Looking for Rome
12-19 Guigno 2019

Rome is definitely revving into high gear for tourists.

It may be hard to find Rome these days with all the tourists and all the hawkers happy to sell you their guide services or tickets to hop on and off tour buses. Taxis fly through intersections crossing pedestrian paths without (it seems) regard to people stepping into the walkway. Pedestrians search for shade and any gelateria nearby, often receiving their double scoop of gelato in cones that require immediate attention as the gelato begins to cascade to the sidewalk in the heat.

As you walk toward a tourist destination, such as the Fountain of Trevi, the number of nicknacks for sale increases exponentially. So does the presence of police officers on foot. Embassies have a high Italian military presence of personnel with automatic rifles loaded with large clips. In the hot weather, single men sell bottles of cold water having switched from the umbrellas they sell when it rains.

While seemingly chaotic, the tourist industry here is a well-oiled and precise machine that adjusts to the ebbs and flow of the needs of the tourists and the opportunities they offer.

E’ Caldo!!!!

OK. Enough is enough unless you look at the weather forecast for the coming days. While our forecast shows mid 90sF (35C), others see the temperature rising to the low 100sF (40sC) today 14 June. We try to drink plenty of water.

Monte San Savino

A short stop to explore and have lunch on the way to Rome. Surprised to see the level of architecture style and the number of churches in this small town.

Chiesa di Misericordia o Pieve Vecchia (Santi Egidio e Savino)

Chiesa di S. Agostino

Instituto Centrale per La Grafica

Our cousin Luciana suggested this great exhibition in central Rome on animated books—fold outs, pop ups, moving parts, the human body revealed through layers of illustrations, and several interactive digital books from the mid 1990s, etc. We arrived just in time to hear the tour.

Museum and Crypt of the Capuchin Friars

Located on Via Veneto, this crypt contains the bones of more than 3,700 friars arranged in decorative pattens on the walls and ceiling. One section may be all hip bones, and another skulls. This holy display of bones started when the friars moved to the present location in 1631, bringing with them the skeletal remains of 300 friars.

We are not sure when they stopped this practice. In comparison to the Capuchin crypt in Palermo, this is tame, but when Robert first saw it as a 12-year old, it was (and still is) an amazing experience. The friars recently created a museum that beautifully exhibits the history of the Capuchin order.

Ara Pacis Augustae

The Roman Senate commissioned this marble monument, the Altar of Augustan Peace, in 13 BC to honor Augustus Caesar upon his return to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul where he peacefully integrated these nations into the Roman Empire.

Augustus is known as the emperor who brought Rome into the Pax Romana—a 50-year period of peace—during which he turned Rome from a city of bricks into a city of marble and modernized the city’s infrastructure including aqueducts.

After modern archeologists recovered and reassembled pieces of this monument, Mussolini relocated it in the late 30’s to its current site near the Tiber. The American architect Richard Myer designed the temperature-controlled building sheltering it in 2006. For the first time, Robert appreciated a Myer building. It is much better from the inside looking out than looking in. The museum downstairs is not worth the price of admission. The current exhibition featuring the reign on Augustus is very confusing even to Bonnie who has studied this period of history.

Thats and This’s

Bibeti e Cibo

Grazie Luciana e Marta!

The Roman home of Luciana and Marta (and on occasion Dario) has become an oasis in our travels through Italy. We are so grateful to our cousins for rearranging their accommodations to house their elders!!

Our next stop is Croatia.
Stay tuned!