罗马Rome

In May we spent four days in Rome. My camera was still on California time, nine hours slow. I noticed on the second morning. The Colosseum at seven a.m. was recorded as ten the night before. A small discrepancy, considering what was in the picture.

A golden afternoon#

We spent the first afternoon in Santa Maria Maggiore, where sunlight from a high window cut across the dark church. In a side chapel, four bronze angels held up a gilded temple.

Nearby, San Giovanni in Laterano had MDCCXXXV carved into its facade. Seventeen thirty-five. Fairly new, for Rome.

A morning with nobody in it#

At seven the next morning, we had the outside of the Colosseum to ourselves. The sun was just reaching its upper stones. We walked around it, then followed the Forum through the morning haze.

On the way back, the little church in Monti caught the sun. We stepped into Santa Maria Maggiore again; the gold behind the altar was already lit.

The famous stones#

Later we went inside the Colosseum, then over to the remains of the Temple of Venus and Roma.

In the Forum, a church had fitted itself inside a Roman temple, its baroque facade between the old columns. Here the centuries shared a doorway.

Built for God#

On the third day we went to the Vatican. Until then, St. Peter’s Square had mostly meant Christmas broadcasts to me, the Pope above a crowd.

Inside the basilica, even the lettering around the dome was enormous, each letter more than a meter tall. Nothing seemed sized for the people walking underneath.

At the far end, light came through the dove window above the gilded throne. People knelt at the rail.

Afterward we followed the Tiber to the Sant’Angelo bridge. Its angels could hold their poses much longer than we could.

A palace to ourselves#

Near closing time, we slipped into Palazzo Altemps. Roman statues stood in rooms lit by the windows. Apart from the attendants, we nearly had the palace to ourselves.

The last day#

Our last morning began at St. Paul’s outside the walls. At half past eight, the courtyard was empty.

At noon we returned to the Romeo, an old palazzo remodeled by Zaha Hadid’s studio. The red grand piano in the lobby was probably the youngest thing we’d seen all week 😂 Even the hotel’s swimming pool had Roman ruins beneath its glass floor.

The Pantheon came last.

Light fell through the opening in the dome and rested on the columns, moving a little every few minutes.

On the way out I checked the camera. The time was right now. The pictures were still full of a Rome two thousand years old.