Roman Holiday | Italian History and Culture - new wii online - Cooking

You might be in Rome if:

–you speak to someone in your best Italian, he smiles, and responds in English.

–you love how sculptors such asВ  Bernini can make a flowing dress of carrara marble look softer than the real thing.

–you learn to hear the buzz of the Vespas on the narrow streets before you see them, and you get out ofthe way.

–you find that some of the best clubs are in caves dug into a 125-foot mound of earthware olive oil jars, dumped there over 500 years.

–you visit a Christian church built on a temple dedicated to an ancient Persian religious cult.

–you discover that several cold showers a day can almost take the place of air conditioning.

–you get the best neckache of your life, looking up at the Sistine Chapel.

–you learn that the best pizza does not need tomato sauce.

–you see more roads that do not meet at right angles than ones that do.

–you are already planning your next visit.

We have spent the lastВ five days in Rome, traversing the city. We have seen opera, knelt on the steps Jesus reputedly ascended to receive judgment from Pontius Pilate, and eaten pizza and gnocchi and mozarella and warm, crusty bread.

This is one of the most important cities in Western culture, having been the seat of both its largest empire and largest religion. This is a city that we have seen–and more.

Out of all the amazing art we have seen, our favorites seem to be these: the stunning and vivid colors of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, in all its glorious and controversial restoration; the white carrara marble sculptures of Bernini, catching David with his sling, his trunk torqued in a classiccontraposto pose (several of us imitated his form, but found no Goliaths); the paintings of Carvaggio, with their deep contrasts of dark and light, subjects pagan and religious, and an emotional range in the faces of his men and women matched by few artists of any age.

Our favorite fun places have been the Trevi Fountain, where we tossed coins over our shoulders to insure we would return to Roma; climbing the dome at St. Peter’s, the world’s largest, to get the best view of the city (no building within the old city walls may be higher); standing in the Colosseum, contemplating the games and deaths below us; discovering new ristorantes and gelato (ice cream) shops and reporting back to the group with our new discoveries.

This busy city encourages conversation. Except for the midday siesta, you will find Romans at cafes and bars, talking and gesticulating with their hands. They may be sitting on their scooters on the side of some alley, pulled over for a chat. We have followed the Romans’ lead.

If you were here with us now, we might be standing at an espresso bar, having our tiny cup of the strongest coffee most of us have ever had, talking about the wonders of this place: the incomparable beauty of its art, the durability of its architecture, the friendliness of its people. And we would have a few questions, too: how do the current Romans feel about their history? in a place that sometimes seems rushed and crowded to us, how do they manage to smile through it all? and, how, after 25 centuries, does Rome continue to draw people to it?

–Charles Israel, Jr.

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