On our third day in Rome, we set out early again! We didn't have a ton planned for the day, but we knew we wanted to start out by going to the Terme di Caracalla (baths of Caracalla). They were about a 30 minute walk to the east, on the other side of the Tevere from our neighborhood, a little bit southeast of the forum. It was bright and sunny again, so it was good that we started out early in the day (it was warmer than we expected for most of the trip!). We got to walk along the river again - it was so nice to stay on our side of the river because we got to walk along it every day when we went out, instead of just once or twice!
We passed by the tiny island in the middle of the Tevere that's traditionally been a place where people went to get medical treatment (and I think still has a hospital on it) and a bridge that's just called "Ponte Rotto" because it's a broken bridge, from Roman times! We passed over the newer bridge built right next to it and left the river behind as we walked east.
It's so crazy how there are just ancient Roman monuments in the middle of crowded parking lots! On the way to the baths, we even walked on what was once the Circus Maximus! There's not much left to look at from ancient times, but you can still see the shape of the stadium and people were using it to jog on!
Then we arrived at the terme! We weren't totally sure what to expect - we knew there were two good examples of ancient baths in Rome - Caracalla and Diocletiano. We wanted to check one out and we picked Caracalla because it seemed to be more in its original state and maybe less crowded? Diocletiano was mostly turned into a church back in the 1500s or so and is pretty close to Termini train station so we figured it would be more popular with tourists.
It was so cool! We did an audio tour, which was really informative. We had no idea how huge it would be! It was built to be a major baths complex at what was the terminus of the Via Appia when it arrived in Rome, so it was super popular and always crowded, with both men and women. It wasn't just a place to get clean and work out, it was a place where people socialized - and it was free for everyone, so all classes of people came. We learned that rich people sponsored the baths to be free to promote their individual ventures. It was a super lavish place - all of the walls were covered with statues and marble. The black & white mosaic chunks we saw were discovered at the site when they excavated it (after it fell into disrepair, it was a place where people just grazed their sheep). They were the floors of the second story of the baths! I really like the designs. The tiled floors in the changing rooms slope toward drains so excess water could be easily pushed toward the middle of the room! After we spent the morning at the baths, we headed back to Trastevere and to lunch.
We found this place online, and I think it was also recommended by our AirBnb host! It was already packed when we got there right after it opened, but we were seated pretty quickly. We continued on our mission to eat local specialties, so I had coda alla vaccinara (braised oxtail) and Matt had Roman style meatballs...and house wine, of course! It was soo tasty - mine just melted in the mouth and it was flavored with cinnamon. Almost like mole! After lunch, we stopped in Santa Maria in Trastevere, the big church around the corner from our place.
The mosaics (I think 8th century?) were really cool! We'd learned from our forum tour that those mismatched columns are mismatched because they were taken from the forum when they built the church! I knew it was done, but I didn't know the extent of how many ancient Roman things were taken & reused by the Catholic church.
We went back to the apartment for a little while, just to take a little sit-down break. Then we walked back across the river to check out the Pantheon! ...Then we arrived at the Pantheon and saw the completely full piazza and decided we should try again another time. So we headed to our next destination - San Luigi dei Francesi, to see the Caravaggio paintings there.
That side chapel holds what people call the "Matthew cycle" because it has three paintings about the life of Matthew and how he was called to be a Christian. I studied them all in depth in my art history classes, so it was extra cool to see them in person! Especially because I'd never had any idea of how they were situated in person - there's a window above them and the light from the window is reflected in the paintings. I can't imagine having these paintings in my local church!
After our Caravaggio viewing was over, we stopped for our first gelato of the trip and ate it in the Piazza Navona next to some older Italian guys complaining about Juve. It was a lot less crowded than we expected!
Right before sunset, we walked up to the top of the Gianicolo hill to see a sunset over the city of Rome! It was a pretty steep climb, but totally worth it. A really pretty sunset, not at all crowded, and free! It was nice to just hang out - we actually did quite a lot of hanging out in between our sightseeing, and sitting around in piazzas or parks was one of our favorite things of the whole trip.
We ended the day with delicious food - a plate of all locally-sourced food (which is much less fancy and rare than it is in the US...we learned that pretty much everything is local in Italy!) and then some super good pizza al taglio (by the slice) that we took back to the apartment. It was another fun day, not too busy or rushed, with lots of good food and art and piazza sitting!
More great stuff! I think Molly and I went in that same church - it was one of my favorites.
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