My City of Ruins

I went on the Scavi tour today. Scavi means excavations and it's a Vatican tour of the necropolis under the Basilica. The bones of St. Peter are said to be buried there. Well, the Vatican won't say for sure if the bones are really those of St. Peter. Our guide told us it was a matter of faith if you wanted to believe it or not. Well, I'm not the most devout Catholic, but if I want to think that the bones of someone who died around the same time Peter was crucified, in the same spot where he was crucified, and without feet (a consequence of being crucified upside down), are really St. Peter's, I guess its my perogative.

It was a fascinating tour, and it's well documented elsewhere, but I will say one of the most interesting aspects was being several tiers below ground and standing on what was ground level at the time of Pagan Rome. Here, the Romans had their mausoleums. The families buried their dead in one room and had another room above it for eating and drinking. They so wanted the deceased to join in on the festivities that they actually piped in food and drink into the coffins and urns! Such is the Roman (and, I think by extension, Italian) heritage. Food is such an important part of this culture. And, I would like to think that part of our eternal reward would be fabulous food. If heaven doesn't serve bucatini all amatriciana (an exquisite pasta), theres something very, very wrong!

For a more immediate reward, I walked over to Pellacchia, a gelateria in Prati, a leafy residential neighborhood. Pellacchia is the favorite gelateria of my brother and sister-in-law who lived in Rome for 4 years. Rich had told me about gelato affogato, and I ordered one (or maybe it was two, but who cares?). An affogato is ice cream served swimming in espresso. For such a simple idea, it was astoundingly good.

I left Pellacchia secure in the knowledge that I'm doing all that I can to uphold the rich traditions of my heritage.

Flying on the Ground is Wrong

Well, Im here (sorry, I cant seem to find the apostrophe key on my computer italiano - hope its not too distracting.) My well-planned trip got off to a very rocky start. One reason had to do with USAir losing my luggage on a non-stop flight from Philly to Rome, and they obviously saw no need to rush to get it to me. I was in the same clothes for 4 days until they delivered it on Monday at 5 PM. There was a notice inside my luggage from TSA saying they had pulled my luggage for a random inspection. Im convinced they didnt give it back to USAir in time for my flight. Oh well, I was in good company. There were at least a dozen other passengers similarly affected. Peter Greenberg, the travel editor for the Today Show, was right after all. There are only two kinds of luggage - carry-on and lost!

The other reason was that, after walking around the centro storico all day on Sunday with my friend Corrado, I took a death-defying leap from a curb and landed on the ground with a twisted ankle and various scrapes. Now, all this had me scratching my head and going, "HUH? THIS WAS NOT IN MY PLANS AT ALL." Then I remembered that I was in Rome after all, and that I love my apartment, and the weather is gorgeous, and the possibilities endless.

All things told, Im in clean clothes and Im healing nicely, thank you. On to bigger and better things!