Thursday, May 31, 2007
Life, Travel

Roaming close to home

The Sunday Paper visits Italy’s sister city, Rome, Ga. 

The picturesque Old Mill at Berry College is still used to grind corn. CREDIT: Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau.

If you go Getting there Rome is just one hour from Atlanta. Drive I-75 to Cartersville, take Exit 290, and follow Georgia 20 and US 411 west to Rome. Where to stay Rome offers a variety of accommodations, from budget to (somewhat) upscale. The usual chain suspects are represented, as are some bed-and-breakfasts like the Claremont House, an 1882 Victorian Gothic with private baths and gourmet breakfasts. For more information, call 706-291-0900 or visit www.theclaremonthouse.net. Good to know Consider a short side trip to Cave Spring, about 10 miles west. As you might expect, it has a limestone cave gushing pure spring water. For more information about the city and the specialty stores located on the town square, visit www.cityofcavespring.com. What to do “All That Jazz Outdoor Concert” on June 9. Nearby Lock and Dam Park and the Rocky Mountain Recreation area offer camping and other activities. For more information, visit www.romega.us.

Mark Woolsey

Barely an hour from Atlanta’s urban sprawl is a place where people still greet each other on the street and a befuddled, map-juggling tourist wandering through the historic district is regarded with patience by drivers, shopkeepers and locals alike.
Rome, a tidy city of 35,000, features three rivers, seven hills (just like its Italian counterpart) and liberal doses of history and culture.

Rolling into the city from the east on heavily forested highway 411, we first pay heed to the city’s best known resident and educator, Martha Berry, who began teaching kids in a one-room schoolhouse in 1902. Today, her life’s work is embodied in Berry College. At 28,000 acres dotted with the occasional handsome building—from log cabins to modern architecture—and set amongst expansive lawns and copses of trees, it’s advertised as one of the world’s largest college campuses. Navigating it on foot would be rewarding, we’re told, but challenging.

Instead, we opt for nearby Oak Hill and the Martha Berry Museum. The former is a stunning Greek revival home from the early 19th-century. Berry, the child of a wealthy cotton magnate, grew up in this 10-room three-story home, which is now open for tours. And the $5 admission just might be the best sum of small change you ever spend on Georgia tourism.

Our tiny group is dwarfed by no less than four student tour guides (three of them are in training, they explain) for the trip through the mansion. Filled with period furniture and opulent accent pieces, including elaborate mirrors and chandeliers, it’s the formal dining room that’s most striking. An expansive bay window overlooks a formal garden, part of a series of landscaped gardens featuring crepe myrtles, towering oaks and magnolias and a profusion or rose bushes, daffodils and flowers. The impressive room was used to entertain school benefactors like Henry Ford.

The tour also includes a peep inside the carriage house, with its collection of buggies and—what else—Ford model Ts as well as a look at Berry’s private quarters.

“Martha believed in simplicity,” says guide Corey Treaster, who keeps referring to her as if the diminutive woman might pop out from behind the next corner to check a student’s homework. And, indeed, her digs are unassuming. A single bed, nightstand and writing desk grace the room. Large bay windows, sans curtains, give way to a view of greenery.

“Martha didn’t like curtains on her windows,” says Treaster. “She loved to get up with the sun.” And who can blame her with such sylvan vistas at her disposal?

The museum is rich with period photos, furniture and artifacts detailing Berry’s journey to establish a boys’ and girls’ industrial arts and craft schools that eventually developed into a full-fledged university. You'll find exhibits ranging from Appalachian handcrafts and spinning wheels to Berry’s personal travel trunk.

Afterward, we make our way to Between the Rivers Historic District and downtown, where the Oostanaula and Etowah rivers meander down tree-lined banks to meet and form the Coosa river.

Broad Street is a several-block stretch of sun-washed Victorian brick facades. Most of the buildings seem lovingly restored and play host to antique shops, boutiques and trendy bistros. It’s a “working” downtown, not a Helen, Ga. style faux construct, so you’ll find mattress stores and loan offices abutting antique havens like the Roman Rose, which boasts period furniture ranging from China cupboards to roll-top desks.

A variety of restaurants tempt the palate. We stop in at Jefferson’s, known for its hamburgers, wings, oysters-on-the-half shell and liberal amounts of sports talk. While noshing on a delicious half-pound burger, we check out the restaurant’s signature décor—thousands of $1 bills magic-marketed and signed by patrons from around the world.

Just a few minutes walk from the bustle of Broad Street is the historic district, anchored by the Clock Tower Museum, so named for the timepiece featured on the imposing brick decagonal tower. The structure originally served as a city water reservoir. Today, the old 250-thousand gallon tank has been turned into a nifty museum with photos and murals documenting Rome’s past. A spiral staircase leads to an arresting topside view of downtown, the rivers and the mountains.

The surrounding area features ornate churches, a few antebellum homes (many were lost to Sherman’s torch during the Civil War) and a great many Victorian and gingerbread houses with a sprinkling of Greek and Gothic revival, brightly painted, with generous front porches just begging for someone to laze upon them with a glass of sweet tea. The neighborhood seems almost hushed on a brilliantly sunny Monday—a sharp contrast to the lively din of downtown just steps away.

There’s no shortage of history here. Rome also features the Chieftains Museum, the home of Cherokee leader Major Ridge and the Eubanks Museum and Gallery. The serene Myrtle Hill cemetery, just over the Etowah River from the central business district, contains remains ranging from those of a first lady (Ellen Axon Wilson, the first wife of Woodrow Wilson) to Confederate war veterans.

And there’s no shortage of recreational opportunities. A picturesque walkway runs over the convergence of the three rivers, providing ample outdoor opportunities for joggers, rollerbladers and bikers. Then there’s the Rome Braves, a class-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, which play from April through September, and semi-professional basketball teams, the Rome Knights and Gladiators. Lock and Dam regional park offers canoe rentals and boating, fishing, and exercise and walking trails.

And it’s all delivered with a smile and a nod to strangers