November 15, 2018 - This place is old. Very old. When you walk among the narrow cobblestone alleys and ruins you feel as if you could touch time. In the buildings you see ochre, mustard yellows, subdued orange, dirty whites, and muddy browns. When the sun strikes the buildings the whole scene changes into a Monet painting with one hue bleeding into the next like faded glory.
And there is glory here. It is staggering to consider that all our modern notions of the law, republics, citizenship, human rights, and justice began here. It is no accident that both Christianity and Humanism blossomed here and spread across the globe. And the most magnificent art ever created all came from here turning a light on the dark remains of a crumbling empire into what would become the renaissance of man. Glorious is really the only apt description, faded but still true, and, as Rome likes to call herself, eternal.
We touched time here but now we need to close Episode V of the Road to Bali. We need to return to our own time and home.
And as hard as it is to imagine, something even older awaits us for a future Episode. But that is a story for another day
Commentaires