Friday: Centro Storico

I walked all over the center of town today, what once was the Campus Martius. I crossed the Tiber at Ponte Sisto, about two blocks from my apartment, and walked to the Area Sacra de Largo Argentina. This is a fascinating place: four Republican-era temples, the location of Julius Caesar’s assassination (Pompey’s theater and curia were across the street), and the cat sanctuary for Rome’s hordes of kitties. Cloudy morning. I then went to the Pantheon, which looks amazing now that the restoration is complete, had un ‘cino e due cornetti in the piazza (which to my horror now hosts a Mickey D’s), and then on to Piazza Navona. A cellist was playing Beethoven sonatas to a taped accompaniment, and doing a decent job, too. Being a long-time Borromini freak, I went into Sant’Agnese in Agone, which is advertising concerts in the sacristy every Friday evening this spring. I’ll have to get a schedule. I decided to stay for lunch in Piazza Navona (spaghetti alla carbonara and Frascati).

The sun came out, and I spent the afternoon doing Augustan stuff. The Museo dell’Ara Pacis, newly designed by John Meier, is an excellent space. Lots of Romans hate it because it was designed by an American, but I think that it shows off to perfection what is, in my opinion, the single greatest monument of ancient Rome, the Ara pacis Augustae (Altar of Imperial Peace). I will be back here a lot. The museum in next to the Mausoleum of Augustus, which they appear to be restoring. It’s about time; the tomb’s condition is shameful. On the wall of the museum facing the Mausoleum is inscribed, in Latin, the complete Res gestae divi Augusti (The achievements of the divine Augustus), the emperor’s autobiography originally displayed on his tomb.

I crossed the river, took a wrong turn, and ended up in the Vatican. The line for the basilica was huge; the piazza was set up for some sort of papal event. I walked back to Trastevere, got online at Good, a nice caffè with great food and free Internet, and then went shopping: coffee, wine, water, fat-free yogurt, muesli, apples, and bananas. Pizza and supplì for dinner, gelato cioccolato in the piazza, and then home.