Roma

So we arrived in Roma at about 10:30 on Wednesday morning. Among the first things I noticed was the terrain, a rather pleasant compromise between the totally flat cities like Firenze and Bologna and the insanely hilly cities such as Genova or Arezzo.

The second thing I noticed is that the conception I had formed in my mind about what Rome would be like was completely wrong. A lot of people, especially in the US but also native italians, have complained that Rome is too modern, too noisy, and just too urban for their liking. Well, Rome is pretty modern and is a very busy urban setting, but in my opinion it is the prettiest city I've seen yet.

Most of the cities in Italy are basically stone. Stone streets turn into stone sidewalks which end in stone walls that climb to slate or brick roofs. There aren't really many gardens or trees, and there are even fewer parks. Italians, and perhaps europeans in general, seem to have the idea that trees are for the country side, that grass is a nuisance, and that a public park is a large paved area without buildings on it that kids can play in so long as its not being used as a parking lot, which it generally is.

Yet in Rome there were trees and terraced gardens everywhere, the entire city was much more open and sunny and completely full of vibrant energy which I think stems from the wonderful contrast of the pastel buildings against the brilliant blue sky and deep green trees. The city is a wonderful collage of slopes and curves, most of which are carefully landscaped and hold intricate fountains or carefully shaped shrubs and flowerbeds. The variety of colors, of elevations, and of angles made Rome by far the prettiest city I've ever been in.

Further adding to the pleasure for the viewer was the amazing mix of modern technology amongst ancient ruins, many of which have been adapted for new uses such as Michaelangelos' Chiesa Santa Maria delle Angele (Church of Saint Mary of the Angels) which is an amazing Baroque cathedral formed in the remains of the Diocletian Baths.

Now then, the only thing that I felt was not spectacular about Rome or any other city was the character of the people present and their lack of civic pride. I found it sad and ironic that the people here who could very well be living in the most beautiful place on earth would literally throw punches in defense of their soccer team while simultaneously discarding litter all over the street and spraying graffiti on some of their most precious monuments and landmarks.



I really shouldn't show that picture first because I think it gives a bad first impression, but this was one of the first things we saw walking down the street. I just was shocked that the people of the city would allow trash to be stuffed into every nook and cranny on the street, especially in the center of town where all the visitors were emerging from the train station and forming their first opinion of the town. I have a bit more to say about this lack of civic pride in the next post though, and for now lets get back to the positive.

Our first steps off the train in Rome were to the bus stop where we hopped on a charter bus that took us about 2 miles to the colloseum and dropped us off. I first spotted the colleseum as we were still 3/4 of a mile away, and I was shocked to see first of all how large it is and second of all how much it blends into the city around it. It seems kind of silly to think this but the colloseum isn't really that big of a deal in Rome, its just part of a large central park area and it happens to be historically valuable.



Walking around the colleseum (we didn't go inside) we saw the arch of Constantine, which marks one end of the old Roman Forum (which is basically the center of Rome, and forms part of a huge central park area). The arch was also impressive for its size, but perhaps more impressive was the good condition it had been maintained in. For one reason or another this arch had not been plundered for raw materials like most of the other Roman buildings, perhaps because Constantine was associated with Christian rather than Pagan religion and so the later christians living in Rome had less contempt for that building.



Turning from here we began walking toward the forum where we saw at a distance Trajan's arch, which marks the entrance to the ancient forum.




After passing through Trajans arch we emerged at the rim of the valley which marks the ancient Roman Forum. The space was amazing, and much larger than it seems when you see pictures or maps.



One of the things that struck me was the ease of navigation throughout the forum. When you look at diagrams or maps of the space it appears to be so tightly compressed and randomly constructed that you think you would get lost. When you're actually in the space, however, it becomes obvious that the roads are in fact tremendously wide, and the buildings are spaced far enough apart from each other such that you can see pretty far and navigate the space easily.



Another thing that I thought was pretty amazing was the monument to Julius Caesar. The Romans believed in cremation as the was to free the immaterial soul from the binding of the deceased body after death, and when people died they would be taken to a special place outside the city and cremated. Their ashes would then become the center of a monument in their honor, and of course the monuments were more permanent and more elaborate if the person was more significant. The only person in Roman history to be cremated inside the city - and even more significantly inside the forum - was Julius Caesar. His monument has decayed over time, but the plaques are still legible. To my great surprise when we found the monument it was covered in fresh flowers! The people of the city still visit this tomb often and with great reverence place flowers and other trinkets to symbolize their grief over the assasination of their most beloved leader. I thought Caesar was ancient history, but apparently not in Rome.



After leaving the forum we walked past the Vittorio Emanuele II monument and through town to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is very tightly built into the rest of the city today, though it was probably not packed in like this in Roman times. Our first view of the building was relatively unremarkable, as you can see in the picture above. However from the piazza in front we could see the traditional facade, and the scale of the building was truly remarkable.




I have to say I was a bit disapointed by the Panetheon, however, for two sad reasons. First of all the inside was under renovation and was significantly concealed in scaffolding. This is good for the building of course, but is not really great for the tourist trying to see the building. The other sad thing was that the Pantheon, along with EVERY other building in Italy had graffiti on it. In relative terms there wasn't that much graffiti on the building, but still the fact that some kids had put spray paint on the only completely intact Roman building in the world just frustrated me.



When we left the Pantheon we headed down to another Piazza, the name of which slips my mind at the moment. The Piazza was home to one of 13 Egyptian Obelisks which the Romans carried from Egypt during the imperial age. We then went to Campo di Fiori, which was a pretty cool market, and split up for the afternoon.

In the afternoon Jim and Dave and I walked around for a while and discovered an ancient ruin which was at the "Piazza Argentina" which was apparently the home to all the stray cats in town. There must have been hundreds of cats living in this place, and apparently they were eating pretty well because they all looked healthy.

In front of that piazza Jim bumped into a friend of his from his old church in Dallas. Small world eh?

After this we went to a nearby church, the church of Saint Andrew of the Valley (I think that was the name of it) which was really beautiful, incredibly ornate. Again graffiti had been sprayed on the side of this amazing church... jeez.

We headed back to the bus which took us to the Hotel for the night, and drove alongside the river Tiber for a while. The river was really beautiful, an amazing accent to the city.

So we went to the hotel which was pretty decent but they didn't have enough beds so I was defitely stuck with a cot. Then we walked around town for a while sort of window shopping, we found a store called "mas" which cost less than any other place I've ever seen, it was almost like a Goodwill, but even cheaper and the stuff wasn't second hand.

Lastly that evening we went out to celebrate Bess Collier's birthday. The city at night was amazing, seeing the Forum all lit up was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. We walked through the circus maximus and across the river to get to the other side of town where there was a jazz club we were going to go to, but it was packed to overflowing so we went to another nearby bar instead and got our own sort of private area in the side to hang out for a few hours. Then we walked home (it took an hour) and finally got to bed about 2 am.

Now to set up some of the other things that have happened, prior to getting to bed at 2 am I had been out for various birthdays or special holidays or whatever for the preceding several days. At this point I was starting to get really tired because I'd had about 20 hours sleep in the last 5 days, which really starts to wear one out.

Alright, on to the next day...