ROME FOR THE ELITE

ROME FOR THE ELITE. I am tempted to make a cheap joke about how the readers of the Daily News or New York Post will never find out these secrets: “In order to do justice to the Eternal City in two days, you’ll need to adjust, mix it up and manage to get a taste of the city without having your time and patience swallowed up by the masses.” The quote is cut and pasted from the Times summary of this story. But either William or Irving Kristol pointed out (one long enough ago that I forget which) that there is a problem for the very rich as people become richer. The rich start intruding on the exclusive places of the very rich. I have been sensitive to this since the early sixties when I listened to a very attractive young couple at Harvard complaining about how the growth in accommodations for the working class was spoiling the views of the Adriatic. The article points out the desirability of seeing the Trevi Fountain when “the hordes are gone.” The Roman Forum two thousand years ago was also packed with tourists and plebeians mingling with the aristocracy (who of course had clients and slaves to minimize undesirable contacts). A side note: the article describes one of the women who cares for the cats in the Largo Argentina dropping off lasagna for the cats, suggesting that the cat care is casual. As Annalisa and Nick discovered, the cat care is highly organized, with veterinarian services integrated into the care. They accept contributions from cat lovers.