Tuesday 31.7 I am an archeology hipster. Sometimes.
We had planned to get up and go to Cerveteri, but needed to be at the Cornelia station by 10 and hadn’t left the hotel by 9:50, so THAT wasn’t happening. Finally got going and went to San Clemente, down near the Colosseum, instead. I fear I am an archeology hipster – I liked it better when it was still underground. Ha. Ha. Ha. They’ve done a TON of work on it since I was last here, and the new excavations were amazing, but now it’s all full of people, there’s a climate control system that keeps the humidity high so it’s not cool in the lowest levels, the spring has become polluted so you can’t drink from it any more, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures yet there are no postcards nor yet an updated guidebook to the new areas, most of which, naturally, are the 1st c Roman section. The most current guidebook is from 1989! I asked the bookstore lady when a new one would be out. “Oh, next year. Perhaps two years.” In other words, have your grandchildren check with us. Nine years ago, it was still kind of a “San Who?” type of place, and I crawled around in it and investigated to my heart’s content. The Roman area is the most thoroughly worked on but there’s been a lot of work to the 4th c basilica as well. They've installed actually STAIRS and LIGHTS and whatnot! It's much more accessible now than it was, and better lit. Plus they've put in recycled tire pathways to preserve the floors of the heavy traffic areas. I'm happy for them that all this work is worth it, that they've got people coming to see it and appreciate it. I'm mostly annoyed at the no pictures (now that we have something really really worth taking pictures of) combined with the no new scholarship (now that we have a ton of stuff worth talking about).
We got home in time for me to take in the Palazzo Massimo, where the best frescoes and mosaics in town are (the girls were tired and stayed in the hotel). Upon asking the guards for a contact to ask for permission to publish photos I learned the Italian word for “@”, namely chiocciola, “snail.” Makes sense, but they liked "at" better – fewer syllables! The contrast between the beauty of the exhibits and space at the Palazzo Massimo and those at the Museo Archeologico in Naples is severe – I know the secret meaning of SPQR is “sono porci, questi Romani!,” but their national museums are GORGEOUS. Took zillions of pictures of floors and walls, and not a few of famous and obscure heads. Still didn't have enough time, even without the girls, since I didn't want to leave them for too long and it was getting close to dinner time.
I was initially annoyed that we didn't get to Cerveteri, but it turned out to be a good day, and not as stressful as yesterday on the girls. Tomorrow's extra exciting for me, though – a tour of Ostia Antica. I've never been, so this will be all new (so far we've taken in all stuff I've seen before – new work on most of the sites has made it more interesting for me, but still). Life would be better if the temperature ever fell below 93F during the day, but oh well.
We had planned to get up and go to Cerveteri, but needed to be at the Cornelia station by 10 and hadn’t left the hotel by 9:50, so THAT wasn’t happening. Finally got going and went to San Clemente, down near the Colosseum, instead. I fear I am an archeology hipster – I liked it better when it was still underground. Ha. Ha. Ha. They’ve done a TON of work on it since I was last here, and the new excavations were amazing, but now it’s all full of people, there’s a climate control system that keeps the humidity high so it’s not cool in the lowest levels, the spring has become polluted so you can’t drink from it any more, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures yet there are no postcards nor yet an updated guidebook to the new areas, most of which, naturally, are the 1st c Roman section. The most current guidebook is from 1989! I asked the bookstore lady when a new one would be out. “Oh, next year. Perhaps two years.” In other words, have your grandchildren check with us. Nine years ago, it was still kind of a “San Who?” type of place, and I crawled around in it and investigated to my heart’s content. The Roman area is the most thoroughly worked on but there’s been a lot of work to the 4th c basilica as well. They've installed actually STAIRS and LIGHTS and whatnot! It's much more accessible now than it was, and better lit. Plus they've put in recycled tire pathways to preserve the floors of the heavy traffic areas. I'm happy for them that all this work is worth it, that they've got people coming to see it and appreciate it. I'm mostly annoyed at the no pictures (now that we have something really really worth taking pictures of) combined with the no new scholarship (now that we have a ton of stuff worth talking about).
We got home in time for me to take in the Palazzo Massimo, where the best frescoes and mosaics in town are (the girls were tired and stayed in the hotel). Upon asking the guards for a contact to ask for permission to publish photos I learned the Italian word for “@”, namely chiocciola, “snail.” Makes sense, but they liked "at" better – fewer syllables! The contrast between the beauty of the exhibits and space at the Palazzo Massimo and those at the Museo Archeologico in Naples is severe – I know the secret meaning of SPQR is “sono porci, questi Romani!,” but their national museums are GORGEOUS. Took zillions of pictures of floors and walls, and not a few of famous and obscure heads. Still didn't have enough time, even without the girls, since I didn't want to leave them for too long and it was getting close to dinner time.
I was initially annoyed that we didn't get to Cerveteri, but it turned out to be a good day, and not as stressful as yesterday on the girls. Tomorrow's extra exciting for me, though – a tour of Ostia Antica. I've never been, so this will be all new (so far we've taken in all stuff I've seen before – new work on most of the sites has made it more interesting for me, but still). Life would be better if the temperature ever fell below 93F during the day, but oh well.
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