Five August

It’s 7:30AM at Il Gattopardo and no one is up yet. I guess alarm clocks don’t work when you are on vacation. We have our guide coming at 9AM to give us a comprehensive tour of the city. We will be taking taxis between sites as Maria says that is the most convenient and least expensive aside from renting a car. You won’t find me driving in this city any time soon. I am very confident of my skills as a driver but I lack the daredevil bravado required for this environment. One needs plenty of that to be a pedestrian. Maria arrived on time and we were off on the Metro. We took the A [Red] line across the Tiber to the Termini station and switched to the B [Blue] line and exited at the Coliseum. Our first stop was the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains. It is one of Rome’s oldest built in 440 and it houses Michelangelo’s incredible Moses. Also on view in a little glass box is the oldest version of the magician’s “two-chain-lengths-into-one” trick. It is said that the chains that bound St. Peter in Jerusalem were brought to Rome as a gift and placed with the chains that held him in prison here. They fused into one length with not so much as a “nothing up my sleeve.” Historically they have miraculous powers and a huge painting [c.1700] shows one such casting out of demons adorns the ceiling of the nave. We then walked down the hill to the Forum. This place is archeology heaven. Indeed Rome is. The ongoing excavations are revealing more and more of the cities 3500-year history. Imagine, only 2500 years after God created all this, Bronze Age visionaries established the real estate possibilities of this belly button of the world. In various parts of this “dig” one can see back through the ages and the seven or so layers that have been uncovered. Even today when a municipal project is started any digging is supervised to preserve what ever might be turned up. Something usually does turn up. Today we saw the torso of a horse, actually the main body of an equestrian statue that was unearthed at the base of the Coliseum as it was being cleaned up for a celebration. Archeologists are quite sure they will find the remainder of the statue and establish its personage and/or origins. They have also found one of its hooves. It is on display in the Coliseum. We had purchased tickets at the entrance of the Forum, which was a good idea as the ticket includes admission to the Coliseum. We approached the entrance, which was jammed with tourists waiting in line to buy their admission. We waltzed along side of them and into the great arena with out a moments wait. Nice job, Maria. BTW, Maria is a wonderful guide, one of about 1000 in Rome who are authorized/licensed to show you around. She lives not far from our hotel and knows our neighborhood quite well. She told us we could not have made a better choice for dinner last night. After walking for another hour or so we decided to call it quits for the tour and return to Prati and a lie down. That was about 2PM. It’s now 5:10 and I am craving Pizza! I will see if I can rouse the rest of the group and scout out a good brick oven.