Mark's Take on Rome

Rome observations

 There were ruins everywhere--- I mean everywhere.  You're in Rome, so one expects ruins, but we didn't expect the vast amounts and locations.  Ruins became ubiquitous.   So there is hope for Cleveland and California as tourist designations. 

There was a lot of graffiti.

As a nice surprise, there seemed to be much less antisemitism than in the US.  I expected less in Japan, and Taiwan, but I actually expected more in Italy; nothing compared to the US.

The ruins were more interesting than I expected.  

I had no idea there was a Jewish ghetto.  It was small, but very interesting and nice to see.

We did A LOT of walking, and the place is hot.  

Not surprising, Rome had more things to see than any of our other locations.  

  

Jewish Ghetto:

Their history is interesting, but you can find that out if you so inclined.  We had to check this area out and I do appreciate many of things we saw there.

This synagogue was built by people who had only built churches, so the architecture is nothing like I've ever seen before.  First, the intent of temples in general is to be simple, less ornate, and economical.  At the top of temple is a dome, this one has a square, open to light.  There are a lot of details that are incredibly nice, but seem out of place.  

No, this isn't just for display, this is live walking talking Jew; who knew.  Our one-on-one discussion was even more interesting for me - it was fascinating to hear about the current Jewish population in Rome (lots of details and culture).

This was a museum in the Ghetto which I really appreciated because little of it was in English.  That spoke to who it was intended for and that this wasn't designed to merely be a tourist attraction.  The security there originally didn't want my kids to go in because the horrific picture and video, but I assured them it was ok; frankly I've shown my kids worse on X of recent attacks against Israel.  I will not shield my kids from this, they need to know what "river to the sea" really means, and what the people who support nonsense really support. 

Lo and behold, no one was tearing this down.  One, it's not the US and two, again unlike the US, the Italian leadership decided to provide security.  

The colosseum:

One simply has to go here, even with that said it was interesting and fun.  I have a friend who is starting a legit professional wrestling league (CLAW), and I now have several suggestions (9" of sand for the blood, lethal animals, scenery that comes up from the floor (everyone wants jungle and sea landscapes), gladiators, and most of all---add some weaponry). 

This is pretty big, bigger than any church---meaning more people are interested in gladiators, wild animals, etc...   Just saying.

Pictures I like:

Ruins near Ghetto and then a bunch from the Roman Forum.

After the Romans conquered the jews in Israel more than 2,000 years ago they made the Jews work on the city (no pension or matching 401K) and even had them create this as a passive aggressive reminder of who won and who lost.  

Back to random shots I like

 

Talia went full on Italy.