Monday 24 October 2011

I spent this morning doing research for a couple of different projects.  I continued my walk through the city, exploring the topography of Roma in various periods as I gathered additional information for research.  One of my favorite things about Roma is the jumble of different time periods here.  Much has been lost over the centuries, but much also remains.  Temples and monuments from the Roman Republic and Empire, medieval churches, Renaissance palaces, baroque sculpture and architecture, and buildings from the last few centuries all vie for your attention as you wander the streets. At the height of the Roman Empire, Roma was the largest, richest, most populous city on earth, with a million or more inhabitants crowding into the sprawling metropolis. After the fall of the Empire, the population dwindled, and in the Middle Ages, only a few thousand people were left, most of them associated with the Pope and his court at the Lateran.  The city revived in the Renaissance and again became a great center of scholarship and art. Michelangelo, Raphael, and other artists embellished the church and palaces of the city.  Roma was transformed during the Baroque period, when artists and architects like Maderno, Borromini, and most of all Bernini filled the city with their work.

One fascinating area in Roma is right downtown, the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina.  When the Metro was first being constructed a century ago they uncovered a series of temples, some of them dating back to the Republic in the second and third centuries BC.  This metro stop was never built. Instead, you can look down into the excavated area and see the ruins of the temples. Nearby, now under shops and other buildings, are the ruins of the Theater of Pompey the Great, where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 BC.  Largo Argentina is also the home of the famous cat sanctuary, which I visit every time I come to Roma.  The city is home to a huge community of feral cats.  Many of these used to live in the Coliseum but have been mostly chased out of the amphitheater.  Some now live in the cat sanctuary.  Here cats are fixed, fed, and treated if they are injured. There is a small hospice for cats unable to survive on their own.  Many of the cats spend their time in the ruins of the old temples. I love looking down into the excavations and seeing dozens of cats frolicking among the columns, altars and temple foundations.  You can visit i gatti di Roma online at http://www.romancats.com/index_eng.php.

I returned to my apartment in the afternoon and wrote up some notes from the day’s research, then went out for dinner of pizza and salad.  Actually, it was salad on a pizza, which seems strange to Americans but is very common here.  A slice of pizza with cheese and maybe tomato is topped with arugula, spinach, or other greens. I supplemented this with a couple of arancini, and ended with a little gelato (pistachio and zambaglione).  In Italy you pay for ice cream by the size of cup or cone, not by the number of flavors.  The Romans think there’s something wrong with you if you only order one flavor. I’ve seen folks cram ten different flavors onto a three-euro cone.  I ended the evening with a stroll around Trastevere, a little reading and bed.