SPQR

3 columns | © Aaron Miller

I had a blast in Rome. A must see and do for an artist. I didn’t know that many ancient sculptures existed. The whole city is a museum. The city is packed with as many paintings as sculptures. Every church has at least one. It was fun putting money in a box to light up the Caravaggio’s. The food was the biggest let down. But I can understand since the whole place is catering to tourists. The gelato was pretty good. I got into espresso and cappuccino as well. I’m not a coffee drinker so I think that was a huge leap for me. I have a new appreciation for ancient Rome as well. As well as the deep connection the church has to the proliferation of the arts. I know I’ve always know it, just never experienced it. An interesting thins to note was all the 16th century graffiti on the frescoed walls of the Vatican. What I found hardest to connect was the Rome of 5th century, Rome of the Renaissance and the fascist Rome of the 1940′s. How hard is it to ignore the past when you live in the middle of it? I must have walked 10 miles a day. That was great. Our breaks were going into churches and museums to slow down to a shuffle. Since most of the art is religious it’s actually a super huge city filled with illustration. All that work was commissioned. As far as little things of life, everything there is on the small side. Find you’re smallest closet. Now put a toilet in it and that’s the typical bathroom size. There’s so little room for parking so they all drive small cars and scooters. I’d consider a small car if parking was that big of an issue too. Doorways; wow, most entrances in the city had a doorway about 14′ tall or more, with a little 6′ door inset. very cool. they mostly open into courtyards. most ancient roman houses were like that. like geodes. i’m not going to bore you with the 1300 photos I took. So this sketch will have to do.