A Roman Holiday
“We have to stop moving!” Over the course of two weeks, we stayed in four cities and five hotels — Florence, Sorrento, Rome, Corfu — almost entirely in tourist mode. One downside of this is that you stay in tourist areas, because you want to see all the tourist attraction. So you get crap food, are mobbed by swarms of tourists, and get no sense of what ordinary life in a place is actually like (in fact in places like Sorrento, ordinary life has been essentially wiped out, as residents move to neighboring settlements).
Thus, our initial impression of Rome, while we stayed near the Vatican was rather negative — dirty, overcrowded with tourists, and hard to get around. The roads are perpetually congested with traffic, there are only 2 metro lines that miss some of most popular attractions, taxis are expensive and hard to get, everything is far, just a pain. Food is for the most part mediocre in this area (at least when guided by google maps). At least we avoided the sweltering heat of 2023 summer!
But of course you have unmissable iconic landmarks like St. Peter’s, Coliseum, etc. And so we persevered to hit the most important monuments of the city.
Touristing in Rome
St Peter’s Basilica
Appropriate to its status as the center of the Catholic church, the Basilica impresses with the grandeur of its structure, its art, and its luxury. As an exhibit of human creative accomplishment it is almost peerless, even constructed as it was over the course of a hundred years.
Just a few years ago, the square got a topical addition, saluting Italy’s immigrants
But the inside of the Basilica is what really sets it apart, collecting the works of Europe’s most talented artists through the centuries. Flowing sheets of red marble? Naturally (and yes, that is a flying skeleton getting tangled in those red sheets)
And to round it out, Jesus handing the keys to heaven to the Apostles, and the Vatican guards
P.S. If you want to really feel history, don’t skip the line to the small caves below the cathedral, where queens from the 1400’s, thousands of years of popes, and apparently St Peter himself are entombed.
Coliseum and the Forum
I was surprised how much I learned on our one hour tour of the Coliseum. For instance, it is only called the Coliseum because a colossal statue (of Nero) was discovered near it, and in its time was just called the Flavian Amphitheater. Or that Rome had on the order of a hundred other amphitheaters just in the city! Or that they would flood it for recreations of naval battles with specially made boat models!!
But after we were done with the Coliseum, there was still the whole Forum to explore, which is massive! Of course, much of it is restored, but still impressive in its scale
The fine stone carving, like on the arch are impressive.
This scene was really fascinating —
Why is the door to the church six feet above the columns base? You might think the stairs have been wiped away, but in fact it’s because by the time the church was built around the 10th century, the ground had risen more 10 feet relative from where it was when the Forum area was originally built up. Meaning that excavations of the Forum have dug out that much dirt and silt (deposited mostly by the Tiber that regularly overflows)!
Castel Sant’ Angelo
This castle is famous for being the tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Over the course of its curious history of almost two millennia, it is also known serving as a fortress and prison
But today, its biggest attraction is likely the view it affords of the city, as you can see the Coliseum, St. Peters, Piazza Venezia, and other attractions from the roof. Take the time for a meal or just coffee on the rooftop bar with a view like no other!
Trevi fountain
A visit to Rome is incomplete without checking in at the city’s most famous fountain.
But if you were here last with Gregory Peck in 1953, or like some of us, 30 and 20 years ago, you may be surprised by just how many people will be sharing the view with you. Which is fine, we don’t usually mind when a theater is full. After all, it’s not a putatively uninhabited exotic beach we’re talking about. It gives you pause though
A bit of living in Rome
Having gotten the sightseeing out of the way, after more than a week without a kitchen, we finally got a chance to go to a grocery store and sit down to a meal at home
Then, we slowed down even more, when we moved to a different hotel in Villa Borghese. In this much quieter area, out of the way and surrounded by far fewer tourists and far more embassies from every country and luxurious condos with lush gardens, as well as a gorgeous park, we got a glimpse of a nicer Rome
One of the neatest, less crowded, places we visited was the interactive Da Vinci museum. A number of cities in Italy have one, but we only managed to see it in Rome. This houses the built versions of this incredibly prolific inventor’s hundreds of sketches, ranging from the silly
A 15th century tank
to the kinda neat,
to awesome DIY construction projects
Exploring the Villa Borghese park also proved more exciting than expected. Not only does it have cool statues of worldly poets, including — Alexander Pushkin? — but we also randomly got mobbed by a giant crowd of fitness enthusiasts
As we were leaving, we discovered that the park had the same bicycle cars as San Francisco. Except, it turns out they are not the same -- THEY’RE ELECTRIC!
We had the time of our lives as we rolled around the entire park careening off the paved roads onto dirt paths and terrain parks, and soaked up some more views
People’s plaza below us
An abandoned magic kingdom, presumably
And we also found a car just the right size for Alya
That she rode over and over and over… and over…
Cocktail Tourism continues!
In Rome, I continued my quest to sample local amaros across Italy and finally hit gold! Il Marchese, near Piazza Cardelli, is the Mecca of amaro tasting — they claim to have 600 different amaros
Though Il Marchese isn’t cheap, the barmen are supremely helpful in working through their list. Initially, I requested a few specific amaros I had read about (I highly recommend Amaro Santoni and Formidable, made in Rome). But I soon realized I would do better to let pros recommend what to try. Headed by Rosario, at one point, all three fellows were debating which bottling I should try next based on my increasingly convoluted requests
Helpfully, they would pour free mini-samples as well as doing chargeable shots. It was a good night
In the end, some of our favorite moments of Rome were not at the historic monuments but unexpected moments around the city:
The not-Babylonian column
The awesome street performer (sometimes fun to indulge!)
The creepy chestnuts
Image of spider eyes for comparison has been removed to preserve sanity
and others, including random churches
I’m very glad we got to see this other, more authentic Rome.
Of course, we barely scratched the surface of the city, but that’s ok. Rome is a destination city that I’m sure we will end up in again, and having gotten the basics out of the way, we will really dig into the good stuff.
