When in Rome

"Italy has Changed, but Rome is Rome"

-Robert De Niro

There is a reason they call Rome the eternal city. And I think I finally understand why. It’s not because of the ancient ruins and monuments. It’s not because this city was once the epicenter of one of the greatest empires ever known to man. It’s not because time suddenly froze in order to preserve the past and history of this great city.

It’s because time simply keeps on moving here. Ancient, monumental structures run parallel with renaissance cathedrals and frescos, all nestled into a sea of modern apartments, congestion, and crowds. It’s not like in America, where the goal is to move directly to your point. The beauty of this city is getting lost, and letting the history find you.

There is no better way to see Rome for what it is, than to start with, arguably, the most famous structure of all. When we arrived at the train station, we hopped on the metro, took it all of two stops (closely guarding our bags, like the jumpy and fore-warned American tourists we were) and then got off. We climbed the stairs ready to walk a bit to our destination, turned the corner, and BAM! Colosseum. Right there. Not even 200 meters away.

Needless to say, the tour guides were already lining up at the metro stop. You learn very quickly that Rome is a modern city when you’re wading through a greater proportion of tour guides than tourists at the colosseum. You also learn to adapt and to ignore.

So once we finally got to a (relatively) quiet spot, and Marco (our Italian Art, History, and Culture Teacher/Tour Guide/Resident Archaeologist) started speaking we were reminded of another very important fact of Rome. Rome is not a “beautiful” city.

Rome was built on the backs of thousands of slaves and centuries of bloodshed and war. The Romans were not peaceful people, and their leaders were not humble men. Rome is the city of ego, and you can see that in how it was built, what was built, and who now lives there (Romans are downright arses and you can’t convince me otherwise).

Consider Constantine, who like many emperors before himself, built a monumental arch, essentially dedicated to showing off how powerful he was. But instead of building it from scratch, he decided to raid stones, sculptures, and reliefs from other arches to further show how much better he was than all his predecessors. Then once it was built, he was the only man who was allowed to walk under it. And I thought architects were full of themselves.

Even so, as much as this annoys me, I’m still forced to admit that I was very impressed.

But the trend doesn’t stop there. Ever wonder why Rome is so dirty? Why there are always strikes and political upheavals? It’s because when Rome was made the capital city of Italy around 150 years ago, it was probably one of the least prepared or prosperous cities in Italy at the time. Yet the role was forced on it for its historical importance. Marco described it like this, it was like taking a starving person, on the brink of collapse, and suddenly giving them all the food they could ever want. But then telling them that they had to eat it all in three days. Then once that’s over, all their rich and comfortable cousins are suddenly relying on them for food.

In actuality, that took the shape of nineteenth century roman architects taking on the role of remaking an ancient city into a modern capitol. And their idea of ‘remaking’ at the time was tearing down all the trashy “old” buildings in order to put up their boxy, new apartment buildings. Like this:

You have to wonder how much history was lost because of their egos. But you also have to remember that it was ego that built this city in the first place. So who was in the wrong here? Maybe no one. Maybe Rome is simply meant to be built, destroyed, and rebuilt at the whims of man. Maybe that’s what makes it eternal? Because no matter what happen to it, it always bounces back as something quintessentially roman.

So I guess… when in Rome…

You simply go through appreciating the art and architecture before you, but remembering the price at which it came. If anything you simply learn to take in the parade of life around you and go with the flow. So that’s what we did.

After seeing the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, and Capitoline Hill, we worked our way over to Piazza Venezia, the Jewish Ghetto, the Pantheon and then Piazza Navona, enjoying the experience and taking in Rome for everything it was. Good, bad, modern, ancient, etc, etc.

The gelato helped too. Especially when you found a shop selling over forty flavors of it. (muahahaha)

Then at the end of a very, very tiring day, my classmates and I finally decided to retire. As it happens, when we were booking an Airbnb for the fourteen or us, we were simply looking for number of beds, and proximity to the city. So when we found a place that had around twenty beds and was only a 30 minute walk from the city center, for 24 euros each, we just went with it. Turns out that 30 minute walk, took us right along the Tiber river, up to the gates of the Vatican itself, and then just to the north edge of the Vatican Museums.

See that view from our window? That would be the north entrance to the Vatican museums. Watch, we’re going to visit Rome again in a few months, actually planning on seeing the museums, and find that this Airbnb is booked and our new one is down past the Colosseum instead.

At this point, I’m dead tired and just want something quick to eat and then to go to bed. My classmates agree on the quick to eat part. Yet, while I go just around the corner and buy a caprese panini, my classmates use this time to walk a half a mile back down to the nearest… McDonalds. Lol. We’re such Americans.

By the time they get back and eat their universally unhealthy food, I’m already through my panini and gelato and sound asleep.

Next morning though, I’m up and out the door by 8 am, ready for a new day of walking.

Crossing the bridge back to city center, there is this awesome view of the Vatican, so I stopped for a bit to sketch. It’s just a line drawing right now, but I’m going back to water color it after I post this blog, so don’t judge too harshly. After that I began a day long trek through the city, moving from the Mausoleum of Augustus, up to Piazza del Popolo, back to Piazza Venezia and over to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps.

One of the best parts was probably Piazza de Popolo. In my guidebook, it honestly didn’t look that cool, but I was pleasantly surprised. Three major streets converge into this square containing a beautifully maintained Egyptian obelisk, and at the v of those two streets rest two mirrored cathedrals. The best part was probably the girl though. I have no idea if she was a street performer or just a girl, but she had a bucket of soap and one huge rope bubble wand. She proceeded to spend her morning creating swarms of bubbles that all the kids would run up and play in. It kind of made my day.

There’s just something about bubbles that makes you smile.

I ended with a quick jot up to the Borghese Gardens before meeting the group once again at the train station, to catch our ride back to Orvieto. And that was about it for Rome.

But what was my favorite part of the whole trip? Let me back track a little bit for that: the Pantheon.

I didn’t address it before because I think it deserves its own little section. As an architect the light, prominence, and beauty of this building is simply exceptional. As the sister of an engineer who is obsessed with this building, and how it was assembled, I was awed by its size and scale. And as a girl, who’s dreamed about seeing this building since I was just a little kid, it was everything I hoped it could be.

When the beauty of a building is in the roof, not even the crowds can ruin the experience (or the picture). In fact, the crowds may have even enhanced it. You could tell the building was meant to hold people. It was meant to be a gathering place. And when everyone was asked to be silent (as it is a temple) the quiet reverence for one thing, from that many people made it unlike many experiences I’ve had before.

Needless to say, I found a nice spot and sketched. (once again, the water coloring will be completed soon)

So that’s Rome in a post. I will not try to elaborate further. People have been writing about it for thousands of years and still fall short. Who am I to contend?