The Colosseum is stunning. The walls rise up in four tiers, big enough to hold a crowd of 60,000. It gave me chills to imagine the countless deadly fights that took place here.
Palatine Hill, where several emperors built luxurious houses complete with gardens, heated baths, and running water carried in by aqueducts, offers a beautiful view of the city and the Colosseum below.
The Forum, at the base of the hill, was the center of daily life and business. Located here were markets, temples tended by virgin priestesses, and buildings for conducting trade.
Later that day, I stopped by a covered market, crammed with stalls offering fruit fruit, vegetables, meat, and seafood.
I picked up some things for lunch: thinly-sliced, melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto, perfectly ripe melon, and crunchy, salty bread sticks.
The next day, I took a long walk over to Vatican City (stopping along the way for pastries, of course).
The Vatican Museums hold an incredible variety of art and artifacts, including the famous marble of Laocoön and his sons being killed by a serpent...
...and of course, the Sistine Chapel.
On the way back, I stopped at one of the many small alimentari, shops selling cheese, meats, oil, vinegar, and some prepared food, like this roasted eggplant with tomatoes and basil. Yum!
They are also a good place to find fresh mozzarella di buffala, an entirely different species than the bland, mealy kind we so often find in the US. I bought a little to go on a sandwich, and tasted a bite as I sliced it. I was blown away. The texture was delicate, and it disappeared in my mouth, releasing fresh, creamy, milky flavors. They take their mozzarella very seriously here. As I was leaving my apartment yesterday, I saw a mid-afternoon delivery to the restaurant next door: two large plastic bags filled with baseball-sized spheres of cheese, properly stored in the lightly salty brine.
Equally delicate, pure, and creamy white are the marble sculptures of Rodin and Bernini. I was lucky enough to be in town during a Rodin exhibition at the Diocletian Baths, which featured "The Kiss," one of his most famous pieces.
The way he was able to render the human form in stone, conveying the tension and emotion of a person, is breathtaking.
Yesterday I walked to the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which is incredibly beautiful but not particularly well known.
It is home to Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa, situated in the ridiculously opulent Cornaro Chapel of the equally opulent church. Supposedly it is spiritual ecstasy, but if you look at her face...maybe nuns have more fun than they let on.
I will be sad to leave Rome, and my wonderful host Lynn's delicious cooking (risotto with zucchini, pasta with pumpkin, pan-roasted potatoes and artichokes, Roman broccoli with garlic), which was the highlight of my eating experience. But I'm on to Florence today, and looking forward to more sights and treats there!
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