Anybody Seen Victor Mature?

Greetings. It’s a wrap in Roma and Geoff and Linda were met at their hotel for the tram ride to Roma Termini, the big train station. There was time to purchase pannini and Geoff downed 12 or 13 lattes. No problem getting to Napoli.

Now there is a town outside Napoli (my cousins will have to help me out here) where Grandma Rienzo grew up and started to raise her family. Several stories have circulated concerning her life there. What seems to be the case was that she had several children in the United States (ensuring citizenship) and then would return to Napoli. When Chris’ mom was born the Rienzo family stayed in the Bronx. Mom never did make it back though her ashes did make it to Venezia.

At the Napoli station there was a lot of activity and some confusion as to where to get the train to Pompeii. It was determined it was a separate local line and could be found downstairs. Chris succumbed to a uniformed staff member’s offer to buy their tickets and get them on the right train. This did work but it cost six euro for the privilege. He did cut in the ticket line and ensured that we would be able to make the next train. But after we boarded said train we were not sure of how grateful we were. There were more tourists than one could throw mouse ears at all standing shoulder to shoulder, valigia a valigia…for almost all of the 17 local stops before Pompeii Scavi (not to be confused with Pompeii the current town).

Upon arrival Chris phoned the limo service that would take them all to Positano after their tour and everything was ‘va bene’. A driver would meet them at 3:30 allowing 4 hours for investigation.

We-e-e-ll-ll-ll…as it became apparent you would need about 4 days to establish ground rules for exploration, a few years of archaeological training and a 4 year lease on a nearby villa to do some justice to this experience.

On August 24, 79 (yep that be a two digit year) from 10 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon, Mount Vesuvius literally blew its top along with some earth shattering. Pompeii was buried in 10 to 20 feet of dust, debris, pumice while Herculaneum was engulfed in lava also. Not really a good day…

About 60 percent or so of Pompeii has been excavated with current efforts more focused on preservation of what has been exposed as opposed to breaking ground on the rest of the city. And we are talking a city here folks.

This posting will basically show pictures and have some labels. Everyone was overwhelmed and the flow of the experience cannot be conveyed here. Taking it all in was not possible and the process is actually still continuing even though the group has moved on:

Avenues and streets:

Notice here the ‘beaver teeth’ in the street to prevent carts and chariots from ingressing on pedestrian areas. There were some raised stones low enough for vehicles to pass over but convenient for stepping over puddled streets.

 

that would be the exterminator Vesuvius in the archway.

Much of Roman life was familiar from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. So there was a main forum:

The Temple of Jove, of course, was here overseeing business and socializing alike.

Another active meeting place was the Triangular Forum:

This was essentially the theater district. The Romans knew how to put on a show. In Pompeii there was an amphitheater, a stage theater and an Odeon. The stage and Odeon were part of the area by the Triangular Forum. This was also complemented by an open exercise area called the Palaestra where one could exercise or fine tune some fighting skills.

 That would be Linda way up there.

Also nearby was a Temple to Isis, always a special place for Chris.

It was just amazing how much of life seemed and looked familiar. Chris and Maurizio, Mary T’s cousin, have a slight disagreement going. Maurizio, an informative historian to be respected, feels that all ages should be evaluated equally for their culture and contributions. Chris, however, perhaps being a technophile, prefers Roman times to Medieval or even Renaissance in terms of when to have lived.

Fast food has been available in all eras but here is the Pompeiian version:

Each recessed area would be appropriately insulated for hot or cold offerings. And there has to be bread and pizza:

 Gristmills for grinding:

  Hello Gini! Notice places to put rods so that the mills can be turned by hand or animal.

 And you must have an oven.

It was not uncommon for women to run or own businesses here. Some villas were assigned to female owners.

Maybe not so familiar (unless you live in Iceland) was the idea of the public bath. There were 6 of them in Pompeii. Three for men and three for women. You could bathe hot or cold or go for the steam.

As for the houses this is where it was difficult to get a handle. Every town has wealthy people and it is obvious where they live. Here in Pompeii there were many, many examples of very nice residences. So many had an open atrium centrally located and most likely where dining took place; a living room with a shallow pool or fountain, gardens…

Murals:

Mosaics everywhere especially in their entryways and around their pools and fountains:

Commemorating Alexander:

And the weighing of a phallus would definitely be unfamiliar:

The most dramatic would be the capturing of the empty space of the disintegrated bodies. Once these voids were encountered then molten plaster was injected with dramatic results:

3:30 arrived and we staggered out to meet our ride. What had we just seen? If the Roman Forum radiated residual energy what was impacting everyone here? So on to Positano but memories of Pompeii filled our minds and conversation.

If It's Sunday This Must Be Roma

Greetings. They were due to arrive, we thought, at 10 AM and then work their way to the train station where we could fine tune a plan. Somewhere would be a phone call. After checking Aer Lingus’ website it became clear that the earliest flight would be a little after 11 AM. Finally at 12:30 after a couple of calls to their hotel which was one block down from Hotel Eugenio Principe it was decided to go to their hotel and ambush them there.

This worked. At a little after one there’s Geoff hauling his suitcase up the stairs followed by his lovely bride Linda. This hotel, though inexpensive, had the look and feel of a good place. As a survival strategy Italian coffee was immediately produced and downed.

Temple Minerva restaurant from the day before seemed like a good choice again. It was close and the food was good.

A short walk brought us to the Metro where we took on the automatic ticket machines and wangled 4 twenty four hour passes. This brought us to Barberini again where we headed for tourist central, the Trevi:

Such a lovely couple recreating their Roman honeymoon magic from 30 years ago. Not quite so hungover as last time as the uncommon denominator.

A rare sight to see these two smiling:

Coins were tossed and then the next destination was targeted, the Pantheon.

Our literary and cultural references got crossed similar to the end of Blazing Saddles as we encountered an attractive duo:

Pancho? Cisco? Don? Sancho? Chi lo sa?

And then again there is the legend of the lonely tourist:

Even though the excuse was for finding an ATM, the group wended and wended along many small streets dedicated to separating a tourist from their money. An inexpensive umbrella was purchased in anticipation of tomorrow’s sun at Pompeii.

The major destination of the day was soon reached, Piazza Navona.

This Roman gathering place is also famous for its fountains:

The ambience was heightened by music:

And phenomena:

Linda had researched an article describing not only the many offerings of the Piazza but also of the attractive nature of the nearby neighborhoods. She was quite astute to have done this as we found ourselves seeking out many of the narrow streets until we found ourselves at the Tiber River on the other side from the Vatican.

A perfect time for gelato and rest. At this point Geoff and Linda thought it was 39 o’clock and Geoff had not even napped for over 24 hours. Bravely we continued on.

Cute and fun:

We found a wonderful café to order spritzes and coffee. It was an incredible setting:

This is the last recorded evidence of either Geoff or Linda being even close to vertical on that day:

Gini and Chris bid them a’ dopo and had a nice intimate (sharing a table with six other people) dinner at Taverna Antica. It was a 12 Euro dinner complete with lasagna, veal covered with prosciutto and a good glass of wine. Rest now because domani Pompeii awaits. Ciao.

Venimus. Vidimus……Edimus

We came. We saw……We ate. And then we met Geoff and Linda and we did it all over again. This may not be the most creative Rome agenda but it certainly met with our approval. This post will be senza Linda and Geoff (without). The next post, incluso.

The train ride from Torino was quite nice. Business class with free beverages, internet, large seats and plenty of room. Instead of muddling through two hours of posting and uploading like he did in Torino, Chris was able to get everything done in less than a half hour. He did not want to leave the train.

The decision was made upon arrival to Roma Termini (huge train station) to go underground, catch the Metro, go one stop and walk the rest of the way to our  hotel on Via Principio Eugenio. This was a somewhat apt description of what happened but in a roundabout manner upon emerging to the surface. Eventually the proper address for the hotel was arrived. It was literally an apartment building with two columns of apartment buzzers at the entranceway. Now we were trying to save money and be close to the railroad station since we were only staying two nights and were back on the train for our departure but this was of the ‘curiouser and curiouser’ experience.

A small sign “Press #4 for the Eugenio Principio Hotel” was taped to the framework of the columns of buzzers. Va bene, we will press #4. We did and the metal gate was released, we entered the foyer and opened the door to the building and saw a plain hallway of closed doors. Hmmm…

We espied a small open elevator; something Dr. Frank-N-Furter might arrive in. A disembodied voice said “Up one floor!” in Italian. So we swung open the doors, slid the gate open, squeezed ourselves and our luggage in and went up one floor. We were met with one side of a double door opened and what could be seen as a front desk became visible. The hotel experience then familiarly took shape and our female host eloquently described the neighborhood, local restaurants, city wide points of interest, methods of transportation including specific tram, Metro and bus routes in a most satisfying fashion.

The room was on the entry floor but behind another double door that led to a long hallway of rooms. It was clean, well furnished and comfortable.

We headed for one of the recommended local eateries, Il Tempio di Minerva (Temple of Minerva). We had not walked more than a couple of blocks before restaurant staff from a couple of places swept out to us in the street. Disappointing one and accompanying the other we sat at the Temple and had a fine meal of buccatini with a hot sauce and rigatoni with a creamier, red sauce. Complimentary bruschetta arrived first. As we were finishing up our cappuccuni (uno decaffeinatto e uno normale) the couple next to us engaged us in conversation. Within moments it was determined that they were from Australia. They ran the German club in Sydney. She was from Germany and he was from Ireland. But not only was he from Ireland but the same town, Dundalk, (a small Irish border town in the north) as our cousins Peadar and Noreen! Don’t ya love it?

A constitutional was in order so we took off for a walk to the Colosseum. The neighborhoods around the train station and a bit west are quite beaten down and unremarkable. We walked perhaps for a mile before the landscape changed dramatically and we came upon a park:

It was both Saturday and a holiday (Eastern Orthodox Liturgics). People were definitely out and about. Within a short distance we came upon the famous arena:

Next to it is Constantine’s Arch:

This arch commemorates Constantine’s victory at the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. This was the legendary occasion when he was to have had a dream, the night before the battle, of a cross and was told “By this sign, conquer”. He then dutifully displayed it (somewhat desperate since he was outnumbered by Maxentius’ troops) and in gratitude of his victory built the arch and declared Christianity a favored religion of the empire.

Though having visited before, the Forum was the main focus of the exploration. There is a residual energy there that hums with commerce and social interaction. It’s main peak was around the time of the early empire but continued as a commercial center for decades after.

Just a taste (click on them for a better look):

 

This was also where the Vestal Virgins lived. These were 2-6 women empowered by the state for important functions and were in the service of the goddess Vesta. Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Their tasks included the maintenance of the fire sacred to Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and home, collecting water from a sacred spring, preparation of food used in rituals and caring for sacred objects in the temple's sanctuary.^[21] By maintaining Vesta's sacred fire, from which anyone could receive fire for household use, they functioned as "surrogate housekeepers", in a religious sense, for all of Rome. Their sacred fire was treated, in Imperial times, as the emperor's household fire.

The Vestals were put in charge of keeping safe the wills and testaments of various people such as Caesar and Mark Antony. In addition, the Vestals also guarded some sacred objects, including the Palladium, and made a special kind of flour called mola salsa which was sprinkled on all public offerings to a god.

This is a pic of the interior garden of their house:

They were an important factor in Roman life for over a thousand years (700 BC – 380 AD or BCE-CE if you prefer)

They had a multitude of businesses and services including 24 Hour Pillar Repair:

Er…just a guess….

Given the commercial importance of the Forum it is obvious that intelligent business people would be located here. There would have to be some critical thought as to location. After careful analysis it was determined that this would be the store and site of Togas Unlimited, a Carolus Dunneum enterprise with a crack retail staff:

Speakers came alive after awhile to warn us that the Forum would be closing. We headed out towards Vittorio Emanuele Piazza but began to make our way up another Roman hill. This was part of our ‘…if you see a hill, climb it!’ philosophy while in Roma. Gelato sounded good and when we saw the sign for “Two Balls, Two Euro” we knew were in the right place.

Along the way up we stopped at Basilica San Vietro in Vincoli. Another beautiful church and also another rare place where they honored Moses (Venezia has an entire church to him) with a statue on a side altar. You could light him up for a euro.

At the top of the hill we came to the Qirinale:

This area and associated buildings have long housed the famous and powerful. The main edifice was built as a summer home for the pope who wanted to get away from the humidity and the stench of the Tiber River. It was also the site for Papal conclaves and the offices of the Papal States. After they dissolved it was, in name, the residence of the King and the Presidents of the Republic. However in many cases it was just used for state offices and the rulers lived elsewhere.

Our true target destination lay on the other side of the hill:

We are suckers for the Trevi Fountain. People are packed like they were on the Metro at rush hour but we still take pause:

Mirroring an action that was occurring in many places around the fountain, Chris turned his back on the waters and flipped a coin into the depths that caressed Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. He wished that…..oops, can’t tell. But maybe a return is in the offing.

We now pause to ask Mike Foley, what the hell is this?

Dinner seemed like a good idea and Gini wanted to go into a deep trance to remember where we had had dinner with Eileen six years ago when we were staying at the Hotel Modigliani near the Barberini and the hotel recommended it. Try though we might, even ingesting sacred gelato, we could not locate it. Now reeling with disappointment we climbed another hill past Barberini and found the Hotel Modigliani. Even though they did not seem to remember us from six years ago we still took their current recommendation of a non-descript location about 80 meters from the hotel, Osteria Barberina. They said we would need to be lucky because even though it did not look like much from the outside it was quite the eating experience and would be crowded on a Saturday night. Hat in hand we entered and were told that there was a possibility in half an hour.

We found a fountain wall on which to perch in the Piazza Barberini and dutifully whiled away the 30 minutes and returned to find we had been lucky. Dinner was marvelous. We decided to forego pasta and took advantage of the truffle menu for antipasta and then had grilled sea bass and sea bass carpaccio for a main meal. Accompanied by a tuna salad for two we were quite satisfied. Dessert was chocolate torte with almonds. Ah!

Interestingly we had a brief conversation with a young Japanese couple next to us about tipping. It seems that service is no longer included in the bill in Italian restaurants. Many times there is no longer a ‘coperto’ (cover or table charge) either. It is now being left to the customer to decide something extra. The young couple was only leaving a Euro while we thought that was too little even if there was still some unseen bill-padding. We left five euros for a 70 Euro bill. After doing some Google research that night concerning this newer restaurant philosophy we decided that 10% would work for a dinner expense.

Barberini was a Metro stop so we decided that would be our way home. However there were several dark streets and at 11PM in this down scale neighborhood we felt a little anxious. Everything turned out fine but we resolved we would learn about Tram/Bus 105 which left from the train station and stopped very close to our hotel.

Domani, Geoff and Linda.