I may have given the impression in my previous two posts on my short trip to Rome that I don’t particularly care for the Eternal City. Is that true? Kind of. I’ve never really been interested in Rome. Italy doesn’t really work for, it’s too hot and I’ve never felt any desire to shunt it up my to-do list. I went there purely for the Sistine Chapel and stayed because – well, it’s a ridiculous distance and price for just a couple of hours in a large barn-like room.
I liked the Colosseum. I’ve already said that. I liked the Roman remains that I could see from the tram. I’m not hugely into history and the Romans aren’t my special subject but I like to see the ancient city laid out before me.
So, with no particular interest, I did the standard tourist things and because I personally can’t make a whole blog post out of any one of them, this is a mini-post on each.
Pyramid of Cestius
I found this in Long Way Down and decided I’d like to see it if I could – and I could. It was right outside Pyramide, my nearest metro station. It was built for the Emperor Gaius Cestius around 18-12BC, a Roman who had a liking for the Egyptian style of doing things and had his tomb built as a pyramid. When it was built it was outside Rome’s boundaries, as was the law at the time, but the city has grown in the last 2037 years and now it’s literally contained within a bit of old city wall and today it’s well and truly within Rome. It’s open sporadically to people who’ve figured out how to get on the rare tours – needless to say, that doesn’t include me.
The Spanish Steps
Well, was there ever a more overrated tourist attraction? It’s some steps. Steps pretty similar to the ones in Paris. You know the ones, the ones no one cares about because they’re just a means to an end – reaching Sacré-Cœur. And plenty of people take the funi up there instead of the steps anyway. There’s a church at the top of the Spanish Steps too but no one’s interested in it, it’s all about the steps. There’s not even a good view from the top.
The Trevi Fountain
Yes, this one is good. It’s not so much a fountain as an entire house-sized work of art featuring water which decorates an entire wall of building that appears to be of no other interest to anyone. It’s big and elaborate and spectacular and yes, I like it. However, it’s squeezed into a small square of which it occupies about two-thirds. The remaining third is packed, just packed, with camera-wielding tourists, overrunning the place like giant ants. You queue for a place at the front, take your photo and flee. I suspect this is at its best at or even before dawn, when everyone else is still in bed.
Piazza San Pietro
Of all places in Rome, this was one I expected to be crazy-busy and the impression I came away with was that it was delightfully chilled. The hop-on-hop-off bus stopped on the other side of the river from Castel Sant’Angelo, Hadrian’s mausoleum and now the Vatican’s fortress so I thought I’d go and see the end of the Vatican I didn’t see on Friday night. I liked the Castel – generally you can win me over with an unnecessarily chunky building – and then I walked down the street to the square. The street was busy and the police were controlling the crossings but when I arrived, it was surprisingly quiet. Really, it’s two squares. The big oval famous one is separated from a small square square with a set of crowd-control fences and there are separate security checks for both. The most half-hearted security check I’ve ever been through. Half-hearted? Not even a quarter. They demanded I open my bag and then they’d lost interest by the time I’d undone the zip, waving me through impatiently as if me obeying their orders was wasting their staring-into-thin-air time. No sticks of dynamite poking out the top? Actually, given that they didn’t even glance at the bag I could have probably walked straight through with a bomb sitting on the top of my bag.
I didn’t queue to go into the big oval square. I definitely didn’t queue to go into the biggest church in the world. I bought some postcards and some dangly bits to hang off my scrapbook, I ate my lunch and I enjoyed the view across the square – and the sight of just about every Boy and Girl Scout in Poland. I knew they were Scouts from Poland because half of them were wearing formal uniform, complete with the familiar purple badge and red and white international neckerchiefs with Poland embroidered on the back. The other half were wearing very smart red trip t-shirts with the neckerchiefs.
Hop-on-hop-off buses
As a general rule, I’m a bit of a fan of these buses. Yeah, it’s a bit touristy but it’s a handy way of getting around and seeing the important sights. I don’t use them every time but the public buses were messed up on Sunday, probably because of the Race for the Cure happening at the Circo Massimo. But I think I made a mistake going for the Big Bus Company. They had plenty of space and I’m always happy to not have to sit next to a stranger but there only appear to be about six buses. I stood outside the Castel Sant’Angelo and watched three City Sightseeing buses, two Greyline and two Greenline come and go before my bus finally turned up after well over half an hour of waiting. And it then sat there at the bus stop for more than another twenty minutes while I went slowly crazy with frustration. I really like Greyline in Iceland; I would probably have been better off choosing them in Rome.
The Pantheon
All I knew about the Pantheon was that it had a hole in the roof – a deliberate hole. I followed my phone’s direction through various alleys and then emerged into a square with an elephant column. Should be nearby. I looked up and there it was, a great big reddish hulking temple. Outside the door was a long queue but it was moving really quickly so I went inside. Glad I did! I was expecting something resembling a ruin and that’s not what I found inside. I found a pretty elaborate church, a decorated dome ceiling, lots of gold, lots of mini chapels and even the tomb of Raphael. I especially liked the circular area roped off where the rain comes through the hole and finishes up in a small drain. Nice.
So that’s my thoughts on the other things I did in Rome. If I go back again, is there anything I missed that I should add to my to-do list?