Back to school...for now

 School started weeks ago.  Long enough ago that My Boy needs another haircut to tame the mop.  Although, I actually like a bit of moppiness on him.  Classes are in person every day on campus for both kids for now.  I got a message today that this will be changing.  According to the latest decree, starting Monday grades 10-12 will be 50% online for at least two weeks.  It's not about crowding at school, but crowding on the public transit system.  Ninth graders are excluded because some are still 13 years old, too young to stay home alone by Italian law.  News reports say that less than 4% of new cases are from school contacts.  More than 80% are from family contacts, but with more and more cases being reported in the cities the officials are worried about spread on the sometimes crowded busses and metro.  At My Girl's school there have been a handful of cases, all asymptomatic and all from contacts outside of school.  There has been one at My Boy's school.  The schools have assured us that they will interpret the official decrees in the way that allows kids to be on campus as much as legally possible.  So it was fun while it lasted.  My Girl's school has given families the option of going fully online if they want to.  We don't want to.

I managed to snap a couple of first day of school photos as the kids rushed out.  My Girl leaves first.  This year the bus picks her up in front of our building.  It's a big improvement over the half mile dash to the bus stop last year.  This year there are two other girls in her grade on the bus.  They can't sit together, but they can chat a bit.  Much better than the squirrely boys from last year.  The ride is also on a completely different route.  This time she passes Piramide, through the more residential Testaccio neighborhood, past Castel Sant Angelo, then along and over the Tiber river.

The pyramid that the Piramide area is named after was built during a time when Egyptian things were all the rage in Rome.  It was the time of Anthony and Cleopatra and during the time the Romans "imported" obelisks from Egypt.  You can see them all over town.  They have been moved around over the centuries and some have been augmented with Christian decorations, like the ones at the Vatican and San Giovani in Laterano, but you can still see the hieroglyphics on the sides.  

The pyramid is the burial monument for Caius Cestius, a wealthy man from the 1st century.  In order to ensure that his wish to be buried in a pyramid would be carried out, his will stipulated that the pyramid had to be built before his sons could inherit his wealth.  I love the jumble of Rome.  About 300 years after it was built, the pyramid was incorporated into the Aurelian walls around the city.  Now it and the walls enclose part of the non-Catholic cemetery where many notable non-Catholics are buried, including the British poets, Keats and Shelley.  There was once another pyramid in Rome, but it was taken apart and the marble used for the steps of St Peters at the Vatican.

My Girl decided to try some of the after school activities this year.  Mondays is Robotics and Wednesday and Friday are soccer.  The team practices but is limited in what they can do because of distancing requirements.  They can't play games, but she is having a fun time anyway.  It is a great way to spend time with friends and get moving.  She moved up a year in math after a lot of work over the summer so she and a couple friends are in with the 8th graders.  She was a bit nervous about it, but she was the only student to earn 100% on the first exam so I think she is doing just fine.  The day everyone else had to retake the exam she left school early to go camping with the scouts.  That was a much better way for her to spend the afternoon.

My Boy is enjoying school after a bit of adjustment to having a schedule again.  He is happy to be back on the tech crew for Drama.  One of his jobs during rehearsal is to track contacts on stage in case someone gets sick.  He also works with the props and lighting.  Last year he got to perform a part as a disembodied telephone voice.  It was fun to hear him and see his excitement after the performance.  He loved being part of a team that pulled together something big.  His other favorite class this year is Latin followed by Programming, English, and City of Rome.  Last year they studied Ancient Rome.  This year it is Medieval and Renaissance Rome.  I want to take those classes.  I get a glimpse with the school's Lyceum field trips for parents, but more would be fun.

My Boy walks to school.  He could take a city bus.  He did last year.  But it is often crowded in the mornings so the school has asked the kids to avoid them if possible.  It is just over a mile and a very pleasant walk when the weather is nice.  (We got some waterproof-ish shoes for the days it isn't so nice.)  Last year I walked My Girl to her bus stop and picked her up.  It was a great time to catch up and talk.  Now that we don't have to do this I was missing my morning walk so I decided to start walking at least part of the way to school with My Boy.  He doesn't need the escort, but it is a nice time to chat and it is a beautiful walk.  He walks me through the neighborhood toward Porta Latina, a gate through the Aurelian Walls.  For the first couple weeks of school the shadows of the umbrella pines on the old walls were perfect.  There is a narrow bit of park there between Porta Latina and Porta Metronia where people walk their dogs in the mornings and evenings.  It is a nice quiet part of the city away from the busy streets.

We walk through the gate and down the road between Parco Scipioni and the Canadian Embassy.  Just on the other side of the gate is a tiny little octagonal chapel.  It is called San Giovanni in Oleo, St John in Oil.  Traditions say that it marks the spot where St John the Evangelist survived being dipped in a cauldron of boiling oil.  The building we see was built in 1509.  Although, there may be a much older structure below.  There is graffiti carved into the marble around the door from the 1700s.  The nearby church, San Giovanni a Porta Latina, was originally built in the 5th century, but of course has been changed and added to over the years.

There are tall walls on either side of the road here.  The walls are old, but not old old.  You can tell that they were built with whatever was lying around at the time.  On one corner there is part of a Roman column.  Bits of marble, sometimes carved, are incorporated with the rough bricks and stones.  Roman walls are usually evenly constructed with orange flat bricks.  These later walls look like they were made of rubble.

From here we walk by the Baths of Caracalla toward Circo Massimo.  Here My Boy goes left toward school and I turn right.  This is the site of the Porta Capena.  It is no longer there, but they did name the bus stop after the gate.  Porta Capena was a gate in the Servian Walls built to enclose the seven hills of Rome in the 4th century BC, the time of the Roman Republic.  The city grew and spilled outside the walls for several centuries until the Aurelian walls were built between 271-275 AD when the Empire was crumbling and the city was once again threatened.  The ruins of Porta Capena were finally removed in the 1st century AD by Emperor Caracalla when he redid the neighborhood as part of his redevelopment project that later included the new fancy baths.

Viale delle Terme Caracalla - Former site of the Porta Capena

It was a beautiful misty morning.  The umbrella pines are so iconic of Rome.

Sometimes I circle around the Colosseum.  More often I head up past San Gregorio and the Caelian hill.

Just after the church is Clivo di Scauro, dark slope.  (Clivo is actually Latin, not Italian, according to Google Translate.)  I like walking through here.  You can imagine all of the people through history who may have walked up this hill.  On the right is the entrance to the Roman house we visited in January and the church where we stumbled across a concert one dark evening.

I don't know when this wall was built, but you can tell it is not during the Ancient Roman times, possibly Medieval.  The stones are irregular and the wall incorporates bits of mosaic floor.

From here I wander through the grounds of Villa Celimontana then back along the walls or through the neighborhood to stop by the open market at Piazza Epiro.  This fall they have had outdoor jazz concerts in the park, but I haven't gone.  Joining in groups at a concert just didn't seem like a good idea right now, although it did sound like a lot of fun.  Someday...

We're not always at home.  One of our favorite pizza places took all of their tables outside onto the sidewalk.  It is gorgeous on warm evenings.

Update:  Today's national decree says that High Schools need to be 75% online and restaurants and bars will close at 6pm among other things.  This will be tough on them since many don't even open until 7:30.  The High Schools are scrambling.  Certain regions have tighter restrictions where all schools are closed and there are calls for a nationwide shutdown like there was in the spring.  At the same time there are also protests against the restrictions.  The Premier is resisting a full shutdown because of the economic devastation the last one caused.  Who only knows where this one will end.