Rome: Day 2

I was still asleep when someone came to clean my room this morning. Good thing then woke me up or I might have slept all day. That would have been one waste of a day.

I had initially thought to tour St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine chapel, and the Vatican Museum today. Sleeping through half of it forced me to rearrange those plans. Instead, I went to the Palantino (seat of the Roman government and palaces), the Pantheon, several piazzi, and the outside of St. Peter's. One of the best surprises that I had today was that there is a special exhibit of works by Caravaggio going on. Guess what's on my list for tomorrow.

The Palantino is a crumbling reminder of the glory of Imperial Rome. Vistas like the one in the photo to the right cause the viewer to imagine what it must have been like to have been Nero or Vespastian or Caludius.

I had always thought that the glorious, Roman palaces were all stone. I felt a little deceived when I realized today that most things appear to have been made with brick and covered with stone or stucco. Hence, all of the brickwork in the photo.

Also, as an aside, I finally found a good retort of economists and there notions about sunk costs. You see, I bought a ticket for entrance to the Colosseum yesterday. The ticket also allowed me to visit the Palantino. I had not originall planned to visit it, as I was not familiar with it but thought I might as well get my money's worth. That is what economists would call irrational behavior because the price of the ticket was a sunk cost. However, I, and most ever other sane, non-economist in the world see it as a fixed cost. A fixed cost is a cost of operation that does not vary. Spreading the cost of the fixed cost over more items produced or meaningful activities drives what is referred to as economies of scale. Meaning, that people are acting rationally when they eat more when they go to buffets, or see more sights in Rome.

I'm fairly certain that most people reading this couldn't care less about sunk or fixed costs, so I'll move on to the Pantheon. Imagine my dismay as I struggle through the maze of Rome's streets, give up and have a gelatto (made from soy!), and then come upon the object of my search only to find that its been converted into the St. Mary and the Martyrs Basilica! I should have remembered, but I was hoping to see the cool statues of the Roman gods. Oh well. It wasn't a total bust - it was the Pantheon after all.

Soon after looking around the Pantheon, I came across Piazza Navona. It was immediately apparent that it was the cool place to be. There were several guitarists, caricature artists, and, of course, a giant fountain. I wandered around and watched the artists go to work giving people buck teeth and oversized features. I briefly considered getting one done of myself, but I think you would have enjoyed that too much.

By this point, I was exhausted. I was near the Tevere and decided that I would find a place to read for a while. I found a nice place next to the Bernini bridge that leads to Castel Sant'Angelo on the steps leading down to the river (the photo on the right is from my reading spot). It was pretty great.

I walked around the castle and then on over to St. Peter's. No big deal. Actually, I was thinking a lot about how we as people like to have a sense of place, an anchor. For Mormons, its Temple Square in Salt Lake; for Muslims, its Mecca; and for Catholics, its St. Peter's. However, if there's one thing I've learned in my travels to the Holy Land and now to Rome, its that either I have a gypsy soul and places can't touch my heart or that my faith and heart tell me that all the stone and artistry in the world cannot build those things that are most important: truth, trust, and friendship.

Its not that I didn't marvel at its glory, the outstretching arms of the Bernini collonades, the Maderno portico, or the dome of Michelangelo's construction because I most certainly did. It was all very impressive.

I think there are a thousand other things I could say, but I should try to keep these posts to a manageable length for the reader's benefit as well as my own (read: its getting late). Hope you enjoyed day with me!

Da Roma, ciao!