Rome ... Easy Going Crazy
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There is nothing I enjoy more than a nighttime stroll through an old city that illuminates itself well and contains so many places worthy of illumination. Compare the little flower stand near the base of The Spanish Steps to a WallMart parking lot. You have to drag me away from the former but only kicking and screaming into the latter. Rome at night is a pleasing city and it is not only tourists that fill the streets and some of the well known landmarks. A good crowd of young Romans can often be found at the Trevi Fountain, perhaps making certain that their spectacular fountain remains owned by the inhabitants and not just the visitors.
When
a special landmark building is unavailable for viewing due to ongoing restoration,
it is not uncommon for an outer fabric covering to be printed that shows what
the building actually looks like behind the temporary exoskeleton of scaffolding.
Doing this (in full scale) must be an expensive component of the whole process
but is a very welcome feature. Of course it is most impressive to see how
many buildings are undergoing restoration though the need for it and rather
desperate condition of many of the oldest landmarks is no doubt accelerated
by the smog of the busy city traffic. Only once have I seen a billboard placed
on such a restoration project though unfortunately that was in front of the
facade of the famous Trinità Dei Monti at the top of the Spanish Steps.
Hopefully this does not foretell a trend because the Italians are not yet
as overrun with large billboard advertising as we are in the United States.
Even if you cannot have every view and vista intact when you are in Rome (and
other cities such as Venice), it is very nice to see that a concern for what
you do see has been attended to.
Rome is
a city that is easily overtaken by its' own imagery because that is one thing
Rome, and Italians in general, are so damn good at. Federico Fellini was a
master at conveying his odd and often maddening images through film. One way
to prepare for a trip to Rome is to watch a few Fellini films. The grand nature
of many of the sights in Rome need the perspective of people's faces, sounds
of the language and body gestures. An ability to grasp some of the more gruesome
imagery that is cast, painted and carved into the many artifacts to be seen
around the city is helpful too. The day to day Roman world contains likenesses
of demons, death and despair as well as beauty, grace and elegance. The popular
Dan Brown book, Angels and Demons, capitalized well on this dichotomy, building
a dark murderous fiction on top of real history and places that exist today.
To a great extent, his writing sheds fresh interest on old landmarks and their
history. The Castel S. Angelo is most unlikely to house an Illuminati assassin
because it is open to the public as a museum. But, it does have an escape
route for the Pope by way of an old aqueduct from the Vatican.
So when visiting Rome you have a few basic choices. Get dragged around the city in a big ugly bus that stops everywhere just long enough that you can tell your friends back home "oh yeah, we did the such and such. Or, take your time to wander and study up a bit before and while you explore. Finding a wonderful little square that isn't featured in the guide book can be a great deal of fun.
