Feeling of Today: Some things we do for love. Even if it tears apart our notion of safety, like being in a loose-fitting roller coaster slamming me around the New York New York casino in Las Vegas and having to slowly pry my hands from the restraining bar because of the death grip I had on it. Perhaps the smile on my wife’s face, back then, was worth it. Not at my discomfort, but of her experience during it. Today’s evening event was not dangerous and brought joy to her lovely eyes and face. Some things we do for love.
Full Day’s Events: Having found our new favourite coffee place, at Caffe Portoghesi because of its lively music and staff, we returned to Sant Angelo bridge to enter into the Mausoleum of Hadrian…I mean the Mausoleum of the Emperors…I mean military castle…papal castle…papal residence…prison…papal residence and prison…museum. Whew! That is quite a 1900 year journey in different uses for one place.
I am very glad we went here and saw the inside and outside. Not only is the history of the place interesting, because the root structure of the mausoleum was kept up as part of being a defensive structure, but the views are fantastic. As you go higher and higher the scope of what you can see in Rome also grows. The papal rooms are decorated and painted to the limit, no real surprise there.
A model of how the original Mausoleum of Hadrian would have looked like.
The original entrance and ramp to the Mausoleum.
Dropping off postcards at the Vatican, we shared a grilled panini and headed to our place for catching up on correspondence and dressing up…for the opera at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.
On our way there we had supper at Nerone al Viminale. Before we were able to go in, there were two greeters at the door and a…door cat. Sitting as prim and proper as a cat can be when it wants to be aloof, it was inspecting people who walked by and looked like it owned the place. The workers feed the cat occasionally so a mutual arrangement was previously agreed upon for its services. We, meaning my wife and I but not the cat, split a salad and she had the lemon veal while I had the meatballs with potatoes and grilled vegetables. Everything was tasty and filling.
The opera house had a red carpet, was nice inside, and the theatre was like the opera houses you see in popular entertainment with common seating below and high up above but in the middle, they had box seating for groups of four or six. We were in that middle zone. Each box had its own entry and, since there were no numbers I could see on the doors, helpful attendants dressed nicely in black and white suits and metal dish medallions showed us the door.
I wasn’t happy with my seat though. The position of our viewing box was very good but the chair was like it was made to be uncomfortably off centre to the stage all the time. I had a neck ache after the first intermission until I could manipulate it so it faced a better angle to the stage. Now, an overview of the play’s plot.
Alcina, a story about a woman who is ignored by her adventuring husband then dresses as an adventuring man and, with her husband’s ex-mentor, tries to rescue him from the magical clutches of Alcina who is in charge of an illusionary island where she lures men to love her then cast them aside, but admits that she actually loves the husband. Alcina’s magical sister is in love with the disguised woman, but that is a ruse to make her own beau jealous. Alcina is thwarted and dies when the spell of the island ends due to the mentally freed husband, his wife, and ex-mentor’s efforts. Curtain falls. The end. So, now to talk about my first experience at an opera at one of the premier establishments in the world.
The performers were top notch. Costumes were excellent. The composer, Handel, was long dead but great. The director and musicians flung their bows, tooted their horns, and tickled the harpsichord like passionate machines of precision. But why oh why, in opera, do you have to repeat the same line not once, or twice, but three or more times all lengthened out to delay the story. Two intermissions, and three and a half hours later, it was finally done. If I wasn’t falling asleep, I was bored or trying to focus on something else happening on stage, with the musicians, or looking at the audience. I knew that opera wasn’t my thing, but I noticed that this was playing a month before our trip. My wife quite likes opera so I was willing to mention it to her and attend with her for this unique event while traveling on vacation. Now that I tried it I know I do not like it, regardless of the efforts and activities of the good folks at the back and behind the scenes at the theatre. The things we all do for the love of our lives…sigh. The things we all do for the love of our lives...sigh. The thiiiiings weeeeee alllllllll dooooooooooo for the loooooooooooove of our liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiives! Sigh. Thank you. No applause, just throw money.
While walking back to our place we passed by the very crowded Trevi fountain that received a big cleaning, since we were last here 11 years ago. By the time we entered, navigated the crowd, and was just moving away there had already been one proposal to the tune of dozens of screeching ladies and girls who saw the event and relayed to their friends. When we got back to our place it was close to 11pm. Also 11.3 km and 26 flights of stairs walked.
