Rome - Marble Madness

Our visit in Rome was like a marathon...exhausting in that we had to get up in the a.m. and walk around all day, stumbling back into the hostel after a 15 hour day, only to do the same the next day. This was the only way to ensure that we would leave Rome feeling that we had at least done it *some* justice. Half of our time in Rome was spent sharing it with my (Russ) cousin, Father Alan. Both of us thouroughly enjoyed spending time with Alan after we've been traveling alone for almost a month after parting from our parents in early August.

After checking into our hostel we had a hard time figuring out what to see of the panoply of sites Rome has to offer. We decided to start with the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We were amazed at Rome's mixture of buildings. Buildings and parts of buildings erected hundreds of years apart were neighbors and sometimes meshed into the same structure. A perfect example of the dichotomy was the first time we walked out of the bustling metro station--replete with its advertisements and litter--to see the Colosseum looming up into the sky right across the street. We were also shocked to see a huge stage being set up in front of the Colosseum along with several sets of massive speakers and gigantic video screens positioned throughout the nearby streets. We knew something big was going on but we didn't know what... Imagine our bewilderment to discover from our hostel-mates that Elton John was performing the next evening, using the Colosseum (with a flashy, all-colors-of-the-rainbow light show) as his backdrop.

Once we were satisfied with our marathon for the day, we returned to our hostel to find it full of mostly young, energetic English speakers (Irish, Scottish, English, Canadian and American). Emphasis on "young." This was one of those quintessential Youth Hostel Experiences. Russ joined several of the merry hostelers out that evening (after rounds of shots in the dorm room. Ahhhhh, hosteling) while Lesley stayed back to get some much needed rest for her strained ankle after the day's marathon. Russ had a blast spending most of his time chatting with a nice Texan named Omar and a couple girls from England. It was a fun, social night, but unfortunately our hostel experience only downgraded after that first evening.

The hostel was a dirty, dorm-style place where we slept in separate bunk beds in a room with 12 people. We shared two bathrooms between 30 people. On our second evening there a large Austrialian guy checked in who snored. SNORED. Poor Lesley had her head right next to the fellow and tried several times to stir him--even shook him and picked up his head to turn it to the side--to stop his snoring. It was hopeless. The man was a SnoreBot. Unfortunately this one guy cost us MANY hours of sleep over our last three nights there (not the best recovery environment for our daily marathons). On our last night there, we were assaulted by a new noise in the middle of the night: a very drunk Scottish guy actually FELL out of his bunk an hour or so after returning at 3 am from the bars (fortunately he was ok).

Saturday we spent the day walking through the streets and piazzas of Rome admiring the many fountains, statues, and ruins all made out of marble. The protected areas of ancient ruins of Rome are famous for being home to a plethora of stray cats. They safely lounge around the ruins in the mid-day sun like kings of their own ancient domain. Those cats were lucky to be on the side of the wall *without* the throngs of tourists.

In the evening we met up with Alan outside of the Croziers residence where he was staying for a few days until he could move into his own. The Croziers are a Christian sect mostly focused on Christian missionary work. Alan befriended several Croziers back in seminary school and they were kind enough to have him stay with them in Rome. We joined Alan and a few of his Crozier friends (including Tom, who was one of his professors in seminary school!) for a short evening prayer followed by a drink outside in their beautiful courtyard. During our prayer we prayed for Alan and Russ's Aunt Dorothy and her loved ones since she had passed away the previous day.

That evening we lingered over a delicious Italian meal in a cozy, tucked-away piazza with Alan and his Crozier friend Father Jim (Ristorante La Taverna degli Amici, www.paginegialle.it/tormargana). Getting to the restaurant required the somewhat terrifying task of crossing a many-lane road swarming with fast cars and motorcycles. To our surprise, Jim just stepped out into the crosswalk even though a continuous string of cars were advancing. As we crossed he told us the key to crossing Italian streets: make eye contact with the driver and watch to make sure they see you. Jim has been living in Rome for 12 years so he educated us on many Italian things including the satisfying after-dinner bitter drink Amaro ("amaro" in Italian = "bitter"), used for settling the stomach. Jim also recommended wonderful wines to go along with dinner: a Syrah from the immediate region and a Chianti Classico. He suggested that we focus on the Chianti Classicos when we visited the Chianti wine region, and he didn't steer us wrongly... our subsequent traipsing through Tuscan wine country confirmed that the Classico was indeed the superior stuff. After several hours of stimulating conversation over wonderful food and drink, we parted ways. On our way back to the hostel we actually heard Elton's last song of the evening. We had a great view from our perch high atop a hill--imagine seeing the purple-pink-green Colosseum, a video screen with Elton John's face on it, a cascading hillside covered with various Roman columns and other ruins, and thousands and thousands of people standing in the streets all within one vista.

Sunday morning we got up early (again without much sleep due to SnoreBot) and met Fr. Alan at the Metro station to head down to see Pope Benedict XVI at his summer home in Castel Gondolfo. After some confusion figuring out which bus to take, we arrived in the small beautiful town which is located on the top of a cratered mountain. A small swarm filled the square outside the Pope's home in anticipation of his brief, weekly speech and prayer. As noon approached the crowd started chanting something which sounded like "Aih Benedicto!" over and over. The cheering, banner waving crowd reminded us of gitty fans waiting for a celebrity or super-star musician. The Pope started and finished with a chanted prayer in Latin and addressed the crowd in several different languages with different prayers addressing concerns for each region of people (Italian, English, German, French, Spanish and Polish).

We stayed in Castel Gondolfo for lunch and sat outside overlooking a massive crater lake. We wandered around the quaint town for a while but the clouds were darkening and a storm threatened... we headed to the bus stop and had to wait for more than an hour for a bus back to Rome. During our wait, we got pelted by heavy diagonal rain and even hail! The drop in temperature was startling. Our tiny 5' x 10' roofed structure over the bus stop without any walls didn't provide much cover for the seven of us who were waiting there. But, we can't complain much when we got to witness a dramatic storm in the Italian countryside after seeing the Pope. That evening we walked around Rome for several hours and found a great little pizzeria with jovial staff just two blocks away from the North American College where Alan is studying this autumn. It was a wonderful day together, but eventually we had to head back to our dreadful hostel. We hoped SnoreBot had checked out but no such luck.

On Monday (and our last day in Rome) we toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican contains probably the largest collection of marble sculptures in the world. The paintings, mosaics, and sculptures inside the Vatican and the Basilica are stunningly beautiful. Russ gained a new appreciation for the magnificence of the Renaissance master artists like Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini. Throughout this trip, we have both been repeatedly blown away by the artistry, the devotion, the skill, the craftsmanship and the creativity we have seen in sculpture, painting, architecture and so on. The one problem with being exposed to so many masterpieces in such a short time is that you start to gloss over them after a while, not giving each one the contemplation you would ordinarily want to. "Wow, look--it's another amazing masterpiece. Oh, hey, there's another one! Let's get going because there's a whole other roomful of them as well!" Lesley found that she experienced an interesting shift in her perception in Rome: feelings of awe bubbled up upon observing the sheer quantity of majestic works. That is, the magnitude of her awe did not change--its direction did. The amount of marble that is crafted into sculpture within the city limits of Rome is just staggering. A visit to the Vatican museum is exhausting for a variety of reasons, not least of which is how tiring it is to have your breath taken away repeatedly upon observing objects of beauty and mastery.

That evening we met up with Alan once again and explored yet more of Rome. We stopped for some antipasti and a bottle of wine (Morellino di Scansano) in the Piazza dei Popolo while chatting it up. We had all spent so much time together in the last few days and it was easy to dive into personal, valuable conversation. We strolled around some more through a bustling shopping district and past the Spanish Steps, finally stopping at a beautiful Italian restuarant with frescoes all over the walls. Here Lesley introduced Alan and Russ to their first Brunello di Montalcino (Banfi, 1996. YUM!).

Russ is really grateful to have spent so much time with Alan in Rome--getting to know his cousin better as an adult. Previously most of the time Russ had spent with Alan, he was a teenager or in his early 20s, and would mostly see him during large family functions like weddings or when his parents would stop by Alan's parish and spend the day with him. It was great to learn about his life and his parish. This portion of our trip made a significant impact on Russ spiritually and religiously. Seeing the pope, spending time with priests, and being at such a historically important place of the Catholic church increased his appreciation of the Catholic church and faith.