Old Friends in an Even Older City

Today was a day for old friends and even older Ruins. In fact, "old" takes on a whole new meaning here. We explored the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and the Palatine hill, ruins that are 2000 years old! All of those hours in my Ancient Civ IHUM course freshman year finally came in handy-- the places we visited practically jumped out of the pages of our old textbook. We strolled past the Roman senate, stopped by the spot where Ceaser was killed in 44BC and then we visited the Domitian palace and walked across the same marble floor that Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus used himself in 92AD.

With ruins this old it is easy become spoiled. By the end of the day anything post-1400 felt "modern" and boring by comparison. Speaking of spoiled, the Romans sure knew a thing or too about hedonism. The royal palace had special vomiting rooms just so that the local elites could have 8 hour non-stop feasts without ever getting full. My awe and amazement was tempered with a tinge of revulsion. The grandeur of these audacious buildings and good living came at a great cost. It took 50,000 Jewish slaves to build the Colleseum and another 90,000 Jewish slaves to construct the palace on Palatine hill.

Fortunately slavery is over and today's Romans have been exceptionally outgoing and helpful. Everywhere we went, Romans were eager to try to understand our mumbling mix of English, French or Spanish and-- archaeologists notwithstanding ---most locals were happy to stop and chat. I love how Roman's like to hang out on the street! Just blocks away from the major attractions clumps of locals were chatting away in front of storefronts or houses. They also never seem to be in a hurry. Walking down the streets of Rome, you get a real sense of community! I'm jealous.

I think my favorite thing to do in Rome is to ask for directions. (This is a great game to play with the locals.) The Roman's get very excited to give directions! Perhaps on account of the language barrier, most of the directions we receive consist of rapid hand-motions followed by enthusiastic pointing in one direction. Since it is rare that we are ever on the right street to begin with, these enthusiastic directions often overlook certain subtleties like turns, streets or alleyways. Thus it is necessary to repeat this game two or three times with other locals throughout town. I call this the brute force approach. Its a fun game, because you get to meet lots of people and see parts of Rome you wouldn't otherwise see.


The main attraction for me yesterday, actually had nothing to do with Rome. For dinner we met up with my earliest and closest friend Priscilla. (We met as newborns back at Stanford). They say all roads lead to Rome, and this is just further evidence. Priscilla and her husband Plinio are spending four months visiting every major city between Madrid and Siberia. By pure chance they are in Rome for exactly the same days that we are! I haven't seen Pri for 6 years, so it was fun to catch up and finally meet her husband who I have always heard so much about.

We met up at Fontana Trevi, my new favorite fountain. We did as the Roman's do and made a wish and threw two coins over our shoulder and into the fountain. Pri pointed out that the Roman's don't actually do this at all-- only the tourists. But we threw the coins in anyway. After that we headed to the second-best Gelato place in all of Rome: "San Crispino". Their specialty honey gelato was well worth the trip.

Pri and her husband are doing well. Hopefully the two of them will move to Boston! The amazing thing about Priscilla is that we go for years without seeing eachother, but when we do finally meet-up its still as if we are best of friends. I hope to see her often in the states, and maybe I can find some time to squeeze in a trip to Brazil! I can't wait.


Well.. I fell asleep half way through this post so now its tomorrow! We are having a leisurely morning and having lunch with Massimo before he departs. We will write with more adventures later! Ciao!