All roads lead to it

Itinerary

• Circus Maximus
• Colosseum
• Bocca Della Verita and two cool movies
• Drew's new purchase
• Orange Indians and whizz bang subway surfer types

 

 

Started the day by being lasered at breakfast. Damn kids.

 

 

Once molecularly reconstituted, we headed off to the Circus, the Drain cover sea God the remains of the Flavian amphitheatre.

 

 

Circus Maximus.

I didnt really understand that Circus Maximus was a different entity to the Colosseum until now. It was immense in scope. The Colosseum held 50000 spectators, the Circus could hold up to 250000 Romans and was 12 times bigger.

The circus was like the sports arena of the day. Chariot races, sword swallowers, flame throwers, large wild animals. A kind of fun park for one and all.

A word about Gladiators.

The real gladiators fought in the Circus as well as in the Colosseum. . They were very expensive to train and highly respected within Rome. They would fight and fight hard, but then like all good sport, would shake hands and off they would trot. No fights to the death or the even worse alternative "to the pain" - if not familiar click on the link to the scene in one of my favourite all time movies. That little pause at about 19 secs in makes me laugh every time I see it. It would be inconceivable to not return to Inigo Montoya, The Dread Pirate Roberts and Andre at his acting peak.

So the real Gladiators were pretty much like professional boxers today. The slave "gladiators" of the Colosseum were a different kettle of fish. These are the folk that got to die in the name of sport. They were usually criminals or prisoners of war, were poorly trained and didn't stand much of a chance of being alive by the end of the day.

 

Chariot race reenactments - cute host!

 

 

 

 

We had lunch on the hills along the Circus today. Beautiful day for eating our cute packed lunches, doing a bit of chariot race reanactment and for the kids to play with a couple of dogs that had ben hanging out with their owners on the embankment with us.

So there is it, a lot of talk about Gladiators, but if you stop and think about it, its a kooky concept. Did some research (asked Zoe) and found out a bit about how the whole Gladiator thing started which is really a story of keeping up with the Jones'.

Most of what comes next comes from Horrible Histories regurgitated by Zozo to me too fast to type. It all started at Etruscan funerals. The Etruscans (who came before the Romans) would murder one of the newly dead person's enemy for revenge - a gift to the dead man. The first dead man (the original funeral guy) would be happy and so not come back to haunt them all.

Then they got the idea that they could get two slaves, call them Gladiators and let them fight to the death at the funeral (saved the hassle of trying to find an enemy for revenge). as that got a bit boring they started Gladiator schools to make the fights more interesting.

As time went on, Romas started wanting Gladiator fights before they died. They started as one on one and then Mrs MAximus would say to her hubby, how come the flavius's get a Gladiator fight for their anniversary. Next thing you know the fights are getting bigger and bigger and the Trevis get to keep up with the Aurelius's etc. Reminds me of a book I got for a birthday years ago called Bobo's in Paradise.

By about 100BC they started building special complexes to house the fights.

 

 

Colosseum

Finished in 80AD, and opened in a spectacle of 100 consecutive days of "Gladitorial Combat", the Colosseum could house 50000 spectators. It was known as the Flavium Amphitheare (Vespasian the Emporer who was there when it was commissioned was the first of teh Flavians). It was actually Nero's idea to build the Colosseum but he died before it was done. It was called Colosseum because it was close to the statue of Nero which was 40 metres high i.e. Colossal.

It looked a whole lot better in its day than it does now. The outer walls were Travatine with seats of marble within. It had a roof of canvas which could be riased or lowered just like at Wimbledon or the Australian Open.

Also just like modern day sporting events where you sat depended on status. Ground floor dierctly in front seats were for senators and other big wigs and then up an up toward the plebs. Right at the top level, above the slaves and foreigners, was the Women and poor folk section who got wooden seats.

One of the reasons the Circus was much more popular than the Colosseum was that men and women got to sit together (but not the Vestal Virgins).

The program consisted of a morning of animal hunts / games. The midday segment was for executions and then the games began.

The animal games included as many exotic creatures as could be brought in from the Empires reaches. Big animals such as rhino, bear, wild bull and elephants, cats including tigers, lions, panthers, leopards. The animals usually got to fight unarmed slaves but as time went on the combinations of animals vs other animals or humans with weaponry various were experimented with. On one morning according to a board within the colosseum, an Emperor (forget which one) got in 200 Ostriches and then had them decapitated by archers! On another single day around the inaugeration ceremony, more than 5000 animals were killed. For more info see here.

For the curious, it may be noted that for a lion vs tiger fight the tiger would almost invariably win (much bigger). They tired a few bear vs big cat fights but the bear always wins. As th cat jumps at the bear, it grabs the cat and hugs it till its skull is crushed (cats have thinnish skulls to keep the weight down).

The afternoon entertainment slave fighters "gladiators" would enter the arena from their headquarters through a tunnel that we got to walk through on our underground tour. Drew was fully immersed in imagining being a Gladiator who would walk into likely death through a dark tunnel, muddy floor with the smell of animal excrement, the roar of creatures never seen and a 50000 strong crowd baying for blood.

 

Enter here for your fight to the death

 

As a Gladiator you would fight to the death. Occasionally, the vanquished would admit defeat and the Emperor could go the thumbs up or the thumbs down). Sometimes it would be the crowd who would decide. Very seldom ws there much mercy flung around. Note - thumbs up meant death, thumbs down meant mercy.

Faking death was a no-no. To stop any possum playing, the dead Gladiator would be poked with a red hot iron brand and then bashed on the noggin with a Thor hammer before being carried out the dead man's gate.

 

Looking at the Gate of Death. The Gladiators would enter the arena from the tunnel beneath that gate

 

The fighters would enter the arena after getting elevated from the tunnel directly below onto what is now the wood platform in the picture below. The underground section wasn't built at the start but added later. There were more than 60 elevators on which to raise animals or fighters into the arena. In its day it was an architectural marvel but it still smelled of animal poo.

 

 

 

 

Boca Della Verita

Firstly let me say that for the last few days i have been going with the great Seinfeld Dell Boca Vista blooper in my head. I loved George's dad (who is Ben Stiller's dad in real life). I won't at Ree;'s insistence put in clips of him "stoping short" or launching into Korean but as I tap the keyboard, I have a big smile on.

 

 

 

Onto the Bocca Della Verita, the mouth of truth! Its a carved image about 2000 years old of a mans face (thought to be the God of the Ocean) on a round background that was probably a Temple water collector although some suggest less salubrious origin such as old manhole cover or maybe part of a fountain? Of no particular interest, the marble was origianally from Turkey.

Story goes that if you tell a lie with your hand in the mouth of the sculpture, the hand will be bitten off.

It stars with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday.

 

 

Massive line, tiny sign

 

 

We waited in line for about an hour.

 

The couple in front of us were Italian. The mum spoke great English which she didn't need use to point out that their son and Zoe looked exactly like brother and sister. The kids kinda played near each other but weren't great at breaking the language barrier

 

We all had a go and all left with their arms.....or did we.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why you put your non-dominant hand into the mouth

 

 

Afterwards you exit into the associated Church. cant remember the name but something like "Saint something of the blessed small donation for each photo and another small donation for entrance to the ....dum dum dum...crypts". If not exacty accurate, perhaps my Italian needs a bit of work. would love to but cant afford to pay for lessons after all the "donations".

For a small nominal fee....ahem, "donation"

 

 

 

The Crypts were a small underground cave like thing that you enter (after the aforementioned small donation per person) down some steps near the back of the church. The Crypt is dark and moisty cool. As per Cool hand Luke, Drew was a bit naughty (for the sake of the picture) so had to "spend some time in the box".

 

What we have here, is a failure to communicate

 

 

As an aside, "Cool Hand Luke" was a family favourite movie. We were brought up hearing that if we didnt behave we would "spend a night in the box" and the tradition has carried on in the Dembo family to Grandchildren and their cousins.

 

 

One of the greatest last lines in movie also became a part of Dembo vernacular in times of childhood behaviour not aligning with parental expectations "what we have here, is a failure to communicate".

 

 

 

 

In other big news, Drew got his Rome souvenir today.

He knew exaclty what he wanted and would ponder and meander through all the highest quality hawker trinkets looking for "the one". Then today.....it happened.

 

 

Special price just for him. Lucky or what!

 

 

Trends in street Hawking.

The biggest thing in town at the moment are the orange clad meditating, levitating Indians. Its a good looking trick that seems to draw hundreds of onlookers. Pretty simple trick once you know how but they are making a lot of Euros on the streets of Rome at present.

 

These guys just set up. They do it in a black Houdini like cover and emerge "meditating " to the "oohs" of the crowd.

 

The guys from every piazza in Greece are also in Rome. Everywhere you look a green laser is shone in front of your feet often refracted and or through a template so you see hundreds of small green dots on you, in front of you, on buildings etc. They also sell the elastic band things that we first saw in Hearklion. Essentially a two little bits of paper in the shape of a helicopter wings and some tiny multicoloured LEDs. You catapault them high into the air so that when passerbys turn to gaze at (say) the Pantheon, you see little lights in the air like small flashing LED butterflys - first time you go "wow", next (maybe) 1 thousand times, you politely say noIi dont want one of your dumb nanobots or just ignore the Hawker completely

 

Flashing, eye enucleating, catapault butterfly

 

 

The most amazing guys are the subway surfer graffiti guys who sit down with a milk bottle crate of spray paints and then at amazing speed and with quite unimaginable skill, end up with a painting which gets loud applause and usually 10 or so Euros from the passerbys (plus the mega amount of coins deposited in their lil hat thing). In Rome they tend to paint the Colosseum. Drew is mesmerized watching them.

 

 

 

Till next time

 

A Whiter shade of Pale

Itinerary

• Where are all the people? Look no further, they are in Rome.
• Double Decker tour bus in Rome traffic
• Palatine Hill and the Forum including reenactments of the Death of Caesar and A Whiter Shade of Pale
• Fashion choices for the wet?

 

 

Il Dolce Far Niente

Ok this blog is a few days merged - we only wake up between 9 and 10 and like good Italians are enjoying Il Dolce Far Niente with a bit of sightseeing slipped in. I read about that expression some time ago but wasnt until we were listening to some music in good Italian style that it clicked to me that the phrase is in the Bocceli song Romanza which was introduced to me by the multi facted Michael Easterbrook who used the music for one of his girls big events (again, poor memory on my part). Its a beautiful piece of music that i am sure i may use in the future for one of our kids big life events. Best part of the story is that when i listen to it again, i misheard and Bocelli doesnt say anything like it, more just the cadence sounds the same. Still i like the idea of Il Doce Far Niente which is the act of happily doing nothing or happy idleness. the idea that doing nothing is in fact an act of doing something (and the something just happens to be nothing).

I also found this video as i searched for Ramanza. Its proof that even the best of European voices sounds silly doing classic American songs. What chance does the poor Italian dude on the corner with his electronic synthesizer have as he croons Lionel Ritchie to now trapped street cafe patrons?

 

 

Let the day begin

Zoe was in charge of navigation today. She was really good. Took it quite seriously and with 2 maps and a few stops to be sure, walked us across Rome to the Colosseum and onto Palatine Hill.

 

That way!

 

 

That way!

 

The crowds

Once again there were a "few" folk with the idea of visiting some of Romes iconic monuments, museums and sidewalks. There are people everywhere. the feeling is similar to a busy New York sidewalk in rush hour but at least in NYC there was some sense of order (relative to this). Its quite disconcerting ducking and weaving to get out of the way of oblivious pedestrians walkiing toward you, cigarette smoke billowing as they talk on their phone and seemingly with unerring accuracy, aim the sharp umbrella tips at your cornea (like knights on a charging stallion, lance in hand).

Another NYC difference is that in NYC pretty much nobody jaywalked. Here in Rome if you want to cross the street, you cross the street - anywhere and at any moment (preferably without warning to the vehicle driving toward you). Truck or bus 2 mm from you? No problem, step in front of them. 1mm in fron of you? Step out, they honk, you ignore them as though a serf kneeling to allow the king to cross (they are nothing to you).

Its scary to watch, especially when we were on our double decker tour bus thing on day one. We were sitting on top deck at the front. Ree gasped or involuntarily yelped (yes yelped) on numerous occasions as it looked for all the world that we had hit the pedestrian or were about to enter the drivers seat of the car in front by crushing the rest of their car like a sidewalk hawkers accordion.

 

Line at St Peters Basilica

 

 

Spanish Steps

 

 

A few folk at Trevi - 20:30

 

 

A few folk at Trevi - 23:00

 

 

Via Del Corso: The shopping street. Saturday 18:00. Zoe and Drew go strolling oblivious to the crowds and parental location (a long way back)

 

 

 

A bit about Rome

Firstly, in pictures, these murals on a wall on the Via Del Fore Imperiale show the rise of the Roman Empire on the map. Starts as the little dot of Rome in pic 1 then expands a tad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now in words. A warning, this may go on a bit.

All errors are errors of aging memory and the poor form of not fact checking.

Turns out I knew nothing of significance about the Roman Empire other than a few names that became salads and months, a few monuments, that at least one Emperor fiddled, one was very good but ignored advice from a soothsayer re: the Ides of March (15th by the way) and one arranged for the death of Max-ee-moos.

Always a bad sign when i begin to digress before the story even begins buuuut, i remember the first play i was in. It was Grade 6 for school assembly. I played Flavius Maximus, private Roman Eye in the great Wayne and Schuster parody, "Rinse the Blood off my Toga". Mrs Caesar is a classic New York Jew "I told him Julie don't go, I told him, it's the ides of March". The play, after much rehearsal, went off to rapturous silence - oh well perhaps a bit highbrow for Camboon Primary School?

 

 

OK so the story of Rome - creation myth. Orphan twins Romulus and Remus are raised by a she wolf on one of the seven hills of what is to become Rome. Romulus checks things our from the top of the hill and maps out how he sees the Rome. Marks it all out then decides taht Remus cant be in the city and tells him so. Remus crosses into the city so like any twin brother who has gone throught the worst of times with his most clsoe relative....he kills him. Later lonely Romulus decides to abduct gals from the nearby Sabine (the tribe not the girls names). Finally the two tribes make peace and Rome is born.

 

If you touch my milk i will kill you Remus

 

 

Its all a bit rubbish and the Romans know it but they propagate the myth as a giant marketing tool. Wanna buy a she-wolf statue? Pretty much the local tribes all lived on hilltops (safe). Over time they would meet at the bottom and kinda came to a peace pact thing. The bottom of the hills slowly morphed into the forum. The peace pact thing was pretty loose and there was a tad of fighting but slowly, as in all old cultures, a few powerhouses emerged and from them a king.

 

 

1000 years of Rome

The Roman Forum: the sign below is pretty much the only sign to let you know that you were at one of the worlds great historical sites (Hawker density is a reliable surrogate however). This is VERY different to anywhere else I have been where signs and arrows abound. Its like this at most sites, in fact it took us a good 30 minutes walking in ever tightening circles around the Capitolone museum (oldest in the world and thus plenty of time to knowck up a sign or two) before we found the front entrance.

I think its because the Italians of today are stuck between being a proud, independent culture with deeply imbedded heritage vs the economic reality that they need tourism to survive. The Italians therfore sullenly accept the tourists but even when they wear bus boy suit jackets and invite you into their restaurant there is a kind of sullen resentment beneath the veneer of cheery welcome.

The only exception seems to be with Drew. They seem to genuinely like young boys with no double meaning intended. He always gets a hair ruffle and a chat which seems genuine and not a subtley directed sales pitch.

The only sign at the Forum entrance

 

 

In summary, Rome rises then falls.

In a bit more detail, Rome begins its rise in 500BC, rises for 500 years to be top of the heap for about 200 years before declining over 300 years to almost fade from existence by 500AD. The whole shebang takes about a thousand years.

So for 1000 years Rome rules the world. The centre of Rome politically and from a religious and social centre of the Empire was "The Forum". It has the Colosseum behind it and the old senate on one side. Its very impressive.

In a bit more than a bit more detail. About 500BC the Roman Republic is born after a guy called Brutus (not that one) rebels against the fantastically named king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus because superbus junior rapes Lucretia who is the cousin of Brutus.

Idealistic, the aristocracy exist but decisions are made in a forum with senators and debate (or so they say). Still, its an Empire built on conquest so its not all civilized debate and a good pipe in the suana afterwards. As the empire gets bigger, it turns out that long debates arent great for rapid decision making so along comes a politician / military man (General) who suggests a "slightly different" formula. He, like all good dictators, strenuously defends the republic against having an Emperor, refuses the job of Emporer when it is offered to him then pretty much, but only because everyone asked so nicely, takes over as Emperor with the title of "dictator for life" and Rome, under Julius Caesar is born.

Its expansionary policy (conquest after conquest) continues and Rome prospers under Julius and then, after he is stabbed to death in the Senate, Rome does even better under his son (adopted nephew Octavian - who later changes his name to) Augustus. After Augie makes a temple for his dad (making Julius the first human elevated to God status), the name Caesar comes to mean Emperor and not just a surname.

For time perspective, Julius Caesar was born in 100BC and died in 44BC. Pretty much immediately after he was stabbed to death by the senators including Cassius (thin lips) and (also adopted son) Brutus, Caesars body is burned and buried in a Temple within the Roman Forum. A small amount of that Temple's foundation remains today.

 

Bust of Brutus. always imagined him to have a beard.

 

 

You can see Zoe and Drew in the videos below standing in front of the remnants of the temple of Julius Caesar. It's not much to look at anymore but fresh flowers still seem to find the way onto the burial place of Jules each day.

 

Video reenactment of the death of Caesar

 

This is the same place that Mark Antony stood up and proclaimed "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. I came not to praise Caesar but to bury him". Seems a tad mean spirited but hey, his girlfriend Cleopatra killed both her sisters to become queen so maybe he was a pretty hard guy himself?

 

Drew Antony asking for ears

 

 

Still in the forum but around the corner is the arch of Titus. The Romans understood that the trick was to conquer and then to get everyone to become Roman so to speak. as long as you believed in their Gods (aka he Emperor was God) you were in the club and came under the protection of Roman Law and military power. For most of the tribes / countries beaten in battle this wasn't a problem. They already had a whole bunch of Gods so what sort of a problem were a few more?

Problem for the Jews was that they all lived kind of around Jerusalem / Israel / West Bank of the River Jordan and were firmly of the belief that there was only one God and he was their God. So stick that up your Roman Tooshes. The Jews rebelled which didn't make the Romans all that happy. The Romans under Titus (he of the arch below) responded with great vengeance and furious anger. They sacked Judea ("People's front of Judea" or "Judean's peoples front") in around 70AD, took more than 50000 Jews as slaves to Rome and destroyed the holy Temple (the remnant being the Wailing Wall).

With their geographical centre decimated and religious and cultural heart destroyed (from memory there was a second sacking about 50 years later?) the jews scattered into a diaspora and there was no Jewish State until the founding of Israel in 1948.

Titus gets an arch built by the slaves he brings back and calls it, rather unimaginatively, "Titus's arch". The arch shows reliefs of Roman soldiers bringing in the booty form Jerusalem including a Menora and treasure. On the ceiling of the arch is a sculpture of Titus riding an Eagle as he descends to heaven.

 

 

Titus ascending to heaven on an eagle

 

By 200 AD Rome controlled an Empire that (according to one guidebook, was even bigger than Eurail and had more than 80000kms of road). The expansion is mostly under the reign of Titus and then the five "good Emperors, "Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pious and Marcus Aurelius. Around this time Roman Empire is 3.5 million square km and has a population of 55 million (which by my estimate was the number of people in the line to see the Colosseum today - we bought a Roma pass which gets you through the lines much more quickly and surprisingly works out cheaper than seeing the museums we saw without using one).

Back to the Empire. In 312 AD, Constantine beats Maxentius (not the Russell crow character- max-e-mooss). On the night before the battle Constantine, sees a vision of an angel on a cross (or something like that) and soon after, converts to Christianity. Maxentius doesnt do so well. He drowns whilst running away. His head is "removed from his torso and placed on a spike to be paraded around the city. A nice Christian start by Constantine.

Before this time, being a Christian was a pretty quick way to get persecuted or rapidly killed. Soon afterward, not being a Christian got you killed.

Constantine gets an arch built (well 3 in 1 really - gotta be better then the old fella Titus's arch). Not surprisingly, he calls his one, "Constantine's arch". It looks pretty good now but in its day, with gilted gold and many colours of marble, was befitting of an Emperor.

 

Arch of Constantine

 

 

Slowly, Rome became unable to keep its 15000km border safe. As the Empire declined, inflation rose to more than 1000% and taxes were immense, with much ending up in the pockets of a corrupt government (a long way from the ideals of the republic 1000 years before).

By 400AD after the greatest Empire of all time, had shrunk to be little more than the region of Rome itself. It was surrounded by a Medieval wall (still seen today).

 

The old and the new. Medieval wall of Rome with a new, shiny Hummer in the foreground

 

 

In 410 the wall was breached (so Game of Thrones) and the city was looted. In 451, The Pope had to plead with Attila the Hun for mercy - wonder how that went down?

A "bunch" of edicts by 400AD essentially decree the closure of the Temples and the move of the Imperial court to Ravenna (which I hadn't even heard of but is in the North East of Italy). Ravenna remained the Capitol of the Roman Empire until its collapse in 476 when the last Emperor sold his title for a large stipend / pension.

I heard it said (whilst diligently listening to a passing tour guide), that this was what finally plunged Europe into a political vacuum and 1000 years of poverty, superstition and poor bathing habits aka the dark ages.

 

Rome in the Dark ages

 

 

The City of Rome shrank from more than a million to less than 10000. The Visigoths and Vandals (wonder if they would have behaved differently if they were named "the Friendies") invaded in the 5th Century. They took much of the marble and ivory from the forum and colosseum and over time, the abandoned buildings of the forum and surrounds fell into ruin and essentially got buried in dirt and vegetation.

So now unseen and covered in grass, this square on the edge of the city that was once the centre of the world, became cow fodder and was over time forgotten to its new name of Campo Vaccino (Cows field). Now that's a mighty fall.

For the next 1000 years, nobody really cared too much about Ancient Rome until the Renaissance when the family Medici of Florence worked out how money worked, started a bank, payrolled artists, architects and then Popes and armies to get the Italian ball rolling again.

 

 

A whiter shade of pale: The Vestal Virgins

WIthin the most sacred temple in the forum, a fire burned. The fire represented the family; local and Rome. As long as the fire was alight, Rome would stand. The fire was kept alight by six Priestesses known as "Vestal Virgins".

Good job right? To become a "VV" you were chosen at about age 6-10 - usually the daughter of some rich family. You got to tend the fire and be a virgin for about 30 years. If you did a good job and remained possibly chased but definitely chaste, you got a great big stipend and were allowed to marry. If you failed in the chaste bit, you were given a loaf of bread and a lamp..........oh yeah, and then you got to be buried alive!

It's actually a technicality but the naughty VV wasnt "actually buried" as it was illegal to bury anyone in Rome. Julius Caesar had written into law that Rome was only allowed to have the living within its walls. This is a problem when it comes to "burying VVs alive". To get round the technicality of tthe law, the Romas would give the VV some bread and a map, not out of care or love but rather so she could "descend willingly" into a room with some food". Sure the room was closed off and she was never seen again, but that aint burying.

This is also a damn good reason that no matter how good the constitution or the law is, it is written in the time that it is written and can often be seen to be silly in retrospect (no matter how venerable). This point is made clearly in a fantastic gun control ad I saw a few weeks ago.

As to why 16 Vestal virgins were heading for the coast? No clue. The video clip is odd and adds no value.

 

 

Art within the forum

The pieces are mostly long gone now or in museums. The images below are from the temple of Romulus who it turns out was the son of Maxentius (the one that got defeated and decapitated by Constantine) as opposed to the founder of Rome. The museum was actually completed by Constantine (go figure). The thick, bronze, green door is original and therefore more than 1700 years old. That's some squeaky hinges.

As an aside, this green door is nothing to do with the Shakin Stevens Green door (which wasnt even his song, it was a cover from a 50s song - who knew). Wasn't he a talent. If you said "No he wasn't a talent" you may be correct however, he did have 3 consecutive single releases go to number one in Australia (which may say more about Australia than the Shakin one). The Shaking Stevens Green Door also has quite a lurid and interesting history of its own

 

The other (slightly older) green door

 

 

The statues are long gone but replaced by photos of the statue faces. There busts of the images live in the Capitoline museum which is as least as maginificent and as awe inspiring as the recently Dembo voted best museum ever aka the Acropolis museaum.

The images inside the museum of Romulus are interesting in that seemingly quite different from the Ancient Greek works and the newer renaissance works. The works show real people (Emperors) with real stresses and not the idealized ancient Gods or enigmatic smiles of Renaissance work. You can see the worry lines and the forehead furrows. The Statues must have been amazing.

 

Emperor Caracalla

 

Emperor Trajan

 

There was, for reasons unexplained, an image of the face of Pythagoras. This made the kids happy.

 

 

 

End today with fashionistas galore and a shop whose name you dont want to mispell.

Italians have style, it can't be denied. Sometimes fashion choice is guided by style rather than by practicality. These photos were all taken on a pretty rainy day. Rome is cobblestoned and can be muddy and really quite dirty.

 

 

 

Actually there is a large percentage of girls who are wearing black with bright pink shoes in Rome and also in Greece.

 

Finally the name of a shop you may not want to mispell

 

 

I guess you may be in trouble if you dont want to buy a buttoni...not much choice left!

 

 

Finally finally a link to a website I thought was funny .

And finally finally finally, another i found when on the first one entitled "people who are nailing the parenting thing"

 

Acropolis, Trevi and a tour of Rome. All before Dinner

Itinerary

• Acropolis Museum - amazing
• Easyjet - hard to fault
• Waiting for baggage at Rome airport - easier to fault
• First impressions of Rome

 

The Acropolis Museum.

Recently renovated, the museum is, we all agreed, the best we have ever been inside. It's OK to look at from the outside and beautiful on the inside. The museum is built on top of the ancient Athens surrounding the Acropolis. The floors are thick Perspex so you can see the ancient ruins beneath your feet and some of the archeologists at work continuing the restorations below. Can a bit disconcerting at times but its (as the kids would say, "epically awesome".

Just because I didn't know this, "the Acropolis" is the area on the top of the hill which was kind of the central square for the town / religion and it was where the Temple of Athena (the "Parthenon") was built.

 

Museum entrance

 

 

Photography is not allowed in the museum, suffice it to say, the exhibits speak for themselves and bring history to life.

There is an interesting movie on the top floor where most people finish up. Talks about the history of the museum which I will attempt to regurgitate below. The language and tone of the film talks about the "brutal and violent snatching" of artifacts by the British Lord Elgin in the early 1900s but omits any mention of the blitzkrieg bombing by the Germans in WW2. Perhaps if your country is broke and you need Germany to bail you out, they weren't so bad in the war after all. Just a bit of a misunderstanding?

 

 

The story of Athena, Athens, The Parthenon, a conquest or two and a bit of filching for home.

(Had a bit of a go at remembering names etc but take no responsibility for errors.

The story ot Athena - the daughter of Zeus and Metis (ocean's daughter who knew more than gods and men). After Zeus swallowed her pregnant mother "what", he got a bad headache "as you do" so he got Herphestus to whack him on the head with an axe! "It's good to be an immortal king of the gods I spose". Athena burst fully armed from the "i suppose now haemorrhaging forehead" of Zeus "seems harder to swallow than the swallowing of mummy", In what, I suppose becomes a prototype of the modern C Section.

Athena inherited her mums mental abilities and became the goddess of wisdom (mum knew lots but obviously didnt think hubby would swallow her whilst pregnant, or any tme?)

Athena contested and won dominion over the land of Attica in a competition with Uncle Poseidon after offering its inhabitants the olive tree. Dumb old Poseidon offered them the oceans but, a bit like the old Jews choosing milk and honey over immense underground oil resources, the ancient Greeks went for the olive over the ocean!

From that time on as "Athena Polias" (polis =city) she looked after the city and its well being. She was also patron of victory "Athena Nike", handcrafts and weaving (Athena Ergane) the sick Athena Hygiae and horses (Athena Hippia, not to be confused with Athen Hippo, a largish ancient Greek girl who lived near the Acropolis). Athena was also the goddess of war or more correctly the Godess of War strategy, and with helmet, spear and shield was referred to as "Athena Parthenos" (virgin) It was to this aspect of Athena that he Parthenon was dedicated.

So in 1200 BC a fortification wall is built around the Acropolis. The Parthenon proper started building in 500 BC and finishes in 15 years just in time for persian invasion number one. The Most famous statue was was the gold and ivory statue of Athena by Pheidias. The statue tip was gold and its reflection from the sun could be seen miles out to sea.

Athena was the official divinity of Athens. Once a year in her honour there was a festival with athletic contests, horse races and competitions for music and poetry. Culminating in a festive procession leading to ritual sacrifice at the top of the acropolis. This becomes the idea behind the Olympic Games which pty rapidly, remove music and Poetry from the agenda.

Anyways, the first invasion by the Persians was won (surprisingly to even the Greeks) by the Greeks at the battle of marathon! Pheidippides (or omething like that) runs to tell the king the result of the battleand drops dead at the finish line. Thus begins the "Marathon mystique".

The first modern day Marathon was at Olympic games in Athens in 1896 essentially as a marketing event. The distance was standardized after the London Olympics of 1908 to fit in with the Royals watching the finish (or start or both) at Windsor Castle. This distance of 42.195km has become "the 'Marathon". These days more than 45000 start the NYC Mraathon each year.

Undeterred by the above and oblivious and uncaring of the history they were to create, the Persians tried again a bit later to beat the Greeks, and this time won comfortably.

The Partheonon does well till about 300AD when a big fire destroys a lot of it. It is repaired and then in 600AD is converted to Christian church. In 1458 the Turks (ottomans, not the armless couch type), convert it to a Mosque. 1687 a Venetian canonball ignites a Turkish gunpowder magazine stored in the Parthenon. Quite a bit of damage as you would expect. Then Lord Elgin the British ambassador to Constantinople removes (as the movie says, "violently kidnaps" a large portion of the sculptures for the British museum.

 

Kids worksheet - kept them busy for 2 hours!

 

 

 

 

Enough, off to Rome

Other than taking a long time for the bags to come out to baggage collection, Easyjet was fine.

Drew kept folks entertained as per the video below

 

 

Our driver was waiting for us - always wanted to get oicked up by a driver with one of those signs. He was a young man called Jean Luca. After a minor airport "discussion" with the police re: parking and blocking one of the 2 exit lanes, we headed to our apartment. We had a damn fine tour as we drove through Rome. Jean Luca took some detours to get us close up views of the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill and other big name Rome icons before we got to our apartment.

As an aside, the name JeanLuca reminds me a bit of one of my favourite Italian soccer player of the early 90s, Jeanluigi Lentini. He was unbelievable. Played for Italy on the wing and got transferred to Milan to become the worlds most expensive player. After one yr with Milan, he had a bad car accident and although he played again, was never quite the same.

Hard to list my best ever players but would include Zidane, Ronaldo (the incredible Portugese one, not the fail on the biggest stage, chubby Brazilion one), Ronaldhinio, Van Basten, Cantona, Beckham (for that Greece game), Platini and even though an awful person, Maradona. Best keepers - Dino Zoff, Ray Clements, Schmeichel. Apologies to my brother for zero Arsenal players and to Dr Shah for not including Van Persie or Japp Stam (close but...)

 

Our apartment is fantastic - go Airbnb! Superb location a few mins from Trevi Fountain and 5 mins from the Pantheon. It's in a lane behind a busy street but very quiet.

Green door opens to old elevator which the kids seem determined to push to its limits. One of those ones with inner and outer doors. Open the inner doors and the elevator stops! Not that hard to remember is it?

 

Zoe photoshopped this map for us

 

 

Apartment Monica

After putting down our stuff we headed off to see the Trevi fountain (round the corner) and get a bite to eat. A "few" other folk had similar ideas (a theme to be played out repetitively). There a about a bazillion tourists who stalk us as we make our way around the city. Different languages, some very awful fashion (predominantly from the Eastern Europeans) and camera phones moving and capturing in all directions.

 

 

 

We play a lot of I'll take your photo if you'll take mine

 

 

 

 

Love your work Jo