Roma!

Ah Roma!  What a picturesque city!  The unique umbrella-topped, Mediterranean stone pine trees standing on a hill remind us we are in Rome. Striking stone buildings decorated with elaborate sculptures are on every corner. I find I must fight the urge to photograph every one of them! Impressive two-thousand-year-old ruins of old churches and temples, remnants of ancient city walls, and old, arched gates dot the city here, there, and almost everywhere.   The magnitude of the age is overwhelming. It’s why most people who come here stagger in awe. Ironically, locals busily going about their business, working, shopping, or going to school, seem to take all this richness and beauty for granted, just as we often do at home.

These days, many of the most important sites are surrounded by protective barriers. Years ago, people could freely walk up to touch the waters in Trevi Fountain; they could stroll through the ruins of the Forum, but today most sites are protected from possible crowd damage and unnecessary wear. Barriers also protect the continual archaeological excavation and restoration being conducted at sites like the Forum and the nearby Curia of the Roman Theater, where the dictator, Julius Caesar, was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44 BC. Even the Spanish Steps, once packed with families and couples sitting on them for a date night, are routinely cleared by police officers.

These important and incredible sites have not been standing as we see them today for the past 2,000 years.  Instead, the original structures were damaged over the ages, some damaged in wars, some hauled away for use in other construction, and some places were buried in layers of centuries-old silt and debris deposited by repetitive River Tiber floods.  So much is still buried. Today, nearly every modern building project takes far longer to complete because every dig uncovers more important ruins.  Archeologists go to work carefully excavating relics, and, like working on a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, they piece together recovered chunks of carved stone and marble to recreate these famous sites for posterity. 

Even parts of the Colosseum as it stands today, especially the underground areas, had to be excavated from layers of earth.  After the huge arena was no longer used as an entertainment venue for gladiator sport or other spectacles such as executions and reenactments of famous battles, it was used as a quarry and eventually became filled with dirt and debris.  Until the 18^th century, it even had buildings built on top of it.   

These recovered sites are important, not only to teach us about the Roman Empire’s great historic accomplishments, but also to remind us that it was here that things we take for granted today had their beginnings right here.  Roads, plumbing, government, monumental architecture, language, legal systems, and the art of diplomacy all began in Rome. 

At its peak, the Roman Empire extended as far north as Romania and as far south as North Africa.  Much of the territory was not conquered through battle but through trade and diplomacy.  The Empire became so vast that it was impossible to control and rule.  The territory was eventually divided, east and west.  Early on, the western portion of the Roman state declined, but the eastern territory, known as the Byzantine Empire, lasted almost one thousand years until 1453, when it fell to the Ottoman Empire. 

Rome was one of the first European cities we visited when Stan and I began our international trips together twenty years ago.  We were such novice travelers, and getting around was tough in those days.  Google Maps did not exist, but we had a collection of printed MapQuest instructions, and of course, we carried a bundle of folded city maps and small public transportation diagrams.  It was challenging to say the least. We were probably so aghast at all we saw in that 3 or 4-day visit that today, it all appears new and far more meaningful and mesmerizing to us now.  It is almost as if we’ve never been here before.  What a place!  What history! 

In this first week, we’ve been nothing but tourists.   

Like newcomers again, it took us three trips to Rome’s Termini Station to get our month-long public transportation cards. Our first trip to the ATAC office was on the day we arrived.  We stood in line, and at the window, they gave us forms to complete.  Everything was in Italian, so we took them with us to complete at the apartment with Google Translate.  On the second trip, they looked at the forms and told us we needed copies.  Hmmm.  We found the recommended shop for getting copies.  We were prepared to make a copy of the forms, but the clerk said the copies should be copies of our passports.  Ok, we carry photocopies of our passports; we made copies of them for the man.  Got that.  Back at the station, we found a longer line.  When we reached the window, the man took our forms and photo of our passports, and then asked original photo-IDs.   As we stood there, all gaga, he pointed to his driver’s license and said to us, “Originale; originale!” Neither of us carries passports on the street; we lock them away, and I don’t carry my driver’s license. But Stan does since he’s the driver when we rent cars.  He finally completed his transportation pass purchase, but we had to return the next day for mine. Grr! With just an hour or so to spare before our booked walking tour was to begin, we arrived only to find a queue far longer than any before.  Still, we made it and finally got my 30-day pass.  Whew! 

That done, we needed to go directly to the tour meeting spot . . . but of all things, our cellular service was down!  I don’t mean slow, I mean dead.  No Google, no email, and most importantly, no navigation.  Dead!  Blank!  There was no way for us to find our way there. With no cell service, we could not even order a taxi or UBER. Since then, we’ve met people who claim that happens every now and then here.  I mean . . . .???   

Back at the apartment, with WIFI, we contacted our tour guide and apologized for our last-minute cancellation; he graciously offered to let us join his afternoon tour. 

At noon, our service was restored.  At least we could navigate again.  Since then, similar failures have happened again.  I mean . . . . ?

That city walking tour started at the enormous and super-fantastic Monumento di Vittorio Emanual celebrating the 1861 unification of Italy, all the way to the great ruins of the Forum that centuries ago was the hub of Roman public life.  Finally uncovered from 35 meters of 2000-year-old deposits of silt and debris from Tiber River floods, the Forum is where political speeches, criminal trials, elections, and other important activities took place years and years before the birth of Christ. 

Anxious to get in groovy with Rome, we joined a nighttime walking tour the next day that took us through the city in lights and wound up at the magnificent Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Roman Colosseum. The area around the great arena has surely changed.   Twenty years ago, when Stan and I first saw it, the Colosseum stood solitary and unenhanced, and was surrounded by cracked asphalt.  At that time, there was a multi-stalled public bathroom that cost one euro per use, and its attendants coached people in and out as fast as possible to keep the line moving.  Now, a great, fancy marble plaza surrounds the colosseum.  People with guitars and amplified speakers sing “Hotel California.”  Public bagnos no longer exist, but a super-modern metro station is nearby, where visitors are whisked in and out of the area in minutes.    Much of the colosseum has been restored nowadays, so it does not appear as ancient and decrepit as it did back in 2005.  It’s so clean that it almost looks like a shopping mall.  However, the super moon’s luminous glow on that infamous grand ring that night was knee-dropping gorgeous!

Rome is enchanting.  Absolutely enchanting.  It is an outdoor museum of history and art. 

In these few early days here, we have eaten plates of delicious pasta, visited Vatican City, and endured the exhausting and grueling but must-do visit to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.   Check!  That’s done.   

It was interesting to learn that the Vatican sets the visitation rules each day depending on what they have going on.  Some days, visitors can see certain parts of the Vatican Museums, and other days, other parts.  Some days, the Sistine Chapel is open for tours, and other days it is not.  It was closed, for example, a couple of months ago when the Cardinals were electing a new pope.  The Sistine Chapel is where the conclave takes place.  Some days, visitors can visit all three special spots in a single visit: the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.  Like Forrest’s mother said, you never know what you’re going to get.  In our Vatican visit, we weren’t able to enter St. Peter’s Basilica. We did not mind. We were exhausted, had seen plenty enough grandeur for the day, and remembered our visit there 20 years ago.  

On the advice from a walking tour guide, we made a return trip to the Vittorio Emanual Monument for a closer look.  This thing is a full city block long, sparkling white, and graced with magnificent marble and bronze sculptures celebrating Vittorio Emanual’s unification of the territories to form Italy.  Near its top, there is an east-west terrace that affords a 360-degree look at Rome.  The day presented us with perfectly clear, bright blue skies when we went; we could see for miles.  At the cafe there, we sipped creamy cappuccinos as we snapped photos of the colosseum and the many domes of Rome’s churches sprinkled throughout the city. 

Later in the week, we visited the Pantheon, probably the oldest still-standing temple in all of Italy.  It is an architectural marvel. As tall as it is wide, the 142-ft wide concrete dome is a perfect sphere and remarkably, contains no reinforcement. In the 2,000 years since its completion, no other unreinforced dome of this size has been constructed anywhere in the world.

With more time left in the day, we set out to see all 12 famous fountains and plazas in Rome.  Wow!  Just wow!  One more time, wow! 

Here’s a little tidbit about pasta, Italy’s iconic creation.  People in other parts of the world who love Italian cuisine may be overcooking pasta.  I always heard that if it sticks to the wall when tossed there, the pasta is done.  Not true here.  As Stan says, al dente pasta in Italy does not stick; it bounces. Al dente here means the pasta must have a little bite to it.  Pasta served here is far firmer than the American version of al dente.  While a first impression is that the pasta is not fully cooked, we are beginning to appreciate the texture. We like it; the firmer texture seems to make pasta cooked Italian style a little more substantial, certainly more chewy.

With five more weeks to enjoy Italy, we are planning more Rome explorations, a few overnight trips to nearby towns, an Italian Thanksgiving dinner with Barry and Reto, and more magnificent “who knows what?”   

Staying flexible is part of the fun! Who knows what we might come up with?