Ostia Antica, et. al.

This is a really image-heavy post. Forewarned is forearmed. The ones that look small I'd really recommed clicking on to enlarge, because they're very cool 360° views that it would be impossible to see with our normal selves, but if we were owls we kind of could in a way. I made them myself, and they're fresh today.

This morning, I woke up when I normally would have, and rode with Fulvia to the Ospedale Fatebenefratelli on Isola Tiberina, because it's close and on the way to Testaccio, where I was headed for the train, and also because she wanted me to see the hospital, which is interesting, old, and very historic. Her 90 year-old aunt had a heart attack yesterday, so that's why we were going. It's really cool, with a courtyard, a vending machine with urine sample cups instead of Snickers (heh heh heh), and a lot of Italians waiting for the medical bureaucracy to work for them. Still, I am in favor of socialized medicine and think it's a good idea. We had a cappuccino at the bar and parted ways. I went over to Testaccio to get some lunch to take with me for later and to get the train to Ostia Antica.

Above is a very nice section of one of the baths (there are at least two full, separate complexes) in Ostia Antica. While at Ostia, I got a few breaths of non-polluted sea air, which was nice.

This is the interior of a Roman house. Generally, I find parts of Ostia Antica moderately creepy because I'm always thinking how 2000 years ago, someone lived in this space, and that the streets were full not of German tourists avoiding the World Cup but rather people doing practical sorts of everyday things like laundry and cooking.

These wildflowers are so pretty, and they're everywhere. Speaking of, I've been thinking about how in the summer, photos take on an acidic quality that captures the sun. Today, I sat for quite a long time in the theatre at Ostia Antica, just sunning and watching people. It was a form of sun worship -- nothing taboo (I'm thinking of Ra, Helios, Jesus). I wanted to read a bit, but it was more pleasureable to listen to music, which I so rarely do, so I listened to The Velvet Underground (Who Loves the Sun?) and the only thing that lately I can handle at any time, which is the masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana (Regina Cœli, Lætare). It was after I had my delightful lunch, bought at the Testaccio market of coppa, pizzette bianche, and Beck's.
Little kids were on the stage talking to their parents who were sitting up by me, which is something that I did, so long ago, in the Greek theatre in Taormina. Now that I think of it, the kids should be sitting up at the top and the parents on the stage, so that the kids can hear instead of having to believe their parents that the sound travels so well. I also got some sun, which is a bonus.

This is the Porta San Paolo, the Piramide Metro station, the Ostiense local rail station, the Aurelian Wall and the Pyramid of Caius Cestius. It's really one of my favorite parts of Rome. It's Roman, it's kind of grimy, and it's so real. Additionally, there's a fascinating mix of ancient and very modern in the environs.

This is the Protestant Foreigner's Cemetery, on the other side of the Aurelian Wall from the above photos. Like Ostia Antica, the tourists who go there are interested in more than the normal, and since Porta San Paolo is close, but basically out of the main tourist area, they are more adventurous types. This cemetery is beautiful, quiet, and full of lovely cemetery cats (see below). Inside are Shelley, Keats, Goethe (see the pattern of whiny Romantics?), Gregory Corso, and Antonio Gramsci, along with tons of other very interesting eccentric expatriate types, most of whom so obviously loved Rome. It's a nice place to go to get your memento mori on -- quiet, with birds and cats, and shade...

Here's a tombstone in the process of being carved -- interesting sort of thing.

Here are the carver's tools... I took these photos in the absence of the stonecarver. It's almost like taking pictures of someone else's underwear drawer.

This is the tomb of Antonio Gramsci, the greatest Italian communist/theorist ever. He was horribly persecuted by Mussolini, and was released from prison within an inch of his life, and so he died outside of prison but as a result of it.

A Roman cat along the Aurelian Wall in the cemetery.

Today was such a pleasure. It's so nice to be able to sit and do little else. Additionally, I had some other pleasant moments after class, with some gelato, and after that, another filetto di baccalà. I'm happy.