{"id":2972,"date":"2014-05-21T22:28:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T20:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=2972"},"modified":"2017-06-22T18:54:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T16:54:06","slug":"playing-tourist-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/playing-tourist-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing the Tourist in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ricks<\/a>So much to see in Rome, so little time.\u00a0 Even for someone who lives here.\u00a0 I do my best to discover lesser-known sites and hidden treasures, but it\u2019s a herculean task.\u00a0 Most native Romans never manage to see it all in one lifetime, so what chance do I have?<\/p>\n

Well, left to my own devices, I have zero chance.\u00a0 I guess until recently I\u2019ve been too stubborn to admit that.\u00a0 A couple of months ago, friend and fellow blogger Shelley Ruelle (Un\u2019 Americana a Roma<\/a>) sent me an email inviting me to take a tour with the company she works for, Through Eternity.\u00a0 It had been a while since I\u2019ve played the tourist in Rome, so I jumped at the chance. \u00a0Still, I knew that I didn\u2019t need to see the Vatican or the Coliseum\u2026again.\u00a0 So she suggested the \u201cLove and Death<\/a>\u201d tour, which was right up my alley.\u00a0 Instead of just gazing at beautiful sites, this tour strives to weave together stories, bringing history to life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our tour guide Luca was energetic and well-informed.\u00a0 We started on top of the Capitoline Hill, the site of Rome\u2019s first scandal: the fratricide of Remus by his dear brother Romulus.\u00a0 Is the story true?\u00a0 Was Rome, in fact, named after the victorious brother?\u00a0 Not really, says Luca, rather it was the other way around: the fictional character of Romulus took his name from the city long after it was established.\u00a0 One myth crushed, but there would be many more to uncover along the way.<\/p>\n

When we reached the bottom of the long staircase, I remarked to Luca what a great vantage point this spot is (see photo below).<\/p>\n

\"rick<\/a><\/p>\n

Here you have much of Rome\u2019s history displayed in one glance.\u00a0 The red arrow points to some Roman ruins (partially blocked by Bus #80\u2026sorry), the white arrow points to a medieval church (Santa Maria in Aracoeli, 12th<\/sup> century), the yellow arrow indicates the Renaissance piazza (designed by Michelangelo), and of course the obtrusive white slab of marble (sometimes called \u201cthe wedding cake,\u201d or \u201ctypewriter\u201d) is the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, completed in 1925.\u00a0 Quite an eyeful, huh?<\/p>\n

2,700 years of Scandals<\/h2>\n

At Largo Argentina we listened to the story of Caesar\u2019s assassination, which occurred on this exact spot:<\/p>\n

\"through<\/a><\/p>\n

Now in this case, I had thought the story was a myth\u2014but no, Luca assured me that the best sources confirm the location.\u00a0 The blood was quickly washed away, but the memory of Caesar\u2019s death lingered for a long time.\u00a0 Indeed, the chamber where he was murdered was immediately sealed off by his nephew Octavian (Emperor Augustus), and for the duration of the Empire, the Senate was forbidden to convene on March 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The Borgias provided much fodder for scandal in their day.\u00a0 It seems that the patriarch Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) fathered more children than any man in Rome during his papacy.\u00a0 And of course there were rumors of incest in the family, with the beautiful Lucrezia having been accused of improper relations with both her father and brother Cesare.<\/p>\n

But the tale that really made my skin crawl was that of Giulia Agrippina.\u00a0 Apparently Giulia and her son Nero (yes, THAT Nero) didn\u2019t always see eye to eye when it came to ruling the Empire.\u00a0 So when his mother planned a sea voyage, Nero designed a ship that would fall apart midway through her crossing. \u00a0Which it did, perfectly as planned.\u00a0 But Agrippina was a tough old broad and she swam to shore, barely surviving the attempt on her life.\u00a0 Nero, now getting very nervous, sent a trained assassin to kill her once and for all. \u00a0Her last words, shouted just as the assassin was about to strike, were \u201cIf you\u2019re going to kill me, then stab me in the womb!\u201d A poetic end for a woman that had given birth to such a monstrous a child as Nero.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a tourist in Rome and enjoy such stories, which blend history and narrative, told to you at the actual places that they occurred, check out Love and Death in Rome<\/a> for delicious, gossipy introduction to more than 2,700 years of scandals.<\/p>\n

\"castel<\/a>
The tour finishes with a great view from Castel Sant’Angelo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saving Rome\u2019s Artisans and Historic Shops<\/h2>\n

But the same scene can tell many stories in Rome.\u00a0 The next day I took another walking tour\u2014 through essentially the same area\u2014with a group of locals who are trying to preserve some of the historic shops (botteghe) and artisan studios in Rome\u2019s historical neighborhoods.\u00a0 The name of the group is Botteghiamo<\/a>.\u00a0 On this particular day, we were wandering through the streets of the \u201cRione Ponte,\u201d<\/em> the area defined by Piazza Navona on one side, the river to the west, and stopping at the Sant\u2019Angelo Bridge (hence the name \u201cPonte\u201d or bridge).\u00a0 So it was really interesting to do these two tours back to back, and appreciate just how many different and diverse stories Rome has to tell.<\/p>\n

We met up at Bar della Pace<\/a>, which has been fighting for survival for a while now.\u00a0 The owners of the building want to replace the historical caf\u00e9 with a(nother) fancy hotel.\u00a0 Yuck! \u00a0If you happen to be in the area of Piazza Navona, please stop by to sign the petition to fight this project (Via della Pace, 3).<\/p>\n

\"botteghiam<\/a>This was a good starting point for the tour, because it\u2019s representative of the struggle to preserve these historical locations in the center of Rome where prime real estate sites are ripe for exploitation. In some cases, they\u2019re fighting to preserve the shops themselves, while in other instances, it\u2019s the artisan crafts that are finding it hard to survive in the increasingly modernized Rome.<\/p>\n

Our first stop was an old bookstore, which was once a tailor specializing in garments for the clergy.\u00a0 A secret door behind a bookshelf that opened up to a surprisingly large space.\u00a0 (I wonder what those priests were doing back there.)\u00a0 But the bookshop has been there for a while now, and in fact it\u2019s as much of a book museum as a store.\u00a0 Worth a look if you\u2019re in the area (Antica Libreria Cascianelli, Largo Fabo, 15)<\/p>\n

Later we stopped at a barbiere,<\/em> and had a nice long chat with the barber while his poor customer sat there dumbfounded as strangers critiqued his hairstyle with brutal righteousness.\u00a0 He was quite a sport about it, as the barber had some interesting history to tell us, waving his scissors around the face of the (soon-to-be EX) client in a typical Italian hand-gesturing way.\u00a0 (Luigi Sasso, Via dei Coronari, 209)<\/p>\n

\"Botteghiamo<\/a>
“Can’t we just get on with the haircut?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once upon a time, the barber not only cut hair, but was also the \u201cpronto soccorso\u201d<\/em> (emergency room) of the day.\u00a0 Before seeing a real doctor, the neighborhood residents would bring their headaches, toothaches, and bloody stumps to the local haircutter for a quick diagnosis and homeopathic cure.\u00a0 \u201cIndigestion, huh?\u00a0 I believe you need a hot lather and a shave!\u201d\u00a0 (I suppose when you\u2019re holding a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.)<\/p>\n

Our relaxing stroll wound through narrow alleys and opened up into grand piazzas.\u00a0 We visited a shop where young restorers are resuscitating antique furniture, paintings, and sculptures.\u00a0 We popped in on a woman making custom jewelry (Officine Cellini, Vicolo del Curato, 14), and mosaic artists keeping alive a dying art (Via di Panico, 75).\u00a0 The day finished with gelato.\u00a0 Honestly, I\u2019m not sure that the gelato shop had anything to do with the theme of the tour, but their pistachio was top-notch (Gelateria del Teatro, Via di San Simone, 70).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve joked around a bit because this tour was in Italian, and by the end of the three hours, the translating muscles in my brain were spent and I started to lose the thread of the dialogue.\u00a0 But they also offer them in English and I highly recommend them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way to see some real Italians in action; passionate about their work and the historic neighborhoods they live in.\u00a0 Go out and support them instead of buying that silly kitchen apron with David\u2019s private parts on the front.<\/p>\n

And if you need a haircut, I believe our barber friend now has an opening every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.\u00a0 It seems one of his regular customers has looked elsewhere for his coiffing needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So much to see in Rome, so little time.\u00a0 Even for someone who lives here.\u00a0 I do my best to discover lesser-known sites and hidden treasures, but it\u2019s a herculean task.\u00a0 Most native Romans never manage to see it all in one lifetime, so what chance do I have? Well, left to my own devices, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,211,42],"tags":[384,14,25,222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}