THE ETERNAL CITY

Rome, everything that London and Paris is not, Rome is. It is called the eternal city and for good reason. Not only has it stood by its ancient ruins and sculptures, vast works of Doric, Ironic and Corinthian columns, its coliseums and ancient bath houses, but the glory of the Renaissance, the echoes of Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Botticelli, and later Verdi etc.

Rome to me is even more eternal in that it is forever a place to revere, ancestral in its nature for me, it has stayed with me all these years from the first day I entered the city. It is the seat of one of the largest faiths in the world, and one more important thing… the food, oh the food!

Rome or ‘Roma” as the locals call it, can captivate the imagination, since it is a real link to the world so long ago. To stand at the many piazzas that dot the city and the country of Italy, one can go back in time. Looking out over the multi-tiered stadium of the Coliseum, you can imagine yourself thousands of years ago; someone standing in the very place you are, seeing pretty much what you see.

But Rome is also about people. The very descendants of the historical Roman Empire, their particular features, their casual approach to life until you give them something to think about and suddenly it is all passionate. The Roman’s love life, their food, their art, all have an emotional additive that brings it to an excellence that awes the casual observers. Don’t get me wrong: London and Paris have their particular lust for life, but in a more sedate and modern way.

At the hotel we stayed at, behind the hotel bar was a barkeeper, dressed in a yellow jacket, cleaning glasses. As TLW (The Little Woman) and I slid onto the bar stools, the barkeeper struck up a conversation with TLW and we all became friends. His head was shaved like Mussolini’s. In the dinning room behind the bar, a discussion is going on, a few decibels higher than a normal American would speak. They emphasis with their hands as they do all over Italy, and bringing a point home is both a physical as well as a verbal process. The words flow in a poetic rhythm, the emphasis and the tempo based upon the flow of the hands. Even their conversations are fun to watch.

Each time I go to Rome, there is something new to see, something to be awed by, something that captures my imagination and something to appreciate as an American in a foreign land. As a designer, I have learned a lot from these people, their appreciation for space relationships, color and form, that seem to somehow find their way to the states and set a new path in design in all the fields of art and industry. They are eternal, but never grow old!