On the Road Again, Soon!

ROME DIARY 2 Friday June 5, 2015

Mostly Cloudy 72°F/22°C in Rancho Santa Margarita

Buongiorno,

   OK, then! We’re back. I’ve dug through all the stuff in my desk and found my passport with my baby picture on it. Laura has made my reservations on Alitalia. Liliana will keep an eye on Lola while I’m traveling. So, in a few weeks, it’s Buon Viaggio! This geezer is Roma-bound!  Ah, Rome!

Il Colosseo!

"Roma è la città di echi, la città delle illusioni e la città di desiderio".

 “Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.”  

So wrote Giotto di Bondone, the Italian painter and architect back around 1337. Ah, it seems like only yesterday. By the way, did I mention that August is the hottest month of the year in the Eternal City? According to my local sources it’s kind of like downtown Bakersfield, California on the 4^th of July, and most local Romans are “on holiday” elsewhere during August. Even the Pope heads out of town to Castel Gandolfo. So, why would I want to admit a potential travel blunder at this particular moment? Why? Because I should have posted this story yesterday, on the fourth of June, that’s why! I was writing a special blog piece for Sunday commemorating the 71^st anniversary of the Allies invasion at Normandy when I remembered another story about a big day in World War 2, and when I looked it up; I realized I had missed another anniversary by a full day; the 71^st anniversary of the fall of Rome to the Allies on June 4^th 1944.

General Mark W Clark

And that, gentle reader is why everybody remembers General Dwight David Eisenhower, and hardly anybody knows who General Mark Wayne Clark is. It was all in the timing. If History’s master time-piece had run differently, Mark Clark would have maybe become President of the United States and gone down in history, and Dwight Eisenhower would have joined Ambrose Burnside on history’s long list of obscure generals.

Look at the timeline:

June 4, 1944: Rome falls to the Allies led by Gen. Mark Clark

June 6, 1944: Operation Overlord begins. Allies launch D-Day Invasion at Normandy, France under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

  Get the picture? General Mark Wayne Clark misses his moment of immortality by TWO DAYS. Seventy-one years later this reporter misses the anniversary by one day. Poor Mark Clark! As Marlon Brandon mumbled in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, “He coulda been a contenduh!” But, such are the quirks of history.

  I’m looking forward to going back. Each time I visit, I seem to want to stay longer. Maybe I could become a full time expatriate like my son, Michael. Junior grew up in Southern California, but when he went to London after high school in 1999 to work as a musician and sound engineer he met a pretty girl in Rome, and now, Laura is his wife. This trip will also help take my mind off the move my daughter and her family are making soon. Her whole kit and caboodle is up and moving to TEXAS, by G*D! Thank goodness for Skype, but I’d rather go back to Italy. Why Rome? Well let me share a short quote from Mary Platt Parmele’s 1908 book A Short History of Rome and Northern Italy:  “Rome did not lay the cornerstone of modern civilization. She IS its cornerstone.”

  

Not THAT X-ray again!

Now that I’ve pretty well recovered from my shoulder joint replacement surgery, I’m thinking outside the box again. Mike and Laura and I are already talking about things I can do when I return. Laura is already checking on a visit to Venice, which I missed the last time. We can take the high-speed train from Rome and be there in just a few hours. Then there’s Paestum, an ancient city in the far south which boasts some spectacular Greek temple ruins. Of course, a traveller could spend a life time just in Rome and never see the same historical attraction twice, but I will want to visit the Galleria Borghese again. And, I want to see Michelangelo’s David. The masterpiece was on tour the last time I was there. And, since Michael is playing in a new band called No Funny Stuff, I can get out on the town and go listen to them play.  Oh, and one nice thing about having an expatriate son who is not only a musician but a

Ancient Paestum

professional tour guide, is that I can tag along with him at work, and take any one of an assortment of tours of Rome. He works for a company called City Wonders, (Insert subtle Plug!) which is a good name for any traveler to Europe to keep in mind. Since I got such a nice response to my Facebook postings on my last trip, I’ll blog as I go along on this one and will make an effort to include more pictures amidst the travel tips I pass along. So, more Rome Diary 2s coming up soon.

Ciao,

MikeBo

©Mike Botula 2015