CANICVS MODVS

At 5:30 AM I saw Termini virtually deserted–very few people anywhere around and everything pretty much closed down. It was a 15 minute walk from my hotel to binaria 27 (the hotel is near binaria 1), where the Leonard Express was waiting for passengers—although the doors to the train were locked and the lights off. Coming into Rome twenty days ago that train was packed. But there were only a few dozen of us leaving at this hour. The train ride was pleasant as it was just getting light so I could see some of the countryside. It seemed almost as dry as Texas.
At the airport, I really had no idea where to go. I’ve never successfully managed to do boarding passes online. I’m not sure why that is, except that this time I would have had no way to actually print out the passes. I did finally locate the British Airways check-in counter. But even at that early hour, they had a long line—I suspect most of us destined to fly the 8:20 AM flight to London. It took an hour to get through that line, check my bag and get the boarding passes—although I was not assigned a seat on the London to Dallas flight. And, of course, I still had to go through airport security. Italian airport security didn’t seem as tight as that in Britain and the U.S. (Incidentally, U.S. TSA had opened my bags—my guess being that I had spare batteries for cameras, etc. and some chargers which prompted an inspection.

The flight was uneventful. British Airways did provide an envelope for the boarding passes that had instruction on what to do when I reached Heathrow. That was helpful because I had to get a seat assignment (actually a whole new boarding pass), go through security again, travel from one T1 to T5 (which involved another train ride) and then to gate C63 which, as you might guess was about as far away from the train stop as possible. I did manage to navigate with a few minutes to spare before they started loading. I was a bit concerned that my boarding pass said “INVOL UPGRADE DUE OVERSALES.” But as it turned out, that meant I had been assigned a “deluxe” seat instead of back with the peons in economy. The flight back to Dallas was uneventful.  Although it departed London at 11:40 AM and arrived in Dallas a bit after 3 PM, it was a 9+ hour flight due to the time zones.

So in Dallas, I passed through immigration quickly with my temporary passport and proceeded the long walk to the baggage area to get my suitcase.  Customs was in the middle of the baggage area. But apparently they were expecting a huge crowd. They had those roped of queue thingies four deep running the whole length back and forth from  one end of the area to the other—maybe 100 yards or so all told. But the actual line was only about 50 yards long—you had to walk 350 yards just to get to the end of the line. The result was that some folks were cutting under the ropes and, in effect, cutting into line ahead of those of us who walked the walk. One I got into line the process went quickly. I didn’t have any British cow dung on my sandals, so it was no problem.

Then a taxi ride home—apart from the airplane tickets, the most expensive travel of the whole trip.

I do speculate as to why there is so much going up (either climbing or with the aid of escalators and elevators) in order to go back down and so much going down in order to go up. Metro stations and airports seem to operate on that philosophy.

When I got home I turned on my main computer only to discover that it was 104° in Dallas and Addison. It was only 102° on my cool patio. I had turned the air-conditioning up (or is it down?) to 90 to save on electricity while gone.

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Today is the last “full day” in Rome.

I went to the post office to mail some of the tour books I brought with me. The idea was to lighten the load somewhat to account for the things I picked up while here which included four rather heavy books. The post office is within walking distance of my hotel. In some respects it is rather like ours, but in others not. They have a shop that not only sells mailers and mailing supplies, but a variety of things (like children’s books, spiral notebooks, etc.) that are totally unrelated to mail services. I had picked up some mailers earlier, put the books in them and addressed them to myself.

Some of the significant differences between the Italian post office and American. First it is divided into two sections. One section has to do with paying bills, money orders and that sort of thing. The other is the mail service—letters, packages and the like. In either section you take a number from a machine that has a letter and a number. The letter indicates what service you require; the number is a queue number. They provide some chairs while you wait for your number to come up, although there were more people waiting than chairs. When my “P07” came up the lady realized that it was going to cost me nearly 100 euros to mail the books in the mailers—three times what it would cost in a box costing a couple of euros. So I bought the box. The lady then proceeded to pack the box for me, seal it up with tape and address it for me! I really can’t imagine that happening in the U.S. Obviously, Italy is one of those evil, socialist countries plagued with inefficient bureaucrats.

The next task was to pack my suitcase and backpack with everything for the return trip, as I realized I was going to have to leave the hotel  not later than 5:15 AM Leonardo Express out of Termini to Fiumicino Airport.

I puttered around, had lunch and supper. Then in the evening I finally got in line to buy the train ticket to the Airport. As I mentioned, the lines at Termini ticket counters are huge. It took an hour standing in line to get the ticket. And the line was short compared to what I saw most of the time. Then, with ticket in hand, I set the laptop on top of the packed bag to write the final travelogue from Rome, slip the laptop in to the backpack and get to bed early.

Obviously I have given up trying to get these posted. The internet in the hotel is too much of a hassle. I’ll post the last few when get home. I’ll also attempt to update the photo logs.

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This was the penultimate day of my visit. I revisited the “core sites.” First I managed to climb to the summit of the Palentine Hill, where the optimi maximi dwelt the the glory days of Rome.

I located what the signs referred to as “Romulan huts.” They looked rather too substantial to my eyes to be huts although they were circular as the earliest dwellings of Rome would have been. I also found the house of Augustus Caesar to which three “cublicles” are open to the public with mosaics and, in one, evidence of the ceilings. According to historians, this house on the Palentine was “modest” in keeping with the image the Princep (first citizen) wished to convey rather than that of king. His numerous villas outside of Rome were not so modest.

Adjacent to this house was that of Livia–his third and longest wife whom he apparently actually did love. She is also the mother of his stepson, Tiberius who was Emperor after him and ruled during Jesus’ adult life. Her house was more lavish and larger than that of Caesar Augustus. Unfortunately there is no public access to this house. Supposedly visitors can view some of the rooms through windows–which were unfortunately filthy.

There is a spectacular view of the Forum from the Palatine Hill–which is probably why it was a site for the “greatest and best” of Rome’s elite.

I descended the hill into the Colosseum for a second visit, primarily because I had decided I wanted to waste 15 euros on five badly executed imitations of Roman coins apparently fabricated in Great Britain. The main attraction was the Aureus of Claudius–a gold coin (although I’m positive this thing is most likely plastic). Aurei of the imperial period sell for ten thousand dollars and up. There is also a denarius of Caesar Augustus. I have a better, genuine example in my collection worth several hundred dollars. I wonder why the “counterfeiters” didn’t, at least, choose a better example! They say you can tell counterfeit Confederate dollars because they are better than those printed by the Confederacy.

From the Colosseum I took a different route to the Forum–one which took me behind the Trajan Forum. Unfortunately the site behind Trajan’s market was closed. There is much restoration going on there and elsewhere in Rome. You see much of that, as well as archeologists at work, in Rome. Italy may have a national debt that exceeds its GNP, but it is investing in tourism.

I also found a map of the area at a free museum which does the best job I’ve seen of pinpointing the locations of ancient sites. With that I revisited the Forum and spotted things I had previously missed–such as the house of the Vestal Virgins. They were not at home, however.

Picked up a newspaper on the way to the hotel. Seems Cadel Evans, an Australian, has become the first of that country to have won the Tour de France, with the Schleck brothers becoming the first brothers to share the podium in Paris.

Otherwise the world goes on as before. Mass murders in Norway, troubles in the Middle East, media scandals and Congressional Republicans acting like idiots to bring about another Great Depressions world wide.

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I took a tour bus that takes a different route on Sundays. From the bus I got a few shots of the backside of Trajan’s market. This part was located on the top of the hill above and beyond the curved structure that holds the hill up. Supposedly it was a food market.

I also spotted something that looked like it might be the Arch of the Money Changers near the Forum Borium. One of the problems of most of the maps are they are very precise about the locations of some things.

I got off the bus at the Circus Maximus stop. This is the race track that is located between the Palatine and Aventine hills. The imperial palace overlooks the track. The track is 600 meters long (roughly the length of 6 football fields if you include the end zones and 150 meter wide. In imperial days there were bleachers along the track that could accommodate tens of thousands of spectators. The emperors had a prime box at the finish line that could be accessed directly from the palace on the Palatine. The bleachers are gone. You can see the track and where the spine that ran down the middle of the track ran. Archeologists say that the foundations of the spine are still under the mound of grass.

I then went to Santa Maria della Comenia, an old church used by the Eastern Rite Catholics. I had been there earlier, but all my pictures that day were black and white. After Mass I was able to get decent color pictures and to go down into the crypt below the sanctuary. That will have to count as my visit to the “catacombs.” The church is located where at one time the grain dole was distributed and, when Christianized, the scene of the diaconal care for the poor.

Partly cloudy today in Rome, but no rain. Tomorrow I think I will try one more assault to reach the top of the Palatine. Supposedly Caesar Augustus’ modest house and Livia’s more expansive villa are interesting sites.

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Today I decided to revisit the Museo Nazionale Romano which is a short walk from my hotel. The plan was first to go a block or so further to the post office to see if I could get a box to mail some of my stuff back home–travel guides, maps and maybe some clothes for filler. Then I would go back and visit the museum.

The plan worked out quite well. This morning it was really overcast and there were even a few drops of rain as I walked to the post office and then back to the museum. There were even a few drops of rain–not enough to get wet. That was good because I had left my rain jacket and umbrella back in the hotel. The museum is built around a court yard. It was obvious looking out onto the courtyard that it was raining hard while I was in the museum.

Getting into the museum was something of a problem. It seems that their computer at the ticket window went down just after I had paid for the ticket, but before they printed it. The ticket lady couldn’t get it started and went to get her supervisor. They rebooted Windows (XP, I think) but still couldn’t get into their program. Pretty soon they were on the phone talking to support (in India?). They made some moves that suggested to me that there was a network problem of some sort. Eventually they apparently got to the point where they had a login to their software. Then the ticket lady had to go get that secret piece of paper with the login and password. Anf finally I got in.

I noticed one thing I had never noticed about Discobolos (The Discus Thrower). The museum has two of them–one is ancient (I assume) and the other a reconstructed copy that we usually see. There are a number of things missing from the ancient–the head, the discus and a few other bits an pieces. (Scholars say that the head on the reproductions is screwed on wrong.) But what I noticed is that the toes of the right foot of the athlete are oddly positioned with the tops of the toes dragging on the ground. Much of the right foot of the original are missing, so I don’t know whether it had that feature or not.

I also missed a lot of the Roman rooms from a villa on the other side of the Tiber that had been partly reconstructed on the top floor. This was the home of someone who was very, very rich. The floors are mosaics, the walls frescos and the ceiling bas relief. Many of the frescos show scenes, people and animals. Birds seem to be a favorite. All very delicately done. They often appear to be pastels–although that may be the consequence of a couple of millennia. Other colors are often quite vivid though. The Romans were not adverse to bright colors.

One of the larger rooms on the top floor contains frescos which adorned Livia’s dining room. These are all pastoral. But they are also done in such a way as the colors change with the changing light of day. The Museum has attempted lighting to recreate the effect.

Today I tried a Roman pizza. I must say, I was not impressed. I much prefer Alfredo’s in Dallas.

I spent more time in the museum than I had the first time and saw some parts I had missed.

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Today I visited the Vatican Museum. There is too much to see there in one day. While they obviously allow photography in much of the museum–even areas where Renaissance frescos could be harmed by thousands of flash cameras (and some were using flash cameras). But photography is apparently not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. It is too dark to take pictures in there anyway without a tripod.

The museum was quite crowded. Most of the people I have encountered have been courteous. The first day in Rome a lady tried to help me find my hotel (even though she was clueless). And a gentleman offered to carry my suitcase up some stairs. There seems to be a universal courtesy that when someone sees someone else trying to take a picture to step away or not walk in front of the camera. Today I met the first couple who were totally out of it. I was trying to take a picture of a statute in the museum and they were standing directly in front of it discussing what their tour guide book said. They were not looking at the statute at all. Both looked directly at me standing there with my camera poised to take a picture. But they went on discussing whatever (obviously not the statute). After several minutes of this waiting for them to move, I finally had to ask them to move to the side so I could take the picture.

Before visiting the museum I did spend some time in the plaza in front of St. Peter’s. I had lugged a couple of special camera lenses that I thought would be fun. One is called a “horizontal fisheye.” The fisheye lenses have a 180° field of view. There are two types: 1) circular which appears on the “film” as a circular image which is essentially a “hemisphere view” and 2) horizontal which fills the entire “film” with an image which is a little less distorted and less than a full hemisphere view–particularly the vertical axis. Because of the layout of the plaza I thought using that lens would be fun. It was. The other lens is an extreme wide angle lens (10 mm to be exact) which produces a less distorted image which is not a full 180° field of view.

I am having a great deal of difficulty getting the slide shows done with Photoshop on the laptop. It seems to want to search everything–even though I have narrowed down what I want to put into the album. I think I finally managed to get the few good shots from yesterday done and up on the website. But I think I wait to put up the today and the rest of my stay until I return to Dallas. If nothing else, I will be able to work on them at a desk instead of my suitcase on the only chair as I sit on the bed.

It doesn’t look like I am going to make it to Naples and points south or the Venice. Rome has kept me pretty busy. I think I may return when finances permit, but make Naples the base. Trying to deal with the reservations (not the trains, but the reservations) here in Rome is too much.

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