a little ride on my Bici

Today I went for a nice long ride on the Via Appia Antica on one of the communal Cenci bikes. The Appia Antica or Appian Way was the most important of ancient Roman roads (It came up a lot in my old days of latin class). It is now no longer a road that cars really go on but a pedestrian jogging/biking trail. There were a lot of Italians out enjoying it and only a handful of tourists which was refreshing. I even saw what looked like a mini fashion photo shoot and a bride and groom taking wedding photos. I met an older Italian couple while looking at some ruins who were very kind and thought that I was German and when I responded "sono americano" there were even a little bit surprised (this made me feel really good!). I biked a long ways and saw my first aqueduct, a lot of sheep with a grumpy old shepherd, a few tombs and lots of unidentifiable ruins and piles of ancient brick. In some places the ancient paving stones are still exactly as they were in Roman times and although very incredible, really hard to bike on. You can see ruts where chariots wore down the stones. It remained sunny for the whole day. On my way home I stopped near a field and came upon a tiny chapel that was really very beautiful. It was a very simple, classical brick structure with five small windows. The space for some reason made me think of Eero Saarinen's MIT chapel. Small, brick with very limited and controlled natural lighting.