Well, on Monday we were down to just Carol and I. Julia had flown home Sunday to go back to work. Maria, Van, Ashley, and Kate left early Monday morning for their ancestral home of Sicily (well, not Van's).
Our first stop was the Victor Emmanuel Monument, also known to Romans as either "the wedding cake" or the "typewriter." They aimed to finish it in 1911 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country's unification in 1861 (a year famous for either unification or disunion), but in surprising fashion for Italian governments, it took fifty years to build, and wasn't finished until 1935.
The monument is huge -- 230 feet high, 443 feet wide, 427 feet deep, and boasts a 43 foot long statue of the king on his horse -- one of the biggest equestrian statues in the world. (Spoiler alert: It's NOT the biggest).
There are approximately 196 steps from the bottom to the terrace level. From there you take the "Rome from the Sky" elevator to the rooftop. There is no elevator to the elevator, and then you pay like 12-15 Euro for the short, quick ride to the top. (I remember it being more than the 12 Euro in the guidebooks/internet, but I've been wrong before). If you don't want to pay the money for the elevator, pay it anyhow and then you can thank me for insisting you go all the way to the top.
When I was a college student in 1984, it would not have been that expensive, but I also would not have paid the going rate back then. At our age, it was definitely worth paying to go all the way to the top.
The monument was built both to honor the king and to be evocative of Ancient Rome. It's been described as a "neoclassical interpretation of the Roman Forum." There are glorious chariots on top, Corinthian columns, fountains, statues of goddesses, and more.
The base of the statue includes Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with Italian flags and armed guards flanking it. The setting is watched over by the goddess Roma.
The king is known as the Padre della Patria (Father of the Fatherland), which is what I should have had my daughters call me when they growing up. A missed opportunity.
The piece d' resistance is the glorious views from the top after the elevator ride to the sky. The views are considered better than those from top of the Vatican dome (we don't know, the line was way too long for the Vatican dome).
There's the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Pantheon Dome, Piazza del Popolo, the Roman Forum, and more all out there to feast your eyes on.
After we went back down, we stopped at the cafe, sat outside with views of the Colosseum and snacked. The way back down takes you through the inside of the monument, and the nearly two hundred steps through the monument going down prove to be easier than the 196 steps outside the monument going up.
It's definitely worth the time, stairclimbing, and overpaying for a brief elevator ride to go there.
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