Wed. May 18th
31 years and 6000 miles away from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.
Roaming in Roma (day 3 ½)
Why can’t I sleep longer later than 3:40?
We island folks just aren’t adjusted to the big city rush, although we gave it our best try. We are learning a few things and our hands speak Italian just as effectively as a native Roman.
Since this is our second visit to the Eternal City, we decided not to repeat anything we visited on our 2007 trip, such as the Coliseum, Vatican and Forum. We sort of followed through on this.
We are now veterans of the Metro system, with an entire of one day of experience! How fast we learned. We started one half your later and avoided the rush hour and actually got seats! We rode to the Circus Maximus station and glanced at the enormous setting for the ancient chariot races on our way to nearby Plantine Hill. The Pope spoke at Circus Maximus a few weeks ago about the canonization of John Paul II.
The Palatine Hill, one of Rome’s legendary seven hills, is the home of the palaces of the emperors. As a matter of fact, the word “palace” comes from the hill. It is the only of the seven hills that we native Seattleites would call a hill.
The Roman roads are still in good shape 2000 years later (no potholes), but don’t try to do them in heels or on a skateboard.
We visited the home of Augustus and viewed many other domiciles of emperors, famous and infamous. Nero was so detested that subsequent emperors tried to remove his name from his accomplishments. Not only were the homes and the museum amazing, the view was spectacular. There is also a beautiful garden at the top of the hill and the wonderful fresh aroma of mint was in the air.
Ancient Rome was located 20-30 feet below the present level of the city. 2000 years of letting rubble pile up and not dusting has raised the city to its present level.
Rome Rule #5: Always take out the trash or you can see what might happen!
When you want to visit the ancient areas, you must go down into lower areas that have been dug out. We did visit the Roman Forum again, as our rushed visit on the previous trip did not give us time to explore it sufficiently. There were hundreds of tour groups from schools, cruise ships and bus tours that we encountered. We were on our own.
Another of our goals was to visit the Jewish Ghetto. Rome’s Jews were tolerated until the late Middle Ages until the Church decided that the presence of a few thousand Jews among a population of millions of Christians was totally intolerable. The Jews were locked into a ghetto on the worst land in Rome, publicly humiliated on a regular, required to wear special clothing, forced to go to Mass each week and tightly restricted. Still, they survived. Finally, after many centuries of persecution, the Jews of Italy were given equal rights with the birth of the state of Italy in 1870. Unfortunately, 73 years later, the remaining Jews were marched off to the concentration and death camps, courtesy of Mussolini, Hitler and company.
The area that once held the Jewish Ghetto today has been rebuilt and has a number of shops, a synagogue and other facilities. It is heavily patrolled by police, due to past actions by Palestinian terrorists in the area. This is so unfortunate, since Jews have been living in the area since the second century BCE.
Another walk across the Tiber and another ride on the Metro subway brought us back to our hotel. Only 5 hours of walking today and neither of us have been run over or had our pockets picked, although Donna sensed an attempt on her on our way to dinner last night.
Dinner: the biggest calzone (as big as a dinner plate) and the best brochette we have ever experienced!
Off to Hungary tomorrow with a change of planes in Frankfurt.
Rule #6: Rome is not handicap accessible. You might have an escalator or elevator with a short flight of stairs at the end!
Photos: John in front of Palace of Augustus, view of Coliseum from Palatine Hill
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