Slow Travels 2018 – Rome – The End of the Odyssey

Well, that’s it – our 6 week odyssey is over. It has been the most amazing trip, and so really relaxing. Even my blog was put on the back burner. A whole month without a post. After so many weeks in Rome, you would think we would be starting to see the same things twice. However every day brings something new, both big and small. Even on days where we know we are taking our friends and family to somewhere we have already been, new details leap out at us.

Some weeks ago, we went to Trastevere with our friends, and found it very disappointing. Some days later, we went back again, by a different route and found it delightful. A few hundred metres further away from the river made such a huge difference. There was this lovely old area, we had just walked by previously. Even on our last day, we discovered the most amazing church, designed by Michelangelo in 1564 utilising some of the site of Roman Baths built in 300 AD. It wasn’t in our guide book, and it is just a few metres from the main train station. Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri  Even better for those of you of a musical disposition, they do a free organ recital at 11:30am and 5pm on Sundays and Festival Days. The acoustics must be amazing.  Sadly, we couldn’t stay for the 5pm recital – packing for home and our dinner reservation called. They also have a meridian line used in 1702 to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformation of the calendar. How stunning is that? I didn’t quite stand on that meridian line, but I was only 1 foot (30 cm) away. A wee bit of history.

Over the last few weeks, we have walked, walked, and further walked. As mentioned above, all sorts of interesting things are just around a corner. While we have used the buses a lot, we have discovered that buses in Rome aren’t that reliable, particularly at weekends. Even if they are on a display board, saying one is coming in 5 minutes, it can either come around the corner immediately, or turn up 30 minutes later. To be honest, I can’t blame the buses, they are at the mercy of Rome traffic which is amazing & complex, to say the least. How it moves at all, I really don’t know. It made me hanker a little for Edinburgh, where we might moan about our buses coming in groups, but at least we don’t have 60-80 people standing in them – legitimately. It was only 2 days before we left that I spotted the display board that said depending on the size of the bus, 20 people seated, 60-80 standing!) ! We had one really bad ‘crush’, worse than anything I ever experienced on the London Underground. It would seem there is always room for 1 (or 6) more! That day we had a ‘less able’ friend with us, and she found it quite scary. She was worried she would end up in someone’s lap, but as I pointed out she obviously had a walking stick, they should have given up their seat for her. Unfortunately I wasn’t close enough to her to ask them to do so, but I have seen it on several other occasions, where if the younger / fitter  person doesn’t give up their seat, they are asked (told) to do so!

Don’t Miss These

• Churches – Regardless of whether you are of the Christian Faith, or not, I really can recommend going into any church you pass by. Apparently there are 600 plus churches in Rome (I googled it). We have some Hindu friends who were visiting. One was a Caravaggio fan. We found several churches with Caravaggio paintings. In general, the artwork, be it paintings, sculptures, bronzes, marbles etc is just amazing. We have seen paintings by Raphael in quite small churches. You could stay a year or more in Rome and still not have seen everything. This site lists the top 10 churches, but it doesn’t include the one we found on our last day Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri  In general, churches are free. They don’t charge people to visit or to pray, but I generally gave a few euro towards the upkeep, each time I was in one.  Let’s face it, if every one of the thousands of visitors who visit all these churches each day, gave just one or two euros ( or dollars), every time they went into one, the future of these churches and the artwork within them would be guaranteed for many years to come. The picture below is of  Santa Maria en Trastevere

• Via Appia / The Appian Way. For those of us who had Latin lessons, we learnt about the Appian Way, and the soldiers marching to and fro. Over the last few weeks, we were able to walk along some of the walls at the Museo della Mura, dating from about 450 AD, even along the original paving on the road as we walked some of the Appian Way itself (take the 118 bus) I also did Caesar’s Invasions of Britain, but there are no easy bus routes for that!

• Free viewpoints around the Forum. Go to Piazza Venezia. Walk up the steps towards the Capitoline Museum, but instead of entering, take a sharp right along the side of building. About two thirds of the way along, follow the sign for cafe / toilets on your left. You climb 2 floors. (1st floor is the toilet – well worth remembering, clean and free!), 2nd floor takes you out onto a coffee shop and viewing gallery. There is also a lovely restaurant there, but we decided it was a bit outside our dress code, so we didn’t even look at the menu! Then walk back down to the Capitoline square and go to the next corner, where there is a delightful overhead bridge, and a small hill down, to a grandstand view over the Forum.

• Ostia Antica – a city which was abandoned about 400AD. It is a massive site, and in remarkably good condition. It is the largest Roman remains outside Pompeii. It is well worth a trip. Allow 5 hours, and take drinks and i packed lunch with you. There is only 1 restaurant on site, and it is about half way round. You can get there from the Pyramie train station, and the standard bus ticket is valid. (Certainly our monthly card was). This picture gives you an idea of how much is left standing. This is the fascade of Horrrea Epaghatiana

• The French Embassy does guided tours. The art work is amazing. You have to book in advance and bring your passport. The ceiling in one of the rooms rivals the Sistine Chapel. No cameras allowed, so no nice picture I am afraid, but here is a weblink
• The Forum and the Colosseum. We really wanted to do the Forum, and were less interested in the Colosseum, however the ticket covers both. We bought ours at the entry to the Forum, where there was no queue. However the next day when we went to the Colosseum, we still had to stand in quite a long line, so I would recommend booking online and getting a timed entry ticket for the Colosseum, which will cut your wait significantly. Don’t go to the Colosseum without a ticket of some sorts, be it open or timed, the queue is always large. There are a lot of ticket touts who will offer a ‘skip the queue’ ticket for €20 (normal price €12), but it only moves you into the Open ticket line, it doesn’t give you direct entry. It is not worth it because you only have to cross the road to the Forum ticket office where the queues are small….. This picture was taken inside the Colosseum. You can guess at the scale, by looking closely at the rows of tourists along the gallery near the top.

• Teatro Marcello – very near Piazza Venezia. This is effectively a mini Colosseum, where the top couple of layers have been converted into very exclusive apartments.  But you can wander round the outside, through what was once a fish market, and up into the Jewish Quarter (If you want to visit the synagogue, you have to book in advance). There’s lots of restaurants in the area. In September they ran a series of Open Air piano concerts. What an amazing backdrop it must make.

• The Borghese Gallery – It is set in lovely grounds and the art work is fantastic. You have to book ahead, you get a timed entry, and you are restricted to precisely 2 hours. They then empty the gallery of people, and then open it up to the next group, so it never gets too busy. From the gardens you get a lovely view over the city. There were so many amazing artworks, it was difficult to chose one. the artwork on the ceilings was stunning, many famous paintings, but I still am azed by the quality of work in this staute. Bernini’s David completed in 1624

• The Museo delle Mura, a short journey outside the city (on the 118 bus, mentioned above!) The museum is free.

You can walk along part of the walls –  see below. It is in amazingly good condition even though it was completed in 400AD

• The Aqueducts – Just outside the city, you can see large tranches of aqueducts still standing. It is a large park, which is free to enter. Stunning to think that these aqueducts once delivered water from the mountains into the centre of Rome. This one – the Aqua Claudia was finished in AD52. More details here

Overall

Rome is a great place to visit, whether you are there for 3 days or for 6 weeks like we were. We really switched off and enjoyed our trip. We found it more expensive than Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, but cheaper than Nice in France.

However, I can’t leave Rome, without commenting on how the number of tourists, and indeed the traffic has increased, since I was there in 1981. I know it brings in good income to the city, but I feel for the Roman citizens who must sometimes feel swamped under the tide of tourists. I think I noticed it most in the Vatican Museums. 25,000 people on a busy day, and we were there at the end of September, a relatively quiet time. When we were last there we were able to walk relatively freely through the exhibitions, this time you almost had a feeling of being ‘pushed’ along, by the mass of people also there.  There were so many ‘guided tour groups’ of 20 or 30 people, all trying to keep together. Particularly in the Map Room or the Sistine Chapel, where you wanted to be able to take your time and look round, but the continual pressure of people behind you made this very difficult. According to the Economist in 2015, the numbers have increased 4 times. From my view, it might be even more, or just that there are more tourists out of peak season now. The picture in the article shows the Sistine Chapel, the day we were there, the central part was packed, the seats around the sides were full, and those poor people arriving were being shunted through by the guards.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my whistle stop tour. If you would like to Pin it and please do, just click the image below.