Repeating the success?
Da capo!
There was not much need for a good
reason to revisit Rome, apart from the fact that several places remained
to be seen yet. Neither does one have to toss a coin into the Fontana di
Trevi to be sure to go back (just try it! ;)
A lucky early cheap booking via SAS secured the journey itself as a
steal, but due to their increased number of routes to keep up with the
competition, they were still renting both aircraft and personnel. The
route to Rome was at the time flown by Czech Airlines, as well as
operated by personnel from there. This proved to be a very positive
experience, something which would come in handy for the next trip,
although it was not known at the time. They also served a meal on board
(most international carriers do, it is a special treat from SAS not to
get anything). The journey was in perfect weather, and the route over
snow covered Alps and Dolomites was spectacular.
By now, arriving and getting to
the hotel was a walk in the park. Getting from the freezing conditions
at Gardermoen Airport and to 20°C or so in Rome was almost like a summer
heat shock.
The hotel:
I have now stayed here twice, and must admit the second stay was a bit
more disappointing. The hotel itself has a very good standard, but rooms
are very small considering it is a Radisson SAS (where rooms always are
very spacious). Even though it is purposely built in minimalistic style,
it does feel a bit too minimalistic at times - such as where to put
luggage, clothes etc - you will have to leave it in the way in your
room.
The
rooms seem to have been changed somewhat as well - this time it really
seems to be in favour of the minimalist exhibitionist, as the bathroom
and shower is now more of an open solution.
Last time there was a free surprise in the room when upgrading to one of
superior standard, this time there was none.
Breakfast is still great, but the selection was also somewhat reduced
compared to last time. The location of the breakfast room is great
though, with glass windows in all places.
The fact that the air condition is not put into service at this time of
year isn't a surprise, I have experienced this all other places in Italy
as well and must be due to the fact that Italians freeze until
temperatures exceed 30°C or so.
Hotel staff is very professional and service minded, and they usually
sort out most challenges that might be there - even including repairing
the LCD-TV by reattaching the duct tape to the transmitter (I wonder why
the power plug was out in the first place?)
With a minimalistic style hotel you will be hard pressed to find
anywhere to sit comfortably, including your own room, and least of all
in the reception area, which feels bad when you have to wait for the
room to be ready for check-in. The best place of all to be is the
wonderful terrace roof, sporting views of Termini (admittedly not the
most attractive 'sight') but also other parts of the city (though no
known monuments apart
from the cupolas of the Santa Maria Cathedral).
It was therefore a letdown to find this terrace off-limits to normal
guests when they had arrangements there, which happened on two out of
five evenings.
The hotel location is far from
superb - although it is conveniently located next to the Termini station
and right beside the exit from the airport express train, with a Despar
store located right inside. The order and cleanliness of the vicinity
was even worse than last time - overfilled garbage bins smelling in the
evening, as well as some parts obviously being used as toilets. It is
better to head straight inside the Termini station and walk all the way
underground to Piazza Cinquecento than walk along Via Giovanni Giolitti
actually.
Overall, should I return to Rome I might consider searching elsewhere.
The
obligatory first day, as it was a sunday and the Via Dei Fori Imperiali
is closed to car traffic, includes a visit to the Colosseum. I must
admit it almost made as great an impression as the first time - seeing
it looming tall at the end of the street that leads you to it, no matter
what direction you arrive from. It really is a marvellous piece of
engineering, and although the interior wasn't visited this time,
enjoying the exterior was still as much of an experience. The weather,
temperature and temporarily pedestrianised version of the Via Dei Fori
Imperiali had drawn a throng of tourists. Most of the rest of the
afternoon was spent on this stroll from and to the hotel. I also had a
search for a recommended Chinese restaurant from my Insight guidebook,
but the place seemed to be very deserted and locked up. Instead, a
refurbished version of the one preferred on the trip in 2006 was found
to be more than adequate. The rule was set already - enjoy Chinese food
for dinner, Italian food for lunch. The parallel street to the southwest
of Via Giovanni Giolitti (running along the Stazione Termini) and the
immediate area around seems to be teeming with cloth shops run by
Chinese, and it almost feels like a 'little China' around here, apart
from the fact that customers seem to be virtually nonexistent. It makes
one wonder how they survive running all these shops.
Day 2 - Vatican
After having read several comments
and discussion threads about visiting the Vatican (the museum in
particular) and how to time it well enough to avoid endless queues, the
following order was set up: Metro line A to the Ottaviano - San Pietro
station, then visit St Peter's square and cathedral, followed by lunch,
then the Vatican museum. On the last visit, as it was a wednesday, the
new Pope had been performing his weekly performance for the crowds on
Piazza San Pietro, thus the cathedral itself had been off-limits. This
time it was open for visitors however, and there were of course lots of
people around, although not too many. When viewed from the Piazza, the
cathedral itself is nearly dwarfed by all the other huge buildings
around, and the cupola which is at the far end of the 218-metre long
main axis doesn't seem all too impressive. But when you squint to catch
a glimpse of the people on the balcony, you get an idea of the
dimensions of the structure. The same thing struck me upon entering the
building itself - it seemed no bigger
than
several other cathedrals previously visited, but once you do the full
circle and watch the cupola from below as well as the crossing axis, the
experience changes. A sight not to be missed is of course the marvellous
Pieta which Michelangelo made as a 25-year old in 1499, and sits to the
right of the main entrance. It is sadly behind protective glass due to
an earlier attempt at sabotaging the masterpiece. The cathedral itself
is decorated with numerous frescoes and statues of various sanctimonial
figures. The high altar which sits right below the cupola is an
impressive structure in itself, and even though at this point the
dimensions are felt, I believe the eye and perspective still plays
tricks on you.
There are different lines for entering the cathedral itself, the crypts,
and the cupola. The latter was an attractive option, but was skipped due
to the long lines. All along outside are signs reminding visitors to
dress in a respectful manner, and this does indeed seem to be necessary.
Lunch was enjoyed outdoors at a local restaurant just beside the main
road leading towards the entrance of the Vatican museum. A good pizza
and
salad accompanied with a musician or two, hoping to get some cash off
tourists for their involuntary listening to their serenades.
The first steps in the direction
of the entrance to the museum were of mixed excitement - how long would
the queue be? Would it be a good choice to aim for an afternoon visit
instead of what is usually recommended - coming as early as possible?
And would the combination of this being the day after the monthly last-sunday-of-the-month-is-free-entrance
affect the queues? As the last corner was rounded, a positive shock
unfolded: the line was 10 metres long! And it took around 2 minutes to
get inside the doors and just another couple of minutes to get past the
ticket counter - the system was working quite efficiently. The entrance
and ticket boots seemed to be of a fairly new date, so it has obviously
increased the efficiency of easing the throng of tourists into the
place.
The entrance bit is quite a long
one - a winding stair leads up to a large and pleasant courtyard, which
seems to create a buffer zone for the crowds. I will admit straight away
that most of the museums was just strolled along for the experience -
not much was planned for here, apart from a couple of obvious
attractions - the long hallway of the map room as well as the Sistine
Chapel. And these two were indeed marvellous experiences. The map room
was very crowded with people gaping at the incredible roof scenery,
almost forgetting in the process to watch the actual maps on the walls
(where was that famous map of Venezia??) The roof consists of not only
frescoes and paintings, but even statues that seemingly blend into the
frescoes as if they are part of them.
The
crowd began to thicken as the final stairs towards the Sistine Chapel
were reached. The chapel itself does indeed deserve every superlative
that could be possibly said. One thing is describing it or seeing
pictures or even a movie - but nothing compares to standing inside and
marvelling at the wall paintings and of course the famous roof, which
took Michelangelo four years to finish (and giving him slightly more
than a sore back and neck in the process). Just go there - no further
explanation will be made. There is a complete photo prohibit inside, and
even though the few guards there did their best to both hush the crowds
and prevent them from taking pictures, it seemed impossible to stop -
people disregarded the prohibit en masse, and there was constant
flashing everywhere. The prohibit is there for a reason, not for fun -
flash photography will degrade the paintings over time due to the bright
light it produces. Now imagine millions of flashes over the years...but
tourists will sadly not be reflective enough to respect this - either
that or they simply don't care.
Day 3
Even though this day would have
been best to have right in the middle of the stay as a day away from the
traffic and masses of tourists, the
weather was so good that it was impossible to not go through with the
plan of revisiting the Via Appia Antica. Last time, the hotel gave a
description which ended up only at the Terme di Caracalla, which are
impressive enough, but the aim was to walk along the ancient paved road
itself, as well as visit the catacombs. So, the catacombs had been done,
but there was no paved road like the one seen in brochures or pictures
on the net. After a bit of further research, it was obvious that this
was even further on compared to the last time. If hugely energetic, one
can walk all the way out to the Ciampino area (Rome's second airport),
but something in between, including the opportunity to return by bus
without having to backtrack all the way would be the best thing.
Time to do a little
research..and a bit more...and even more...and finally, with the
combination of the road and park areas' own home page
http://www.parcoappiaantica.org - a fair bit of searching on a travel
forum - and a detailed map of Rome's metro, suburb train and bus lines -
and an idea had formed: Take the Metro line A towards Anagnina to 'Colle
Albani - Parco Appia Antica', then switch to bus 660, which ends right
at the ancient (paved!) road near Tomba de Cecilia Metella. Walk
straight southeast along the ancient road, cross the Via Erode Attico,
then head off to the left at the intersection with Via Casal Rotundo
until reaching Via Appia Nuova. From here, bus 664 goes back to the same
metro station (I am not sure which direction has the nearest bus stop,
as it was quite a walk in a northwesterly direction before the first was
found).
This
route was tried, tested and proved to work out quite well, apart from
having to snake along the Via Casal Rotundo for a few hundred metres
without any sign of pavement, as well as a bit of a walk along the
fairly heavily trafficked Via Appia Nuova.
The walk along the Via Appia
Antica itself was nothing short of wonderful, and in a city with such
sights as Rome, I would rate it as a top experience. There is hardly a
tourist or local anywhere, the road is closed to traffic (apart from
people living along the road), the area is very rural, quiet and green,
and most of the sounds one hears is just birdsong, farm animals and the
occasional airplane or distant traffic sound. Along the road, ruins and
tombs are scattered just about everywhere, the most noteworthy perhaps
being the Tomba de Cecilia Metella (just in the opposite direction at
the bus stop), and the Villa dei Quintili. You may want to bring your
own lunch along for this trip, as there's nothing to be found after you
have passed L'Archeologia at no. 139. Huge coniferous trees (with even
bigger cones - I wonder if a lucky drop on your head might leave you out
cold for a while) line the road, making it a sort of a straight-ahead-neverending
alleyway, some of it with very crude and old stones, some of it
obviously newer. There are pathways along the road as well, use these
and your feet will be thankful at the day's end :)
The road was part of the Roman
empire's connection to the south of Italy, and construction was begun
alread in 312 BC, so it is one of the oldest parts still visible. It was
also along this road that the slave revolters of Spartacus were
crucified as an example of the fate that awaited those who tried to
cross the mighty Roman empire...the bottom line perhaps being that no
empire or superpower lasts forever.
Day 4
The Forum Romanum was not visited
last time - a crime punishable by crusifiction, some might say, but this
time it would all be remedied since the penalty had luckily enough been
postponed for more than two years. It was another day with good weather,
and the stroll back and forth through the ruins, searching for where
this and that path lead to, took quite some time, as did searching for
and composing good photo motifs. This was the very centre of the Roman
empire - the high seat of the council, where endless debates took place,
and life and death was decided with little regrets either way. Still,
the people (or even mobs) at that time were very powerful, and falling
out of their favour might result in an untimely death..as the saying
goes, it is not far from the Capitolium (the centre of the council) to
the Tarpeian cliff (an execution place where people were simply thrown
off the cliff) - this site was closed due to ongoing work, but seemed
efficient enough as a death penalty site. One has to walk by the Piazza
Venezia (and the not-too-loved typewriter monument to Victor Emmanuel
II, the first king of Italy) to get to this site. There is also another
interesting thing along the way, just between the Piazza and the
staircase (designed by Michelangelo) - an old insula. Remembering the
old expression from my computer game 'Caesar III', these were indeed the
houses of the 'lower end class'.
The final destination for the day
so far turned out to be Circus Maximus, of which little remains - apart
from it being a sort of a green park (but almost without trees), just a
wide open space. However, imagine 2000 years back when there were
300.000 spectators cheering as the horse races went on...that is quite
another thing.
Ok, back to Termini for
lunch at the Autogrill (memories of the place visiting along the
Autostrada in 2004 came back), then out for a quick visit to the
Piramide - which is actually a fairly small copy of a typical Egyptean
pyramid, and even though it looks fairly new (refurbished perhaps?) it
is in fact 2000 years old and a tomb as well - the Roman empire
stretched on to cover Egypt as well during its heyday.
The final task for the day
was a quick trip to the Colosseum late in the evening for a hopefully
good night shot. After a couple of tries and experimentation, the result
turned out pretty good - I only noticed the scaffolding on the picture
later, not when I was taking the picture itself. At this time of night,
various sellers and hawkers litter the street and area around Colosseum
- some sell camera tripods, others sell pure junk, such as as flashing
glass engravings of the monuments. And some seem to have a problem
understanding the word 'no'. At least my tripod was bigger than theirs -
by a large margin! Police cars were situated at either end of the Via
dei Fori Imperiali, which I believe was a good thing.
Day 5
Another beautiful day with a clear
blue sky - the last day was spent touring various sights, starting with
the Piazza Espagna (quickly done, the most interesting feature being a
roast chestnut seller, but after seeing the price - 5 € for half a
handful, it was given a miss).
The Pantheon and Piazza Navona are
always worth a visit for their picturesqueness. More pantomime
figures..and then a small piece of a Roman ruin right in the middle of a
side alley in between newer houses - Rome does not cease to surprise.
This time, a visit was paid to the ancient site of Largo di Torre
Argentina - Area Sacra, one of the oldest ruins in the entire city.
Here, four temples have been dug out in the early 20th century, and have
just been named temples A, B, C and D, as it is not known for certain
(Wikipedia has suggestions) which deities they were built to. The area
itself, the oldest parts being around 2400 years old, is all that
remains of a much larger area, shown on an information board at the
site, and is also just a few metres away from where Julius Caesar was
assassinated.
It is also a cat shelter for
homeless cats, and has grown in interest with both tourists and locals
alike. A tour is given for free by volunteers catering for the cats,
although they do hope for donations, as they do not receive any
government funding. Lunch was enjoyed very close to the Fontana di Trevi,
and on a side street somewhere (don't remember quite) - more gelato...mmmmm!
In the late afternoon, the
weather took a dramatic turn. A cold wind blew through the streets, and
the temperature dropped by nearly 10°C. I remember hearing someone
exclaiming 'é frio!' just outside the Termini station - 'it's cold!'.
Rome in general
It is quite obvious that Rome is
an amazing city to visit, and has a lot to offer, and the sheer amount
of sightseeing might be too much to take in at one time. Therefore, many
people return here, still without throwing a coin into the Fontana di
Trevi. The metro works quite well, and is a cheap way to get around,
however even though a third line is being built (if it ever will be
finished due to stumbling over areas of archeologic value all the time),
some areas have to be reached by bus for example. Getting around here by
bus might be confusing, and the one covering the Via Appia Antica (Geobus)
is highly unreliable, as was noted last time. Therefore, careful
research is needed, as you will not always get a good itinerary from
your hotel either when visiting such fairly remote destinations as the
actual paved parts of the Via Appia Antica.
Litter seems to become an increasing problem around - it looked worse
this time compared to only two years ago, so something definitely needs
to be improved here. Also, beggars seem to be abundant - from people
boarding the metro line and shouting out something in italian which is
probably 'poor poor me' or an equivalent, to gypsies openly
breastfeeding right outside the main entrance to the Termini station
(not exactly Mrs-nice-shapes-of-the-year either).
UNESCO sites visited on the journey:
Well..still Rome, nothing new :)
