Roma

October 25, 2003- King Sized Hotel
(photos:Villa della Quatro Fontaine,
Cloister at St. Paul's)

Getting to our room in the Hotel King the first time was interesting. We took an elevator to the 3rd floor, walked through a passageway into another building and took another elevator up to the 5th floor. Now we only use the one elevator and prefer to get exercise by walking up the last two flights. The problem with that is that in old buildings with ten-foot high ceilings there are twenty steps between floors. We always walk down. While walking down we realized there are three hidden floors not marked on the elevators. David counted tonight and the total number of steps is one hundred seventy-one. In a normal building in the U.S. with eight-foot ceilings there are thirteen steps between floors. Do the math. I estimate we walk down a tad more than thirteen floors.

We had no tour this morning so we took off on our own. We came upon an open-air market that was part produce and part flea market including sox. I know that Italians love their children but I did wonder when one vendor gave a toddler a plastic bag to play with. She even blew it up. Maybe a banana would have been more appropriate? Speaking of intelligence, I have told you about the cute little Smart cars they have here. Well, today I found out that fifteen years olds are permitted to drive them. How smart is that?

I expected to see a lot of priests in Rome but I didn’t expect them to be so darn cute. The Church lost an amazing gene pool when they enforced celibacy.

Exploring On Our Own

Our destination was Santa Maria Maggiore, said to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Rome. I put it on my list of the top ten even though I’ll never see all of the others. There were endless frescoes, two popes and its architect were buried there, and they even managed to slip a Star of David into one of the mosaic floors. I’m a sucker for mosaic murals. I particularly liked the use of glass pieces to add sparkle. There was no lack of glitter. The church offered gilt and guilt in an amazing array of art. For one Euro it’s possible to illuminate the wall frescoes and the 4th century mosaics around the altar. Again we found our binoculars gave us a better understanding of the intricacy of the work.

We strolled back to the hotel looking for lunch. We were on the Via Quatro Fontane. It was an unassuming street with dirty buildings. At one corner the sun was shining on a nude sculpture of a reclining woman. I looked around as I prepared to cross the street and noticed three other sculptures. These were the Four Seasons Renaissance fountains. They were filthy, unobtrusive, elegant, and typically Roman. There’s art everywhere and it’s no big deal to them. It doesn’t have to be the sparklingly renovated Trevi Fountain to be glorious. We went on to the presidential palace, one of the largest palaces in Europe. It was formerly the home of one of the popes.

Back On The Bus

The guide for our afternoon bus tour of ancient Rome told us that Rome was founded in 753 BCE. At its height it reached from Scotland to the Persian Gulf. Things began to unravel in the 3rd century. Barbarians invaded from the North, there were economic problems, Constantine converted to Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople, and Christians began their persecutions. The population shrank from 1 million to 10,000 as skilled craftsmen left for richer areas. Decay set in. No one cared and there were few who knew how to care for and preserve the buildings. Romans quarried the marble and bronze from temples, palaces, and government buildings to use for themselves, in new construction, and especially churches.

We passed the ruins of Trajan’s Market that once housed one hundred fifty shops in a five-story building. The 1900-year-old obelisk with Trajan atop still stands in Venetian Square alongside the Venetian Palace that was Mussolini’s home. It’s flanked by the King’s Memorial housing the tomb of the unknown patriots a marble mass the size of Grand Central Station. We caught a glimpse of the ruin of Caesar’s Palace on the Palatine Hill. The guide quipped that the only one that’s intact is in Las Vegas.

We’d seen the site of the Forum yesterday from above. Walking through it was like entering a time machine that stopped at different ages. There were thirty layers of occupation that have been unearthed. Some of the temples to the gods were well preserved due to the Christian habit of building on top of someone else’s holy ground. Layers varied from granite building blocks of the Romans, stonework of old Christianity, and the “modern” Renaissance buildings. What is now City Hall was part of a renovation Michelangelo designed. The rear of the building exhibits all those civilizations and a Norman tower. The Arch of Titus was a reminder of the primary business of Rome. It showed the sacking and conquest of Jerusalem. The carvings clearly depict a menorah being carried home by victorious Romans. The ancient sewer system still works and is used to drain the Forum site. The famous insignia “SPQR” can be seen on ruins and even today on modern buildings. It means the “Senate and Populous of Rome” provided the money for the project. It’s the ancient version of “your highway tax dollars at work.”

We walked to the Coliseum and only got to see the outside. I think we’ll take a guided tour tomorrow. After disgruntled Romans tore down Nero’s golden palace, filled in his lake, and removed his statues, 20,000 slaves built the Coliseum on that site. Nero’s statue was so large it was called a Colossus. Thus, the name Coliseum. There are eighty arches around the base of the structure and each was an entrance. Its state of decrepitude today is due to earthquakes and the Roman proclivity for stealing old marble and bronze for new uses. In reality, we do the same. We sell parts of old buildings, auction them off, and call it recycling.

We drove by Circus Maximus on the way to St. Paul’s Basilica. The Circus was where the Ben Hur type chariot races took place. St. Paul’s is a 4th century Benedictine monastery and final resting place for Paul. Nero beheaded him, which is another reason Romans didn’t love Nero. The cloister dates from the 1200’s and was full of roses still in bloom. The aroma was intoxicating. The church features 1500-year old mosaics and original translucent alabaster windows. All the cathedrals are so huge I feel diminished when I enter. I truly think they were built that size not only to glorify God, but also to put man in his place.

We met a Jewish couple from Tampa on the tour. We joked about the phalluses all around the city. He had her sit on one of them. I said that only a confident man would do that. Then I added, “or a urologist.” That is exactly what he was. We had a good laugh.

Tonight Italy changes time. They fall back here too. We will relish the extra sleep. We’re on our own tomorrow and David is working on a long list of all the places we want to see.

Toby