Cobblestoned in Rome

Italy had to develop the best sandals in the world.

Cause walking all day on cobblestones sucks..

Another average day in Rome. Mom ate three times her body-weight in veal, centurions smoked, and I took pictures of the forum, colliseum and anything else I could see around the POSSLQ's cavorting in front of my lens. The main thing was the trip on the mighty 46 bus down to the forum and colliseum.

It was here I began to become aware of my own 'aesthetic' on photography. Not surprisingly, it is like my aesthetic on most everything else - I freaking hate people. They swarm around like flies, talk useless shit, and get in the way of the camera. And the fucking noise? Who can talk all that time?

As we wandered around in the Forum and Colliseum people hopped up on anything available to have their pictures taken. It seems odd to me that you would wander around in some place as ruined and eternal as Rome and then want to insert your own smiling mug in each picture. Anyway, I spent a lot of time sitting in front of potential photographs cursing people who stood in front of them smoking cigarettes or talking on their cell phones. I'd look around trying to judge when the next tour or group of people was going to come, silently urging them to walk slowly. It didn't always work, but on the rare occassions it did, I was quite happy and snapped away.

That picture above is one of those shots from the Forum. Very impressive and very freaking wrecked. As we walked away I took three pictures from the rise and stitched them together. Over on the right is the small version and if you have a lot of time you can look at the big picture here. I didn't have time to Photoshop out the brute on the left who somehow snuck into the photo.

Then it was on to the Coliseum which was, for me, sort of a one-trick pony. It is big, and there is a lot of stone, but once you've wandered in and taken one look you've more or less seen it all. The rest of my party disagrees with my opinion on this, but I think they are probably all morons. It awaits a medical doctor to make that determination.

•

Then there is what we here in Europa refer to as the "young calf" problem. See, when my mother is at home she is variously bounded and circumscribed by certain political expectations. In my family we call these political expectations, "Jennifer." That's my sister and she is a bit of a structuralist when it comes to what should and what should not be done. And one thing that certainly shouldn't be done, in this complex calculus of care, is the torture of animals. This is a thought I agree with, though I am in no way as "down the line" as my sister is.

Now, here in Italia, my mother seems to have suddenly realized that Jen isn't around and that she, mom, for one brilliant moment, can eat anything she wants. And that is veal. Mom now orders veal at every meal. She has bits of ground veal on her morning Mueslix. Chunks of veal float in her evening wine and last night as an aperitif she asked for a "Scotch 'n Veal" milkshake with a float of pate fois gras.

I'm a bit concerned, but the wine makes it better.

•

So, anyway, we wandered on to the Colliseum and I took some pictures.

As I always do. And they contain as few human beings as I can possible (non)stuff into a frame.

Like that lovely picture over there to the right. Thank God some defender of decency and all that is proper managed to fence off some of the inside of the thing so that I could have a picture.

Anyway, I was already through the Coliseum (and, yeah, I know I'm probably spelling that differently each time I come upon it) and sitting on a patch of dirt outside it when the POSSLQ caught up with me. We had been together, and with my parents, in the Forum, but had somehow missed connecting at the arches outside it. OK with me, of course, as I had silence to walk through the Colliseum and as a bonus a lovely beer and Panini lunch on the dirt.

The Italian Airforce was apparently in full retreat from something or the other, as they flew over the Colliseum with smoke (symbolic of the the shoot-down that battle would certainly bring them?) pouring from their hindquarters.

POSSLQ wanted to run quickly through the the Coliseum so I sat outside and scouted about for a Porta-Potty ("Mission Accomplished" as our Nero-like leader might say) and had a delicious beer.

While I was hanging about I noticed a rather old and bilious "centurion" hanging about and trying to get tourists to pay 2 Euros for pictures. This is pretty standard, but this guy was, well.. not what you'd expect from a centurion.

What he was doing, was what all centurions do on their time off (when not on the cell phone) - he was burning a Marlboro.

Then there's this picture of the floor of the Coliseum that I just feel I need to throw in for no discernable reason at all.

Just the odd demands of my web-mind...