Continuing The Heart Of Rome Walk

We left Piazza Farnese, doubled back through Piazza Navona, and then wound our way along Via dei Baullari to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, through the crowds, past cafes and restaurants, until we came to the state of Marco Minghetti, a conservative Italian prime minister who achieved a balanced budget during his short term in that office, lasting less than three years.

The amount of time you've

spent reading the last paragraph

and gazing at this picture is all

the time you need to spend

thinking about Marco Minghetti.

Within a short distance, we came to Pasquino, which is a third-century BC statue discovered near the obscure street corner where he can be found.  The statue has seen better days, but then again, what from more than 2300 years ago hasn't?

He used to be used as a community billboard, as people left notes complaining anonymously about things that might get them in trouble if they spoke up.  It no longer seems to serve that function, as Twitter, Next Door, and other social media forms have overtaken good old anonymous notes.  (Editor: Okay old man, let's get you your metamucil and put you down for your nap.  Writer, sighing contentedly, "A nap sounds nice."

Pasquino's seen better days.

But he looks better than I will

in 2300 years or so.

When you walk down the street

and there's a random carving of

a lion's head on the wall, you're

having a pretty good day.

From there, we continued to Piazza Navona.  Normally one of the most beautiful piazzas in Rome, all three  Baroque fountains were under reconstruction for the Jubilee.  I gotta tell my Catholic friends -- given all the stuff that is behind scaffolding and closed (especially fountains), you'd better go to Rome during the Jubilee year to make up for my missing all the closed places!  And, you can have your sins forgiven, which sounds like a bonus.

Despite my whining, you can look into the fountains (no water of course, because that makes restoration work that much harder.)  There is an Egyptian-style obelisk, which were popular with emperors because Egyptian society saw its rulers as divine, which, natch, Roman rules thought was a pretty good way to be viewed.

 

The rectangle shape of the piazza dating back to ancient Rome was first used as a racetrack, built around AD 80.  (You'll NEVER catch me using CE and BCE.)

We stopped at Tre Scalini for a dolce, with most of us having their acclaimed tartufo, the dessert speciality of the house.  After the hustle and bustle of travel, it was a well-earned break.

The obelisks are amazing.  You

know what else is amazing?

Going to Egypt.  Absolutely

mind-blowing.  By the way,

should Rome return the obelisks

to Egypt, or is just the British

Museum that has to return stuff?

A point to ponder.

Their flowers look better in 

mid-November than ours do.

We left the piazza and headed past the Italian Senate, even though no one was surrounding Caesar and stabbing him to death.  The Senate is well guarded by security.  Then we passed a church with Caravaggio paintings but it's close for renovations (sigh).

From there, we came to the Pantheon, which we would actually go inside on another day, so instead we just gawked at this nearly 2000 year old building, which features the largest unsupported concrete dome in the world.