Gionicolo

Today was an introspective day, so bear with me while I ruminate. I began the day by climbing many steps to reach Gionicolo hill, which is a spectacular hill within comfortable walking distance from my apartment. The hill overlooks Trastevere and ancient Rome with breathtaking views. The hill is green and lush with a variety of parks, walkways, and benches. As I stood there pondering the beauty of Rome many thoughts came into mind. You may not realize it, but, based on our Florida/fantasy world standards, Rome is quite dirty. There is litter around and graffiti everywhere. The city is old and you can always find scaffolding beside buildings. I realize that this is what I love about Rome - what Rome teaches me about myself and about God. I touched on this in an August blog post about why I feel drawn to Rome. It sort of expanded today. I had thought that there was value in finding beauty amidst the ruins and that it paralleled God's ability to find beauty in the ruins we sometimes create. That God looks beyond the ruin and sees beauty. I think that was wrong. I now feel that the ruins ARE the beauty. That, when one (be it person or city) lives - truly lives - there is ruin, messiness, and constant need for repair. When you open your arms to life.... to people.... you will most certainly get gritty and make mistakes. It's similar to gray hair or lines on the face as we age. Why try and erase the past? One doesn't tear down the past, one must work within the history to reinforce it. The history is what makes it beautiful.

What do you think? Do I make any sense at all? To me, Rome is real... it is so alive that it makes me feel more alive. Someone recently asked me if I get lonely here. Sure, I do. But I get lonely at home, too. Being alone has its challenges just like sharing your life does. I refuse to stop living because I must do it alone.

After I had my fill of Gionicolo, I listened to another podcast and took a walk through the Jewish Ghetto. I so enjoy these little walks that I downloaded from Rick Steve's website. They are informative, interesting, and encourage me to explore areas that I would otherwise overlook. The history of the jewish people in Rome is a testament to the tenacity of these people. Amazing and beautiful. This photo below is of the main synagogue in this area. I didn't realize that the synagogue has a square dome rather than a round one to differentiate it from a church. I thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to the podcast while walking through this area of Rome.

One of my silly favorite things in Rome are the water fountains. They flow freely all of the time and the water is refreshing and fine for drinking. Okay, here's the trick. Look closely at the picture below and notice that the spout looks sort of like a big nose. Right? Well how does one drink from it without kneeling down? If you stick your finger across the bottom where the water is coming out, it stops the water flow and forces the water out of a hole where the "nose" bends and you get a stream of water shooting up and out like our water fountains. If you look real closely, you can see the hole. I always make a mess, but love drinking this way.

So, that's it for today. There is a 20% chance of rain tomorrow and it goes up to 40% or 60% for the few days after that. Tomorrow I will stay in Rome, but then I plan to spend a few days chasing the sun by taking some day trips. I hope to see Naples and/or Capri (where the weather is supposed to reach the high 70's... uggghh) as well as just hopping the train and heading south and getting off where it looks interesting. Ciao!