When I finally got out of bed this morning and finished my breakfast (for some reason I was dragging in a major way), I decided to go check out a couple of minor sights that are listed in my guidebook, but which I had not bothered to visit yet. First stop: the Capuchin Crypt. This crypt, connected to the Church of the Immaculate Conception here in Rome, is one of the most amazing / disgusting things I have ever seen in my life. It's several different rooms lined with the bones of hundreds of monks, who were buried here between the 1500s and the 1800s. And when I say lined with bones, I mean turned into macabre artworks. There were skulls piled high, designs made out of pelvis bones, vertebrae arranged artistically on the ceiling, a delicate little lattice made of ribs...it was, um, interesting. A couple of the rooms had complete skeletons dressed up in their monk robes, holding crosses and such. Some of those complete ones still had skin on the faces and hands...eww. I wasn't allowed to take pictures down there, so I googled a couple for your viewing pleasure.
I bought one of Rome's most interesting postcards at the gift shop...it shows a different view of what's in the second picture, the little toddler skeleton that is hanging facedown from the ceiling in the last room, holding a sickle made of arm bones and shoulder blades, and one of those weight-scale things made of finger bones and, um, I'm not sure what. It's overlooking a sign that says: "What you are now, we used to be; what we are now, you will be." Way to be creepy, guys.
Is that not the most bizarre thing you've ever seen? And as crazy as the finished product is, I am really wondering how on earth it came about. Who woke up one day and decided to create an exhibit out of monk bones? And can you imagine the logistics of actually arranging the bones? I'm picturing some rough guys in workclothes, nailing and gluing. "Hey guys, I've run outta thumbs over here. Could somebody please gimme a hand?" Lol. Of course, the next question is, who on earth would go to visit such a thing...but they got me, and it's obviously a money-maker for someone!
So after being thoroughly disgusted / amazed by the monk bones, I headed over to the Forum to see the Mamertine Prison. This prison supposedly held both the apostles Peter and Paul (at different times, of course). Regardless of whether they were actually held here, it is certainly a very old Roman prison. I was surprised at how small it was. It was one circular room that you could barely stand up in, made out of huge stone blocks. And it had no door, just a round hole that they used to lower the prisoners through (or maybe they just threw them down there, who knows). I could just imagine the prisoners huddled in there with the rats, awaiting slow deaths. (Even today, it doesn't smell great down there.) There's a stone column that is supposedly the very one that Peter was chained to. When I was down there, a lady was kneeling at it, saying a prayer.
Like most relics of the sort in Rome, it's been worn almost completely smooth by the touch of the faithful.
So that was interesting and worth a look. On my way to and from the Mamertine Prison, I walked by the Colosseum and got to see some of the preparations for a huge concert they're having tonight. Billy Joel and Bryan Adams are performing in a free outdoor concert just outside the Colosseum.
When I walked by on my way there, the big street was already closed off (yay for being ped-friendly...that street is normally lethal) and they were starting to have sound checks. I heard them testing the microphones with the usual "one...two...three" and all I could think of was "Bueller...Bueller...Bueller..." Lol. Then on my way back, I got to see the musicians themselves, as they were all out on stage playing stuff for the sound check. Billy Joel kept playing Beethoven on the piano, and Bryan Adams was doing his best Mick Jagger impersonation while the band warmed up to "Start Me Up." Oh, the random things I see in Rome, right?
By the way, if you're wondering, I'm not planning on going to the concert tonight. I don't care if it is free, I really don't like crowds, especially concert crowds in foreign countries. I am not even that big of a fan of either Billy Joel or Bryan Adams, so whatever. Now if it was Collective Soul, that'd be a different story...but anyway, no concert for me. I was kind of wishing they would have the concert somewhere else besides next to the Colosseum. I mean, I know it makes for an amazing photo-op, but seriously, this is an old monument, and I don't think it's a particularly good idea to have ground-shaking concerts (the ground was sure trembling this afternoon) next to ancient structures. Sure, the Colosseum is pretty solidly built, but still. I'd like it to last another thousand years, please.
Anyway, after all that fun, I went back to the Anglo American Bookshop. I have almost finished one of the novels that was supposed to be for my plane ride home. I'm saving the other one, which means that in the meantime, I'll have no reading material to help me while away the hours during the heat of the day. So I went back to get another book...and found another supercool thing to add to my collection!
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Ancient Greek edition. Not modern Greek...Ancient Greek. Is that not amazing???
Okay, how many people (besides me) are both Harry Potter fans and students of ancient Greek? I confess that even I don't know any, and I run in the Classics circles. And my next question is, what scholar would bother to sit down and translate Harry Potter into Ancient Greek? And who besides me would actually sit down and read it? Seriously...
So now I've decided that I need to collect an "international set" of the Harry Potter books. That is, get all seven books (when the last one finally comes out), each in a different foreign language. I've got number 1 in Ancient Greek and number 3 in Italian now...so now I just need to start finding the others. (I just ran a search, and I am excited out of my mind to report that number 2 [Chamber of Secrets] will be released in a Latin translation in December 2006. Is that amazing or what???!!!) It'll be a fun thing to collect, I think, and I'll find a way to display them in my house. The last one will have to be special. I was thinking maybe it should just be the British version, since the books are after all British...but that seems kind of boring. British English may be a little funny, but it's hardly a foreign language. I'll decide later, though. :)
So...now that I've fully impressed you with my absolute nerdiness, I think that's all I've got for the day. The day is about to start cooling off again, so I might could venture outside for a while. Who knows what I might find next in this city?
1 comment:
I think it's cool that the translator bears my last name. Yay!! tha's cool!
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