MOON METRO ROME

Moon Metro Rome
2nd Edition
ISBN 1-56691-941-X
$16.95
Purchase here through Amazon.com or visit Indiebound.org to find your local independent bookseller.

If, as Leonardo da Vinci said, “a life well-spent is long,” then Rome, with its more than 2,700 years of history, enjoys a sweet life—or as the Romans call it, la dolce vita. As other urban metropolises relentlessly rush forward, the Eternal City goes at its own pace, contemplating its past as it watches the world from its perch on seven hills.

Once the center of the Western world, Rome is now more like a provincial capital in the European Union. It is international to be sure—consider the Korean market near the train station or the Rastafarian shops that punctuate the university area. But instead of relentlessly covering new ground as its imperial predecessors did, Rome today uncovers new layers as it develops. Workers constructing the city’s metro system, for example, constantly bump into ancient ruins that they take care to go around, rather than through, in an attempt to progress without obliterating history.

While burrowing downward unearths Rome’s historical fragments, a climb up one of its hills—stark Palatino or lush Aventino perhaps—will reveal the distinct pieces of its current cosmopolitan landscape. The quiet Jewish Ghetto, a neighborhood of traditional bakeries and little tourism, sits next to Campo dei Fiori, an area as vibrant as its name, “field of flowers,” implies. Multicultural Trastevere bumps into isolated and insular Vaticano, which itself is adjacent to the touristy Piazza Navona/Pantheon area. To the east a mere two-lane road, the Via Corso, is the great divide that ushers in the tony Tridente and Via Veneto neighborhoods, where the air smells like money, and shopping, rather than culture, is the modus operandi. Just below this playground of consumption, but light-years away in personality, is the Colosseo area, which stood at the center of ancient Roman life. The dicey area around the Termini train station and San Lorenzo, the new home of the cultural avant-garde, round out the many Romes a visitor can encounter within the city’s boundaries.

The river that flows through the city—Rome’s greatest natural landmark—holds all these different parts together and connects the dots with the many bridges built over it. Like the Eternal City itself, the curvaceous Tiber runs its own course, just as it had when, according to legend, Romulus founded Rome in 753 b.c. Here, past and present coexist and time seems to take a more meandering, rather than hurried, form. Perhaps this is the reason for its citizens’ seemingly innate generosity. A simple “buona sera” as you catch the eye of a local during the evening passeggiata will likely reveal the Roman predilection toward abundance rather than scarcity, and kindness rather than apathy—you might find yourself in a conversation, even if you don’t speak Italian.

There’s hustle and bustle for those who need it, but so much of Rome is less about getting to where you’re going and more about savoring where you are. Whether you’re sitting in a café, traipsing among majestic ruins, throwing a coin into a fountain, or simply finding your way on one of the narrow and winding streets, do as the Romans do and you’ll make a bit of this sweet life part of your own.