Rome, if you want to
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2009
1
4
6
Trip End
May 13, 2009
Rome,
Lazio,
Italy
Thursday, May 7, 2009
We were staying at Mecente Palace conveniently located near the train station and both red and blue metro stops. This hotel had a rooftop bar overlooking to the west, the Basilica de Santa Maria Maggiore and an awesome sunset.
Rome was far busier than Florence and light years from Venice
View from Hotel Mecenate rooftop
. We bought 7 day train passes for €16 each to ease some of the long distance walking that we expected here. Once again, we spent our days seeing the sites. Some days, we stumbled onto the sites--the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Others, we had to hunt for--the Roman Forum, Piazza Navona.
One of the first sites we visited was the Colosseum. It is spectacular to walk up and out of the subway into the shadow of the colossal Colosseum. Built in AD 72-80 to hold 50,000 people, it was abandoned 500 years later--becoming a fortress in the middle ages and a source of stone for other Roman buildings. Today, it sits there--in a round-about practically--traffic wielding around it and the subway running under it. The place is huge. All that remains are the bones of it. Only three-quarters of the outside structure still stands, with Doric columns on the bottom, Ionic in the middle and the fancy Corinthian up top. Inside, the seats are long gone and columns lay scattered here and there. The wooden floor is gone, revealing a plush green grass floor and a labriynth of stones marking what used to be underground passageways and chambers to hold prisoners, slaves and animals. The place spooked me. It's hard to understand the sheer volume of people and animals who died here in cruel shows
Colosseum floor
. During it's opening 100 days and nights alone of "games", thousands of gladiators battled to the death and over 5,000 animals were slaughtered. Our next stop was Palatine and the Roman Forum. We roamed the area in the hot afternoon sun for some time before finding the forum...the streets of ancient Rome where Caesar once strolled and was assassinated. We were tired and sunburned by the time we got back on our colorful subway line and headed home.
The Spanish Steps were not quite what I expected...fountain at the bottom and a series of steps to the top--where there is a French church and a fabulous view. People sat there in the sun--watching, waiting, wooing...we saw it all. A teenage boy feeding a teenage girl strawberries just after he put a spray of Cool-whip-from-a-can on them. A flirty woman with a drawer full of make-up on who had stripped down to her camisole (and rolled it up), leggings and bare feet to catch some rays (or guys?) and who photographed herself repeatedly and slowly added layers as the sun went down--including over the knee, 5-inch stiletto heeled boots. A man walking among all the people, looking at the girls. A woman with a white sweater set, turquoise scarf and matching leather bag and notebook--sitting there gazing at the domes of Rome. A guy with a guitar singing loudly and badly. An old Asian couple picking apart the petals of a rose as a friend photographed them. Another elderly couple popping a bottle of champagne and pouring it into paper cups as they sat there under their matching khaki hats. Austrians and young girls with heart shaped sunglasses on filling water bottles from the fountain. Old men sitting on the fountain side in trenchcoats talking in Italian at a brisk, yet quiet clip
Spanish Steps
. And all the while, there was this smell of roasting chestnuts coming from street vendors. It was a fascinating place to sit, enjoy the sun and sites and people watch. We heard Trevi Fountain long before we found it. I never expected to see it attached to a massive building. It is the size of half a football field. Toss a coin in over your shoulder, and they say you'll come back to Rome. We each tossed in 2 coins :) We'd return to Trevi often--usually early in the morning or late in the evening with a gelato to avoid the crowds.
The Pantheon was quite a discovery one day. We were sort of lost and stumbled into a piazza in front of this huge old hulk of a building. Inside it's massive bronze doors, it was quite and cool...and open to the elements from it's only source of light--a giant opening at the top of the dome. Any rain drains out via 22 small teardrop shaped holes in the old marble floor. Amazing in there.
More discoveries: We found a place with blown glass ornaments in lovely blues, greens and reds, strung like Christmas lights across the alley. Tiny cars, and the sounds of Vespas. All the motorbikes would rush to the front of the traffic line at stoplights. At night, some people would sit with a single chair and a single parakeet on a stand...and a spotlight. Never understood what was going on there--but the birds always seemed to be waiting to go home...staring at their people. Rooms are cameras or stanzas, floors are pianos. It's so musical! The bells ring the hour AND the quarter hour... for example 3 o'clock is DING-DING-DING. But 3:30 is DING-DING-DING-DONG-DONG
Trevi Fountain
. You can imagine that 11:45 pm is a bit tiresome. "Prego" when you sit down or are ready to order. Some favorites: La Fiaschetta, Papa's Caffe and Wine Bar and L'Enotec Antica--the last being an atmospheric wine bar with delicious meals and a non-stop bowl of pistachios. The colors of navy blue and mauve purple together and mustard yellow with plum and red trims. And one of my all time favorite meals at Osteria Al Valle--a place with only 9 tables and the best meal ever--rucola salad with tomato, mozzarella, olive oil, salt and pepper...followed by cheesy gnocchi, a bottle of tasty Chianti and tiramisu and cappuccino for dessert. Sheer heaven.
