29 Oct. 08--More Rome

These guys are around the theatre at Ostia Antica. Just in time for Halloween. The theatre there is rather small but pretty much intact.

Night view of the fountain down at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. I forget what the name of the fountain is. On either side are steps, so you can step up and get a drink from the stream--perfectly potable.
Church of the Trinity at the top of the Spanish Steps. On the top right, you can see scaffolding. There's this huge scaffolding rig there covering up the view of the church from the bottom of the steps. It was very disappointing, but if you can see the church, it's pretty.
















One of the many cats at the ruins of Largo Argentina. It's a small area of ruins, taking up a city block in one part of town. After a week or so, I stayed at a Hotel up the Gianicolo hill and took the tram down to Largo Argentina to go into the main parts of the city. I loved this little square of ruins and the cats. In a big city in the US, you might have a little block of a park; here it's ruins with cats whose ancestors go back as far as, or farther than the ancestors of the native human Romans. The ruins in Rome never seemed sad to me, just peaceful. Life has gone on, and rather than reminding us of a civilization brought down by its own excesses, they just seem to say, well, people are still here, so how can you say Rome really fell? The governments fell; the people, the life, the bustle go on.