4 months 3 bags 2 chances: A Whiter shade of Pale

Itinerary

Where are all the people? Look no further, they are in Rome.
Double Decker tour bus in Rome traffic
Palatine Hill and the Forum including reenactments of the Death of Caesar and A Whiter Shade of Pale
Fashion choices for the wet?

Il Dolce Far Niente

Ok this blog is a few days merged - we only wake up between 9 and 10 and like good Italians are enjoying Il Dolce Far Niente with a bit of sightseeing slipped in. I read about that expression some time ago but wasnt until we were listening to some music in good Italian style that it clicked to me that the phrase is in the Bocceli song Romanza which was introduced to me by the multi facted Michael Easterbrook who used the music for one of his girls big events (again, poor memory on my part). Its a beautiful piece of music that i am sure i may use in the future for one of our kids big life events. Best part of the story is that when i listen to it again, i misheard and Bocelli doesnt say anything like it, more just the cadence sounds the same. Still i like the idea of Il Doce Far Niente which is the act of happily doing nothing or happy idleness. the idea that doing nothing is in fact an act of doing something (and the something just happens to be nothing).

I also found this video as i searched for Ramanza. Its proof that even the best of European voices sounds silly doing classic American songs. What chance does the poor Italian dude on the corner with his electronic synthesizer have as he croons Lionel Ritchie to now trapped street cafe patrons?

Let the day begin

Zoe was in charge of navigation today. She was really good. Took it quite seriously and with 2 maps and a few stops to be sure, walked us across Rome to the Colosseum and onto Palatine Hill.

That way!

The crowds

Once again there were a "few" folk with the idea of visiting some of Romes iconic monuments, museums and sidewalks. There are people everywhere. the feeling is similar to a busy New York sidewalk in rush hour but at least in NYC there was some sense of order (relative to this). Its quite disconcerting ducking and weaving to get out of the way of oblivious pedestrians walkiing toward you, cigarette smoke billowing as they talk on their phone and seemingly with unerring accuracy, aim the sharp umbrella tips at your cornea (like knights on a charging stallion, lance in hand).

Another NYC difference is that in NYC pretty much nobody jaywalked. Here in Rome if you want to cross the street, you cross the street - anywhere and at any moment (preferably without warning to the vehicle driving toward you). Truck or bus 2 mm from you? No problem, step in front of them. 1mm in fron of you? Step out, they honk, you ignore them as though a serf kneeling to allow the king to cross (they are nothing to you).

Its scary to watch, especially when we were on our double decker tour bus thing on day one. We were sitting on top deck at the front. Ree gasped or involuntarily yelped (yes yelped) on numerous occasions as it looked for all the world that we had hit the pedestrian or were about to enter the drivers seat of the car in front by crushing the rest of their car like a sidewalk hawkers accordion.

Line at St Peters Basilica

Spanish Steps

A few folk at Trevi - 20:30

A few folk at Trevi - 23:00

Via Del Corso: The shopping street. Saturday 18:00. Zoe and Drew go strolling oblivious to the crowds and parental location (a long way back)

A bit about Rome

Firstly, in pictures, these murals on a wall on the Via Del Fore Imperiale show the rise of the Roman Empire on the map. Starts as the little dot of Rome in pic 1 then expands a tad

Now in words. A warning, this may go on a bit.

All errors are errors of aging memory and the poor form of not fact checking.

Turns out I knew nothing of significance about the Roman Empire other than a few names that became salads and months, a few monuments, that at least one Emperor fiddled, one was very good but ignored advice from a soothsayer re: the Ides of March (15th by the way) and one arranged for the death of Max-ee-moos.

Always a bad sign when i begin to digress before the story even begins buuuut, i remember the first play i was in. It was Grade 6 for school assembly. I played Flavius Maximus, private Roman Eye in the great Wayne and Schuster parody, "Rinse the Blood off my Toga". Mrs Caesar is a classic New York Jew "I told him Julie don't go, I told him, it's the ides of March". The play, after much rehearsal, went off to rapturous silence - oh well perhaps a bit highbrow for Camboon Primary School?

OK so the story of Rome - creation myth. Orphan twins Romulus and Remus are raised by a she wolf on one of the seven hills of what is to become Rome. Romulus checks things our from the top of the hill and maps out how he sees the Rome. Marks it all out then decides taht Remus cant be in the city and tells him so. Remus crosses into the city so like any twin brother who has gone throught the worst of times with his most clsoe relative....he kills him. Later lonely Romulus decides to abduct gals from the nearby Sabine (the tribe not the girls names). Finally the two tribes make peace and Rome is born.

If you touch my milk i will kill you Remus

Its all a bit rubbish and the Romans know it but they propagate the myth as a giant marketing tool. Wanna buy a she-wolf statue? Pretty much the local tribes all lived on hilltops (safe). Over time they would meet at the bottom and kinda came to a peace pact thing. The bottom of the hills slowly morphed into the forum. The peace pact thing was pretty loose and there was a tad of fighting but slowly, as in all old cultures, a few powerhouses emerged and from them a king.

1000 years of Rome

The Roman Forum: the sign below is pretty much the only sign to let you know that you were at one of the worlds great historical sites (Hawker density is a reliable surrogate however). This is VERY different to anywhere else I have been where signs and arrows abound. Its like this at most sites, in fact it took us a good 30 minutes walking in ever tightening circles around the Capitolone museum (oldest in the world and thus plenty of time to knowck up a sign or two) before we found the front entrance.

I think its because the Italians of today are stuck between being a proud, independent culture with deeply imbedded heritage vs the economic reality that they need tourism to survive. The Italians therfore sullenly accept the tourists but even when they wear bus boy suit jackets and invite you into their restaurant there is a kind of sullen resentment beneath the veneer of cheery welcome.

The only exception seems to be with Drew. They seem to genuinely like young boys with no double meaning intended. He always gets a hair ruffle and a chat which seems genuine and not a subtley directed sales pitch.

The only sign at the Forum entrance

In summary, Rome rises then falls.

In a bit more detail, Rome begins its rise in 500BC, rises for 500 years to be top of the heap for about 200 years before declining over 300 years to almost fade from existence by 500AD. The whole shebang takes about a thousand years.

So for 1000 years Rome rules the world. The centre of Rome politically and from a religious and social centre of the Empire was "The Forum". It has the Colosseum behind it and the old senate on one side. Its very impressive.

In a bit more than a bit more detail. About 500BC the Roman Republic is born after a guy called Brutus (not that one) rebels against the fantastically named king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus because superbus junior rapes Lucretia who is the cousin of Brutus.

Idealistic, the aristocracy exist but decisions are made in a forum with senators and debate (or so they say). Still, its an Empire built on conquest so its not all civilized debate and a good pipe in the suana afterwards. As the empire gets bigger, it turns out that long debates arent great for rapid decision making so along comes a politician / military man (General) who suggests a "slightly different" formula. He, like all good dictators, strenuously defends the republic against having an Emperor, refuses the job of Emporer when it is offered to him then pretty much, but only because everyone asked so nicely, takes over as Emperor with the title of "dictator for life" and Rome, under Julius Caesar is born.

Its expansionary policy (conquest after conquest) continues and Rome prospers under Julius and then, after he is stabbed to death in the Senate, Rome does even better under his son (adopted nephew Octavian - who later changes his name to) Augustus. After Augie makes a temple for his dad (making Julius the first human elevated to God status), the name Caesar comes to mean Emperor and not just a surname.

For time perspective, Julius Caesar was born in 100BC and died in 44BC. Pretty much immediately after he was stabbed to death by the senators including Cassius (thin lips) and (also adopted son) Brutus, Caesars body is burned and buried in a Temple within the Roman Forum. A small amount of that Temple's foundation remains today.

Bust of Brutus. always imagined him to have a beard.

You can see Zoe and Drew in the videos below standing in front of the remnants of the temple of Julius Caesar. It's not much to look at anymore but fresh flowers still seem to find the way onto the burial place of Jules each day.

Video reenactment of the death of Caesar

This is the same place that Mark Antony stood up and proclaimed "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. I came not to praise Caesar but to bury him". Seems a tad mean spirited but hey, his girlfriend Cleopatra killed both her sisters to become queen so maybe he was a pretty hard guy himself?

Drew Antony asking for ears

Still in the forum but around the corner is the arch of Titus. The Romans understood that the trick was to conquer and then to get everyone to become Roman so to speak. as long as you believed in their Gods (aka he Emperor was God) you were in the club and came under the protection of Roman Law and military power. For most of the tribes / countries beaten in battle this wasn't a problem. They already had a whole bunch of Gods so what sort of a problem were a few more?

Problem for the Jews was that they all lived kind of around Jerusalem / Israel / West Bank of the River Jordan and were firmly of the belief that there was only one God and he was their God. So stick that up your Roman Tooshes. The Jews rebelled which didn't make the Romans all that happy. The Romans under Titus (he of the arch below) responded with great vengeance and furious anger. They sacked Judea ("People's front of Judea" or "Judean's peoples front") in around 70AD, took more than 50000 Jews as slaves to Rome and destroyed the holy Temple (the remnant being the Wailing Wall).

With their geographical centre decimated and religious and cultural heart destroyed (from memory there was a second sacking about 50 years later?) the jews scattered into a diaspora and there was no Jewish State until the founding of Israel in 1948.

Titus gets an arch built by the slaves he brings back and calls it, rather unimaginatively, "Titus's arch". The arch shows reliefs of Roman soldiers bringing in the booty form Jerusalem including a Menora and treasure. On the ceiling of the arch is a sculpture of Titus riding an Eagle as he descends to heaven.

Titus ascending to heaven on an eagle

By 200 AD Rome controlled an Empire that (according to one guidebook, was even bigger than Eurail and had more than 80000kms of road). The expansion is mostly under the reign of Titus and then the five "good Emperors, "Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pious and Marcus Aurelius. Around this time Roman Empire is 3.5 million square km and has a population of 55 million (which by my estimate was the number of people in the line to see the Colosseum today - we bought a Roma pass which gets you through the lines much more quickly and surprisingly works out cheaper than seeing the museums we saw without using one).

Back to the Empire. In 312 AD, Constantine beats Maxentius (not the Russell crow character- max-e-mooss). On the night before the battle Constantine, sees a vision of an angel on a cross (or something like that) and soon after, converts to Christianity. Maxentius doesnt do so well. He drowns whilst running away. His head is "removed from his torso and placed on a spike to be paraded around the city. A nice Christian start by Constantine.

Before this time, being a Christian was a pretty quick way to get persecuted or rapidly killed. Soon afterward, not being a Christian got you killed.

Constantine gets an arch built (well 3 in 1 really - gotta be better then the old fella Titus's arch). Not surprisingly, he calls his one, "Constantine's arch". It looks pretty good now but in its day, with gilted gold and many colours of marble, was befitting of an Emperor.

Arch of Constantine

Slowly, Rome became unable to keep its 15000km border safe. As the Empire declined, inflation rose to more than 1000% and taxes were immense, with much ending up in the pockets of a corrupt government (a long way from the ideals of the republic 1000 years before).

By 400AD after the greatest Empire of all time, had shrunk to be little more than the region of Rome itself. It was surrounded by a Medieval wall (still seen today).

The old and the new. Medieval wall of Rome with a new, shiny Hummer in the foreground

In 410 the wall was breached (so Game of Thrones) and the city was looted. In 451, The Pope had to plead with Attila the Hun for mercy - wonder how that went down?

A "bunch" of edicts by 400AD essentially decree the closure of the Temples and the move of the Imperial court to Ravenna (which I hadn't even heard of but is in the North East of Italy). Ravenna remained the Capitol of the Roman Empire until its collapse in 476 when the last Emperor sold his title for a large stipend / pension.

I heard it said (whilst diligently listening to a passing tour guide), that this was what finally plunged Europe into a political vacuum and 1000 years of poverty, superstition and poor bathing habits aka the dark ages.

Rome in the Dark ages

The City of Rome shrank from more than a million to less than 10000. The Visigoths and Vandals (wonder if they would have behaved differently if they were named "the Friendies") invaded in the 5th Century. They took much of the marble and ivory from the forum and colosseum and over time, the abandoned buildings of the forum and surrounds fell into ruin and essentially got buried in dirt and vegetation.

So now unseen and covered in grass, this square on the edge of the city that was once the centre of the world, became cow fodder and was over time forgotten to its new name of Campo Vaccino (Cows field). Now that's a mighty fall.

For the next 1000 years, nobody really cared too much about Ancient Rome until the Renaissance when the family Medici of Florence worked out how money worked, started a bank, payrolled artists, architects and then Popes and armies to get the Italian ball rolling again.

A whiter shade of pale: The Vestal Virgins

WIthin the most sacred temple in the forum, a fire burned. The fire represented the family; local and Rome. As long as the fire was alight, Rome would stand. The fire was kept alight by six Priestesses known as "Vestal Virgins".

Good job right? To become a "VV" you were chosen at about age 6-10 - usually the daughter of some rich family. You got to tend the fire and be a virgin for about 30 years. If you did a good job and remained possibly chased but definitely chaste, you got a great big stipend and were allowed to marry. If you failed in the chaste bit, you were given a loaf of bread and a lamp..........oh yeah, and then you got to be buried alive!

It's actually a technicality but the naughty VV wasnt "actually buried" as it was illegal to bury anyone in Rome. Julius Caesar had written into law that Rome was only allowed to have the living within its walls. This is a problem when it comes to "burying VVs alive". To get round the technicality of tthe law, the Romas would give the VV some bread and a map, not out of care or love but rather so she could "descend willingly" into a room with some food". Sure the room was closed off and she was never seen again, but that aint burying.

This is also a damn good reason that no matter how good the constitution or the law is, it is written in the time that it is written and can often be seen to be silly in retrospect (no matter how venerable). This point is made clearly in a fantastic gun control ad I saw a few weeks ago.

As to why 16 Vestal virgins were heading for the coast? No clue. The video clip is odd and adds no value.

Art within the forum

The pieces are mostly long gone now or in museums. The images below are from the temple of Romulus who it turns out was the son of Maxentius (the one that got defeated and decapitated by Constantine) as opposed to the founder of Rome. The museum was actually completed by Constantine (go figure). The thick, bronze, green door is original and therefore more than 1700 years old. That's some squeaky hinges.

As an aside, this green door is nothing to do with the Shakin Stevens Green door (which wasnt even his song, it was a cover from a 50s song - who knew). Wasn't he a talent. If you said "No he wasn't a talent" you may be correct however, he did have 3 consecutive single releases go to number one in Australia (which may say more about Australia than the Shakin one). The Shaking Stevens Green Door also has quite a lurid and interesting history of its own

The other (slightly older) green door

The statues are long gone but replaced by photos of the statue faces. There busts of the images live in the Capitoline museum which is as least as maginificent and as awe inspiring as the recently Dembo voted best museum ever aka the Acropolis museaum.

The images inside the museum of Romulus are interesting in that seemingly quite different from the Ancient Greek works and the newer renaissance works. The works show real people (Emperors) with real stresses and not the idealized ancient Gods or enigmatic smiles of Renaissance work. You can see the worry lines and the forehead furrows. The Statues must have been amazing.

Emperor Caracalla

Emperor Trajan

There was, for reasons unexplained, an image of the face of Pythagoras. This made the kids happy.

End today with fashionistas galore and a shop whose name you dont want to mispell.

Italians have style, it can't be denied. Sometimes fashion choice is guided by style rather than by practicality. These photos were all taken on a pretty rainy day. Rome is cobblestoned and can be muddy and really quite dirty.