Roma!

Rome!

It’s very beautiful here. The Roman ruins are spectacular. It feels like I’ve been walking for days. Oh wait – I have! The blister I developed three days ago has been getting steadily worse. Last night I had no choice but to pop it with a needle and put merthiolate on it. Ouch! It hurt like a beast. N was no help. Well, he did fetch the merthiolate but then he lay on the bed yelping “in sympathy” about how much it hurt. Um, I thought I got to do that? Anyway, hopefully I will be able to walk on it again today as we need to make our way to the Fountains of Trevi. It will be our last touristy moment in Rome. We depart today for Naples and a date with the (alleged) best pizza in Italy. And my, but have we ever been touristy. We have walked this city flat looking at every old piece of stone there is to see. The blister was well earned.

We have seen fountains and piazzas and Cathedrals and Basilicas and ruins. The Colosseum was expensive, but worth it. For 12 Euros you get a pass to the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. The ruins are magnificent and it’s incredible to sit amongst them and imagine what they were like before they became ruins. The sheer size of the Colosseum and the houses of the Emperors is awe inspiring. 

The Colosseum:

St Peters too, is just ridiculously huge. And it is filled with gorgeous sculptures and marble friezes. Unfortunately it is also packed to the gills with tourists. Rome is swarming with them. I’ve never seen anything like it. They are everywhere. They are also largely self absorbed. Every time you step back to take a photo of something, hordes of people rush in between you and your monument. Taking photos has become more like an action sport of dashing and snapping. I have been sorely tried not to introduce a touch of martial arts. St Peters was particularly challenging due to the sheer volume of people. The queue to get into St Peters, however, was nothing to the one we stood to get into the Vatican Museum. We wondered how many thousands of people flow through those gates every day. And, at a price of 14 Euros, they must make an absolute fortune. I’m glad we went, because we were here and I doubt I will ever go again. There were some impressive things in the museum. I enjoyed the Egyptian section but I can’t help thinking it’s a bit wrong that there are Egyptian mummies spending their eternity basking in the Vatican. Surely those that demand respect for their religion (you may not enter the Vatican with uncovered shoulders or short shorts) should have respect for other religions and cultures and not display their dead for monetary gain? Oh well. Double standards abound.
The art works on the walls and ceilings of the Vatican museum are at first incredible, but there is so much that eventually I found myself a bit numbed to it all. “Oh look. More paintings.” And quite frankly, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Sistene Chapel. I mean, I can see that those paintings must have taken an awful to of work and it can’t be easy to paint an entire wall or ceiling, but I was somehow expecting more. Perhaps my expectations were raised overly high by years of art history propaganda. I think that by that stage I had just been there too long with sore feet and a gazillion other tourists squashing me and walking everywhere too slowly.

St Peters:

Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum:

Recommendations for Rome: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, the keyhole in San Sabina Ave (look through the keyhole for a perfect view of St Peter’s dome), St Peters, ice cream and pizza. And the metro. It is cheap. Get a 24 hour ticket for 4 Euros and ride everywhere instead of incurring blisters like I did.