Rome, Italy

Take a moment to think about the history of Rome. This city is over 5 times as old as our entire country! I was telling Si Yue how jealous I was that there were no incredible fountains or memorials in Montreal like there were in Rome, but you know what? There’s just no comparing cities in Europe and North America. They’re Apples and Oranges. North America is really just an adolescent going through puberty. The amount of disposable income available to the emperors, kings and churches of Europe will never be accumulated here and spent the way they were back in the days of the Roman empire, so there shouldn’t be any envying them – we were also spared much of the cruelty and poverty that is associated with it.

This post will be a special one, for it will have a guest writer [commentator more like it], Si Yue, who will be appending her comments to my post in [blue square brackets]. I won’t edit her comments before I publish them, so I’m hoping she won’t abuse my trust. [fool! :P just kidding]

Rome is the home (see what I did there?) of many of the most iconic and ancient sites in Europe. They are all surprisingly accessible (though not always too affordable). I warn you – this is kind of a long post, as there’s just so much to see in Rome. We’ll get to all of them, eventually.

An interesting consequence of Rome’s contradictory status as a modern city as well as one of the oldest are scenes like this:

Roman columns next to a McDonald’s. If I remember correctly, this shot was taken not too far from the Coliseum [sp. Colosseum? Colosseo?]! Fine! I’ll correct it! This gives the city an interesting identity crisis. One one hand, it’s one of the most touristy cities in the world. On the other, it’s Italy’s capital as well as the largest city around! It makes for an interesting cocktail.

Our first stop in Italy was the Piazza del Popolo:

From there, a short climb up a hill nearby brought us to the Villa Borghese gardens, where we got a good view of the piazza: 

We then headed for the Piazza di Spagna, that is, the “Spanish Steps”: This is the view we were greeted with as we walked down a side street and the alleys were being splashed with red light from the sunset. Why Italy needs a set of Spanish steps, I’ll never know. This area was the one with the most tourist salesman, selling toys, flowers, roasted chestnuts… etc. It gets to be a bit much, when all you want to do is sit down and watch the people walk by. [Beware ladies, if you’re traveling with a guy, people will come up to you and force you to take a rose, and then make the guys pay for it.]

The Trevi fountain, which depicts Neptune and his sea horses, is an awesome sight at night:

According to the guidebook, “The custom is to throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, ensuring your return to Rome. On an average day about 3000 Euros are chucked away.” Well, at least now nobody can say that I hadn’t given my contribution to the catholic church (who I assume collect the money every day, anyhow): [That’s quite a nice shot, if I may say so myself… I wonder who the photographer was!]

The next day, we went to the Vatican, starting with Saint Peter’s Square: In the photo above, you get a sense for how long the line extended around the square to get into (“Italy’s biggest, richest and most spectacular”) church. You can also see the new shirt that my lovely Stef bought me, sent to me via Si Yue post. 

Guarding Saint Peter’s basilica are the Swiss guards:Wearing outfits slightly more ridiculous than the guards in front of Buckingham palace, it’s really hard to take them seriously.

I wish they’d protect us tourists, though – from the moment we stepped out of the metro station by the Vatican, we were constantly harassed (in English) about joining tours. This actually never let up, even when Si Yue and I started resorting to constantly speaking in French. I told her that we should try speaking Mandarin next time. [Perhaps not, they know that tons of Chinese tourists visit every year! Best would be to speak Italian super fluently and act like locals.]

It’s quite stunning inside the church, though – and they let you in completely for free! [It feels so wrong to have to pay admission to enter a church. Plus it would be counterproductive to charge people to enter a place of worship, especially a major pilgrimage destination.] I’d like to point out, Si Yue, that I had to pay to enter the synagogue in Florence! Stupid cheap jews…

Again, like most other cities, Rome is divided by a river. A cool bridge that crosses it is called Ponte Sant’Angelo:There are statues lining both sides of the bridge, and on the end is a nice building (a church?) with a statue of Jesus being hanged or something on top. I can’t be bothered to remember the details of everything I take a picture of, just read up on it on wikipedia. :p

Another bridge leads to a mini-island, like the ones in Paris, which is not a bad place to lie down and enjoy the sun in the afternoon: I’ve read that this island is near the Jewish quarter, though I didn’t feel too Jewish while strolling down it.

Finally, we’re getting to the epic ancient Roman sights! First is the Pantheon, which was built as a shrine to all of the Roman gods:Yea, it sucks that it’s under construction, but anyhow… Today the inside has a whole bunch of Christian statues and paintings. [This is one of my favorite sites in Rome! Orad, I can’t believe you didn’t post the picture I took of the dome from inside. Simply heavenly! I should add that it was transformed into a Christian church and now houses some of Italy’s heroes, and of course Raphael the painter.]

Next is the Colosseum, where gladiators fought and Cesar would give them the thumbs-up: [The Bell Center of the Antiquities, but much greater capacity.]

By the Colosseum you can pay to enter a tour of the ‘newly’ recovered ancient Roman ruins – the Palatino and Roman Forum:

One cool thing in the ruins is Augustus Cesar’s house:Oh, how ominous those clouds look. A preview of things to come later that day! 

Another cool artefact is the Arch of Titus:

This was built to celebrate the triumph over the Israelites (see the menorah?) in the 1st century. I believe it’s the inspiration for Napoleon’s Arche de Triomphe in Paris! [I thought that was the Arch of Constantine…] It might have been both.

And then there’s the huuuuge monument built to commemorate Emanuelle Vitorio II, the father of the nation of Italy. He’s credited with uniting Italy:

The statue in the middle is flanked by about a dozen women, each representing one of the Italian cities (Florence, Milan… etc.) by some symbol that relates to them. This is not unlike the Plaza de Espanya in Sevilla!

The very last thing we did in Rome (right after throwing the coin into the Trevi fountain, and just before leaving for the train station) was go to the ‘best gelato place’ in the city: [San Crispino]It had a line leading up to it, à la Schwartz’s, but I think it was worth it. I got two flavours – banana and honey and Si Yue got pink grapefruit. All of the flavours really were amazing. You know what? North American ice cream really has nothing on European Gelato. [Orad, you forgot to mention the Borghese Galleries, the Bernini’s, eating out in Trestavere and missing the metro, which ends at like 10-11pm (!!!!) and having to walk-bus-walk home in the pouring rain, and the awesome gift we left our host, Andrea – a shattered bottle of red wine! Oh well, this post is already long enough.]

Oh wait – you know what? I think I will mention eating out in Trestavere! We found this funky little restaurant and ate like real italiens – got a “Primi Piati” and a “Secundo Piati” (main course and second course). The food was pretty good, but overall not as phenomenal as I was expecting from Italy:

Romisms

-Brilliant sink:How do you turn it on to wash your hands, you ask? Why, by using your feet! Why the hell aren’t all the sinks in the world like this?

-In Europe, around tourists sights, people often dress up in costumes and expect you to pay them to take pictures of / with them. (Think Jack Sparrow in London) Often you run into the same ones over and over, say an invisible / headless man, the statue or the mummy. This one was really original though: I doubt you’ll be able to see it clearly in a photo, but he was basically frozen in time mid-step. His tie, his hair, even his posture – his attention to detail was excellent. And if you tossed a coin into his bucket, he merely raised his eyebrows. Very entertaining.

-Buggy:

-Oh, the streetlights in certain parts of Rome are weiiird. Instead of the usual Red / Yellow / Green, they have yellow line, yellow triangle, and… yellow something else. This is the best shot I could get of the yellow line:

-Tall cans of coke: I don’t think the scale will look right, but the cans in Italy are thinner and taller, though they still hold the same 330 ml of liquid as North America and Elsewhere in Europe.

-Graffiti in the Colosseum;I mean, one of the oldest and most incredible structures in the world… This was inside the Colosseum already, where you waited in line to pay to get in, say.

After Rome, Si Yue and I are hitting up Vienna and Budapest. I’ll try not to be too behind on those posts. Maybe Si Yue will keep me on track. [Arrivederci Roma et a presto mi amici!]