Rome... The Beautiful City

We reached Rome on a sultry hot afternoon... As bad as the Mumbai weather! We were received by our Taxi Driver, who promptly arranged our Apartment keys. Language is an issue. Traffic is a sophisticated version of the Pune Traffic. People will suddenly turn their cars around and the traffic police watch completely disinterested and the tourists bemused and frightened.

We met our guide next morning. My briefing to her was clear. I am not on a whirl wind tour of Rome. Show me something in detail. I know I cannot see Rome in 5 days. So show me a few things, but I am interested in the history and the culture of this great civilisation.

What we went through, was back breaking, walking in heat, sweating but well worth every minute. The few places that interested me the most were the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Vatican.

Small things like the Greek God who eats your hand from the movie "Roman Holiday”, brought back memories of my first crush... Audrey Hepburn! I was so besotted by her eyes that I could barely sleep for the next 7 days as a 15 year old!

And the Chariot Race from the movie Ben Hur was a sight to see. But at the end of all the beautiful buildings, architecture, stories and culture, I have a few observations...

The Romans thrived on two things, war and slavery. Everybody was a soldier, who wanted land and expand the kingdom so that he could make slaves out of those whose lands he captured.  This ecosystem of war and slavery lasted for about 700 years! I cannot imagine any other civilisation lasting this long on a system of sheer violence and subjugation... How can one be proud of great buildings built on the sheer violence, slavery, subjugation and sheer helplessness of human existence?

At the same time, in India, we had the clear demarcation of the Bramhin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. A system that had many pitfalls but at least did not rely too much on violence. The tension between Religion and the Monarchy has existed in both the systems, but the tension did not give rise to the kind of violence this civilisation has seen... there is loot and plundering all over. Roman temples converted into Churches... The beautiful frescos transferred from one temple to another church...everything seems to have been used and reused to make the current King or Pope look more powerful than ever... I wonder how civilisations have evolved so much intellectually... they were then, perhaps much better as Artists, Artisans, Philosophers and Strategists...but as human beings, I would hate to be born at that time.

The second thing that struck me about the Romans is that they are almost defensively proud of who they are...they don’t know whether they are Romans, then Roman Catholics or Italians now. Each identity is deeper than the other. The conflicting identities seem to make them an angry lot.  But the pride of their cities Architecture and buildings masks their own guilt and anger of people being subjugated by the powerful. The fear of the Global meltdown seems to have scared them. The Guide told me her husband has received no raise in the last 3 years. Just about 10Euros a month. Conversion of the Lira to Euro has doubled their cost of living and halved their incomes owing to a severe drop in traffic from USA and Japan. Most of their tourists are from France and Spain. That would be food for thought for the Economists! The Guide also said, the French used to come for 7 days , now they come for 4 days...the Americans have disappeared and the Japanese don’t come anymore...I asked her, what is the largest group she has handled and she said 92 and I asked which country... Apna India of course!

Finally, the walk down the corridors of the place where Caesar was murdered by Brutus and the story of Mark Anthony and the King Augustus is interesting. I could almost hear the echo of the words "Brutus et tu?" The Roman Empire began as a city, went on to become a republic and finally an empire. I think Christianity began to take roots once Nero plundered and blundered...

As a final observation, I think civilisations are like a fountain and ripples. At the centre of the civilisation is the fountainhead of its Art, Culture and Architecture. The Buildings are at their best at its centre. It is also the physically the lowest point. As the civilisation spreads, its buildings at the periphery are less grand and at a lesser depth...

Leonardo hated painting, but the Vatican ordered him to paint , and his work is almost like paintings that look like sculptures... 

The ripple effect is that the culture and art at its height produce the most beautiful ripples, like the renaissance period did.. But its impact at the last wave is low and it has to wait until the next ripple happens...takes maybe 400 to 500 years...wonder where we are at this point in our civilisation...

Off to Florence tomorrow...