Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Thursday, July 10th... Ancient Rome and such

So I woke up at noon on Thursday… without any tooth pain. That's a good sign. One good thing about the dental visits was that we convinced the dentist to give me a prescription for both Xanax and Codeine, which may come in handy later in life. But anyway, on with the show for Thursday.

I found out today that my Yashica 124G is broken, and so I lugged it's fat, medium format metal body all the way here for nothing. That means I have 15 rolls of 120 film that I can't shoot. It's a shame too, because now I'm gonna have to rely on my tiny Olympus XA for all the images I make… and I don't have enough film. I am forced to buy 4 more rolls in Rome. As for drawing and sketching, I'm thinking that isn't gonna happen. There's too much in Rome to see, let alone take time to study and draw. And the crowds make it even more difficult to focus. So for now I am reliant on the camera to fix images of this place. 

On our last trip to Amsterdam and Paris I was fairly successful in capturing some fine images that reflected our experience. But I'm not yet feeling that vibe, and I'm trying not to force it. This leaves me feeling somewhat anxious that I'm not engaging as much as I should. But again… I need to give it time. The trip has gotten off to a difficult start due to root canal, and I'm gonna need some time to rebound.

After getting under way at around 1pm, we accidently stumble upon the "famous" Palazzo Farnese, which directly next to Campo di Fiori. This palazzo is famous for having part of it's structure designed by Michelangelo. Anything Michelangelo was involved with becomes thereby cruise-worthy. So we cruise it as we walk by. I believe his involvement has something to do with the austere, classical lines of the second story facade. Big deal, right? That's what I think. Not being an architectural historian, I am not too jazzed by such things. I say this somewhat tongue and cheek, and do no wish to diminish what such things surely mean to other minds. But there is too much to see in Rome that choices have to be made, and so we walk on by. Ciao, Michelangelo… catch you on the flip side in Florence.

On this day we are to walk to the Colosseum and go inside (if the lines aren't too long). Somehow we get sidetracked into the Jewish Ghetto, and then into some roads leading into the Forum… and then we wind up having climbed up the side of the Capitoline Hill, atop of which is the Capitoline Museum… which was on our agenda for the day, but for AFTER the Colosseum. At any rate, the skies turn very dark and thunder starts rolling in… so we decide cruise the Capitoline then and there.

But the most compelling reason to go in at this point is that I have begun to suffer from terrible lower intestinal pain, and I required a bathroom to save my life. We wait in line for 15 minutes behind an endless array of retarded tourists buying tickets. When we finally get inside, the bathroom turns out to be lost on the second floor, which takes another 5 minutes to find. So now I'm 20 minutes into a desperate and critical need to use the bathroom. For some reason, the toilets in the museum do not have seats… only the cold and overly-wide bowl. You can imagine the rest, I suppose. Desperate times call for desperate measures… measures that I would be forced to repeat four times in-between cold-sweat intervals, whilst recovering in a lecture room full of chains… where I sit staring at the ceiling and coming up with an idea in-between bouts of hysterical squatting.

As I looked up at the ancient ceiling of the lecture room, I was taken with how beautifully the ceiling vault was perfect smoothed over with plaster, creating a smooth and continuous curved ceiling. Plaster is ever present in Renaissance architecture. Without it, builders would be forced to carve stone blocks into perfectly smooth curves, or to just go without. It is the plasterer above all other who shapes the interior space and puts the final contour into place. Having plastered myself, I can attest to how difficult it is, and how refined the master plasterer must be. The plasterer also featured heavily into fresco painting, as they would work hand in hand with the painter in applying plaster and correcting structural issues concerned with that plaster. And after thinking these interesting thoughts… I was forced to run to the bathroom.

Lest you think it was all fun and games, I should mention that the museum houses some real treasures, along with an enormous amount of the classical Roman "stuff" that I referred to in relation to the Vatican Museum. The Capitoline is similar in that it has possession of vast numbers of routine classical sculptures and busts. One blanks on much of this… probably overlooking potential gems. But the bona fide gems stand out easily. The most famous is the Capitoline Venus, which apparently has captivated the minds of horny men for two thousand years. There is also the "Dying Gual", the "She Wolf", and the colossal head of Constantine. But to me the real star was the "Esquiline Venus"… a typical yet perfectly beautiful ancient treatment of Venus.

After the "Agony at the Museum", we walk down to the Colosseum. But now it's 8pm and it is closed for the day. We mill about to the side of it. I become annoyed yet again at the Pakistani vendors who (as I said before) hawk goofy glow in the dark trinkets that have nothing to do with Rome, Italy, or Western Civilization in general… other than with the fascination with the suggestion of high-tech-anything… which I guess pretty much defines global tastes. I suppose that whatever the Pakistani's are hawking must thereby define the global desire of tourists.

We somewhat flee the vendors by retreating up a path that turns out to be the Palatine Hill. I am hoping that when we get to the top, that there is a short cut back to the apartment… or better yet, a zip line… because I hate coming down the way I go up. Such a waste. But when we get to the top… you guessed it… dead end. Have to go all the way back down.

By the time we get back to the apartment, we are very nearly paralyzed with fatigue… with sore feet, sore knees, sore lower backs… the full panoply of ailments that strike at you when you get older. Earlier in the week I had gotten two huge blisters on THE SAME TOE. So these things must be dealt with, or else everything comes to a screeching halt. I ended up buying 8 dollars worth of bandaids just to get buy. Such is life.

In a final act of desperation, we sit and watch an American movie ("The Devil Wears Prada") on a DVD that I had brought along for just such an occasion. Pathetic… yes… I know… but as Billy Joel once said… "I found that just surviving, is a noble fight".




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