{"id":3049,"date":"2011-08-08T09:59:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T14:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=3049"},"modified":"2025-03-03T19:07:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:07:00","slug":"roamin-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2011\/08\/08\/roamin-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Roamin in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 8, 2011<\/p>\n

You know\u00a0I<\/em> like to see as much as possible when I am somewhere, so I think you can understand my challenge here in Rome when I describe it for you:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s as though every Chinese capital I\u2019ve been to was all in one place\u2014Beijing, Xian, Soochow, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Anyang (actually haven\u2019t been there yet), Kaifeng, Luoyang, etc., and that most of what was there remained (sometimes recycled, as in a Buddhist temple becoming a church, or a small palace becoming a temple).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s my impression of Rome\u2014overwhelming.\u00a0\u00a0For about 500 years, it dominated Western Europe, borrowing a lot of Greek ideas, including religion and architecture; and for about 2000 years it has been the center of Christianity (since the Reformation of Catholicism).\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the center of Empire I thought I\u2019d see in Athens, but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I tried to master\u2014or perhaps experience is a better word\u2014as much as I could.<\/p>\n

Tours.\u00a0\u00a0Carolyn and I did four tours with guides.\u00a0\u00a0When we got in Saturday, we took the on-off bus tour, which we\u2019ve found the ideal introduction to a new city.\u00a0\u00a0Turns out, the ancient walls (circa 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0century A.D) enclose a small city\u2014around 16 kilometers, and most of the sites are in that area.\u00a0\u00a0As you\u2019ll see though, most streets were too narrow for buses, but the trip did hit the highlights\u2014the major plazas and palaces, skirting ancient Rome and the Vatican City.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\u00a0Two of our tours were of the ancient world.\u00a0\u00a0One was of the Appian Way, which got us out of the ancient city into the early Christian catacombs.\u00a0\u00a0The other \u00a0<\/em>was a walking tour I did of the three major areas of the Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills on which Rome was built. It was the center of the religion and politics, including what\u2019s left of the palaces (the marble is mostly gone\u2014much of it adorning churches, some of them in the ancient city of Rome; Constantine\u2019s conversion around 325 ensured the churches would start taking precedence over the temples), including the ones of the first emperor, Augustus, and the remnants of the huge additions Nero did; the Forum, where in the republic senators debated issues of the day (bailout anyone?); the supposed home of Romulus and Remus, the founders\u00a0\u00a0of ancient Rome, the pyre on which was burned Julius Cesar, ending the \"\"<\/a> Republic; and above all, the Coliseum (which got its name from the Colossus of Nero, a huge statue that stood on top of the arena, a name it has given to other sports arenas over the years).\u00a0\u00a0To the cheers of 60000 Romans (including Victor Mature in my youth) gladiators fought each other, animals (they\u2019ve been excavating the area under the stage which made possible a flow of activity), in the \u201csports\u201d of the day. My favorite, though, has to be the arches of victory the \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>legions marched through during the reigns of Constantine and Trajan; the 50\u2019s movies featured lots of the Romans tromping and triumphing, as they in fact did for centuries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>The other tour was of the Vatican City, the smallest independent enclave in the world.\u00a0\u00a0The visit there almost required a tour to \u201cjump the queue\u201d\u00a0\u00a0since August is THE tourist month (Europe essentially closes) and Rome is a popular destination.\u00a0\u00a0I heard something like 3 million tourists, but that may have been just the crowd at the Vatican today.\u00a0\u00a0Three hours barely scratched the surface.\u00a0\u00a0We did a quick tour of some of the rooms of the Vatican museum, which as befits the history of the Papacy, has some of the greatest art in Western Civilization, including Michelangelo\u2019s Pieta (would I love to wander in the entire museum!), the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo spent nine years painting the ceiling (and designing the uniforms of the Swiss Guard which protects the Pope) and the \u2018last judgment\u201d behind the altar, and Botticelli and other famous Renaissance artists covered the sides of the walls (no pictures allowed\u00a0\u00a0inside what is a private chapel of the Pope, built by Pope Sixtus, hence Sistine), and St. Peter’s Church, which is the largest Catholic church in the world (none are allowed to be bigger).\u00a0\u00a0Constructed over 300 years on the site of the burial of St Paul, it\u2019s lavishly decorated, as you might imagine.\u00a0\u00a0The Popes can determine where they want to be buried (and many of the 200 plus are in St. Paul\u2019s; the papacy was not always located in the Vatican City; for a time, the Popes were kept semi prisoners in Avignon France); some had lavish monuments, others were mummified, etc.\u00a0\u00a0At one time, the Pope had political as well as religious power\u2014as late as the 17th<\/sup>\u00a0century, for example, he was one of the instigators of a war after the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 that ended in 1699 with a treaty that began the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire (tying together parts of my trip!).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A personal highlight though was a function of the art deco boutique we are staying at\u2014the Hotel Locarno.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s famous for being the centerpiece of the movie, Hotel Locarno, which I do not know anyone has seen, but it\u2019s charming for its 6 person cage elevator, rooftop restaurant\u2014and the fact that it lends bicycles.\u00a0\u00a0In other words, it\u2019s helped me see this manageable city by bicycle.\u00a0\u00a0The best time to see was Sunday morning; I was on the road at 7\u2014and had the city essentially to myself (most Romans vanish during August; most tourists vanish in the morning), when it was almost cool enough to enjoy.\u00a0\u00a0I was especially interested in finding the Baroque masterpieces (can you imagine, the Romans brought back many obelisks from Egypt; one Baroque master put one on an elephant), but the small streets, many of them pedestrian malls, went all the places that the bus could not reach.\u00a0\u00a0I went two other times, including tonight, when I took most of the Baroque tour from Fodor\u2019s; I hadn\u2019t realized Rome was the ringleader in the Baroque, which was part of the counter reformation, the Catholic Church\u2019s response to the rise of Protestantism in northern Europe\u2014an over the top ostentatious glorification of God.\u00a0\u00a0I had to go back to the main Jesuit Church for a second look tonight.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though it\u2019s a lot busier at 7 pm than 7 am, Rome is still a fascinating city to wander around, on foot or on bicycle.<\/p>\n

In 36 hours, our journey will be over, around 1200 digital pictures and 15 guidebooks richer.\u00a0\u00a0My favorite business story occurred in Istanbul, in the Grand Bazaar.\u00a0\u00a0The Bazaar, built in the 16th<\/sup>\u00a0century, houses around 5000 shops, some selling the same trinkets (and knockoffs) you find in the Silk market in Beijing, some selling the high class merchandise you can find in the Pearl market in Beijing—and everything in between.<\/p>\n

I tried bargaining using my Chinese skills.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHow much for an Old Friend?\u201d I asked.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re not old friends,\u201d the grizzled shopkeeper replied, \u201c but if you buy this, we\u2019ll be better friends in the future.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re now better friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 8, 2011 You know\u00a0I like to see as much as possible when I am somewhere, so I think you can understand my challenge here in Rome when I describe it for you:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s as though every Chinese capital I\u2019ve been to was all in one place\u2014Beijing, Xian, Soochow, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Anyang (actually haven\u2019t been there … Continue reading “Roamin in Rome”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greek-islands-and-turkey-2011"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3049"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8534,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3049\/revisions\/8534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}