We meet for class at Piazza Farnese. I arrive early because I’ve mastered the bus routes and now know how to reduce my walking on the way to class to three city blocks. Jennifer and Alan arrive and I’m so excited to meet him. They’re coming for dinner at the house tonight and I can’t wait!
Giuseppe is our troop-leader today; Tony is off on important business. We set out for the Ghetto, the original Ghetto, Rome’s Jewish quarter. The neighborhood looks beautiful, but Giuseppe reminds us that not very long ago the entire quarter was enclosed with fences that were locked at curfew. Worse, whenever Jews left the Ghetto they were required to wear a yellow hat to reveal themselves as different. The synagogue, a stoic building, sits at the end of the quarter, near the river. A giant iron fence with mounted surveillance cameras surrounds it and a guard sits in a little booth on the corner. Giuseppe explains that only a few years ago someone set off a bomb in the front of the building and since then the Synagogue has no longer been open to the public.
We walk around the building, and Giuseppe points out a dedication to the lives lost in the holocaust. I’m struck by the absence of any acknowledgment of the part Italy played in the tragedies of World War II and the holocaust. In fact, I’m suddenly a little unnerved by it. The United States has many powerful monuments, memorials, and museums to recognize one of the most world-altering eras in history, despite our limited participation in the conflict. Germany had made a conscious effort to place plaques, dedications, memorials, and museums everywhere to ensure that history is not forgotten, that mistakes are not denied nor repeated. But Italy? In fact, the only memorials or museums are those belonging to the Synagogue here in the Ghetto. I’m a little disgusted. Especially because Italians are not shy about their continued prejudice against Jews.
We leave the Ghetto and I’m almost certain that progress in this city, once the center of the world, halted a long time ago.
We walk along the river until we arrive at a park with two temples. This is where Hercules docked in Rome, bringing the first cows to sell at market and establishing the very first stock-trade. This is the spot where the twins, Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf (or old mother she-wolf, if you prefer). Giuseppe points out the hills of Rome rising around us. Atop one once lay the Jewish cemetery, then it became the center for the Knights of Malta, and now a residential area home to the wealthy.
We don’t have far to go to reach the Greek Orthodox church, most notably home to the Boca della Verità. We line up for our chance to put our hand in the mouth, legend states that if you put your hand in and you have a dishonest soul, the face will bite off your hand. Giuseppe assures us that it’s just a legend, but we all joke about whom to bet on for losing their hand…
We walk to Circus Maximus, the scene of that great chariot race in Ben-Hur. It’s just a really big field and even though it would be cruel in this heat, I wish there were horses to rent so I could tear around the track. To the far end of the field, opposite us, one could reach the Appian Way—the very first freeway and the road all great heroes took when returning to Rome.
This is Roma Antigua, where ancient temples lie in ruin or became the skeletal structures for new churches. We pass a massive amphitheater and the last-standing corners of temples, jutting out like cracked teeth. We walk between the amphitheater and the ruin of an old temple that may or may not be in the process of restoration. Blonde Megan notices bones spilling out of a disturbed grave… this city is old.
We walk to the Campidoglio, the capitol building, where the original statue of the she-wolf rests safely in a museum. The courtyard and building layout were designed by Michelangelo, who I jokingly call the Paul Revere of Rome (I think only Gretchen will get that). From the back of the Campidoglio we can see a view of the form and the Colosseum. It’s incredible. Giuseppe points out the tomb of Romulus where people continue to leave flowers to this day.
After this, it’s time for gelato and some shade. Then a few of us girls set out to see the tomb of Rafael, housed discretely in the Pantheon. We’ve seen plenty for today and head home. Jennifer and Alan arrive and we all sit down to eat a lovely dinner of spaghetti carbonara (Paola leaves the meat out of mine!) and then head out for gelato. I’m so excited to chat with Alan, since Jennifer has told me so many wonderful things about him, that I’m pretty sure I talk his ear off!
It was a nice evening and I hug Jennifer goodbye—she and Alan are leaving soon for Madrid and I probably won’t see her til I’m stateside in two weeks. It seems like so far off, but time goes quickly.
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