Roma non basta una vita
Friday, September 12th, 2008
There’s just something indescribable about this city that captivates me in a way that no other does. It doesn’t matter how many times I come back, I’m always excited when I arrive in Rome, and each time the city seems somehow more intriguing than the last.
I’ve spent about 15 months in Rome over the past seven years, and if I had a checklist of things to do and see, it would only be getting longer. The Caput Mundi continues to reveal more and more of its ancient self as time goes on.
Just in this short visit alone, we were able to do a few things that weren’t possible a year or two ago:
– Visit the newly excavated underground ruins of Citta del’Aqua, a Neronian era (circa AD 65) apartment complex near the Trevi Fountain.
– Go into the newly opened House of Augustus on the Palatine Hill with its restored wall frescoes (pictured right).
– See the 13 BC Ara Pacis, also newly opened, in a museum near its original location in the early Empire era Campus Martius between the Pantheon and the Mausoleum of Augustus.
Meanwhile, the ongoing Metro Line C project continues to reveal further ancient ruins underneath the city, most notably at the heart of modern Rome in Piazza Venezia. And I was told that the most famous chariot racing stadium of the entire Roman Empire – the Circus Maximus – will soon finally be properly excavated at a cost of €3m.
The only downside on this trip to the Eternal City: sadly, for the first time in its 2600+ year history, it now costs to enter the Roman Forum. (This has also permanently changed the landscape of the expatriate tour guiding industry, rendering it impossible to run tours the way we did from 2001-04, but that’s another story.)
Against this backdrop of a Rome that stands the test of time, Wendy and I wandered endlessly and aimlessly around the centro storico for a few days, eating fabulous food and hatching schemes about when and how we can return.
On Wednesday, with those thoughts fresh in our minds, we put on our backpacks, followed Constantine the Great, and headed east.
Nick