A Bug

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A little germ decided to filter its way into our apartment and has been slowly but surely infecting each one of us. Once one person gets better, it makes its way to its next victim and knocks them out. Guess who was next?

I was beginning to overheat. The sweltering just-after-sunrise sun in the Roman morning was scalding the back of my neck as we trekked across the city. Not even 9:30am and the temperature had risen to 85 degrees. Stepping into the portico of San Clemente church, I flung myself onto a stone tablet and cooled myself off by taking off my shoes and pressing the soles of my feet into the cool, marble column in front of me. As the art historian began to lecture, my mind wandered as my feet continued to pull the coolness out of the marble. Snippets of paragraphs made their way into my head but just filtered out, as I didn't feel like retaining knowledge on the courtyard grass.

Going inside was relieving as the temperature dropped 10 degrees. After some brief history we descended into the previous two churches built before. They were filled in with cement as the other churches where built on top of them to counteract the rising street level (I guess that really did have a point earlier). The oldest and most preserved fresco was 15 meters below ground and dates back to the early 300's and looked absolutely astounding for the kind of aging.
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Wow, I just had this amazing 4,000 word blog written and my internet decided to crap out on me and I lost everything when I tried to publish it.
I'm not re-writing that all. >:
In a nutshell:
-sat on stones that gladiators sat on thousands of years ago
-went to Santa di Maria Maggiore and sat on a step
-that step ended up being Bernini's tomb
-I sat on a dead guy
-felt the surreality come to pass
-still feel sick
-having the symptoms everyone else is having
-started blocking in my painting

Now that I'm upset I just lost that big of a blog, I'm going to go get a drink.

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Photos

Beginnings
The yellow ocher washed shadows

Comments

[Melanie]

Feel Better!
Hey, Dani. Thanks for writing about your travels as I am enjoying the vicarious experience! Sorry you lost the writing and glad you included the "nutshells." I hope you feel better very soon. Take good care of yourself. Love you! ~Melanie