Last
day .... Went over to the Piazza Navona to have lunch with
friends. Felt
guilty that I was not taking in, eating up, every moment in
this great city
because there’s so much to see. I never made it to the
Coliseum or to the Forum, although I rode by both places several
times on my way to someplace else.
My knowledge of the history of Rome is very limited and
yet there is so much that is obvious what with the ruins of the
Roman Empire
all around us and often right next door to the era of the Popes.
I have never read Gibbon’s Decline
and Fall… and
if you’ve ever even looked at a volume of it, you too might
be too daunted to even begin. So how one empire ended and another
began in Rome remains an unknown to me.
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In
Piazza Novona
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Our driver
two days ago while taking us out to Hadrian’s
villa in Tivoli was giving us a tour as we drove out of the city.
The Romans that I’ve spoken to (who can speak English)
seem to know so much about their city, at least much more than
the average
New Yorker knows about the history of New York. Giorgio, the driver,
was full of anecdotes. Among his stories, he told us about the
Barberini family who, like the Medicis and the Borgias,
held great power in the days of the Popes. Back then, he told
us, the powerful
families supplied the popes – they were not elected. It
was the Barberinis who decided that the bronze that covered the
dome
of the Pantheon (built during the days of the Empire by Marcus
Agrippa) could be more useful in St. Peter’s,
and so they simply acquisitioned it. Or was it de-acquisitioned
it?
The Barberinis built all kinds of edifices – for themselves,
for public notice and for the glory of Rome (and the Church).
And when commissioning sculptures with Sr. Bernini,
etc., it wasn’t
unusual for any of those “nobles” to have their own
likenesses included in the works of art. In a way, not unlike
our present day passion for naming buildings and hospitals and
libraries
and hallways and whatnot after ourselves (those of us who can
come up with the jack). All for the glory of ... er ... the community.
Interestingly (and ironically), there was a piece in the Herald
Tribune yesterday about a confounding vandalism that has
been occurring recently in Rome. Some people have been going
around with sledgehammers
and busting up ancient and religious statuary. This is unusual
for Rome where the citizenry has always honored its historical
relics (to a degree). The article reported that among the “victims” were
works that had been commissioned by the Barberini family a few
centuries ago. The article did not mention that this was the
same family who helped themselves (for the benefit of the Church,
of
course) to the Bronze on the dome of the Pantheon. Or the gold
on its columns (or was it its doors?). Ah, history resumes its
march.
Meanwhile, back at my last day and lunch at the Piazza
Navona. There were many cafes and tables under umbrellas to shield us from
the hot sun. There were many waiters and captains standing before
them, urging us passersby to sit down for some lunch. We finally
took a table just across the way from where a tall and lanky African,
wearing a navy tee shirt with New York emblazoned in big white
letters on the front of it, was unloading a large cloth sack of
faux designer handbags, just like the ones you see sold on the
street corners of Manhattan.
We
ordered pizzas and watched the man neatly set the handbags out
on a
cloth spread out on the cobblestones. Someone at the table
mentioned that it is widely believed by those who know about
these things that these “copies” of handbags
and watches, etc. are producing cash that helps fund Al Qaeda.
Bargain
hunters
or those who cannot afford the fantastic price of a real Louis
Vuitton or Hermes handbag might not want to believe that but
...
I brought my camera along on this trip since JH was
back in New York. Someone else at lunch mentioned all the sales
going on in
the shops around Rome. Someone else said it was because the Euro
is really hurting business (as well as the average Italian), having
inflated the prices of everything.
Anyway, after lunch I decided to take a walk back to the Hassler,
where I was staying, right at the top of the Spanish Steps.
And on my stroll, I took photos of a number of shops with Sale
(or
Saldi) signs in their windows. For your edification. |
