Orientation

Tritone Fountain


If I had to sum up Rome in a few words: big, small, smell, taste. Seems to be a city of opposites! Every building is so huge, but yet every detail so small; there are smells here worse than anything I could've ever imagined (but good ones as well!); and tastes- the sweet mixes with the salty and everything is delicious! My first few days in Rome have really been an orientation to the city and the area around our dear Hotel Ercoli. We are in the northeast section of the city that is much quieter and restrained than the rest of the city- probably due to the fact that this is the area of consulates and dignitaries- but it is still beautiful. I feel as though we have walked the entire city hundreds of times, but I know we haven't even begun to cover it- we haven't even visited the huge ruins yet!

What really gets me is the way in which the Romans have seamed the old and the new. The Pantheon (which is being restored right now, as are many monuments here) is smack dab in the middle of towering 19th century buildings and modern cafes and tourist traps. There are huge obelisks in the middle of every other square, it feels like. All with some form of commemoration to the ancients, yet surrounded by the modern. It's really very odd to think about Caesar or Trajan walking these streets (indeed, most of the large streets today follow the ancient roads).

Tomorrow we set out to an Etruscan museum. The Etruscans, having been the predecessors of Romans, truly laid the groundwork in which the Roman Empire was laid- so it should all be interesting. Arrivederci!