece however was its Mouth; it is believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off! Well, I did and it wasn’t bitten off. Ha, ha, ha! It was fun regardless!
Continuing on, we crossed the street and decided to follow the Tiber River, Rome’s third-longest river in Italy! This proved to be a wonderful choice because the views and landscape seen from here were absolutely fantastic. Plus the sidewalks weren’t as crowded as on the main streets which made it an even more pleasant and enjoyable walk!
Along the Tiber River, we came across several ancient bridges, some dating as far as 62BC like the Ponte Fabrico (Fabricius Bridge) or the remains of Ponte Aemilius originally built in the 2nd century BC. I was quite impressed with these bridges’ magnificent stone arches with lots of statue engravings.
By crossing over the Ponte Cestius, a small stone bridge built around the first century BC, we arrived on Tiber Island, a small boat-shaped island with several ancient buildings on it. The view from here was totally awesome!
Our walk along the Tiber River continued for a good half an hour in which many other ancient stone built bridges, each having their own unique shape and beauty, were seen and admired before finally coming face to face with the Vatican Bridge recognized by its huge statues on both side of it. We decided not to visit the Vatican City right away and do it at another time!
Looking at my watch, it was now close to 4:30pm. I knew exactly where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see! From where I was standing, I was already admiring it from across the Tiber River! I could see the magnificent Castel Sant’Angelo rising high above the ground like a mysterious fortress. Actually, this castel was the Mausoleum of Hadrian, built in between 135 AD and 139 AD, way before my time! Ha, ha, ha!
Without wasting any more minutes, full speed ahead, that’s where Michel and I headed to!
Monique :-)
