Santiago, Rome, and Jerusalem -- the three big Christian pilgrimage sites. I won't get to the Middle East this time but the other two are on my Camino.
Flew into Rome last night. It's hot and sunny and Gianna and I have an apartment for a week in Trastevere, at the end of a dead-end street, right up against the botanical gardens. There's a lovely terrace where we eat fresh peaches and try out different cheeses. Then we wash our dishes in the bathroom sink.
This is my first time (as an adult) in Rome, and I'm so glad to be here with a quasi-native. Gianna knows the city and the language and can I just traipse after her, taking it all in.
Pilgrims' route across northern Spain
Camino marker
Where I began
Guadi's Bishop's Palace in Astorga
Where I ended up
As Artes Hotel room overlooking Santiago Cathedral, the pilgrimage terminus
Cathedral columns, Santiago de Compostela
5 comments:
feral cats own the Coliseum, look for offerings of kibble mounds left by lonely eccentrics
your mission if you choose to accept it:
locate and purchase cool shoes
Hey Erin,
Know that you are landing into normal soceity again, I have to give you some tips for Rome (although you have a semi local on your side that knows probably much more):
www.enotecaferrara.it in Trastevere. Modern, but cosy and very good food.
Checco er carettiere, also in Trastevere. Via Benedetta 10. 06 5817018. A Osteria, with a restaurant attached.
Sora Lella is a classic (on a bridge) Top quality restaurant, but probably a little bit conservative/dull. But fantastic quality. Try Le Stanze wine!
And of course the winebar at Campo di Fiori!!!
Enjoy and do everything "in praise of slow". Certainly the food and wine, as the slow-movement has it´s origins in Rome!
My wife and I sought shelter in the Colosseum during a severe rain. Run-off flooded into our grim chamber where terrified christians, angry bears or hippos may have been confined for slaughter millenia ago. The water made the floor stir. Dozens of thick beetles emerged from the wetted dust. Will never forget the awful spectacle of life squirming at our feet. Rome.
Love to Gianna. Love to you, Erin.
Good advice from all sides: cool shoes, slow food, wine, and the spectacle of life.
It's very hot here; we have to wait out the heat of the afternoon as if we were waiting out a rainstorm. The evenings are delicious.
What did you learn on the Camino? Another time, of course, too intimate. But let me ask, did you walk far enough? Can anyone walk far enough? Seems penance, assuming you've a Catholic bent, requires self-immolation ultimately, and Spain is the joyful matron of such an excess.
But now you're in Rome. Rome, a city of accomodation, lazy spiritual traffic, an athiest's paradise, intellectually boring. Spain focuses. Rome scatters work. Just another undisciplined mess.
My daughter, let's call her Rosa, she wondered after your every step. What shall I tell her?
I'll begin with this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=axnCMV-on9Q Will wait for more
And more.
Love to the two of you. Burning with desire to be there.
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