An autumn day in Rome

Saturday I slept in until almost noon.  I needed to catch up on some sleep.  I Skyped Gary and talked to him (and the cats!) and then got ready to go downtown.  I have a great bathroom here, with a nice shower (the bathmat works great, Emily!).  The shower has an adjustable massaging showerhead, with one really strong setting that I refer to as “sand-blast.” 

Only a couple of blocks away from me is a tram stop.  Tramline #8 goes right to the middle of the centro storico, the old center of the city.  I got off at Largo Argentina, one of my favorite spots in town.  In the middle of the square is an archaeological site with four ancient Republican-era temples.  It also houses the cat sanctuary that I visit every time I come to Rome.  They feed, fix, and care for some of the millions of stray cats in the city.  The cats roam free among the ruins, and it always amuses me to look down and see first a couple, then several, then dozens of cats sunning themselves on broken marble columns and stairs, just a short distance from where Julius Caesar was assassinated. 

Rome in autumn is fantastic.  The weather is warm, 70s during the day, and it’s been sunny so far.   The sycamores along the Tiber’s embankments are still green, and there are flowers everywhere.  At night it cools off to the 50s and 60s.  The city is busy, but not crowed with tourists the way it is in May and June.  I strolled through town heading toward one of the most beautiful public spaces in the world, Piazza Navona.  This long, oval piazza follows the outline of an ancient Roman chariot racetrack.  It’s often full of artists and street performers, and today was no different.  I decided to have a traditional Roman meal there, one of my favorites: spaghetti alla carbonara, pasta with eggs, cheese and pancetta.  A nice green salad with oil and balsamic vinegar and some good bread made dinner on Piazza Navona a perfect relaxing supper. 

After eating I headed for possibly my favorite Roman monument of all, the Pantheon.  This temple is the best preserved of all ancient buildings in Rome, and has been in continual use for nearly two thousand years, first as a temple to all the gods (that’s what pan theon means in Greek), then as a church dedicated to Saint Mary, Patroness of Martyrs, and now as the burial place of the kings of modern Italy (except for Victor Emmanuel III, who let Mussolini run Italy while the king spent World War II hunting on the royal game preserve in Tuscany; no wonder the Italians voted the monarchy out and established a republic after the war).  The Pantheon is amazing: one huge domed chamber, the largest dome ever built until the Superdome.  The temple has survived so well because the dome was cast as a single casting of concrete.  Shrines around the perimeter of the chamber used to house statues of the great gods of the Roman state.  Now they are chapels to saints or tombs of royalty.  The artist Raphael is buried here too.  A single red rose is usually on his tomb, and there was one today. 

I left the Pantheon and continued my walk throughout the center of town.  I came to a church (actually, there are usually several churches within spitting distance in downtown Rome) and saw folks heading inside, so I followed them.  The church was preparing to celebrate Mass.  As soon as I heard the organ play Frescobaldi I decided to stay.  No, I’m not Catholic, but I like good music.  The organist and choir were both very good, and I figured that following the liturgy would prep me for all the Latin I’d be reading the next two weeks. 

It was well after dark when I left, so I did what all Romans seem to do after mass: I stopped for gelato.  Now is not the time to wax poetical about ice cream (it’s actually ice milk), so I’ll just say that Rome is worth visiting just for the gelato.  Italians think you’re crazy if you only get one or two flavors, so I had stracciatella (heavy vanilla with dark chocolate pieces worked into it), pistachio, and hazelnut.  The weather was perfect, warm but not hot with a soave zeffiretto (a gentle breeze), so I walked all the way home.   The walk made me feel less guilty about the gelato and carbonara.  I got home late, after 10 pm (20:00 here), and went to bed.