Friday, April 19, 2002 15:00
Weather: Warm and sunny, hurray!
Location: Internet café off Piazza Venezia, Rome

Oh dear, lots to get caught up on! How did this happen? Back to Wednesday...

Wednesday, April 17

I got up, packed up, had a little of the breakfast Marina had left out for me Tuesday night (a boxed juice and a wrapped croissant, not too interesting) and picked up a cappucino in the village bar before saying goodbye to Civita and walking out onto the footbridge. It was a cool day with scattered clouds. Just as I arrived at the far side of the bridge, Franco passed me on his scooter and pulled over at the side. He offered me a ride to Viterbo in his car, but as I wasn't sure of the train situation from there I decided to stick to catching the bus from Bagnoregio to Orvieto as I originally planned.

On the bus I had a long conversation with a woman who was visiting the area to look for a house to buy. She was originally Swedish, but had lived in Sicily for the last 25 years, and was now going to sell her shop and retire to the country.

At the train station I had a wait of about 50 minutes before catching a train to Rome. We seemed to stop at quite a few stations on the way in, so I was glad I'd had a couple of sandwiches in the train station's cafe before getting on. It was after 1pm when we arrived and I set out to find a place to stay.

First stop was the station's tourist office, where I picked up a map and a "what's on" guide. (Not much, seems to be the answer.) Then I figured out the subway system. There are two lines, but neither of them goes particularly close to the downtown area, which is a bit annoying. I needed to get downtown to find the "B&B Italia" office. I took line A to Colosseo, which seemed to be the closest stop to downtown, and walked out into the sunshine directly across the street from the Colosseum, which felt a bit like diving into the deep end of Roman history. Shouldering my pack, I set out along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, until I got to a bus stop and hopped on the first thing to arrive going in my direction. Should have checked its destination, I guess: it turned right at Via del Corso (the main street) and I wanted to go along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, on the left, so I got off and walked across, past the Pantheon, a couple of monuments, any number of other ancient churches, and a bazillion outdoor cafés.

Lonely Planet had B&B Italia listed as Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 282, but listed as somewhere completely different on the map, which confused me a bit. Assuming the street number was correct, I walked to 282, at the far end of the street, which seemed to be in an old palazzo with no signs of B&B Italia at all. Cursing a bit, I worked out that the map must have been right and the street number wrong. I tried to phone them but had no answer, so I started to head back to the other end of Vittorio Emanuele. I found the place marked on the map, but again there was no sign of B&B Italia. I was now starting to get cranky. I found another phone, and this time was able to get an answer: they were at #284. So I walked back along Vittorio Emanuele again, and found the place, which had no sign at all. The doorman pointed the way when I asked for it.

Once inside I sat down while a lady looked up possible places and made a couple of phone calls. It took a little while, but she got me a single room with a private bathroom for €45/night, not bad, a bit of a hike from downtown but on the subway. I got directions and set out again to find it. After some hunting I found a newsagent who could sell me bus tickets, then hopped a bus that went all the way back to Termini, the train station, from where I'd started three hours prior. From there it was a relatively easy matter to get down to Re de Roma station and find the place.

I was met there by a father and son who showed me in. It gradually dawned on me that the B&B was actually a whole furnished apartment, with kitchen, and I had the place to myself! It's huge, comfortable, and very newly renovated, so quite a find.

I unpacked, did some laundry, and set out shortly after 5pm to orient myself. I seemed to be in a relatively recent residential neighbourhood, with little to see and a certain lack of interesting places to eat as well. I walked west and after 20 minutes came to the Colosseum again. On the far side I found the Roman forum, and strolled through the ruins towards the Piazza Venezia, where I found a café and read the Herald Tribune, sipping a cappucino, watching the people go by, and gradually losing the stress from the day.

I set off down Via del Plebiscito towards the Campo de Fiori neighbourhood (a good restaurant area), but paused (for 70 minutes!) in an Internet café to try and catch up on my Blogging. (Failed completely, I'm afraid, hence today's backlog.)

I eventually found a very good but unnamed Osteria a couple of blocks west of the Piazza Navona, and went in. All the tables were full, but I was told I could have a table in ten minutes. Shortly after me, a couple of women came in and asked for a table, and were told 20 minutes. They started discussing whether or not to wait in English, so I asked them if they'd like to join me when I got a table, which they did. They introduced themselves as Chloe Browne, an Oxford student studying in Bologna, and her mother Jane, who lives in North Wales. We enjoyed a delicious meal. I explained that I was travelling alone through Italy, and asked if I might join them for sightseeing the following day. We made arrangements to meet at the Ottaviano-San Pietro station, to go around the Vatican museum.

By the time we were finished dinner it was almost midnight, so we walked south to Vittorio Emanuele II and caught a bus to Termini, near their hotel and from where I planned to take the subway to Re di Roma. Unfortunately (and bizarrely) the subway system closes at midnight, so this didn't work out for me and I caught a taxi from Termini rather than try and figure out which bus was going that way.

Thursday, April 18

I met Chloe and Jane and we found a café for some breakfast before joining the queue outside the Vatican museum. It was a huge line up, but moved quickly, and within 30 minutes we were inside. We decided to try and see the Sistine Chapel first, but without a map we followed the large groups of people heading in that direction and went through, in sequence: a hallway of rich tapestries; a hall painted with wonderful maps of Italy; the Stanze di Rafaello, a series of apartments whose frescoes and artworks were planned and in many cases painted by Rafael; the Borgese Apartments, currently housing an excellent collection of modern art; and finally (hours later) the Sistine Chapel.

The collection was staggering in size, richness, and quality, but I found a couple of things particularly interesting. The first was the modern art collection, started relatively recently (1976) when the Papacy called a meeting with a number of important artists and worked out that religious art had stagnated because it was being forcefully channeled into classical styles, not changing with the times. The modern art collection represents a continuing effort to collect new works, and many of the works represented were interesting and compelling. One that we found particularly pleasant was a wonderful painting titled "Trip to the Ecumenical Council", by Fernando Botero, painted in the style of a children's novel with a pink-robed cardinal on his way through the woods, with birds and animals on all sides.

After the Sistine Chapel (words fail here) we passed through a long hallway of books, globes, maps and various gadgets and came to the halfway point of the tour, where we stopped for lunch. The Vatican's self-service restaurant turns out to have surprisingly good food at quite reasonable prices.

After lunch we picked up the tour in the courtyard of the Belvedere, which has a wonderful globe in the middle that looks a bit like the Death Star from Return of the Jedi. Then we toured a section of Roman Statuary and started through the Etruscan museum before being summarily kicked out at 3:30 when the museums closed.

From outside the museums, we walked around to the right and came to the Piazzo St. Pietro, an amazing, mind-bogglingly huge square with an immense number of columns and statues. We went up to the cupola of St. Peter's basilica, which had a superb view of the city, and then went through the basilica itself, coming in partway through an evensong mass. (Music was provided by two superb tenor soloists, amplified through the building by discreet loudspeakers).

Finally we walked along the Via dello Conciliazione to Castel Sant'Angelo, an old castle originally built by the Romans as a tomb for the Emperor Hadrian (of English wall fame) and since used as a castle (complete with Papal escape route from the Vatican) and a church. Dinner was at the Hostaria Giulia. We finished the day relatively early, about 10pm, and went to our respective beds.

Friday, April 19

Today! (Caught up!)

Got up a bit later and walked along to the Colosseum again. I met Chloe and Jane outside the subway station and after a quick coffee went in to have a look at the Colosseum itself. It was very impressive, though it seems to me that it might not hurt, in this specific example, to renovate and rebuild the colosseum as a living museum, and bring it back to its former appearance.

From there we walked into the Forum and were intercepted by a tour guide who offered us a free tour (as a promotion for other tours offered by her company). We went along, and gradually a large group built up. Julia, the guide, was from Australia, and had an extensive and entertaining patter about the buildings and sites that make up the Forum. I'd known that most of the Forum was ruined because building material had been stolen for other buildings (notably St. Peter's) but hadn't realized that the main reason there was anything still there was that the whole thing had been covered in 80' of silt from various floodings of the Tiber.

After the tour, Jane and Chloe and I went to a little bar near the Teatro Marcello for a sandwich lunch, and then I said goodbye. They're spending a last afternoon looking around before leaving Rome tomorrow, and I wanted to slow down a bit, get caught up on my 'netting, and find a newspaper.

Ok, I'm up to date. So what do I think of Rome? Well, the traffic is nuts, the people are all in a hurry and it's a massive city... But it's fascinating and incredible to be here at the centre of the ancient world, surrounded by so much wonderful art, architecture and history. I could never hope to see everything that's worth seeing here, and am not going to be able to even see all of the most important sights before I leave on Sunday (or maybe Monday). It's unique, humbling, and inspirational. I bought a copy of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" today. 'nuff said.
posted by Tom at 9:34 AM | link |