Day 9 - Nutella Swirl and Chocolate & Pistachio

I love public transportation. It makes me feel smart and eco-friendly at the same time. Maybe Rome as a city is just too big for the distribution of routes that I am used to, but something about it just FEELS ineficint. Maybe it is the way that each stop services at least five routes, when the average in Minneapolis is probably three routes per stop. Maybe it is the way that anytime I want to get anywhere on the train, I have to transfer trains. 

In reality, due to my White Rabbit-like tardiness anxiety, it is probably because the buses do not have timetables at stops, they have rough estimates of intervals.

What I am saying is, I ended up having to take a cab somewhere today and was late due to screwy timetables. Neither were fun. 

When it comes to getting around in Rome, you are best off walking. You get to see some great sights, and you get killer calves in the process. In my case, I tend to walk twice as much as I need to due to getting turned around. Sure, it is not ideal for long distance travel, but it is still better than counting stops on a crowded, stuffy bus.

zExample expression of people who do not have to ride the bus

The one exception to walking over public transit are the trains. Those are important because they go between longer distances quickly. Currently, there is an A and a B line, with a C line under construction. I have been informed that it will be likely under construction for many many more years. What's the holdup? It took four years to fully complete an entire new light rail line in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Surely it would't take much longer.

The problem is that Rome is built upon strata of history. Ancient temples were repurposed into churches and forum walls became walls of houses. The layers underneath are practically useless by medieval standards. Digging tunnels for trains runs the risk of turning up things that should be studied, things that "belong in a museum."

Rome already has nearly three thousand years of history. Does it need any more?

Benito Mussolini was said to have made all of the trains run on time. He also secured several ancient monuments, such as the Ara Pacis, and ensured that they were preserved and displayed prominently.

At museums, occasionally I will see a pile of broken pottery and wonder why they saw fit to include it in a collection of artifacts. It's a piece of history, a find, and it should be behind glass. The more I am in this city, though, the more I wonder. Does EVERYTHING need to be preserved?

Pictured: actual pottery from an actual museum.

Don't get me wrong; going to the Forum was exilerating, and climbing in and over buildings at Ostia today was a total blast. But maybe Medieval Romans had it right. Those columns by themselves aren't useful. They would work holding up this wall though. No one is using the wall of this forum. Let's make it one of the walls of our buildings. Most of the temples and other structures in Rome are devoid of both marble and hardwear. They were long ago stripped away to be reused.

Gelato

There were two servings of gelato on the menu today. The first was chocolate and nutella swirl from Ostia. The second was pistachio, which was from a place that, it turns out, was open late.