Rome

I don’t know how people survived driving into strange cities before GPS. With our cellphone using Google Maps it was just feasible, though it often lagged behind reality, not telling us which way to turn till we had passed the point of no [re]turn. As we drove south from Viterbo we were lolled into a false sense of well-being, on quiet country roads through a forest. Even when we joined a motorway to enter Rome itself the traffic was light, but once we neared the drop-off point for the hire car near Termini railway station things got a little chaotic. We had to drop the car off on the 5^th floor on an un-signposted parking building with lanes only suitable for mountain bikes and parking spaces 2mm wider than the cars. Or so it felt.

We had a few hours to kill before we could go to our Airbnb apartment (a downside to Airbnb – you have to wait for the owner to be available). After seeing the queue at the left-luggage counter in the railway station we decided to take our bags with us for a couple of hours. This seemed sensible until we hit our first cobbled street. We decided to impress the girls with the “big one” by going straight to the Colosseum, by way of San Pietro in Vincoli, the church with a good Michelangelo statue and the chains that (allegedly) bound St Peter. Not surprisingly (he says belatedly!) it was closed for lunch. The Colosseum is spectacular though even with its growing cloak of scaffolding, which we'd witnessed last year.

It was Joan and Julie's first trip on an underground when we took the Metro to our apartment. Though the Metro is in good order it was very crowded so they probably didn’t enjoy the experience. Coming out of the Metro station it was very quiet so, after checking which exit we needed with my cellphone and Google Maps, I then put the phone in my pocket before lugging a bag up the stairs. A group of men suddenly appeared and one helped Vicki with her bag. After saying thank you I found my cellphone had disappeared – the bag-helper was the distraction.  We were very lucky to have an Airbnb host like Claudia – she took us to the nearest police station to help us report the theft (for insurance purposes). There are several different types of police in Italy: Carabinieri (originally the army police), local police, traffic police and financial police. Claudia decided that the best was to report it to the Carabinieri as they were most likely to be the quickest. We had to take a bus ride to another suburb and then walk to an obscure building on a side-street and be buzzed in through a locked door.  Once inside though they were brilliant as an officer took a statement immediately and printed out a form for me. They didn’t look at all busy as everyone else seemed to be chatting and smoking in another room. A couple of lessons re-enforced:

1. Always keep your valuables in a safe place. We are normally very good about this and my “man-bag” is a special one that is reinforced with wire and special locks. My wallet and phone live in it or, occasionally in a zipped-up trouser pocket. However, in this situation I popped it in an unsecured pocket while I carried a bag up a single flight of stairs when I thought no one was around. No - never let your guard down!
2. Secure your phone! How many people even bother with this? With a smartphone it isn’t just the cost of losing the phone (insurance should pay for most of it - less the excess) but it is all the personal information you have on it or the access to various websites, e.g. Facebook, email, Skype, etc. – all with no need to input a password each time. Personally I have a PIN number on the front screen that comes on if the phone hasn’t been used in a matter of seconds (i.e. by the time any thief has had a chance to look at it), I use a (free) antivirus security package that puts a PIN on some applications, and I have tracking software enabled (in my case Prey). My assumption is that they won’t be able to readily get at my data – except what is stored on my memory card - or even use the phone. If they ever manage to fire it up and connect to the internet then Prey will let me track them and control the handset, but to be safe I immediately changed all my passwords on my web accounts. A hassle for sure but potentially saving a much bigger hassle.

Anyway, back to Rome …

Last time we were here we choose to look around the Roman and Renaissance parts, knowing that the Vatican is a Big Day Out in itself, and best left until you have lots of energy. This time we were all up to it and got there about 8:30 in the morning – the ticket office to the museums opens at 9am. There appear to be two main options: walk around St. Peter’s square and then queue for seeing inside the church (all free), or queue for the museums (including the Sistine Chapel) at a cost of 16 euros each. Our plan was to queue for the museums first before the queue really built up and afterwards go for a walk around the square and pop into the church if the queue wasn’t too big. We hadn’t been prepared for the ticket touts and their very heavy sell. The queue was very long even at this early hour and moved very slowly once the ticket office had opened. So we were standing targets for the touts who were offering tours which give you preferential entry. And they were insisting that we had another 2 hours to go in the queue. Being cheapskates we hung on in the queue and got to the entrance in 45 minutes or so. Here we saw how it all works – they would let in all the groups with preferential entry followed by a group from the commoner’s queue. This meant our queue moved very slowly, however when we got inside the foyer it was relatively quiet and only half the ticket booths were occupied and there was no queue. So, as clearly they can handle a greater number of people entering at a time, the scheme seems to be to constrain the main queue to encourage people to pay more for preferential entry. Undoubtedly an un-Christian thought of mine ..

The museums are in a building shaped like a U – a very long corridor of interconnecting rooms containing the various museums, the Sistine Chapel at the end, then a return to the start via another long corridor of rooms. Only those who have paid for the preferential entry tickets are allowed to sneak out at the Chapel and head straight into St. Peters, the rest have to walk the return leg of the building and then walk back its length on the outside to St. Peters. Several kilometres of walking in total. Hence the first half is an absolute nightmare until the crowds thin after the Chapel. It is very hard to stop to look at anything and full of tour groups surrounding all the best bits. I found it like trying to read a good book with someone else turning the pages just a bit too fast. All of which is a pity as the sheer immensity of the buildings, the richness of the paintings, and the number of objects which they have purloined over the centuries is mind-boggling.

The Sistine Chapel is impressive but, embedded in so many other wonderful rooms, doesn’t stand out as much as expected. Clearly it is the highlight as it is packed with people all looking at the ceiling and strictly controlled by guards who rigorously enforce the “no photographs” rule. As we arrived we witnessed an angry young American (wearing shorts and a cap - both not allowed) delete his photos from his cellphone and then get directed to the exit by the equally angry guards, who added he was disrespectful.  We're inclined to agree with the guards - the rules are clearly stated - if you don't like the rules, don't go there.

Back near the start we found a café with seats outside in a garden, cheap prices, and quiet – where were all those thousands in that queue? Joan and I decided to relax there while the girls went back for a second go at some of the rooms. I was very impressed by what was in the museum and that it was all immaculate, but I didn’t enjoy the experience: far too many touts, far too many people, too rushed through the wonders, too much to take in.  We did walk around to the square and saw the church from the outside, but couldn’t face another queue to get in.

With limited time there is a temptation to walk around and try and see everything, with the result that you get very tired and don't enjoy the experience or really appreciate what you see. Unfortunately with limited time there are limited choices, you could sit in a cafe and enjoy life going past but then it is a long way to come to just do that. So we walked and walked and made it to the Trevi fountain even though we knew it was covered in scaffolding. Though you can't now appreciate how beautiful it is nor the scale, the crowds were smaller and they had built a bridge right up to the front of the sculptures so it did give a different view. My two (other than the Colosseum) favourite Roman sites are the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona. The Pantheon impresses both for its size and sheer age: 1900 years old. It had rained the previous night so the centre of the dome inside was roped off as it is open to the sky and water drains off the slightly concave floor.

The Pantheon

The Piazza Navona contains three beautiful fountains. I didn't take any photos this year so some from last year will have to suffice.






 


As it was our second to last night together we went out for a Roman meal, trying suppli and numerous other dishes our over-enthusiastic waiter/chef decided we ought to have, regardless of what we had actually ordered. We were completely stuffed by the end. Certainly an experience to remember but we weren't keen on all the staff smoking nor watching the restaurant rubbish being wheeled out through the restaurant! The following night we kept it simple and had Chinese in a very hygienic restaurant ...

Joan and Julie's Italian holiday was now over and we accompanied them to the airport train with a few tears in all our eyes. They were very easy to travel with and it was so good to share their wonder and excitement. We will certainly miss them and it reminds us that traveling is often best when you can share the experience.