Hey everyone. I know it's been awhile since I have spoken with you, so please forgive me. I have been working super hard at school and each day is more challenging and technical than the previous day. I also didn't have a compelling story I wanted to tell. I knew that I could write about some BS, and how baking, Ancient Rome, taking a Uber, or making sfoglia is a metaphor for life....but that just doesn't feel right to me. As I enter the twilight of my life, I no longer have the time or energy to contrive an essay because of an arbitrary "rule of thumb" espoused by millennial blog mavens.
Thursday was my birthday so I booked a tour of the Vatican museums. The Italian government, however had other plans...all museums had to close Friday until December 3. Most museums, including the Vatican, closed a day early on Thursday. Don't ask why, but it seems that Italians are a paradoxical tribe; they don't have time to work because they need more time to live life. Like you think the post office in the US is a shit show? Try picking up a package of medicine in Rome. I dare ya. I DOUBLE DOG dare ya! It took 6 trips to 3 different locations to finally get my frickin' Actifed sent Fed Ex. But that was the day's activity. Pathetic I know, but I accomplished my goal and my sinuses are clearer than they have been for weeks.
After I received a text informing me of the predictable change of plans I wondered out loud what I was going to do? As I was scratching my head, I saw a card on the table from one of the many Uber drivers I have met. I remembered this guy in particular because he had told me that he worked for 11 hours the previous day and only made 30 euro. Hmmm...I bet I could call him and get him to take me somewhere, I thought to myself.
So Gianluca, an out of work mechanical engineer, was my tour guide. We started our day at the Villa Adriana. Adriana, or Hadrian in English, was the emperor of Rome in the early 2nd century and he was a prodigious builder. He was responsible for the Pantheon in Rome and his most famous achievement was building Hadrians Wall, which was Rome's northern border of the Roman province Britannia, present day England. Because Adrianna's mother was Spanish and he was educated by Greek scholars, he had a wider appreciation for other cultures. He was an ardent traveler with a curious intellect and he visited every province in the Roman Empire during his reign.
Villa Adriana spans over 250 acres and is about 30 kilometers northeast of Rome close to Tivoli. It was originally built as an escape for Roman royalty. I can totally understand that watching gladiators gladiate, seeing lions eat Jews, and month long orgies can be stressful and sometimes even the most heinous, debauched, and cruel Romans just need a break. It was kind of like the Hamptons of the 100's. Ultimately Rome became too much for Adrianna and he governed from the Villa. Thousands of people lived there including slaves, servants, visitors and your basic run of the mill teat-suckers.
The Villa boasts over 30 buildings and is a maze of fountains, baths, pools and elaborate landscaping. Adrianna drew inspiration from his early exposure to other cultures, as well as his extensive travels. One can see the influence of other civilizations in the designs of the some of the buildings.
I loved this image.
There is no way that this is random. These two magnificent Cypress trees framing an equally magnificent Umbrella Pine. I bet some Italian guy 2000 years ago thought this would be really cool; the thoughtfulness is inspiring and I salute you!
And look how this wall is a perfect straight line.
No CAD, just a commitment to quality and detail.
There are also tons of olives trees. Now is the time when the olives are harvested and crushed into delicious, silky, yumminess.
Right off the tree though? Not so much. They were more bitter than a losing politician. At the same time, I could taste what would become olive oil...you want to spit it out but you also want to savor that flavor...sort of like watching The Shining.
There are also the coolest looking trees ever. These are olive trees that are hundreds of years old.
We walked around for a few hours, taking our time, chatting and learning. Gianluca shared that he hadn't been there since he was a little boy on a school field trip. His eyes twinkled at the memory as he said "and ova thera ees were we tooka owa luncha".
I had a tough time wrapping my brain around the place. The engineering, the quality of the craftsmanship, the design, and how much of it has survived. Check out this mosaic.
And it occurred to me...what goes on in the brain of someone who builds something he or she knows will last thousands of years? We build things for an intended purpose; we build a car so we can drive, we build a sofa so we can sit and we build a house so we have a place to nest. But a house, like everything else we manufacture has a finite shelf life, except Twinkies. We know that cars, clothes and even homes will go out of style so we don't build these goods to withstand time; it doesn't make sense. I don't care how solid a house is...I ain't living in a split level 70's looking thing like where the Bradys lived. Roman architecture however has never gone out of style; stately columns continue to scream "here lives a wealthy family!", we still pack amphitheaters for concerts, domes telegraph a capital building or perhaps a place of worship and arches are standard in even the most modest homes. There was no planned obsolescence in ancient times; no marketing guru convincing the Romans that their togas were sooo last season and no hucksters shaming homeowners into buying siding. I don't have an answer
and I am reticent to hazard a guess, but...maybe it had to do with the human obsession of immortality or maybe when you use marble, travertine and ridiculously strong concrete, you get a sustainable product, or maybe they clung to the obsession that Hephaestus, the Greek god of construction, engineering and masonry was watching their every move, their every move, so it had better be perfectti, or post death, they'd be doomed to an eternity of sewing or watching Hogan's Heroes reruns. But probably, they just beat the crap out of a lot of slaves until the damn thing was finished for cryin' out loud. I don't know what the motivation was, but I do know that the mind set of the ancient Roman laborer was different from the mindset of today's ...it had to be.
It's funny. If we look at the two extremes of wealth, we get the same result. If we have too much, wealth we have the time and luxury to complain to the manger about the slightest service gap and lob insults at total strangers on social media. If we don't have enough resources, we find the time to vent our anger at total strangers on social media; maybe we have the time to nurse our anger, because we don't have a job or opportunity to provide even the most basic necessities for sustenance. I do not know but the irony is palpable. Quality takes time; quality goods, quality services, and quality relationships take time. Today, I will choose wisely how to add quality to my life. Until I get pissed off at some bureaucrat.
Be well.
Comments