Rome sure wasn’t built in a day
A big dirty smelly city is one side of Rome, while the other side is a wonderous site of ancient history, existing for thousands of years. If I told you everything I did in Rome it would be much too difficult, a map is an easier way to explain. Basically I did a whole lot of walking. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I sure did conquer it in a day.
I saw all the main sights. The Pantheon was amazing. This big round structure that has the same diameter as height, with a hole in the ceiling to let the sun in, it also has small holes in the ground to let the rain drain.
Not forgetting the Colosseum, a great man-made structure where the gladiators used to fight. The whole surrounding area is full of ancient relics, you can pay to go in and see, but you can see just as much walking around Rome. It really is an open-air museum.
In saying that, it certainly wasn’t made for the 21st century. The roads were not built for cars, or pedestrians in some cases. The city is a very dirty and smelly place. In the heat the smells are made much worse, pigeon and cat smells. The only decent thing they thought about are the water fountains. Found all over town, they are a great source of refreshment in the scorching sun, and a refill for your water bottle. The tourists must be scammed so badly when they arrive and buy many bottles of water from the carts that stand metres from the free water fountains.
I wasn’t on my own in Rome though. On my first afternoon I met a girl at my hostel, who was going out to explore with one of her friends, and she invited me along. Amiah and Nagora are Basque Spanish, and both over in Rome studying Italian. Funnily enough, Nagora was only staying for two weeks, but had already organised a place to stay, whereas Amiah was planning on staying for a year, and was still in a hostel until she found a place to live.
On our first night, we caught a bus over to the Vatican City, which was already closed for the day, but lovely to walk around with less tourists than during the day. We walked from there up to the old barracks which were used to protect the Vatican. If the City was under siege, there was a special pathway underground for the Pope to travel to the safety of the barracks, called Casto Sant’ Angelo. We went from there back down to Campo di Fiori, the area where Nagora lives, which is quite an entertaining area of nightlife. We had a drink in one of the bars, and then headed to Nagora’s palce where we had real Spanish omelette, not just the three of us but also Nagora’s housemate Eleanora, a pretty Austrian girl who can speak about five languages, Davido, Amiah’s Italian friend who lives in Rome, and a girl from LA who’s name I cannot remember but she was also lovely, also there to improve her Italian. Of course for me they had to speak English, but we were all very excited at the different nationalities and languages shared in one room. We were there till quite late, with the windows open and the fan on to try and move some air around. I got a bit faint at the heat but the conversation was good fun. Davido drove us back to the hostel afterwards because the public transport stops quite early in Rome. Midnight for trains, and 1am for buses.
The metro for Rome is almost non-existent and certainly non-essential. It consists of two lines, and maybe 20 stops in all, because when they continued to dig each new area they would find more and more bits of underground ancient Rome. In the end the government decided it wasn’t worth pursuing so they now have what they have and that’s it. The bus system is pretty good though, and can get you all over town, as well as the main train station for national and international rail lines.
The second day Nagora, Amiah, Eleanora and I met at the Spanish steps and went on a free tour. It only went for two hours but we covered quite a distance and our tour guide was hilarious. She was an older Italian lady who spoke in one of those English-with-Italian accents where everything she said was accentuated by rolling her Rrrrs and elongating the words. She took us first of all into a small area within a church, which is just a garden that is quiet and hidden from the noise and hustle and bustle of the city.
Lisa took us down through the Trevi fountain, which was beautiful. The fountain had to be built lower in the ground than street level, because the new Rome was built on top of the ancient Rome for the most part. I threw in a coin standing backwards and made a wish as I did. Piazza Navona was the last place we stopped off at, which I didn’t know about mainly because I haven’t seen the film Angels and Demons, the second to the Tom Hanks/Dan Brown Da Vinci book. That night we went to Trastavere for dinner, a nice area of town with lots of little restaurants and night spots. We had the best bruschetta I’ve ever tasted, very original and Italian, with lots of garlic, and then we had pizzas.
On our third night I introduced the girls to pasta with tuna, capers and lemon, one of my absolute favourites and a cheap meal. I was sad to leave the girls, it was lots of fun and maybe one day I’ll be able to speak some Spanish with them.
I got home from Rome at about 9.30pm, stayed at Lija’s and then caught the early train to Cornwall. And here I am. A whole month down in the beautiful English countryside with some great friends, great food and fun times. I head back to London for a bit and then come back down here…more to follow!
Tags: Travel
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