Incredible sights, from art to archaeology to early church history
Rome
Two nights only
Roma Termini shown here, the city hub of transport. Our apartment is several blocks to the west. This vast and lively and ancient city surely deserves more time than we are able to give it. So much history is fixed here—events we all learned about (or should have) since grammar school: Romulus and Remus, Catullus, Cicero, Julius Caesar and adopted heir Augustus, first-bishop Peter, pre-Stradivarius Nero, and a whole catalog of Popes, both famous and infamous. And me here with an entrenched anti-bucket list mentality. Hmm.
Two days here... To make the very most of our time, we'll take a Rome night excursion in, of all things, a golf cart or tuk-tuk type vehicle. It begins at 10pm that first night, ending sometime very early next morning when we hail a cab to return us to bed—thoroughly tired, of course. This slideshow contains some of the places we'll enjoy our first night. But even more than the fun of that is enjoying Roman laughter.
Although I did spend awhile down in these ancient high-ceiling underground hallways, lined as they are with tens of thousands of now-empty niches, it's worth experiencing all over again for the subliminal appreciation of history to be found here (and hopefully be implanted within). So yes, we are returning. If you should descend to these hallowed passageways, remember that it is strictly forbidden to take photos/videos down there: you must keep smartphones turned off and cameras stowed, mindful that the earnest folks in whose stewardship these chambers continue, take the spiritual meaning of it all very seriously. Too, actually the onsite bookstore does have remarkably worthwhile mementos—far better than your iPhone's little pics.
Extracted (and improved) from a purchased bookstore DVD with Deutsche (really) voice-overs, this image shows a room deep underground where those faithful to Jesus assembled during the first three centuries of our era; where they buried their dead—consistent with their concept of the Resurrection—and avowed their certainty that even mighty Rome did not have the final authority: not on earth, certainly never in Heaven.
It's true, Eric fell off one of these twice, last time.
Oh, and for this upcoming visit on the afternoon of our full day in Rome, we'llride here in a tour van, not an e-bike.
Here's a small sample of visible intense artworks down there, evidences of Centuries of humble prayer and veneration of heroes of the Faith ... which we will absorb.
My 2022 e-bike tour visited this very meadow, pausing to behold the inventive industry of these Latin-speaking Romans. Of course one naturally thinks of grand stone edifices that abound... but I found myself imagining everyday life in that culture, amid togas and chariots and difficult conjugations and declensions. Oh, and not neglecting to use that supine case, mirabile dictu , at least once daily.
Several blocks down the street from our apartment is this massive emblem of ancient Rome, the Colosseum. Grand in the twilight and ominous in the darkness... it's a gotta-go-there kind of place, but not actually high among our own priorities. A short distance beyond the pictured colossus is the Foro Romano—arguably more fascinating in suggesting glimpses of everyday life within this great city of two millennia ago: much more worthy of my attention than tour guides describing gratuitous shedding of blood to please
screaming thousands clad in their best tunics in that vile arena of public entertainment. So rather than spending hours in line to enter the Pantheon, say, or to pitch Euro coins into Trevi Fountain, I need to visit and absorb some of the less heralded archaeology hereabouts. Hmm, park picnicking near stone ruins? Yes, absolutely.
For my own part, the nearby Basilica St Clemente holds much more magnetism—a few Euros' fee permits me to explore several layers of its archaeological tel—down to the remains of a fourth century Christian church, and, beneath that, the home of a first century house-church.
