ROAMING ROME STREETS

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I was in Rome on a fine, clear, sky morning of the twenty first of June 2017, at Fumicino International Airport, after enjoying the sight of Alps mountains as the craft crossed this part of the world. A few hours of acquaintance with the Italian folks, while interacting with the hotel staff, managers, and passers by, or those meeting in the hotel’s lounge, and I noticed as a foreigner how essentially and extremely politely they wish a passerby acquaintance and even a stranger a warm Bon Jurno, i.e., good morning, as if it is unthinkably rude for them to pass by quietly. To me, Jurno sounded like Juley of Laddakhi and Spitti folks of the Himalayan north India, who wish Juleyto all on the way, and find it rude to pass by without greeting politely.

I sensed the stay in hotel S. Ansalmo was going to be exciting due to its location in Aventino Hills which is a cultural heritage hub in the posh locality and the area has distinction of having a sovereign nano nation state of Knights of Malta near the hotel. The place is ideally located for reaching colosseus, palantino, and art galleries, museums and the night life streets, and its managing and waiting staff are warm and professional in their efforts to make things happen for a stranger.

The first wonders of Rome that come rushing to you the moment you step out of the well kept, 1960’s built hotel, are water fountain replica of the Bocca Dell Verita, meaning the Mouth of Truth, the other variations of public water tap and the garden and the streets. Not only this, in a corner opposite it, by the veranda of the monument there lies a tree stump which mesmerizes one with the figure of a baby carved on it, and another figure on its opposite face. I am told an eighteen year old young artists does it voluntarily. Then suddenly what one comes across is a wonder one cannot believe one is face to face with. A non-descript gate guarding some premises, with a wall that doesn’t hint of what is inside, but some people queuing up for nothing visible nor with any apparent eagerness for the gate to open. Guided by a tourist’s instinct to grab on any opportunity for a new expereince for which other people are waiting for, I stood in the short queue. Before venturing into any query about it, I was peeping through a key-hole that every one before me was trying. And there showed up the mesmerizing view of the Vatican, miles away in the north-west of Aventino Hill. Ever since that moment, I had exciting viewing sessions both in the morning and late evening; and once with the gate open to lead one to an arch of hedges to see the Vatican through. And revealed with this secret was a historical and present political governance reality of the place, the gate, its premises. It is part of, interestingly, another nano nation within Rome, like Vatican City.

As one walks enjoying the clear Italian skies, in less than twenty minutes one is in front of the colosseum, and can see the palatino on the left side and Food and Agriculture building on the right side. The view of palantino, colosseo, and FAO building from Via del Circo Massimo parking space, with Massimo and its open space ahead one, is enticing.

The colosseum, reflection of ancient Roman taste for unusual means and acts of entertainment, such as bull fights and gladiator fights, live hunting complete with wild scenes and feeding animals with convicts, chariot race, was built in AD 71-72 by the Flvian dynasty, and completed during the reign of Titus. With a capacity of 50,000 to 80,000 spectators, it had five levels of seating to suit to its the than five fold social strata, and enjoyed great popularity before it was gutted down by a major fire in 221 AD, was completely rebuilt during next 30 years, and finally fell into disuse after 404 AD when the last gladiator fight was staged, after which the Christian orthodox emperor, Theodosius, banned all forms of paganist entertainment.

In the places around the colosseum, I found street vendors selling crystal colosseum images, and street painters doing attractive depiction of the monument and trying hard to sell their stuff, which I could not resist. What one does not realise is that water colour is the most enticing medium for brining glamour to museum objects and structure.

Unable to do the Palatino round due to late arrival at the ticket counter, when I alternatively gave more time to other objects, I found the Church of San Bonaventura? Very interesting in its rich clay relief depiction of certain episodes of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary. In another was shown Mother Mary and other folks grieving over Christ’s lifeless body. The clarity and artistic force of the lines and features in these works are unprecedented, though the rather thoughtless way of protecting them with mesh wire cover gives a poor sight of the works.

An interesting aspect of Rome’s arts business and commerce is their approach of displaying objects of arts and crafts in the fast food joints and pubs, like booze and browse concept in publishing industry. One can see an appalling image of Einstein in a tiny snack shop, or a display of rich works in a richly stocked and served martini bar with.

On the street along the Palatino, I found curious small shops and mini galleries, and arts objects outlets, like that of Marmi’s with a rich collection of arts objects for sale; even an ice cream parlour boasted of huge wall hang image of Bocca Della Verita, with its translation: The Mouth of Truth.

The next morning at Aventino Hill, I went out early to catch Rome in the morning light, and acquaint with its early hours mood. Washed in the morning light, Aventino hills hotels and neighbouring buildings look another worldly, the neatly pruned pine trees glimpsing from around neighbourgood buildings add to the visual beauty as well as the sounds with the bird dwelling on them. The palatino and colosseum looked different in the morning light and shade. The way back to Colosseum from here provides beautiful sights of surrounding buildings and their architecture in the evening slanting light. One is the tower with around ten storeys along a building premise. Secondly, at the end of the slopping path going from Bonventura to the colosseum and the gate, there is an awesome photographic point that gives good converging view of both the structures with the path as the linking spheres. I took a fulfilling picture of them and also managed one of my own with the help of a young girl. People here not only eagerly take your picture when requested, but also are sensitive enough to ask one to see whether it is good or needed one more click.

Ever since, I had landed in Rome, I was getting eager to witness a few arts and painting exhibition going in one of the art galleries; and what I could figure out was Alfredo Pirri’s exhibition going on in Macro Testacio art gallery in the middle of eating and drinking night life area of Rome, not far from Aventino Hill. My encounter with Alfredo Pirri’s works in the gallery gave a startling insight into the contemporary Italian arts’ philosophical and aesthetic and physical dimensions. The gallery itself is so spacious, differently structured with workshop like openness and vastness rendered by a network of metal pillars and guarders in place of any false ceiling, leaving the high roof bare for the visitors to have a feel of space. Pirri’s exhibition was titled “Fish cannot carry guns”, curated by Resmini and Pratessi, indicative of the unarmed society, likened to living in the sea. In his 50 selected displayed works out of his entire’s life’s creations, he has his latest work: Quello Che Avanza, 1917, which is the result of his intense research in the techniques of cynatopes, based on 114 off-camera printings, a mass of blue coloured frames displayed on the wall of an entire hall. This work titled “What is left” is a major work characterized by intense variations of blue. Other works on display were Gas(1990), based on the concept that space is filled and surrounded by the invisible matter; Plastic Teams, 1987-88, presenting live energy; Verso N (Towards N), 2003, an installation in which fragments make up an imaginary horizon, reflecting a spiritual landscape; Penna’s Room, 1999, an urban skyline presented through book covers. A linking work with the title of Passi (Steps), connecting one section of the exhibition to another, is interesting as an installation work. It is a threshold of mirrored floors that crumble under the foot steps of the artists and the viewer as mine too, representing deformed narratives that promote a dialectic dialogue with the surrounding space, its nature and history. What Pirri brings out through this work is the reality stated by Benjamin, “... image is that wherein what has been comes together in a flash with the now to form a constellation. In other words image is dialectics at a stand still.

While roaming through the places around the gallery for a feel of the streets, when I found a desolated ground bordered by lifeless old buildings, and somewhere a sign boarding displaying AZADI(meaning freedom in Hindi), I wondered whether it had anything to do with India, and was quick to ask a passerby friendly looking woman accompanied by a young lady. Supporting a hat and clad in a saffron hued T-shirt she looked like the kind who did not go around with any air of inaccessibility. She confided she did not much about it, but it was a area abuzz with lots of activists works, and on my telling that I was an Indian, she greeted me, Namaste; and shared that she was a yoga teacher, and her saffron colour outfits told more of all that. She shared with me the tale of the hillock at the background of the flourishing exotic restaurants. It had grown out of dumped terracotta and ceramics wastes from ships transporting these material long back.

I ended my day with a wonderful experience of nightlife, Italian gourmet food, favourite drinks, witnessing quiz sessions in a bars, mixing up with people here and there, taking picture of a partying father and baby daughter, having the feel of an Israeli restaurant, seeing families and friends, both tourist and local ones, enjoying the evening with an eternal feel of the moments at hand, guzzling drinks , eating exotic snacks and concluding with the yummy cuisines.

For the Vatican trip, I had to wait for three days due to official preoccupations. But once I made it to the place, I remained awestruck with its external architectural beauty and vastness. Thereafter once one is inside the grand spiritual venue, the only and only word of exclamation heard from every one is: Wow. The architects, as Michel Angelo, and others, the artists appeared to have followed the concept of depicting the spiritual enormity and the vastness of the faith through a matching material hugeness of the structures and the spaces inside. Not only this, even the loftiness of the faith and the magnanimity of Jesus Christ’s compassion to the sinners seemed to be flowing from the infinity of space that holds and projects every art work.

But what goes generally unnoticed is that Vatican is a nano nation, a sovereign state, within the state of Italy. One that has the distinction of the smallest sovereign state with a tiny population of 1,000, a territory of 44 ha, its own sovereign ruler in the President, currency in Euros, stamp, and even a tiny railway line. Not only this, there are two similarly nano states in Rome. The Knights of Malta and the Republic of San Marino. A hint about extreme solutions that are possible about issues of territories and boundaries and reformulation of states out of an existing lot.

The Knights of Malta gained its nano nation state status as an order of brotherhood of charity of medieval crusades in 1099. After booting off its namesake island in 1789, it adopted Rome as its HQ in 1834, at Via dei Condotti, 88, and has been ever since carrying the good work of health care through its arms of The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta. The territories of the Knights of Malta are spread in other areas of Rome, including the one that provides the key-hole view of Vatican in Aventino hill.

The third nano nation, i.e., San Marino, in Rome has massive territory of 61 square km basically a large hill town on the border between Le Marche and Emilia-Romagna, managing to remain an independent state since AD 301, with its constitution dating back to 1600). San Marino exists on its economy of an island of cultural odds, tourism, own stamps, a tax haven, banking, duty-free electronics.

While flying back home via Frankfurt with fond memories of Rome, I enjoyed the aerial view of the vast agricultural land of the EU countries. That hardly any patch of cultivable land looked left unploughed, as evident from the golden fields spread through the length and breadth of the land mass from one end to the other, indicates the relentless hard work generations of farmers of the world have put in to provide for mankind’s food security speaks volumes for the hard work and toil of the farming billions.

(Credits: The photographs from 1-17 and 21 are by P.C. Bodh, the author of the travel piece; the remaining images 18-20 are pictures available in online promotional and review sources and quoted here for sharing the art experience.)

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