The annual toga run of the Rome Hash House HarrierspicturesThe Rome HHH websiteAlways on sunday closest to March 15, starts at noon in Circus Maximus, we followed flour to S. Giovanni e Paolo, Villa Celimontana, in front of the Ospedale Militare del Celio, Colosseum, Via dei Fori Imperiali, Colonna Traiana, Fontana di Trevi, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Teatro dei Satiri, Piazza Farnese, Via dei Giubbonari, Via del Portico d'Ottavia, Teatro di Marcello, and back to Circus Maximus.
Ides of March 2007
The run begins...
"It's a great time to die", announced the sound when viewing the Rome Hash House Harriers's website . Of the three days of their signature year event, The Ides of March, we were going to go only for the sunday Toga run. They ran out of togas, that were purchaseable separately for 15 euros, so I went to the Porta Portese flea market that morning, and haggled a gipsy woman to sell me five white sheets for seven euros. The run would start congregating at Circo Massimo at around 12:30 PM. By coincidence, hash start was located just a mile from my mom's apartment. So, no need to drive a car, bus, subway, train. I simply walked 15 minutes, with my five white sheets under my arm. Pretty convenient. Walking past the American Embassy to the Holy See and its permanent "gippone" of Carabinieri guarding it, went over the rim overlooking the entire length of the circus, and then saw them, a crowd of white sheets. There is already a large group that came from the Bella Napoli hash. Having hashed in Rome a few times before on a once-a-year occasion whenever I visited mom, I did recognize a few of the folks. CIQ has even a laurel crown. Funny, they're still here. That's good. There is beer and food, and even a colomba, the cake usually eaten during Easter. A few folks showed up without a white garment. Went around handing out sheets to those in need. People are busy wrapping themselves in toga, quick, where are my instructions? Cold Member of Pittsburgh purchases an unclaimed toga with the the ROME HHH insigna and dresses up wife Just Eva, that now looks like a real sacerdotessa del Tempio di Vesta (but for such a privilege, one must be a virgin, otherwise penalty is death buried walled alive). And you know what, this is Just Eva's first hash, so *SHE IS* a virgin, aka "new boot". Perfectly appropriate. A couple is bringing along the youngest hasher I've seen on a hash.
Soon, a call is made to circle up. After chalk talk by the GM and the hare, the crowd starts running. At the major road intersection, a few of us dart across the four-lane road, then followed by a sea of white sheets. Traffic is at full stop, amazed. True trail leads up the road atop the hill in direction of San Giovanni e Paolo, and Villa Celimontana.
After passing in front of the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, we entered Villa Celimontana via its side entrance. The villa is a favorite for wedding photos, and in one past hash I remember (Cum In Quarts was hare), we posed with the newly wed for a picture. But this time there were none. One spot of perfect green lawn that the locals call "praticello all'Inglese", nomenclature that indicates the reputation of those Britons on their lawn care, is a favorite of young parents that bring their infant child. And nearby is the dusty and over-rated playground, but apparently it is the place to meet foreign-tongued parents somehow associated with the nearby F.A.O. Here we see the first egyptian obelisk of the trail. After exiting from the front entrance to the villa, and swinging by S. Stefano Rotondo, we headed towards the Colosseum. Wish I had time to visit S. Stefano: it has 34 frescos of martyrs, saints tortured in all sorts of methods, cooked in oil, skinned alive, burned, hanged, cut in pieces. It is really noirish and gruelsome, and researching on it, somewhat surprised that its church is on high demand for weddings (" will you take this man as your husband? if you are unfaithful, see that guy on the fresco? She will kill you just like that !!")
Ran in front of the Ospedale Militare del Celio. The planimetry in the satellite view is so military in its disciplined and regular pattern, so spartan. This is where all the military-enabled men go through anytime something is wrong with their physique.
We ran next to a residential enclare bounded by the Parco di Colle Oppio to the north, the Villas on the west the Ospedale Miliare del Celio so the south, and the convents and churches to the east. This neighborhood is also known as il Celio. It has a school, restaurants, alimentari food stores, and a local population that recognizes each other. On the north edge, the famous church S. Clemente is located, with its three archeological layers, roman, paleo-christian, current. Then, we finally approach the Colosseum.
Anfiteatro Flavio, I tell Cold Member, of the Pittsburgh hash. And explain him that "anfi" means "two", so this roman invention is actually one of putting together, face-to-face, two greek theathers. He replies, "like amphibian", "two lives". The area is dotted with tourists, and the first toga-hashers to arrive zigzag through them and settle on a large open space. Men dressed as centurions charge 5 euros to pose in picture with them. Tourists click their cameras on us, and we yell back "5 euros !" More pix for the tourists.. We then run in front of the Arch and into Via dei Fori Imperiali, jumping from stone to stone on the ancient roman road.
On sunday's, vehicular traffic is not allowed on the Via dei Fori Imperiali. A long and wide road that connects the Colosseum with Piazza Venezia, it was paved during Mussolini's times for his triumphal military parades. There is now slow attempts in removing parts of it for archeological digs under it. The sunday stroll is now a pedestrian destination for tourists.
We pass the entrance to the Roman Forum. On the left, the Capitolum Hill with its trapezoidal-shaped square designed by Michelangelo. On the right, the beginning of Traian's Forum. We stop at a statue of Augustus, and pose for pictures. More tourists stop and take pictures.
On the left, the typewriter-looking monstruosity of white travertine stone. Staying on the right, rimming Traian's Forum, we run by the Column of Traian, whose 400 meter long marble relief spiral tape around it depicts Traian's war in Tracia (now Romania). In the satellite image, its shadow is cast northward.
Through some streets, and taking a dump on the way, we then run in front of Santi Apostoli.
Streets are getting narrow again, scooters and cars are jamming into narrower and narrower cracks.
... and after a turn, there it was, Fontana di Trevi with its Anita Eckberg and Marcello Mastroianni. The place was jammed with tourists, but we squeezed through, and posed for pictures. Then, in a side street, our beerstop in a pub, where the walkers eventually joined us. Beer and more beer, then off again, borrowing postcards from the tourist shops. After the stop, trail took us in front of the Colonna Antonina.
Running through winding streets, finally it opened up in front of the Pantheon, and we circled up and, under the direction of the Song Master, did a song break, with hundreds of tourists surrounding us and watching. So far, on trail we found two roman-era marble columns. Now, its time we see our second egypian obelisk.
Trail took us right by the Senate. One of the carabinieri in the guardpost took a picture of us with his cellphone. Then, on a road between the Senate and Piazza Navona, and did our second song break , this time Father Abraham, not far from the egyptian obelisk, and more tourists circling our circle.
We then took off, left Piazza Navona, headed towards S. Andrea della Valle, and the roads behind it.
Trail took us in a circling street, with a building facade that was curving, the Teatro dei Satiri. There, on the location of Julius Caesar's murder, we murdered our GM, ketchup and sword at hand. Then, through the passageway into Piazza del Biscione, zipped by Campo de' Fiori and into Via dei Giubbonari.
Most stored were closed on Via dei Giubbonari, so not much crowd here. We crossed Via Arenula and ran into the Ghetto.
Ran close by the Synagoge, then in front of Giggetto restaurant, and its tourists chewing on the carciofo alla giudea, and in front of Portico D'Ottavia, scrambled into the archeological area of Teatro di Marcello, and into the backside of the Capitolum Hill.
Then, into back streets of a mixed government and residential neighborhood, remembered that the neo-nazi Concutelli was arrested in the late '70s in Via dei Foraggi, his nazi salute on the front page of every paper the next day. He was hiding in an apartment linked to gangster
Vallanzasca, who was captured three days later.
One of those buildings we ran in front is where the election board resides, its mainframe computers, and where citizens that don't have a "Scheda Elettorale" can get their document that enables them to vote in elections. Nearby, the church of S. Maria in Cosmedin with its early Byzantine mosaics, and tourist-driven Bocca Della Verita'.
On the last stretch of the On-In, remembered that some thirty years earlier, in this very stretch, ran two loops around the Circus Maximus as part of an inter-regional school cross-country event. Felt funny being back on the same location, here I am, running again, shrouded in a white bed sheet that I haggled from a gipsy for one Euro earlier that morning in nearby Porta Portese. The rest of the pack arrives, get changed, eat the pasta e fagioli with its spicy zest (nice touch of piccante). Hey, what a Pittsburgh hash shirt doing here ? Bunch of accusations: helmets on trail, laurel crowns on trail, birthdays, one virgin on trail. Then, slowly, the Bella Napoli folks started branching off, catching their scheduled trains and rides, and the group tricked off. And the day of sunshine slowly shadowed in darkness. One obelisk that I remember from years past, but it is no longer there, it used to be right next to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organizaton). It has been shipped back to Ethiopia.
