One needs more than a lifetime to discover Rome, but if one is fortunate enough to have a good guide, the amount one can see and learn in a week is astounding.

City Club member Giulia Bernardini filled that role as she is a native Italian with two master’s degrees in art history and museum studies. Like her dad, who inspired her passion for sharing the city with others, Giulia’s bigger-than-life personality might just as well be the image of a classic Hollywood actress. After many years of teaching art history at the University of Colorado, Giulia now applies her extensive talents to conduct tours of Rome, Paris, Venice, and Naples. Having concluded that my creative batteries were running low, I jumped at the opportunity to join Giulia and seven others for a week-long tour of Rome.

Our deep dive into Rome’s 2600-year recorded history began with a study of archaeology as we encountered massive palazzos built atop churches built on ancient coliseum foundations. With the Tiber River regularly flooding, some of the sidewalks we were standing on were sixty feet above the foundation of the original building.

Other fantastic aspects of Rome included massive structures, such as aqueducts, bridges, the Pantheon, and the Colosseum. Here are a few fun facts: The Pantheon survived due to a timely switcheroo from its designation as a Pagan temple to a Catholic Church. When Rome sacked Jerusalem and burned the Second Temple, they enslaved and dispatched five thousand Jewish masons to Rome who, augmented by twenty-five thousand local slaves, built the Colosseum in eight years!

In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, designating Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Afterward, the power of the Catholic church and that of popes were concentrated in Vatican City, a 109-acre country. Instead of investing in an army or striving to benefit the poor, the popes applied their abundant wealth to constructing palaces and churches featuring priceless art. Any lack of cash by the church was addressed through the sale of certificates to heaven! An encounter with the massive fortified walls of the Vatican and a tour of St. Peter’s Church provide a lifetime lesson about the influence of organized religion on our civilization.

Here are two main takeaways: First, while I sometimes think of myself as a big thinker, there’s nothing like a visit to cities like Athens and Rome to cut one’s ego down to size and come to terms with one’s mortality. Second, to ensure Boulder survives and thrives like Rome, the best place to start is with the realization Boulder Creek, with its fourteen tributaries, is subject to regular massive floods. It is estimated that it will cost ~$400M in today’s money to deal with and somewhat manage this danger. Let’s make this task a priority.

After exchanging pictures of my trip with City Club artist-in-residence Giuseppe Palumbo, he said, “May we be the bricks and mortar in the Pantheon of Humanity.”

Amen!

— Sina.