Roma

Una Vita Non Basta

This time it was twelve days long, which is not really long but rather too short. But the most strong and deep impression was just the same as I had from my first Roman holidays seven years ago: Italian women eyes. Cold and cruel steel grey. At first sight I have a feeling that I have somewhere met with them before. Scratching my head for a moment at a stick, I recalled an old legend:

Romulus and Remus were nursed by a wolf, Lupa in Latin. Lupa is a name for the priestesses of a fox goddess, leading to an alternative theory that the wolf was human. There is speculation that the nurturers were harlots (she-wolf being a name for them in ancient Rome).
Romulus and Remus were then discovered by Faustulus, a shepherd for Amulius, who brought the children to his home. Faustulus and his wife, Acca Larentia, raised the boys as their own. The roots of her name imply a religious cult of an earth mother. Some mythological traditions have her as the prostitute ‘she-wolf’ who suckled Rome’s founders. This is because “lupa” means she-wolf or prostitute; leading to lupanar, meaning “brothel”
Another, later tradition relates that Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf, has been explained by the suggestion that Larentia was called Lupa (courtesan, literally she-wolf) on account of her immoral character (Livy i. 4; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 55).
Yet another tradition relates also that Romulus and Remus were nursed by the Wolf-Goddess Lupa or Luperca, who was identified with Acca Larentia, whose rapport with wolves kept them from harming the sheep, but add that Luperca’s husband is the Wolf-and-Shepherd-God Lupercus who brought fertility to the flocks.
The many names associated with Acca Laurentia, are, Acca Larenta, Larentia, Laurentia, Lara, Larunda, Larenta, Larentina, and Mater Larum, the “Mother of the Lares” as well as, Fauna, who had an oracle on the nearby Aventine Hill and was the wife of Faunus, the Bona Dea, Lupa, Luperca, and Dea Dia.

Lupae (can refer to literal she-wolves, the Greek goddess Artemis, in her ‘wolf form’, or the lowest class of Roman prostitutes) eyes are probably stamped in my ancestral memory stronger than many other pictures are. So I had no need to take any more photographs. That is why there are no pictures of Italian women here.

Besides, it was a family trip. So I used my SLR mostly as a simple point-and-shot camera, occasionally taking pictures if it did not require more than a minute while we were strolling through streets filled up with tourists:

Armed with the same guide books, they marched on suggested itineraries in search of promised romantic adventures:

Many strangers were looking for a revelation (at least):

And I was scouring the streets for locals, which have all these ingredients (romantic and religion, art and food) put together. “Sequence of Tenses” – a term describing a grammar construct in English, to me it portrays Italian way of life. From Roman Empire till this day, they are the same devout barbarian, lineing up on the day of Saint Francesca Romana (the patron of car drivers) feast as far as the Colosseum, to partake of the blessing. The secret is to make it a joy and a striking beauty: