A Continuing Narrative

Our time in Rome has played out like a story.  At the beginning, we were delighted to be here and everything around us felt incredibly romantic. The whole city radiated vibrancy, and steeped in ancient dust.  Days past, and life here began feeling like rubble as the heat and the culture shock claimed us.  Ariel and I had some days where it felt like our sanity had spewed all over Rome.  Refreshingly and unknowingly, that madness was our climax.  Conversely, the falling action was rich as we intimately acquainted ourselves with our favorite parts of the city. The next few days promise to be a compelling conclusion.  

Last week I went on some adventures with Ariel's class.  This shot was taken in Adrian's Villa, which was built as a retreat for the Roman emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the second century AD.  Adrian's Villa was inspired by the emperor's love for the Mediterranean and was comprised of over 30 buildings, covering approximately 1 square kilometer.  The complex included palaces, theatre, temples, pools, libraries, state rooms, and quarters for the royals, the guards, and the slaves.   

At the Villa I reflected: it feels like a graveyard, a temple / one man's vision, one lifetime. / Here a thousand lifetimes feel like one breath.

The roads in Rome are amazing: laid with rich, charcoal cobblestones.  In a BBC article I read, "Only the tourists and the angels love the cobblestones unconditionally. The rest of us, those who have the stones under our feet or under our wheels every day, detest them, or fear them...or admire them from a distance." 

Despite the cons the roads inherently offer, we were constantly inspired by the tenacity it requires to uphold a the tradition of the stones. Especially as we imagined the alternative: giving up and paving the streets, losing the feeling of history we felt with each step as we walked the streets of Rome.  

Scattered about the Jewish Ghetto, one of my favorite neighborhood in Rome, there are places where cobblestones have been replaced with commemorative bronze cobblestones.  The bronze stones were laid to remember the Jews who were taken from their homes and assassinated in concentration camps during World War II.  It is impossible to imagine the horror and loss that occurred during that terrible time, but the tiny gravestones helped bit-by-bit, as I said a small prayer for each stone I encountered.

Our food adventures have continued to blossom in Rome.  In my last post I talked about Aristocampo, a sandwich shop that quickly became one of our favorites.  Ariel discovered a branch in our neighborhood, so of course we had to try it.  For dessert we had our very first slice of true Italian Tiramisu; it did not disappoint.

Ariel picked out some Rigatoni on one of our market adventures, so I decided to make a meaty rose sauce to coat the pasta.  I simmered the sauce with white wine and finished it with cream.  This is going into our Italian food files back home.

A couple nights ago, we went on a wonderful walk at dusk to the Janiculum: a beautiful green space that overlooks the city. The views were magnificent and the light, sweet evening air felt intoxicating...it quickly became one of my favorite places in Rome.