<b>ROMA<B>

I have to admit, I don’t know where to start writing about our trip to Rome a few weeks ago. Rome (and The Vatican) reminds me of Egypt, not geographically, but rather the feeling of being overwhelmed by a world long gone. Unless you have studied it for many years (read extensively) it is very difficult to come to terms with the time-scales, history and opulence represented by the many ruins and old buildings scattered across the city.

Our first challenge was passport control where we were met with queues of people from an Asian flight all wearing face masks. We were a bit nervous, thinking that we had missed warnings of unthinkable diseases, but soon realised that we should be able to handle the pollution they anticipated. Unlike our other trips we decided to use an apartment rather than a hotel room as our base for the weekend. The first challenge was to find the office which was followed by locating the apartment. Situated in the older less touristy part of town within walking distance of everything (admittedly, our walking distance is a bit further than the average person’s) our apartment ticked the location box. The only mystery is how they managed to make it look so big in the photos on the site. I tried from various angles, but was unable to enhance the size at such a scale. It was clean and pretty, had linen and was safe.

Hint # 1: Wine is cheaper than water and soft drinks. Do not order water (with or without gas) if you want to have a heart attack, but don’t despair, the wine is good and far too drinkable and the food is as good as you could expect from Italy.

Hint # 2: Do The Vatican with a guided tour. Even though expensive, it was worth every penny and you also benefit by skipping the queues. Our very enthusiastic guide with the most beautiful English put everything into perspective and you understand what you are looking at. The treasures collected through the centuries by the Roman church are just an introduction to rest of this incredible world. Spending a few minutes looking up at the Sistine Chapel is enough to give you neck pains, I have now idea how anybody could paint it. The Raphael Rooms introduced me to the art of tapestry, while I could spend days in the room with the ancient maps of the Roman Empire. St Peters Basilica which was build out of materials raided from many Roman buildings, is so massive, you lose perspective of size.

Hint # 3: Avoid the queues. Where possible go early, carry lots of water and be prepared to face many tour groups.

Hint # 4: Go to mass. We by accident stumbled into a service in one of the four main Basilicas near our apartment late Friday afternoon. Not only is it amazing to see another beautiful church, but experiencing a service in Latin with a full choir is magical.

Hint # 5: Stop for Gelato as often as possible. Don’t sit down to eat it at a restaurant, you’ll pay 3 times as much as what you would pay for it if you had to get take-away and eat it somewhere with a beautiful view.

If I have to describe all the sites I’ll exceed my word limit and definitely put you to sleep, but another highlight has to be the Colosseum. I’m usually disappointed when I see well known sites for the first time (Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids & Statue of Liberty), but the Colosseum left me breathless and that was even before we went in. The Romans knew how to create a show for the masses.

Some of the things we managed to fit in during the 3 days there:
Eating, The Pantheon , the Spanish Steps, sipping vino, Palentine Hill, Fount Trevi, food, the Roman Forum, criss-crossing the city by foot, more vino, exploring Trastevere at night, Circus Maximus, pizza/pasta, Villa Borghese Park, San Giovanni (official Cathedral of Rome), San Clemente (12 Century Roman church with it’s layers underneath of 4th century Christian church on top of 1st Century Roman household), eating, all the Piazzas and did I mention, WALKING.

I think the entire experience was summed up by a friend, who while walking home late one night refused to stop at a historic site for some pictures- “not anther ruin” she sighed. I think she might have mumbled something about rather finding some Gelato.

In my list of places to visit, Rome definitely takes one of the top spots, but be prepared to spend money, encounter many tourists, walk a lot and be transported to another world.

For some more pics, click here

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~ by theflipside on June 2009.