Roma: The Eternal City (Rome)

Member Name: Hunting_Bears

Product:	Rome
Date:	01/08/02 (237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: wonderful sites

Disadvantages: big , noisy

Rome is a powerful place, it is big, crazy and very hot in July. On a hot July day my sister and I embarked to Rome from a tiny Tuscan village named Ronta. We had to stop off in Florence and get a connecting train from the Santa Maria Novella to Roma Termini (the most incredibly complicated train station in the world, it's like a mystery wrapped in an enigma).

There was a transport strike that day from nine am until one p.m. We arrived in Florence at seven and got a train to Rome at eight-forty am. The train journey was beautiful and we shared a carriage with a nun and a narcoleptic Chinese girl.


Travelling through Tuscany and Lazio by train is something I highly recommend. The only trouble is those bloody Americans. There was a really funny incident when we stopped at Orvieto. An American was asleep and all her friends got off and left her on the train, as the train began to move she bolted upright looking all confused and asked "What station is this? I pretended to be Italian and ignored her then she was got up and ran off. I am not anti-American at all but I hate American tourists who come to Europe and constantly use the words "cool" and "rad" to describe everything they see. I use the word "cool" a lot but not to describe five hundred-year old sculptures or a church. Anyway enough of that. Onwards to the Eternal City.


It is no secret that I love Italy, I instantly fell in love with the country. My great grandfather hailed from Piacenza so I am partly Italian. My dad and two brothers look Italian, my grandmother was the equivalent of Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" and I get to look like a pasty white Anglo-Saxon. It’s just not fair. So anyway this was my second time in Rome and I always love returning to places and recognising sites and roads. Like I say Rome is a big place and having seen most of it the year before I had to show my sister around.
Rome Termini is a hell of a place, my sister and I could not find our way out, and we almost looked like confused Americans. After about fifteen minutes we found an exit and got a taxi to the coliseum. A taxi driver tried to charge us twenty euro's for a ten-minute drive. My sister haggled and then gave him fifteen. This was hardly impressive or a great start. My sister's first impression of Rome will forever be that incident.


The Coliseum is a cool place, it stands mighty and old looking rather tired but still retains a majestic air. It took ten minutes to get in and the first thing I thought of was "How many people had been killed where I stand?" Inside is a walkway, several steep steps that lead to the higher levels and graffiti adorns the walls from different periods in time. I was amazed when I saw "Roberto 1762". The sun by now was starting to get very intense. We truffled around like wild boars and then after half an hour we decided to leave. I took some pictures and we had a mooch over to the Arch of Constantine. The Arch is very impressive and then we headed west of the Arch to the Roman Forum, which is basically the heart of the Roman Empire. The ruins are great. But do not make the mistake of going to see them at noon in July. The sun was almost unbearable and I have never felt the sun like that day in Rome. Last year I went in April and it was hot but nice.

The Roman Forum is more useful if you have a guidebook that tells you which ruins are what. The Vestal Virgin house and garden is a highlight and so is the Arch of Titus. You have to use your imagination and just appreciate what they represented. The ruins are extremely old and not very well preserved. But in the Forum in the baking sun I had a moment where I was euphoric. Last year I had merely glanced at the ruins and now I was taking the time to look and see. So when you are in Rome you absolutely must check out the Roman Foru
m.

From the Forum we head up via Imperiali and onto the madness of the Piazza Venezia. This is where I was almost run over last year and it was still has crazy as ever. The Victor Emmanuel monument still managed to impress me even on the second viewing. I love those statues of the chariots and horses.

My sister and I were heading to the Trevi fountain. I had seen it last year and wasn't particularly desperate to see it again. Along with the Spanish Steps these are the least impressive things in Rome. Don't get me wrong the craftsmanship of the statues is wonderful but after you've seen it there is not much else to do other than throw a coin in. The Spanish Steps are just a bunch of steps that people sit on and walk up. It's got a nice church at the top though and a nice view of the street below.

After the Trevi fountain, the heat was making me spaced out and we headed towards the Pantheon. I saw a rather disturbing site of a homeless man who looked like a concentration camp survivor. He was so skeletal and I wished I had given him some change, I always ignore homeless people but this man clearly was having a bad life.


The Pantheon is a church with a big dome roof. Inside was several alter's and a huge roof with a beam of light shooting from the roof to the floor which was cool. I was a little disappointed with the Pantheon. The one I saw in Florence (the Santa Croce) was amazing. We decided to have something to eat and ate in a lovely and cheap restaurant at the side of the Pantheon. I forget the name but when I find it out from my sister I will put it in the opinion because it's such a lovely little place. I had gnocchi because I wasn't that hungry and my sister had wild boar and then cannelloni. By the way wild boar is really tough and as a really strong flavour. I hated it.


After a break we head out onto the streets and were pleased to be greeted by a c
ooling light wind and some clouds. We decided to head down via Argentina and on to the busy and loud via Victor Emmanuel. We were heading to a truly beautiful piazza called Nervona. It has some astounding fountains designed by Bernini. The fountains are cool and the Neptune one was my favourite. Check out this Piazza because it's hidden away down some back streets and it also had a flea market there and street artists.


We were heading to the Vatican. I am not religious at all but St Peter's is a fantastic church. It features sculptures from Michelangelo and an amazing wooden Alter by Bernini. Also check out the catacombs and see the dead saints and popes. Saint Peter rests down there somewhere but not in the place where the solid gold shrine is. They are still searching for them bones. I saw all this the year before because my sister and I crossed the Tiber (which stinks in the summer) and stopped off in the unexpected delight that is the Castel San Angelo, which is very interesting and also offers spectacular views of Rome and the Vatican. The place is museum and costs five euro's to get in. Walking up to the top is a chore but the place is great. I would definitely recommend the place to spend an afternoon. There are also some cool antique cannons and catapults on display. The Castel was used when the Pope would be under threat and a passage leads from the Vatican to the Castel.


Having made an unexpected stop at the Castel San Angelo there was now no time to visit the Vatican. Personally I wasn't bothered because I had seen it the year before. But our train to Firenze left at five forty-five and it was now almost five. Rome is a big place to walk around. We walked up the road leading to the Vatican. It is a wide street that Mussolini built.

Saint Peter's Square is nice but looked smaller the second time round and the fountain is built on the exact spot where St Peter was crucified.
Turning right from St. Pietro's square my sister and I trundled off to find the Metro. The Rome Metro is truly disgusting. It is like an oven and painted in a grotesque orange colour. The trains are covered with graffiti and people just pile on. How the hell does one get off the train? The Italian way of course, which is barge your way through. They are not being rude or anything it's just the way they are. I am not lying when I say I will never ride on the Metro again. It is a horrid little Metro line. It is cheap though at about 0.77 euro's from via Octavia (which is about a five-minute walk from St. Peter's Square) to Roma Termini.


At Rome Termini we found our platform and the train was twenty minutes late. Some Gypsy kids were begging and stealing. I actually saw a young girl steal a wallet from a businessman. The Eurostar trains are very fast and we got into Firenze at seven-thirty p.m. Having been to Rome twice I am going to give it at least a decade before I go back. I still haven't seen the Capuchin Monks church in the Piazza Barberini or Cincitta Film Studios.

I want to explore Naples (even though it's a dump, well it looked like it when I saw the slums from the Autostrada last year, when I was on my way to Pompeii and Calabria. Southern Italy is still governed by the Mafia and is suppose to be rugged and hard. The people though I am told are nice people who enjoy life, I was given this information by a Calabrese named Franco. I also want to go to Sicily and explore some of the lesser known parts of Italy. My ultimate goal is to live in Italy. Hopefully one day I will.

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