Rome! Rome! Rome! or Eternal City of My Heart

Rome. Rome charmed me inutterably. How could it not? Ruins that pop up around corners, parks,

activity, even bicycles, and energy that is palpable. Rome is a historically important city, like

Venice, but unlike Venice it doesn't lose itself to the past. While the untouchable nature of

Venice is part of its charm, Rome vibrates, and grows, and changes, and is perfect. And, okay,

being a classics nerd helps. It also helps if you have a Classical Archaeology student to show

you around, which we had in the shape of my friend Jacob (Jacob, I owe you a thousand thank-

yous).
The apartment was nothing to write home about, but its owner was a hilarious pizza man who owns

a place called 'Pizza Europa' nearby, gave us free pizza the first day we were there AND the

second day, just dropping by, and left DVDs about his business around the apartment. Adorable.

Some of the things we saw in Rome: The Colosseum (hard not to); the Forum, full of vague

intruiging shadows of what stood there before; the 'Sacred Steps', imported by Constantine's

mother Anna from Pontius Pilates' house in Jerusaleum, complete with drops of Jesus' blood under

glass from his last day on earth, aka the holiest place on the planet - or they were when the

popes used the building as their private chapel, anyway - and the beautiful church next door, San

Giovanni, that has the old bronze doors from the Roman Senate building and the Pope as its

Bishop; a lot of obelisks, including one dating from the 16th century BC; manyVaticn , many

churches, the most hidden of them my favorite; pizza everywhere; more people of different

ethnicities than anywhere else in Italy; thousands of people; of course, many ruins.

Things I have learned while in Rome: Romans are constantly stealing from ruins and using them to

build other things, the best example probably being the Arch of Constantine, made up entirely of

older sculptures that were pasted on. The Catholic Church was particularly good at this. They

stole things from Roman buildings or built over them, and rearranged the obelisks by churches and

in other key places that gave their glory - first Egyptian, later Roman - to the Church rather

than the heathens that had held them before.

Speaking of the Church, Josh and I also went to the Vatican; an impressive church, although

noticeably similar to *coughacopyofcough* San Giovanni's, which I believe was the first public

church in Rome, on the spot where Constantine declared, after having won the fight for Rome. The

crypt of the Vatican was really more interesting, Popes and queens, including the (guarded) tomb

of John Paul II, a very popular Pope. One Pope, the one before JPII, only reigned for 33 days

before dying, which may have had something to do with them electing such a young Pope as his

successor.

We also had the best pizza in Rome, for which it is famous. My father knows an old friend from

grad school whose family lives just outside of Rome, so we went to their favorite pizza place our

second night there. How delicious! Light crust, perfect sauce, beautiful ingredients and just

lovely flavors. Bellissimo!!!!

In short, Rome was fabulous. Glittering, glorious, fabulous. The thing I admire most is that the

Romans LIVE in their ancient city; use its ruins, work around them, aren't afraid of building, or

trying new things. No wonder they call it the Eternal City.