Ah, yes, Rome, Italy... one of those go-to places in Europe. Truly a capital of the world in history. Everyone goes there. The Colosseum... the Trevi Fountain... To be honest, when we got to the city, I wasn't incredibly psyched for it. What? Everyone's been there! There are cheesy movies about it! As one of my professors would say, it's a "glorified Disneyland!" Commercialised! Sold out!
Well, the first thing we did when we jumped off the Terravision bus was get gelato! Wonderful Italian ice cream for such hot weather (to be honest, it wasn't really all that hot, but after living in Northern England for a while, "warm" feels hot.) Rome earned a few points here for having ice cream parlours everywhere.
We trekked through a shady bit of Rome to get to our budget accommodation; we had been relocated to another hostel because the one we had originally booked was under construction. Unfortunately, where we ended up was very crowded and only consisted of two toilets and two showers. I do believe there were at least 20 people staying in that hostel on the ground floor alone! Gutted! Apart from that, the guy working at the hostel was incredibly nice and did everything he could to make up for the crowded situation. The hostel even offered free dinner every night! But let's venture outside of the confines of jank-hostel-land and take in the super-touristy sights!
Hitting the Sights!
Our first stop after assessing the bathroom situation in the hostel was THE Colosseum!
I have to admit, seeing it in person was pretty dramatic. Imagining the gladiator battles and hustle and bustle of people in Roman garb... epic. More points for Rome... (FYI: at this point, I was still convinced Rome was over-hyped, over-crowded and over-littered... SO MUCH TRASH!)
Literally, right next to the Colosseum is the Arc of Constantine and the Arc de Tito. Here's where Rome looks like Disneyland: there's one attraction after another, side by side, in plain view... but now, I'm not complaining! It actually is amazing that these enormous ancient structures stood the test of time and still remain intact! And it's mind-blowing to think that with the technology they had back then that they could just pop these things up like daisies!
More points for Rome...
Lunchtime! So from the Colosseum, we went trekking to find a place to get some nourishment. It was migraine-inducing, pushing through crowds of both tourists and locals alike on the narrow sidewalks, bordering fat rushing streets with speeding cars. Many of the large streets didn't have crossing lights! Cross like a boss! Yes, crossing the street was frightening, having faith in the incredibly intense drivers to pull out their set-aside sense of humanity to stop before they flattened you like a panini. I continued to be pissed off with noisy, touristy Rome. And then we came to La Fontana, a pizzeria just off a main street.
After a pretty amazing lunch of real Italian pizza (it differs from what we know as pizza in America in that traditional pizza is a lot thinner and one pizza is served as an entree for one person).
Following a pretty awesome lunch, we went out to see more! We hit the Trevi Foutain, the Spanish Steps, the shopping districts and one of the fanciest McDonalds in the world.
Rome is not the place for a kick-back-relaxin' vacay... it's very go-go-go, very busy.
Later that night, after a free dinner from our hostel, we went in search of a place on our to-do list. This isn't your typical touristy to-do that Frommer's publishes. Our evening stroll took us to Latte Piu, a milkshake bar designed after the one in Stanley Kurbrick's A Clockwork Orange. Illuminated with black lights and decked out in modern, edgy decor, Latte Piu was filled with locals; the menus were completely in Italian and we had to do some Italian to Spanish to English matching/guessing to order. Like the drinks in A Clockwork Orange, some of the shakes on the menu were mixed with absinthe! Crazy! I stuck with a nice, boring, delicious blueberry-yogurt milkshake... and it came with an awesome chocolate breakfast bar! :)
As if this was enough dessert, we ambled back down the street towards an enormous crowd of Italians standing outside a pastry shop. Ah, but this was no ordinary pastry shop; this was Pompi, a posh gelateria and pastry shop and cafe! The cannolis, gelato, tira misu and cakes weren't the only amazing things. It was awesome being surrounded by locals; the energy of the language was invigorating. Of course we were all stared at, being the only non-Italians... I could hear murmurs of "Americana..." but everyone seemed curious and amiable. Speaking of locals...
Let's take a break from sight-seeing and talk about another topic: Italian guys. The first thing I found peculiar was the eyebrows of Italian men. They are waxed! Most of the young men walked past here had nicer eyebrows than us girls did! I have an example for you here with the guy on the right:
Amazing right?! The guy on the left is an exception to the rule... believe it or not, most of the local men, even the older men, had their eyebrows "man-scaped." In addition, they are very into status, dressing in labels and wearing bling. Flashy!
The second full day of our Roman excursion started in Vatican City. We took a bus to this place that is considered it's own country, apart from Italy, to get to St. Peter's Basilica. On the way there, we bumped into an elderly couple that were from... drumroll... the South Bay! Complete strangers, they were globetrotters themselves and had made their home in Palos Verdes before doing a bit of traveling. It was lovely chatting about Point San Vincente, whale-watching, etc... after being away from home for so long.
Approach the Basilica was epic. There were bustling crowds, but it was a lot quieter, probably due to the religious significance of the 400-year-old landmark.
The inside of the Basilica was just as beautiful as the outside, embellished in gold and marble. We also caught a glimpse of the Pieta. :)
Following our perusing of St. Peter's, took off to the Vatican museum with the famous Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. Traveler's tip: entrance is free on the last Sunday of each month. Going through thousands of paintings, sculptures, pots, relics, sarcophagi and woven tapestries, we wandered through the huge place. Comically enough, each room had a sign reading "Sistine Chapel This Way," except the Sistine Chapel is the last thing along the route. Realizing that we were going to be late meeting up with our group, we headed through the maze of art, only stopping briefly to look at particularly shiny objects or just really cool pieces. The Sistine Chapel is actually a Chapel like the name suggests and Michelangelo's iconic bit is quite far from the ground on the ceiling, making it look a bit tiny. There were dozens of people crammed into the dark space; many people were trying to sneak photos and the docents patrolled the crowds yelling "no photo. NO photo. NO PHOTOOOOO!". It's a shame that some idiots even used their camera flash.
Anyways, here's an image, courtesy of Google Images:
The actual Chapel does look like this, but without the lights. Yes, it's completely dark save for the light emitting from those windows at the tops of the walls. As an artist, I believe in preservation of works of art like the Chapel, but at the same time, the lack of lighting makes it difficult to enjoy at all. Oh, right, we have to preserve it for future generations to pretend to enjoy. But until we come up for a solution, we'll just have to twiddle our thumbs in the dark and pretend to see the famous fresco'd E.T. moment.
Out of the museum and into the sunlight! Walking back along the sloped road towards the Basilica, we crossed paths with a very busy gelato shop. An unusually busy one. "Old Bridge Gelateria" had a line of at least 20 people out the door (I'm not including the people in the shop either). I stopped the group and begged to check it out. No one queues for gelato like that unless it's amazing. When we decided to join up in the line, we noticed that it was mostly locals (in fact, the photo of the manscaped local is in front of that shop). Anyways, this gelato was 2.50€ for the three hugest scoops of gelato we've ever seen... with whipped cream if you pleased. The guys working there were also incredibly happy and friendly. They crack jolly smiles if you say yes after contemplating the extra fat in the whipped cream. By the way, this place had some of the BEST gelato I've ever had in my life. I do recommend the rum flavour as much as I dislike the taste of alcohol. Strawberry is also super refreshing. Alright, I need to save the rest for my food blog...
After our pick me up at Old Bridge Gelateria, we buzzed around to see the Castel S. Angelo and the Pantheon. We also paused to enjoy a sunset in front of Vatican City as well as the view of the fantastic bridges.
We buzzed back to the hostel for a complimentary dinner and then went back out again to get some night shots of the city.
Palm Sunday Participation!
So you're probably wondering at what point during my trip in Rome did I change my mind about the city; well, it started at Palm Sunday Mass and our Pope-sighting.
We decided to head out a bit early, catching a bus, on Palm Sunday instead of camping out to get a spot, but when we arrived, we found that camping out or arriving at dawn wasn't needed. We scored decent seats on the right hand side of the Basilica courtyard and parked our tushes, watching the buzzing energy; from all sides of the Basilica, people holding olive branches were funneling into the enormous area. Sitting under the sun for a while was daunting and we started feeling the zing of the burn. A bit later, the ceremony started and the Pope road around in his Pope-mobile. The liturgies in the middle of the mass were a different rhythm from the typical Anglican sermon I'd been getting in Leeds, so I hate to admit that we all dozed off a bit. My pal said people probably thought we were praying. :P Communion commenced and we went to the side aisle to receive our wafers and wine. The end of mass was triggered by the Pope's speech. During the speech, he spoke in what seemed to be a dozen languages. English. German. French. Spanish. Etc. An amazing feeling of unity was in the air. Plus the Pope has a delightful smile.
All in all, Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter's was a great experience. :)
A Slice of Wonderful
We took a little trip to the Trattoria region in Rome, just a bit to the south of Vatican City. After Palm Sunday service, lunch and gelato, we went for a mooch to walk off the double serving of gelato. After about an hours walk, we stumbled upon a cheerfully coloured and quiet neighborhood. In the late afternoon the narrow streets and sunset-hued houses with clothing lines connecting charming balconies were particularly romantic. This is what I imagined Italy to be like!
Some restaurants in this area even sold pizzas for 2€! Amazing! I definitely recommend a trip to Trattoria to get away from really hectic Rome. It's a walk (or a metro trip), but worth it. Here are some photos!:
The lovely S. Maria Trastevere.
Yes, because of a combination of Old Bridge, the Vatican, Palm Sunday Mass, the Trevi Fountain and Trattoria, now I love Rome. :)
