Wednesday and Thursday, our last two days in Italy, were filled with the wonders of Rome. The tour on Thursday of the Roman Forum and the coliseum were exhausting and hotter than Hades but filled with the revelations provided by our guide, Flavio, a Young history fanatic from Sardinia. Talk about a person being in love with what he does. ...... He was thrilled to share with us every new discovery about these unbelievable ruins, even the somewhat sub-rosa shot he had just recently managed to capture on his cell phone from an excavation that was not yet officially announced. It somehow is pretty impressive to walk on portions or the Roman highway where all the great names - good, bad and otherwise had also walked. It is truly impressive that the original sewer systems are still in use while at the same time, clean, cold water can be had from hundreds of icy water pipes coming from springs and underground water storage. On a day as hot as the last few we had, that's a blessing.
The size of the Roman leaders' dwellings was excessive to say the least, but one can only be impressed by and even grateful for their beauty and the ingenuity of their builders. That they seemed to make every effort to outdo each other in the creation of grandeur just results in it being all the more unbelievable.
A very interesting diagram of who could sit where in the Coliseum
When we made our way over to the coliseum the tales of lavish public events moved us into an even more awed state of being. To think of 70,000 people gathering in that one architectural wonder is really a brain strain. Then when you enter the subject of class and gender protocols it becomes all the more fascinating. There's a great diagram on one of the main corridors' walls that demonstrates who was allowed to sit where. Actually, that sort of thing has improved over the centuries to quite by a fair degree. In some areas though, it is difficult not to see some striking similarities to the use of able bodied young men both then and now. What is so different between being a well trained gladiator or army personnel and the well indoctrinated military "volunteer" of today? They are both fodder for exerting influence and maintaining the power and influence of the super wealthy.
Scale becomes the overpowering factor when viewing the Coliseum
There are many fascinating close ups to be found in those huge tapestries
Thursday Averil and Bruce reserved tickets for us to see the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel. Let's not even go to the subject of trying to stay together in those crowds. But the bottom line most certainly is that we were impressed and thrilled to have seen what we saw. Elaine prodded us ever forward toward seeing tapestries.
And we advanced ever forward until we saw a collection of gigantic tapestries that we'll be discussing for years. Thank you Averil and Elaine. By the time we called it quits we were sore of foot and back to the point of taking a cab to our neighborhood and sitting down to yet another collection of salads and other dishes at a restaurant introduced to us by Holly and Roger which seemed to become our favorite group hangout. We actually returned there that night to have our last dinner together before walking leisurely back to our hotel for final packing and preparations for going our separate ways. This last walk involved, of course, a stop in the three fountain square to indulge in one last gellato at a place that was touted to have the best gellato in the world. I had a sample taste from several generous souls and I think I am willing to go along with the idea that it would be hard to beat what I tasted.
The trip home via Rome and Munich airports and that nice big Airbus was a classic example of hurry up and wait and culminated in a safe and uneventful landing at SFO, just the way we like it.
Elaine and I are decompressing at Richmond Harbor before driving to The north coast tomorrow. It was a fantastic trip and yet we both can hardly wait to be in the paradise we call home.
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