Starting work

I got up early Monday to head up to the Academy.  I say “up” because it’s at the top of the Gianicolo, the highest hill in Rome.  I saw that Gary had posted pics of our cats, Erik the Red and Xander the Great, on Facebook.  Take a look at them if you haven’t seem them!

The American Academy in Rome was founded in the late 19^th century to promote the humanities and the fine arts.  It’s in a beautiful villa on top of the hill, and has an excellent library for Roman studies.  I can catch the 115 bus a couple of blocks from my flat and be there in a few minutes.  I could walk, but the Gianicolo is both high and steep, and my knees weren’t up to it today.  I spent some time there looking for materials on the topography of the city during the reign of Augustus, the first emperor.  I’ll be going back tomorrow. 

The bus ride down the Gianicolo is more exciting that going up.  The streets are narrow, steep, and switch back and forth in a couple of hairpin turns.  This being Italy, the bus dodges cars and fleets of motor scooters.  It’s actually easier to stand on this bus than sit, because you’re likely to get thrown out of your seat at some of the turns.  After leaving the bus, I stopped on my way home at one of the street stalls on Viale di Trastevere to buy a new moka pot; the one in my flat has a bad gasket.  Six euro wasn’t a bad deal.  I also bought some fruit at the frutteria and bread at the bakery.  I skyped Gary, and then went across the river to a couple of major Augustan monuments, the Portico of Octavia and the Theater of Marcellus.  Octavia was Augustus’ sister and Marcellus her son.  Marcellus would probably have been Augustus’ heir had he not died young.  The emperor built these monuments to honor his sister and her son.  Augustus sort of owed Octavia, since he married her off to Mark Antony, who eventually ditched her for Cleopatra.  Both Cleopatra and Octavia had children by Antony, and after Cleopatra and Antony’s death, Octavia raised their children with her own (the lives of the Julio-Claudians is a soap opera, for sure).

It started to rain in the evening, so I returned home to eat a dinner of salad and fresh bread baked with rosemary.  The city is beautiful in the twilit rain, with all of the lights shining on the colored stucco walls and tile roofs of Trastevere.  Many restaurants and clubs (and museums) are closed on Mondays, so Monday evening is comparatively peaceful.  I wrote up some notes and got ready for the next morning, when I would return to the Academy for more research.

I promise that photos are coming!