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Published: August 6th 2012
We had organised to stay with a host who lived not far from Tiburtina station which is on the line from the airport. His place was easy to find and in a great location (albeit a bit noisy sometimes). On the first night after a much needed shower we went out to a local place for dinner. It was a very relaxed little place where the food was cheap and good quality. mmmm good food. The waiter recommended a local beer which was delicious too and went well with our various bruschetta and pasta.
In the morning we cut the metro into the Coloseum stops, which surprisingly was right next a well known Roman landmark. On that topic - apparently having the rumbling metro right next to the Coloseum is causing continual structural damage to the ancient ruins. Avoiding the queue we headed over to the entrance to the Palatino and Roman Forum which has a much shorter line and sells a ticket which gets you entry to the Coloseum aswell. It was still a bit of a wait and by the time we got in to the Palatino it was turning into a scorching hot day (and we realised
Standard tourist shot #1
Well, everyone else was doing it!we forgot our sunscreen). Thankfully there was a bit of shade cover around, and also heaps of water fountains (which are all over Rome). The water fountains are odd - they are everywhere and continuously running - no taps. Our host said that people had realised that maybe it was a waste of water, but the council said that if they turned them off there would be too much of a build up of pressure. Odd. What's funny is that Romans (and Italians in general) consume huge amounts of bottled water, even though there tap water is good quality and quite tasty (and available from all these fountains).
Anyway, we had got the audio guide for the Palatino and Forum, but it was pretty confusing with no numbers marked on the ground or on posts - just on a map which was very difficult to follow. The audio talk was pretty dull too so we didn't end up listening to much of it and just wandered around checking out the various ruins.
When we had finished it was lunch time and we were both feeling hungry and pretty heat smashed. We went for a walk to try and
Standard Tourist Shot #2
See previous.
Also - around this point, Chris was realising the problem with wearing black on a 35C+ day. find something to eat. We went the wrong way and ended up in what felt like the business area with few (actually no) food places. Eventually after a long walk we found one and grabbed a pizza and a salad while sitting in the shade.
The Coloseum ticket was valid for the next day aswell, so instead of heading back there we wandered around Rome a bit more and checked out a few of the classic sites (Pantheon - beautiful and huge, Trevis Fountain - cool and refreshing, etc.)
Friday morning we went in to the Coloseum first up to take a look around. It's pretty amazing to think about the history of the place and try and imagine it full of 50000 people watching the battles taking place down below. When it was first built (back in around 70-80AD), the floor of the arena could be removed and then flooded with water so mock naval battles could be fought! The floor was later made solid. Some of the other fights included hunts where wild animals were killed by armed hunters (in one event which lasted 117 days 10000 animals were killed!). In another show we read about,
the arena was filled with ostriches which were then all decapitated with arrows. Ahh them good old days! The gladiator battles were always popular and continued up until 434 AD.
We then went to the other side of the river to check out St Peter's Basilica. Unfortunately the tour we were hoping to do wasn't running that day, but it's still a great place to wander around and admire the art and the sheer enormity of the place. We were hoping to see the pope pop in or cruise by in his pope-mobile, but he must've been busy with other things. This was followed by some awesome gelati from a shop right near the Basillica. After we got our choice, we went and sat on the grass under a tree (near everyone else eating the same gelati - it was popular!) and then had a bit of a doze. A bit of a slow wander back into the old section then followed until it was dinner time and we sought out a pizza joint recommended in the Guide Book (and our host also said was very well known). Even though it wasn't open when we got there, there was
Games area
More old Roman stuff - an arena of sorts. a queue waiting (mainly consisting of Americans by the accents - no self respecting Italian would eat that early!). The pizza was delicious but the waiter was almost comically rude, which was funny as the owner seemed very friendly. When the grumpy waiter gave us our bill we gave the exact amount and he through a tantrum that he didn't get a tip and walked off compaining loudly. Haha - as if he's getting a tip!
Saturday, and another scorcher of a day was in store for us. It's extremely draining trying to get around in this heat! In the morning we caught the bus to Villa Borghese park (briefly stopping to check out a nice bike shop) with a plan to head to the museum there. We remembered that you have to call and book entry (it's very small and quite popular), so we gave them a quick call and couldn't get an entry until 5pm! We booked that slot and decided to spend the morning looking in some shops and checking out some other touristy things. The day passed pretty quickly and pretty soon we were climbing the Spanish Steps (another tourist spot inhabited by guys trying
Pantheon
Complete with tricky optical illusion (the ceiling is smooth, but shaded to look like square tiles. to sell cheap crappy souvenirs or trying to trick tourists into handing over money in amusing ways) and walking back to the Borghese park and then trying to find our way to the museum (the park is HUGE). The museum/gallery had some nice works inside from a wide variety of styles. There was a great statue by Bernini depicting Pluto grabbing Persephone in which he managed to make the marble of her thigh look soft as flesh due to Pluto's hands making imprints. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed - so no happy snaps.
When we got home, we went out for dinner to local place with our host (our shout). He recommended a local restaurant and it was superb through we ate way too much. He convinced us to try out a local speciality for dessert from a seperate little cafe. It's called cremolato and is kinda like mashed frozen fruit. It's finely ground like sorbet but also contains some lumps and tastes amazing. We tried strawberry, rockmelon, peach and fig and they were all tasty. A great way to finish off our time in Rome!
Sunday morning and we packed our bags, drank some more coffee and
Pantheon
(and a few tourists) walked down to the station to grab our train to Florence. Our host (Alfi) was off to Sydney in two days after we left, so hopefully he's having a great time back in Australia now!
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