We went to the Trevi Fountain. I threw in a coin and, no, I will not tell you what I wished for because then it won't come true, duh.
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| Real picture. I know. It's awesome. |
The Roman Pantheon, not to be confused with the Greek Parthenon, is importantly distinguished from its Grecian cousin by not being a house of defiléd pagan gods, but a pristine home to the Roman Catholics one true God who replaced the defiléd pagan gods of the Romans when those went out of style in the first century AD.
Zeus, Parthenon. Jesus, Pantheon...
Or is the other way around...
Nonetheless, I spent a moment in the Partheblahueblah below a depiction of Jesus on the cross. Many of my friends know I am not a religious man. In fact, I am openly not a fan of organized religion at all. But when I looked up at the emaciated Jesus cast in broze above me, I understood how much of the world is moved by this image, and that, to the poor, sick or needy, the beauty of the Cathedrals, Basilicas and Duomos of Italy could only have been built by the hand of God.
On our travels we discovered a mystery building near the monument to Vittorio Manuele (many buildings are near this monument because this ego-maniac built himself a building that takes up a whole city block that does nothing but look pretty, though it does that quite well) and I would like to share the process by which we discovered what that building was. You see, there are roughly three types of buildings in old Roma:
1. Churches
The Roman Catholics found themselves with all the money in the known world at some point in human history and built the most magnificent buildings in Rome. We walked into a random one near Vittorio Manuele (see, pretty easy) and there was a priest/bishop/robe wearing guy doing a lecture/sermon/yelling in Italian under a gilded ceiling surrounded by glass chandeliers. Magnificent and a totally typical find in this city. Our random building was not a church because...
2. Government buildings
When surrounded by the age and majesty of a city like this it is easy to forget that they run the country out of this place. Most government buildings announce they are such by handing a big old Italian flag above their front door. That doesn't stop most tourists from wondering aloud,
"SHOULD I GO IN THERE?!???!"
Chad said, aloud, ignoring the giant locked gate and armed guard. Our building had a flag, so it must have been government-ish, but that is less than the whole story...
3. Really Old Roman Ruins
New Rome surrounds and defends the pieces of Old Rome scattered about the city. Most ruins are difficult to access because they are either being preserved or excavated. Go ahead and toss any pile of red bricks, set of columns, or old Panthaparblarblar-esque paganville in this category. Buildings built to celebrate these slabs of brick, known as something called museums here in Italy, flank our mystery building on each side, asking tourists to flock and making government work less than possible.
I have no idea what the building is, but I think it captures a bit of what I take away from Rome: confusion. Ideally one should feel wildly confused when they take a step into a country where they do not know the language on a continent they have never traveled to before, therein, please call me ideal, and the city set a mirror to my inner workings. On any block in Rome you can find all three of these types of buildings. A man moving from Church to work at the Department of Argiculture to the Old Roman Forum (we found it) hardly need cross the street. Half of the city is trying to advance technology, the economy, the government, half is trying to keep the world in the 1800s and half is literally in the 100s. I know that's three halves, but when you convert to Euros it all makes sense.
We also drank wine. It was yummy.
Oh, did you think this would be an entirely sappy thoughtful adventure? No. It will not be. I will have a drink and a second and then I will lose count. Let us not forget my youthful naiveté, world.
See. I think the world is reading this blog. But a child.
Wine. We found a swanky fun wine bar/book shop that we attended two nights in a row. The man running the place played American music like Ray Charles and Etta James and played movies like La Dolce Vita and Italian Pulp Fiction. He was also drinking steadily the entire time. We loved this spot.
Thanks for sticking with this post, world. The next post will be immediate and include a detailed description of our first train ride from hell. Until then, Ciao!
Warmest Regards,
Chad Rhiness
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