Words Fail Me

How cool would it be to learn to fence in Italy?

Don’t tell me what to do.

The interplay between Roman history, pagan, and Christian belief is seen throughout Rome.  The catacombs of San Sebastiano are a good example.

Now, we all now from Sandman #55 “Cerements” by Neil Gaiman that there are five methods of burial:

1. Mummification (like the ancient Egyptians)
2. Burning (like the late-Republic and early-Imperial Romans)
3. Sky burial (like the Tibetans and some Native Americans)
4. Sea burial (rare but permissible in most religions under exigent circumstances)
5. Earth burial (like the early Christians in anticipation of corporeal resurrection at the Rapture)

The doctrinal need for interment — and the premium on land in Rome — is what drove the digging of Christian catacombs.

Originally, this spot along the Via Appia was a stone quarry.  At the end of the 2nd century C.E., it was abandoned and repurposed for pagan burials.  In addition to simple graves for slaves, three wealthy Romans families built elaborate mausoleums.  But then in the 3d century, the whole thing was filled in and buried.  After Constantine‘s conversion to Christianity,  a church was built on top of the site and Christian burials were dug underneath into the tuff.  In the case of this one church, 6 km of catacombs.  (Pictures were forbidden in the catacombs, so there is nothing visual to accompany all of the above history.)

The church was later rebuilt by Scipione Borghese who had a habit of rebuilding churches and slapping his name on the front of them.  But he was a great patron of Bernini, so I will give that to him.The church is home to this beautiful statue of Christ which was carved late in Bernini‘s life which is why it is widely believed that it was actually executed by his students under his supervision.

The Via Appia, looking from Rome out through the Porta Appia to the wide world beyond.I imagined embarking on a journey along this road.  Heading south, toward the Mediterranean.  Boarding a ship for the Levantine.  Crossing the Silk Road as it spans Asia, through the Hexi Corridor, on to Xi’an.   Hard to imagine this road lined with the crucifixes of Spartacus and his army.
The villas and landscapes are either side of the road are breathtaking.  

Porta San Paolo is one of the souther gates along the Aurelian Wall.
It is not to be confused with the Porta San Sebastiano which is a totally different gate and, um, the one I mistook this one for.  I’m an idiot. 

For lunch, I had a pork equivalent of a Xi’an 肉夹馍!

The Pyramid of Cestius was built around 12 B.C.E.  to honor a magistrate and religious leader named Gaius Cestius.  At least it’s not an obelisk.

The Aurelian Walls were built between 271 and 275 C.E. during the reigns of Aurelian and Probus.  They were ordered built because the city of Rome had long outgrown the old Servian Wall built in the 4th century B.C.E. (which, interestingly, did not follow the Pomerium which was the legal and religious boundary of Rome.)
The walls reminded a bit of the city walls of Nanjing.

I was coming up the escalator from the train platform at Re di Roma and the Metro station was cold.  Really cold.  Like, cold even for me.  I couldn’t figure out why this was station was such a thermal anomaly until I got aboveground and saw that a temporary ice skating rink had been constructed directly on top of it.  Mystery solved.

The Palazzo dei Quirinal — or, colloquially, just Quirinale — is sort of the White House of Italy but way, way, way bigger.  It’s the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic and sits atop the highest of the Seven Hills of Rome.In front is a statue of the twin brothers Pollux and Castor (as in the two brightest stars of & inspiration for the constellation Gemini) taming horses.  Plus another Roman obelisk.  Because you gotta have an obelisk.

This is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (“Fountain of the Four Rivers”) which I had stupidly confused with the Trevi Fountain.  This is the fountain I had always wanted to see.  In fact, I went full-Aragorn when I saw it, murmuring, “Long have I desired to look upon the [rivers] of old.”

It was designed by Bernini in 1651.  Beneath yet another Egyptian obelisk, there are four sculptures personifying the four great rivers of the four continents over which papal authority had spread:The Ganges representing Asia…
…the Río de la Plata representing the Americas….  …the Danube representing Europe…  …and the Nile representing Africa.
And this is the one I have always wanted to see because I fucking love this:  the sculpture of the Nile is depicted with its head covered because, at the time of its sculpting, the source of the Nile was unknown to Europeans.