BOXES 63-64: Rome Again.

This photo, from my second visit to Rome, reminds me of several things at once. One is the constant traffic that I had to negotiate when walking through many parts of the city. Another is the sheer wonder of a city so dense with layers of history. In this case, you see the columns of an ancient Temple of Janus incorporated into one side of an early Christian church, San Nicola in Carcere, most of which is pre-1100 but "modernized" by a late-Renaissance (1599) facade. A third thing the photo reminds me of is that in contrast to my first visit to Rome, when I was rushing about to see the most famous landmarks (the Colosseum, St Peter's, etc.), I was now paying attention to lesser-known places that in many a city would be the most celebrated highlight; in Rome they were "just" one of a hundred amazing sites.

On this 1972 trip I really grew to love Rome, thanks to very different circumstances from my '69 visit. The first time, I was by myself and felt at times vaguely oppressed by the city (maybe it was the heat, grime and traffic during the day plus some sinister-looking streets at night). But in 1972 I was not only with my friend Mike but got to hang out with a whole new set of acquaintances; and rather than feeling compelled to see as many famous locations as possible within a few days, I was exploring byways in a leisurely fashion, with the help of an excellent book: The Companion Guide to Rome by Georgina Masson. Also, I got to see Fellini's latest movie, Roma, in the city it celebrates (shown without subtitles, of course, but whole episodes of that film hardly need them). And thanks to my new friends, I discovered Italian food.

Mike was friends with an art historian, Carolyn Valone, who had been a fellow college student if I recall correctly. Carolyn spent summers in Rome for research, and stayed in the penthouse apartment of a Roman who spent summers away but needed someone to care for plants and pets. Here are Mike and Carolyn on part of her patio:

Mike and I stayed at a pensione nearby: reasonably priced and conveniently located, though up some steep flights of stairs. (We heard that it served as a brothel during the non-tourist months.) During this same week, various American and British friends of Carolyn were also staying in Rome, and every evening at 9 pm, six or eight of us met at the same restaurant for dinner. I've forgotten the name, but it was uphill from the Imperial Forum, and we always sat outside during the sunset and first cool of the evening. On my first trip I had been on a tight budget, following my Europe on $5 a Day guidebook suggestions, and as a result ordered only the most basic fare (spaghetti in tomato sauce, etc.) that didn't seem much different from what I would get in a very average Italian restaurant at home. Now my new friends introduced me to real Italian dining, choosing among maybe eight different pasta dishes or a risotto for a primo course and an equal number of meat or fish dishes for the secondo, plus a salad and a dessert (usually a macedonia di frutta at this place), and maybe a sambuca (new to me) for an after-dinner drink.

Needless to say, I didn't take photos of food or dinner companions in those pre-cameraphone days (sadly, it now seems to me), nor would my Instamatic have let me except in bright daylight. But I recorded the sights as I walked all day every day, using Masson's suggestions for off-the-beaten-path routes. I see from my sequence of slides that I did revisit some ultra-famous places as well as seeking out new ones. For the former, note the Trevi Fountain below. For the latter, a street with archways that I can't identify. (Can anyone ID it?) Following these you see a partial view of the splendid 1735 facade of St John Lateran, and then the courtyard of San Clemente, nearby.

On this walk the next stop was the Colosseum:

Next (maybe a later walk), the grand fountain of the Piazza della Repubblica:

Maybe on the same cloudy day, I spent some time near Trajan's Column and the Vittorio Emanuele Monument:

One walk or another took me to a couple of famed Egyptian obelisks and their pedestals: the first, with its horses, outside the Quirinale, the second with its elephant sculpture designed by Bernini, in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva:

Somehow I had missed seeing the Pantheon on my first visit, but was certainly awestruck by my encounter with it in '72. Incidentally, this photo contains yet another obelisk. As for the oculus, here's the best my Instamatic could do.

And here are more Roman streets I can't identify. The first pic shows the dome of St Peter's in the distance; the second gives just a dim glimpse of an archway at the bottom; I include it because I like the eagle in the center. The third seems to show a stretch of the Appian Way, though paved instead of having Roman blocks of stone:

In the next set of photos I can't identify the structure with the ancient capitals in front of it, but the bleak open space is the Circus Maximus (picture chariots careening around the island in the middle). Next is the Boarium Forum, with the Temples of Portunus (left) and Hercules (right) and in the middle background the bell tower of the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo--and no, I didn't remember all this: I just now acquired the info by searching through images on the Internet. The fourth pic is of the ancient Gate of San Paolo, with a glimpse of the Pyramid of Cestius on the left. Finally, in this group, is a Roman hillside I can't identify, but the trees look great!

I was originally very pleased with my slide capturing the view through the keyhole of a door to a private garden belonging to the Knights of Malta, on the Aventine Hill: the trees are trimmed so that you can see the dome of St Peter's perfectly framed when you peep through the keyhole. Alas, my scanner erased what is quite visible when the slide is projected onto a screen; I've tried different settings on the scanner, but you'll have to imagine the great Vatican dome (or click here).

On another walk I revisited the Capitoline Hill, and this time went to the museum:

And I couldn't pass up a second visit to the Roman Forum, or or resist photographing a Mascherone (Big Mask) Fountain:

My last two photos from Rome on this trip were taken just before and soon after a terrific thunderstorm one afternoon. I ran into the magnificent Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle (the setting of Act I of Puccini's Tosca) to avoid getting drenched. The church was dimly lit, but flashes of lightning came through the windows of the vast dome overhead, lighting up some nuns wearing all-white habits, while an organist was improvising Phantom-of-the-Opera-style on an instrument as thunderous as the weather outside. After the storm I visited the nearby (and also magnificent) Piazza Navona but got only one photo in the dim light.

My next stop on this trip was London--I couldn't tell you if I took a train or plane, but more likely the latter since I have no recollection of a long train ride or of crossing the Channel. But I didn't stay long in London: the plan was to meet my friend Estie and take a train up to Edinburgh.