Lizards and Birds

 A lizard on the rock wall of an ancient tomb.  His tail is gone...did a bird get it?

A wall painting from the 3rd Century AD.  Just a bit later than the tomb but it shows that the birds have been after the lizards for a very long time.

Scandal ! Naming Names.

August traditionally was referred to in the newspaper business as "The Silly Season". It was a time when people were assumed to have more important things to do with their life than to think deep thoughts.  Soak up some rays.  Enjoy a cold beer.  

In our new and enlightened era of course we have 24 hour news seemingly consumed by people who live in basements and thrive on conspiracy nonsense.  The New Silly Season is year round.

I certainly don't claim to know everything that is afoot in the august halls of power. Some bits of sinister truth may well be mixed into the big stew pot of implausible fiction.

And speaking of implausible fiction, several of the names involved are so appropriate that if you made them up in a bit of straight writing they would be dismissed as utter nonsense.  Consider:

1.  Donald Trump.

I have it on the good authority of my UK pals that "Trump" is a euphemism for flatulence.  It is a logical bit of onomatopoeia - a word deriving from its actual sound.

And in a crowded room The Donald would probably not be the kind of guy who would deny it. Instead of blaming a hapless aide he would likely pronounce the results to be "Huge! Best Ever!"

2. John Podesta

For those who have lost track of how this all started, it was when Mr. Podesta, former Obama Chief of Staff, then Hillary Clinton Campaign Chair, embarrassingly had his emails published.  Who did this, how, and why remains unclear.  But you would think a Podesta would be more careful.

The term Podesta goes back to the Italian Middle Ages.  It indicated a high official..sometimes an administrator or a magistrate. The term comes from the Latin potestas meaning "power".  The term was revived in more recent and troubling times. In fascist Italy civic government bodies were eliminated and both executive and legislative power was put in the hands of a Podesta'.  Maybe its just me but the notion of a guy who should have been more or less Don Corleone handing over his email password to what looks like a blatant scam strikes me as highly implausible.  And therefore likely true.

3. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

One casualty of the Podesta email revelations was Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, then Democratic Party Chair.  It sure looked as if she had both thumbs on the scale in favor of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.  Since then she has been embroiled in a new controversy, one that gets little attention.  It involves a shady bunch of IT staffers from Pakistan who appear to have had access to not only her computers but those of numerous other Congressional leaders.  Its unclear if they are opportunistic grifters, actual agents of a foreign power and/or are blackmailing DWS and others.  And Congresswoman W-Schultz "..Knows nussinsg...NUSSING!"

Oh, you can play this game all day, and with equal attention to either political party. I mean, who would have ever imagined a White House communications director named Scaramouch....a name  so very close to Scarmucci, a boastful comic figure from Italian opera!

Tivoli - Brief Practical Tips

Tivoli is a nice day trip out from Rome.  Most people go there for one of two things: Garden d'Este or Hadrian's villa a short distance out of town.

You may have noticed that we did not opt for Hadrian's villa on this trip.  It is under continuous repairs and when we visited many of the good parts were not open. If you have a notion to visit you should investigate this first.  I'd check HERE. Note that the villa is a ways out of town.  You'll end up needing a taxi I think, as the bus system appeared sluggish.

Another place I would have liked to visit was this.

Tempio della Tosse.  It is a Roman structure quite near the Villa d'Este.  Nobody really knows what it was originally, perhaps a tomb or a nymphaeum.  In the Middle Ages it of course became a church.  For reasons that are also obscure, it is a church associated with the relief of any disease that causes you to cough!  Allergies to the plane trees in Italy this time of year would have made me an enthusiastic visitor. Alas, it is on private property.  And the most recent owners do not appear to have done any more with it than any of the others since the day when our old pal Piranesi  sketched it in the mid 1700s.

Another spot that might be worth a visit is the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor.  I was not able to find out much about this place other than that is was buried under a factory site until fairly recently.  Pictures I have seen look to be a mix of old and of new reconstruction.

Tivoli in May did not have a "touristy" feel to it.  There were some restaurants in swell locations - we ate at one that overlooked the temples - but it was mostly a local clientele.  And there is a seldom visited "down town" Tivoli that had a lot of smaller dining establishments that looked appealing.

If you opt for the Parco Villa Gregoriana hike you will naturally want to do it in decent weather.  We had a train to catch and dashed through in something like 90 minutes. It was too quick a pace.  We did not have time for any of the side paths that lead to some spectacular waterfalls.

Villa d'Este is an hour or so in the gardens, spend a bit of time in the villa building also.  It has been battered about and looted a few times, so there are very few furnishings, but the wall paintings are swell and have been nicely restored.

I almost never give lodging advice but our B and B host in Tivoli went above and beyond the call of duty.  He figured we would have trouble finding the rather out of the way location and met us on the way there.  Breakfast was great, up on the rooftop.  The price was reasonable.  If you plan to stay over night in Tivoli I therefore suggest: La Mensa Ponderaria

Tivoli turned out to be one of the favorite stops on our Italian trip.  I recommend it either as a day trip or if you prefer, to stay over night.  The train service is cheap and frequent.  And with a bit of route planning you can skip Termini Station and make your trip via the Roma Tibertina station.  It is new, clean, efficient and seems to be free of larcenous pick pockets.

Tivoli Hodge Podge

The practice of re-using older stonework for later structures is called spolia from the Latin word for "spoils".  In this context it means spoils in the sense of a spoil heap...left over stuff.  But given how badly Tivoli got bashed about in assorted Gothic and internecine combat it is likely that some of the choicer bits of ancient architectural salvage might have also been "spoils of war".

One of my Romanist pals tipped me off to Instagram and Twitter groups dedicated to "Wall Porn".  No, nothing unsavory, just interesting photos of walls, doorways, windows etc.  You could look it up.

In any case Tivoli was Spolia Central.  Just wandering about you saw old Roman stuff incorporated into buildings everywhere. One wonders what the basements look like!

A typical example.  An ancient column.  Built into a wall so rugged and chaotic that it could have been from any era.  A modern pipe keeps it company.

Some re-used columns were clearly set into place to define later doorways.

When I encounter a scene like this I have to stop and spin some theories.  Was there some convenient site nearby, making for easy looting?  Or was there some organized trade in ancient columns.  At Ostia we did see a former temple that in late antiquity appears to have been used to store stacks of columns, so who knows.  Perhaps this builder opted for the bulk discount.

Another ancient fragment juxtaposed with modern pipes.  

This struck me as rather whimsical.  I can't see any practical reason to haul a column up to second story height and mortar it in.

As I said, sometimes I just stop and stare at something until a theory comes to me. If I had done so in this case I believe I would still be there.  How do you manage to have a very modern looking brick doorway filled in with ancient looking stone?  And what is that limestone slab at the bottom, some kind of pet door?  Number 5 keeps its secrets well.

First Contact - 16th Century

For your consideration today, one of of those little finds that has the potential to entirely revise our view of history.

As mentioned, Villa d'Este is a marvelous Renaissance palace with breath taking gardens.  It also has some very nice interior decorations and in one painted wall I noticed something.

To appreciate this you must be at least a moderate Star Trek fan.

If so you would certainly know about the Ferengi, an alien race of short, greedy, big eared grifters.  In the Star Trek universe we don't encounter them until the 24th century*.

 Well OK then.  How do you explain this!

* Star Trek fans of an obsessive nature of course know that contact with the Ferengi actually happened near Roswell New Mexico in 1947 (See Deep Space Nine, season four) but was covered up. 

Gardens of Tivoli

Tivoli has two gardens worth visiting.  Two very different gardens.

One you have perhaps heard of.  

Here is Villa d'Este.  Built in 1550 for Cardinal Ippolito d'Este.  He was interestingly, the son of Lucrezia Borgia and was appointed archbishop of Milan at age 10.  The house is a huge luxurious thing, which naturally sits on top of an earlier Roman villa. But it is the gardens that people come to see.  They are a UNESCO world heritage site, and are pretty darn impressive.  Formal and whimsical gardens, grottoes, water features.  

With ancient sites you have to guess about such things, but in more modern places I think we can be forgiven for assuming a sense of humor is on display.  Here's a rather....maternal looking statue of the goddess Diana.

On a different fountain is this grumpy fellow.  Is he thinking "Why on earth does she turn up in public looking like that?"

Here's a short clip of one of the fountains in action.  There is also a fountain that plays music through a sort of "water organ".  I understand that this was the first such device ever constructed.

Now, here's the "garden" that is less well known.  When you walk from the train station to the center of town you go over a bridge. Notice the round temple we visited yesterday. Today we will be going into the ravine below.

This is a park called Villa Gregoriana.  What you see here looks like, and is, a deep canyon but was in ancient times an equally deep lake.  No less an authority than Pliny the Younger described a flood in 105 AD that eroded the area enough that the lake drained out through new outlets to the plain below.   

On the higher ground there are remains of a Roman villa.  This would be the service levels below the main villa.  It seems to have contained a fish pond and a vivarium where food animals were kept.

Re-using ancient stone work appears to be a well accepted practice in Tivoli.  Outside the villa was this nice picnic table and chairs.

Down and up again.  It was a marvelous zig zaggy tour of caves, waterfalls, bits of archaeology.  If you have perhaps enjoyed plenty of pasta on your Italian travels it is prudent to seek out a few calorie burning yet enjoyable activities.

Despite its small size Tivoli has more than a days worth of things to do.  I'll be summing up the "History in one Place" on Friday with practical tips on how to fit the pieces together.

Roman Tivoli

After the heat, noise and troublesome citizens we encountered near Termini station, we did go someplace nice.  Tivoli.  And people have been making this same trip and for much the same reasons for a very long time.

Tivoli is a delightful little town in the hills above Rome.  It was cool and pleasant when Rome was not, and many prominent Romans had villas out that way.  The most famous of course being the Emperor Hadrian.

Tivoli was a sort of resort community.  The name has a familiar ring to non Romanists as it was adopted for a famous amusement park in Copenhagen that opened in 1843. 

Tivoli is a very old town.  It goes back to the 13th century BC and may have been founded by Greeks.  The name perhaps references the Tibur river.  At first an ally of Rome the people of Tivoli made common cause with the invading Gauls in 361 BC. This hardly endeared themselves to their neighbors and the defensive wall still visible today dates from that era.

The city was eventually conquered by Rome and after only a couple of centuries was forgiven to the extent of getting citizenship rights in 90 BC.  A long list of Roman worthies including Augustus and the poet Horace had villas there.

In the tumultuous 6th Century AD Tivoli was at various times held by the Byzantines and by the later but no more pleasant version of the Goths.  Procopius says that a group of traitorous Isaurian soldiers (again? really?) let the Goths in, at which point pretty much the entire population was exterminated.

The Middle Ages were the usual confusing Italian anarchy. Oh, it had its ups and downs but overall the regrowth of Tivoli was sporadic and it remains a small town.

So lets have a look around.  What remains of Roman Tivoli after the Goths and the Anarchy?

Our B and B was right across from the Cathedral.  And literally under our window sill was this bit of excavated Tivoli.  It is said to be a mensa ponderaria which was the office where official standards for weights and measures were kept.  This has suggested that the Roman Forum is nearby, probably under the Cathedral.  One of the local businesses had a doorstop that might or might not be part of the Roman remains!

Here's the city wall.  Not needed during the glory days of the Republic and Empire. But when things started to go south the old walls were put into service again. They did not, alas, keep Totila and his Goths out.

On my early morning walk I ran across this nice remnant of the city gate that faced Rome.  The Porta Romana of course.

I got pretty excited over this spot.  The sign says "Vicolo deli Rovini"  The Alley of the Ruins!  Ah, but when you go down the alley it just leads to some dumpsters.  The Ruins mentioned are these nifty Roman columns.  They look almost in situ but I understand that they are an example of re-use.  Specifically these decorated a palace in the modern day Palazza Palatina.  This was said to be a place where one could claim sanctuary from the authorities.

Tivoli has its own little "Acropolis".  Two very early temples on the edge of a scenic gorge.  One is round.  The other rectangular.

The attribution of the round temple to the worship of Vesta, the Roman god of family; and the rectangular one to the Tiburtine Sybil are both uncertain.  By late Antiquity legend a Sybil, or prophetess, was said to have here foretold the birth of Christ to Augustus.  

After our little tour of Roman bath tubs you should be rightly skeptical when running across something like this on the back side of the Cathedral.  It is a Roman era sarcophagus, re purposed as a medieval sarcophagus and then later as a water fountain!

Tivoli is chock full of interesting re-use.  We shall see a few more examples presently.