une fois encore
Too Many Things to See
Roma
Vital Choices for Finite Days
The idea of renting my own bicycle, to ride along the Via Appia (shown) is a wish, of course. Once stretching for hundreds of kilometers from Rome more or less towards the southeast, this defining ancient roadway is still maintained as a vast, lush historical park, lined with crumbling monuments and undermined deep below with catacombs along the way, Surely the available bikes will have big, cushy tires. Cobbles are scenic but feel hard again and again. And again.
Ouch.
Speaking of catacombs ... There are many of these labyrinths of haphazard tunnels in the area — vast hallways with horizontal human-sized niches carved into each wall. I want to visit at least one of these, for awhile.
For some reason photographs and videos may not be taken inside these venerable shrines. Which rule I shall respect—although at the same time I will seek to purchase officially authorized visuals onsite.
I did it. Found a wonderful tour with an (ahem, adjustable) e-bike and patient guide.
And yes, this is the very place. And yes, being there, even among all the little clutches of Germans and Spanish and Portuguese and Japanese tours, was moving beyond my ongoing efforts to describe. Indeed it was almost other-worldly.