Rome: The Unfathomable City

There’s something strange about the city of Rome, for me.  It just seems surreal, unreal, even.  And every time I go there, I have the strange sensation of being surprised to find it more or less exactly how I left it.  But why?

            

Rome is, of course, The Eternal City, by everybody’s estimation, but if I were asked to give it a name, I would call it The Unfathomable City.  

Walking through certain parts of Rome is like stepping into an onion: history resurfaces in layers.  

The Roman Forum is perhaps the best example because it is there that, in one sweeping vista, you can see the remains of buildings from the time of the Roman Republic (and earlier!) stacked up against triumphal arches from Imperial Rome, next to Medieval churches, next to ancient temples turned into Baroque churches, with a 20th Century monument as the backdrop to all of it. 

View of the Roman Forum

Of course, many cities have histories as diverse and as rich as that of Rome, but there are few places I can think of where things have been so meticulously dissected and left for contemplation in the way that Rome has.

It’s simply unfathomable. 

Walking in the Forum, I feel so small, standing next to structures so colossal that even the fragments are larger than life.  But I can’t help but appreciate the sheer size, the largeness, the grandiose nature of my surroundings and feel a part of it.  The paradox for me is something unfathomable.

Constantine's Basilica

I feel such a sense of permanence; the fact that these structures have been around for twenty-one centuries (sometimes longer!) leaves me awe-stricken.  But at the same time, I can’t help but wonder what the ancient Romans would have thought to see their buildings in such a ruined state.  After all, didn't they believe that their empire would be eternal?  That Rome would always be the center of the world?  Surely, we must learn from them that anything that we can build here on Earth is ultimately as transient as we are.  And even in the age of 140 characters or less and fifteen minutes of fame, such transience is unfathomable.

Stepping into a Rome firmly grounded in 2012 leaves me equally perplexed.  Cars and tall buildings, wide streets: nothing like the tiny, winding, one-way Renaissance streets of Florence that were clearly designed when horses and feet as the primary modes of transports.  Rome can hold its own among the world’s other great capital cities.  For me, it’s overwhelming, unbelievable and, above all, unfathomable.

Rome is of course, not a city that can be contained in a blog post or put into so many words, but, in my attempt to help you better understand what it is like to be in Rome, I leave you with one image, one of my favorite places in the city:

            

Picture the remains of 4 Roman temples dating from the 4th Century to the 2nd Century BCE.  This place was once a sacred spot, but now, large roads run on either side of the space, crammed with trams, buses, cars and pedestrians.  The holy space of years gone by can be seen only in the outline of the few remaining columns. 

Photo from Wikipedia

Close your eyes for a moment.  Imagine a grand, classical, sacred space.  Everything is marble.  Or better-- gold!  People approaching the temples with their petitions, eyes cast down, in fervent prayer.  

Now open your eyes and look down.  There are several cats sitting calmly at your feet.  You look down and see their brothers and friends sprawled out on the centuries old stone, napping and taking in the golden Roman sun.  Because centuries have passed in a moment: this space has gone from being a holy place to being a refuge for the stray cats of Rome.  

Imagine the historical confusion of the stones!  Picture the priests solemnly carrying out their solemn offerings to the gods.

Flash forward.

Now picture the stereotypical gattare (Italian cat ladies) carrying out a huge pot of pasta for the 250 cats lying around the ruins.  

In my mind, these images are laid one upon the other like a double-exposed photograph.  And I find the combination confusing, disconcerting, unfathomable. 

And I realize that after so much time spent in Italy and so many visits to Rome, I have only begun to understand this city.

The Colosseum