After a morning of research, I gave Gary a call (all hail international roaming!). He assures me that Pattee is still standing, although he has also sent me several recent news items about doings in the stacks. I spent the afternoon at the caput mundi, the center of the world: the ancient Capitol, Forum, and Colosseum. From here, the city, the Senate, and the Emperor ruled most of Europe and the Mediterranean world, from Scotland to Africa, from France to Iraq. There’s a folder of pics at www.flickr.com/danielcmack. I am amazed, not at how much is gone forever, but at how much is left. Several sites in the heart of Rome, including my favorite, the Forum of Augustus and its Temple of Mars Ultor, are undergoing restoration. So is the monument to Victor Immanuel II, first king of a united Italy (if he’s the first, why is he number 2? Good question: he was previously king of Piedmont and Sardinia, which had a VE I).
Discover House, from whom we draw students for a Library Studies first-year seminar, lent me their banner, and I got a few good shots of it with Julius Caesar and others (check Flickr). The Colosseum astonishes every time I see it. As always, it was mobbed by tourists and groups of Italian school kids. What a great field trip; I had to settle for the Wonder Bread factory in Milwaukee when I was in grade school. There are always guys dressed like gladiators and such, who charge you to pose with them. I found the same Emperor and two centurions that Gary and I posed with three years ago! They once again obliged me, and also gave me a couple of good food tips (trippa alla romana, but you don’t want to know what’s in it if you don’t like organ meats).
I am going to make dinner at home this evening. I have fresh mixed greens (misto de verdure) from the market, and some nice mortadella and capers, so I think I’ll make a big salad and eat it on the steps of the fountain in the piazza down the street.
Tomorrow, a new adventure: laundry!
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