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A taste of Rome life Andrew Coker


Towards the end of 2016 I was invited to work for the UN World Food Programme. They wanted someone with experience of change management in complex organisations. Whilst the opportunity was great, the location was even better. I was to be based in Rome. What a privilege!


A flavour of the architec- ture What you never under- stand as a tourist is that first century Rome is still there, buried. The Romans did not raze buildings; they built on top of them: on top of the roof with the rooms below filled with rubble. Dig down and you enter another world. Take St Clement’s church be- hind the coliseum. You walk down some six feet into the fabulous 12th century church. Walk down into the crypt, 50 feet below, into the 4th century church on which the present basilica sits. Then walk down about 25 feet into the first century cult temple of Mithras. That is just one example; there are thousands, the best being the Golden Palace of Nero – filled in after his death with a bath- house built on top. 500 years ago shepherds found caves and climbing down were astonished by the wall paintings. Half man, half beast, the style and colour was staggering. Finding them in caves (grotto means cave in Ital- ian) they were called gro- tesques and inspired ren- aissance decoration.


My tour of the great churches of Rome started with St Paul outside the Walls. Everything about it is enormous and awe in- spiring. The tomb of St


Paul is under the high altar. At Santa Maria Maggiore, under the high altar, is the crib of Christ. Apparently, it was brought to Rome in about 300 AD. Bearing in mind that Jesus was anonymous for the first 30 years of his life, why would anyone hold on to an old cattle feeder and then preserve it for 300 years?


Atrium of the Basilica San Paolo Fuori le Mura from www.Rome.net


Near St John Lateran are La Scala Santa up which Christ walked to meet Pi- late. (I have ascended them on my knees once; in the days before arthritis!) Finding the steps to the governor's palace is much more feasible than the crib. This is just a taste of the many fascinating churches


and other historic buildings in Rome and I am still discovering lots of hidden treasures.


Café marocchino photo by Ignacio Palomo Duarte


A taste of everyday life Italians are wonderfully relaxed, except when it comes to food when they can become more obsti- nate. I was having a chat with a lovely colleague and asked her the word for cream. ‘Panna,’ she re- plied, ‘Why?’. I had just beginning to say I wanted to make a Carbonara when she put up her hand and said, ‘Stop I cannot hear this. You cannot make Carbonara with cream, tell me you are joking!’ Well, of course, I was not. ‘Please tell me you would not order a Cappuccino after 11.00am.’ I had to confess I had. Her blank look told me everything. The cuisine rules are final! Deviate and be damned. (Continued on page 7)


July/August 2017


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