We entered Rome from the west. It was not very impressive. The buildings looked like they were built in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. It was what I would call grungy, and graffiti was everywhere. Things changed dramatically when we got to the center of Rome behind the what used to be the old wall that protected the city. We drove through a beautiful park to our hotel on the Via Veneto. The city is full of energy. There are very small, even tiny, cars zipping along the main boulevards and the narrow cobblestone streets. They are parked bumper to bumper from one corner to the next. People must be experts at parallel parking. While the cars are parked in the street, the motor scooters line the narrow sidewalks on every block. The traffic is frenetic. One tour guide told us traffic regulations are just “a suggestion.”
We had only 48 hours in Rome. The first day we walked the city to the famous Trevi Fountain. Like many things in Rome, it is centuries old and took 30 years to finish in 1762. There were thousands of tourists taking pictures of each other and, of course, selfies. There was a lot elbowing for position. The tradition is to threw a coin into the fountain over your shoulder which means you’ll come back some day. It’s estimated that 3,000 euros a day are tossed in. That’s about $1.5 million in dollars a year. I didn’t have any euro coins. I threw in a US quarter. So, I hope that counts towards the total. We then went to over the other tourist picture hot spot, the Spanish Steps. Again, centuries old finished in 1725. It’s 135 steps leading up to, no surprise, a church.`
There doesn’t seem to be any straight streets in Rome. Every street winds and curves. Shops and restaurants are crammed into the smallest spaces. There are big high end stores, but some tiny store fronts are only about ten feet wide selling everything from clothes to cappuccino and food. Pasta, pizza, gelato and pastries and cookies that look like works of art. The sidewalks are narrow, but that doesn’t stop nearly every restaurant from having outdoor dining. So, there is limited room for pedestrians between the tables and chairs and the parked motor scooters. This means people often walk in the middle of those small winding streets and have to dodge the taxis and scooters who feel they have the right of way. Remember traffic rules are only a suggestion.
Rome is a city of magnificent art, history, architecture, and religion. We visited the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. The famous Michelangelo paintings on the ceiling of the chapel are an overwhelming human achievement. He spent four years creating maybe the greatest masterpiece in history lying on his back, and basically painting upside down. Hundreds of tourists wonder around the chapel floor looking up in speechless amazement. In 1867, Mark Twain toured Europe and wrote the best selling book in his lifetime, “Innocents Abroad”. Even he felt inadequate and overwhelmed by the work of Michelangelo. Twain wrote, “I have never felt so fervently thankful, so soothed, so tranquil, so filled with blessed peace, as I did yesterday when I learned Michael Angelo was dead.”
We walked to the Pantheon, a former Roman temple which is now a church estimated to have been built in 126 AD. Yes, 1893 years ago. The building is round with a portico of 16 granite columns at its grand entrance. The dome is still the world’s largest in reinforced concrete dome, and there is a hole, or oculus in the top that allows sunlight and rain in. The floor is slightly inclined and equipped with drains to deal with the water. Again, the design and the art work is stunning.
What’s a trip to Rome without a visit to the Colosseum. The largest amphitheater ever built at the time that held 50,000 spectators in the center of Rome built even before the Pantheon, in 80AD. It was like a modern NFL stadium, but instead of men fighting over an oblong ball, there were gladiator contests, animal hunts, and re-enactments of famous battles. They even filled it with water to re-enact naval battles. Oh, and yes, they did execute people there. Not sure how ticket pricing worked.
But, the most bizarre and even troubling attraction was the Museum of the Capuchin Friars. The Capuchins are an off shoot of the Franciscan Friars based on intense mysticism, a simple, sober life and closeness to the people. It’s part of a church. But under the church is the crypt. Here’s where it got troubling. When the monks ran out of room at a small cemetery, they exhumed the bones of the dead monks and others. Instead of just re-burying them in the crypt, they decided to set up six stone niches and decorate them with the bones. Yes, on the walls, the ceiling, the floor and arranged in wire bins, the bones of 3,700 people, mostly those who used to be monks. Researchers say the unknown artist wanted to create a funeral monument. I’m all for free artistic and religious freedom, but this is not the way anyone should spend their time. We couldn’t wait to get out.
Despite the crazy church of bones, Rome is unique in the world for its history, art, architecture, food, style, passion and stand against time that may just last for eternity.
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