Following the standard "tourist itinerary," we've moved on further south to Italy's beloved capital and just spent three days trying to take it all in. The problem with Rome is not so much what to see as what to cut out. There are so many interesting places peppering the city that it's futile trying to cram everything into just one visit. With that in mind, we've had to kind of prioritize the main highlights. As it's Mayu's first visit and - apart from a few hours of wandering in between trains years ago - pretty much my first real one, that basically meant doing the routine sightseeing itinerary.
We got in around late morning on Friday, which basically left us with the afternoon to spend visiting places in town. That meant passing the day largely amongst the ancient core sights: the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Pantheon. Rome, as ever, is jam-packed with tourists, so pretty much everyplace we went was swarmed. We were happy to have our trip coincide nicely with a special promotional week though. Oblivious to the fact when we arrived, we were surprised to find out that all national museums had free admission through Sunday (i.e. today). Some tour guide tried to rope us into a "special discounted" tour of the Colosseum, until we discovered that instead of paying €10 each to visit it, we could just walk in without paying a cent. Needless to say, we declined and did it solo, despite her warnings that we wouldn't get as much out of it. Hey, €20 unused is €20 extra!
Well, her warning that things were not well-marked turned out to be spot on. In fact, it wasn't too long before a bit of frustration set in, as the Palatine and Forum weren't any better in that regard. The near total lack of signposting and the pretty dismal state of most of the ruins ended up being rather disappointing. For a city that's world-renowned for its heritage, Rome does a pretty shite job taking care of it. Most of the marble was stripped off over the ages, the sculptures, busts and mosaics pilfered, and the old buildings left to basically rot in weed-ridden wasteland. Compared to Roman ruins in France and Spain and the Acropolis in Greece, it's all fairly disheartening.
The Pantheon, on the other hand, is a real marvel. Sure, apart from the front facade, the marble is all long gone, but otherwise it's the only building in the city that's stayed largely unchanged structurally since its Imperial heyday. Visiting it after the Forum and others was a good choice as it provided a nice lift of spirits and truer example of how Roman architecture once looked. After spending some time exploring the interior, we finished the day at the Trevi Fountain, which was absolutely overrun with tourists and obnoxious hawkers trying to sell worthless, noisy trinkets. So much for the romance of the Eternal City.
While we saved a fair chunk of cash on the Roman monuments, we couldn't escape a significant financial dent when it came to the Vatican City. Since the Vatican Museums are firmly shut to tourism on Sundays, we had to schedule it in for Saturday. Well, it appears that everyone else had the same idea. The queue literally went on for a kilometer. Shockingly, it only took about an hour to get in - I was sure we'd be sitting in the hot sun for two and half at least. Once through security, we shelled out the astonishing entrance fee of €13 each and proceeded into the enormous wealth of historic treasures on display. Remember me mentioning the marble, sculptures, busts and such that were looted from the Roman sites? Mayu and I quickly figured out where it all went. The amount of Rome's heritage that ended up in the hands of the papacy is startling. Putting that in perspective with the amount of money they pull in off tourism (the Vatican sees five to six million visitors a year - at €13 a head, you do the math), there's little wonder why Catholic churches are so ornately adorned and extravagant.
The Sistine Chapel was awe-inspiring though, I must say. We spent a good half an hour just staring at the multitude of frescoes, in between the regular shouts of "no photos!" from the guards when the odd flash would go off. The view out the top of the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica was another highlight, with its breathtaking panoramas over Rome. The city is even more gorgeous when seen without all the careening Vespas and flocks of tourists. Well, we still had a fair flock up with us on the viewing platform, but you have to learn to ignore that. Once we got back down to ground level, we strolled up along the Tiber river past the Castel Sant'Angelo and then up to the Spanish Steps, which - predictably - were just as crushed with squatting visitors as the Trevi Fountain the evening before.
Today we tried to fit in what we could of the remaining sites. Starting at the Baths of Diocletian in the vicinity of our hotel (which were a raging disappointment, I might add), we then went back to the Vatican and down towards Piazza Navona. After a quick lunch we continued past the Campo di Fiori and out to the river once more, following it along to the Isola Tiburina. We ended up stumbling upon a charming wedding party on the island, which was having their ideal day interrupted by neighboring tourists snapping away photos of them. Across the river again then, we walked onwards to the ever-popular Bocca della Verita, where we each did the standard tourist pics of putting our hands in its mouth and hope it didn't bite down.
Overall, it's been enjoyable here, but simultaneously somewhat of a let down. For a city as rich in history as Rome is, I really expected it to be more tangible. At least they could make a better effort of maintaining and signposting their sites, especially in light of the sheer loads they must make off tourism. That same tourism is totally overwhelming the city though. It's not even high summer, yet every single sight is completely overrun with people. Any sense of charm or tranquility has to come from a vivid imagination, because you can't take in the atmosphere without having a flag-waving tour guide shouting in your ear.
We've been having serious difficulties arranging our next destination's accommodation. The first night we were here, we started looking at hostels and hotels in Athens, and came up with absolutely nothing. Every website we would check would show zero availability on any kind of lodging, even expensive hotels. I was about to flip out - was the Pope going to Athens or something? Calling hostels on the phone the next morning, I soon got my answer. Apparently the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool is happening the day after we arrive, so pretty much every soccer-crazed fan in Italy and England (and elsewhere) is scrambling for Greece. So at the moment, I haven't a clue where on earth we're going to stay or even what we're going to do upon landing off the ferry for that matter. The good news is that we at least have ferry tickets; I was able to reserve a couple places on the phone yesterday morning by ringing the company in Athens directly. The rest is going to be a total craps shoot.
Tomorrow then we're off to Bari across the mountains to take our overnight ferry. From the looks of things, it's likely to be busy with football hooligans and the like. We'll see how this all pans out.
More thumbnails ...
8 votes 
