Trestevere

Continuing with our purposeful wandering, on Friday Jeannie and I made our way to Trestevere (Beyond the Tiber) for lunch. Along the way, a five mile roundtrip, we saw some old sights again and encountered several new sites. Just some quick highlights here. (A larger map will open by clicking on it.)

We returned to the Trevi Fountain.  Here's Jeannie tossing in two coins for good luck.

From the Trevi we walked on to the Pantheon.  We had been there before, but both the building and it's piazza are a wonder and a delight.  After the Pantheon, though, we were in new territory.  Just south of the Pantheon is an archaeological sight marked the Area Sacra.  The only reason we visited was because it was on our way.  We were glad to learn that here, in Pompey's Portico, is where Julius Caesar was assassinated, not at the Curia in the Forum as we always assumed.

There is a beautiful bronze fountain in the Piazza Costaguti, but the light was not right for a photograph. Just past I was very tempted to stop for fried artichokes, but it was only about 11:30. Then we weave our way through the ruins of the Portico d' Ottavia and the Teatro Marcello (below).

We chose Trestevere as our destination because we had never been there and it is often referenced as an older, slower, more residential part of the city.  The description is accurate up to a point.  But Italians love their cars at least as much as Americans, and the automobile can take the most beautiful street and make it mostly a noisy, smelly parking lot. 

We were able to find a small restaurant off the main streets with a vine covered patio.  Both location and menu were attractive.  Even with our limited Italian it was clear the restaurant claimed to be organic and depending on "local" farmers.  

At a restaurant, as opposed to a "snack bar" or other category, there is usually a three course Italian lunch from which most choose only one course.  At Lucie 44 the full lunch with bread, water, and coffee was "only" 15 Euros each (just under $20).  This is so much less than what we were accustomed to paying in more tourist oriented areas that we assumed each course might be a kind of small plate. We were hungry - and curious - so we each ordered three courses of different selections.  Good thing we were hungry.

My first course was spaghetti with caviar, the second course was an omelet with spinach and cheese, and a third of fried potatoes.  Jeannie had a risotto with pesto, sausages and beans, and a green salad.  The portions were the largest we had encountered in Italy, almost as much as the US.  Each simple dish was well-prepared and presented.  It was the least expensive lunch we had while in Italy, and other than the extraordinary cuisine at Venisse, our best.

By about 1:15 the restaurant was crowded with Italians.  We were gone by 1:30, walking back across the Tiber to the area over the Palatine Hill from the forum.  Below is a picture of Jeannie with the forum stretching to the Colosseum behind her.

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped into San Giorgio in Valabro.  We were the only one's in the church, a cool, softly lit, quiet retreat from the noise and constant agitation of Rome.  We strolled the shaded colonnade of the Piazza del Campidoglio (below), designed by Michelangelo in the mid-16th Century.  As we passed the Quirinalle Palace (Italy's equivalent to the White House) a marching band and many rows of uniformed police were marking Police Day with a parade. I don't know any US police force that features silver swords and feathered helmets.  At the piazza of the four fountains we saw a fender bender resolved with a series of shrugs.  Near the Barberini Palace we stopped for gellato.

Rome can be a frenetic place.  Right now it is also an anxious place. Our hotel shares the same block with the ministries of economy, commerce, and labor.  Small knots of worried looking bureaucrats gather on the street, especially in front of the economics ministry.  The overall unemployment rate is 9.8 percent (and rising), while the unemployment rate for those under thirty is just over 30 percent.  Greece is, once again, teetering on the edge. Spain is struggling.  With the eighth largest economy in the world Italy is beyond being bailed out if private markets lose confidence in Italian debt.

I imagine, however, there is a rather different attitude toward these challenges than we have in Washington D.C. or New York.  How might the mind be influenced to find at the heart of your city vast ruins of a collapsed civilization?  How might your current choices be framed if beside these ruins you eat a fabulous lunch or hear a wonderful concert in a gorgeous building constructed 1000 years after the collapse, in part by reusing pieces of the ancient ruins.  What does it mean to live in a city where Nuovo or Novello (New) is attached to structures 500 years old?

I expect this context encourages a healthy - and sometimes cynical - respect for human folly.  It probably does not encourage delusions of being in absolute control.

In ancient Rome a conquering general might be rewarded with a victory parade. Thousands would turn out to cheer and spread flowers before his chariot. Meanwhile a slave whispered in his ear, "Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori!": "Look behind you! Remember that you are but a man! Remember that you'll die!"

Momento mori. Remember you'll die. So... today enjoy your lunch.