Random Notes

Thee Circus Maximus was closed when I got to it, but my phone could sneak through the gate enough for a pic. 

  • I am going to be thinner when I return than when I left. I saw a scale on one of my first days, but it didn't work, and it was metric anyway. But yesterday, between the megatour and getting lost a couple of times, I must have walked roughly five gigameters. I'm still weary, after an undisturbed full night's sleep. 
  • A couple of people have suggested things I do or try, like I am some trained monkey who will simply perform on demand. Let it be known that if I have, by sheer coincidence, done the exact thing that you might have suggested, and used the precise language you used in describing the process, it is sheer coincidence. I was probably too busy to have even read the comment in which you made the suggestion, even if we discussed it at length. That being said:
    • Porchetta - Check, Sonya. 
    • Late night walks in the Travestera - Lara and Siv, got it. 
    • Enjoy self - Covered, Andy.
    • Artichokes - Already talked about it, Siv, stop harping. 
    • Domus Aurea - Just today, Casey. 
    • Drinking at pubs - Grey & Siv, under control.
    • Talking to people - ...getting to it, Matt.
  • The Colosseum took eight years to build. Eight years. The new World Trade Center? Is it done yet. Oh, it is? Never mind. It was built after Nero's debacle of a rulership, and they wanted to wipe the taste of his years out of the empire's mouth, so they might have shortlisted the project, but jeez, that's fast. Again: no wifi to contact each other about lunch plans. 
Not the actual Colosseum - an amazing facsimile!
  • I got word from the project that I planned this whole trip around, the one that I needed to get back for. It turns out, that date has been pushed back a week, so I could have had even more time in Rome. But actually, I'm feeling a little weary, ready to sing an American tune and go homeward bound. I'll enjoy the days I have left, but I'm getting run-down - from all those gigameters.  
  • I came here for classical civilization the first millennium, but I've really fallen in love with the romance of this 21st century city that refuses to leave the second millennium. I could walk here indefinitely. What that makes me suspect, horrifiedidly, is that I would probably adore Paris, too. I've never wanted to go to Paris. I have snorted every time anyone has ever suggested Paris. I am now afraid that j'aime Paris, goddammit. 
Today was filling in some missing pieces, and repeating some favored activities. I keep going back on the Via dei Fori Impiarali (I have been staying kinda near to it), but I got back to Teatro Marcello, which I only accidentally discovered yesterday during my midnight ramblings. 

Still haven't walked the Appian Way - which is why this isn't a picture of it.
It helped me finally get myself to the Jewish quarter for a self-guided tour, which is probably necessary on the Sabbath. After dinner, including more artichoke and a leg of lamb that my father would have adored, I found three places to drop cremains of my father: the ghetto synagogue, a giant community menorah across from the restaurant, and off of the bridge over the Tiber, which is one of the boundaries of the ghetto, way back in the day. 
I found other places, in my travels, that would have been very significant to put my ashes, but I'm not dead yet. I think, though I have little faith in an afterlife, and my father had no actual wishes that I perform any sort of ritual, that he'd appreciate my taking him with me on my trips, and leaving him places that he'd find significant. 
Just spilling a little 40 for ya, homie. 
Despite what I said at the top, I've probably eaten more today than any other day on the trip. As I've said, I'm kind of worn out, and I think I needed more to store up on fuel. But I've still put in, I suspect, at least three miles today. At least it feels like it. 
I went to the Golden House, the last remains of Nero's imperial home. After the fire of... I'm gonna say 64, because I can't be troubled to do the easily-verified research that would almost certainly be less trouble than this run-on sentence, Nero basically rebuilt Rome from the ground up, and he mostly built it as a temple to Nero. After what Italy calls his suicide (which is not the story I remember reading when I studied all this stuff, and I'm too busy writing to do any further research on the matter), the subsequent emperors sought to remove all trace of Nero and his works (damnatio memoriae), so most of the Golden House (Domus Aurae) was repurposed, most immediately as the Colosseum, but also as lots of other great works. A little bit remained. It's an active excavation site, all underground, so we had to wear hardhats, couldn't use flash photography... It was a thing. 



















Stuff I still hope to do: 
  • Ostia Antica
  • The Spanish Steps
  • Learn Italian without making the slightest bit of effort
  • Walk the Appian Way
  • Use a bidet
  • Young Sophia Loren

I am not optimistic about all of these. 

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