Just kidding. I'm sure it's a nice place to visit, but seriously, I'm glad I'm not there right now. I'm pretty sure that the last forecast I saw looked pretty grim.
I am however, in Rome:
And it's the most breathtaking thing ever.
I was walking inside Union Station this morning with Holly, and she took me into the main hall, just to show me. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of scaffolding around. I mean, it's a good thing, because that means that the ceiling is still slowly getting fixed, but that also means that you can't see the whole roof at once, which Holly tells me is pretty amazing.
By the way, a few of the other major things I will take pictures of may have similar structure around it, because there was an earthquake out here a few years ago (during the recession) and stuff is now only being fixed completely.
But, anyways, I was standing in the main hall, looking up, and I realized that there were all of these statues standing on top of the archways, above the pillars.
And I just felt this euphoria. It's hard to describe, especially since most of you probably don't spend as much time looking at Roman buildings and architecture and reading about the city as I have over the last month, how that literally makes you feel like you can't take in enough air.
For me, that's because, since I started reading more and more about Rome and the Empire over the years (especially this year, thanks Dr. Williams and Professor Futrell!), I have progressively begun to lament more that I will never see Rome as it was meant to be seen. Not with half-built buildings, and crumbling facades, but with marble covering every surface, and in magnificent patterns on the floors, with 'marble of every color' and bronze letters describing everything, and statues everywhere.
And, as I was walking across these marble floors, that are old by my standard (at least 100 years, I think I was told, maybe a little less), that are in these geometric patterns, and I was seeing statues and columns, and ceilings that seem to be modeled after what the inside of the Pantheon looks like now, I just felt like my head was spinning a little. I was like
'Oh my gosh. I'm in Rome.' I feel like I may understand now, what it was like to just walk into the Empire's capital, and have these massive marble covered structures towering above you. And it's not just the buildings. I was reading Rome, the Cosmopolis, and it was talking about how Rome contained the world, because it had conquered everywhere, and then brought all of the stuff there and how there were so many people from places all over the Empire.
That's like this. See this place:
That's not supposed to be there. I mean, I'm glad they are, but this 'Pret A Manger' doesn't really sound 'American', does it? (The name's a little quirky for American English)
Well that's because it's not.
It still sound English though, a little, maybe? Maybe it does to me because I know where you're supposed to see this place. It's British. Apparently these are English, and they've started showing up in the US, which I think is great. But, I realize now that this spreading of cultural fixtures into other centers of power is not new. It's literally been happening since Rome was an Empire.
And then, there's apparently people from all over the world here, speaking their amazing languages, and there are statues all over the place.
(Victims of Communism Memorial)I came here looking for specific monuments, and at every other street corner, I'll stop and often take pictures of memorials to generals and battalions, and causes.
It's fantastic. Oh, here's part of my lunch:
 |
| Spinach and Feta, while sitting in the National Gallery Sculpture Museum, right beside their ice skating rink (which is open) |
So, just another thing for a second. The city obviously is not really Rome. There are some design flaws that come from the architects basing their designs off of the Rome now, rather than what it would have really been like. There are two really notable things for me. The first is that everything was made using modern technology, whereas Roman buildings are made from a lot more blood, sweat, and tears (the modern buildings are still amazing though). Secondly, all of the engravings modeled after the inscriptions on Roman buildings and monuments, are simply carved into stone. In Rome, the epigraphs on major buildings were often filled with bronze lettering that would slot into the indents, at least, there were, until Christians took those and melted them down to make their own statues and letters. And the buildings that weren't that important still had the letters painted on as well so that they were more visible. Strange, that I should wish for that to be the case here when I've never actually experienced it first had, but I do, especially since the monument's lettering is sometimes worn or covered in residue from the salt on the sidewalks.
But, to walk around the city, in a kind of awe, and then to walk into the National Gallery, and see this statue, that's actually from that era. It's just chilling.
And, it's in the middle of this rotunda, with soaring columns, azaleas around a fountain like in a painting, and a bronze statuette of a pirouetting Mercury, it's fantastic. That whole building is also very Roman. The square doorways lead in some places to plane square rooms. There are also two rooms which are ringed in columns, with a sun roof overhead, and a garden inside - the Peristilium, or Peristyle.
I guess that's it for today. I spent all day in just the main floor too. I have yet to see the German art, which I may want to mention in my project, which is on the ground floor. Yikes. And it might sleet tomorrow, and it will almost definitely rain, so we'll see if I just make tomorrow a library day or not.
Finally, I found this today the Unicef Tap Project. This is an amazing idea. And, it shouldn't be that hard, not for just a little while. Sign up here, and say thanks to the magnifico Signore Giorgio Armani for his generosity by making this fundraiser as productive as possible!
(Also daylight savings time starts on Saturday night)
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment