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Published: March 18th 2008
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Arch of Constantine
This Arch marks the defeat of Maxentius by his rival Emperor Constantine in AD 312 in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. After triumphing, Constantine legalised Christianity. This was the turning point in religious history and made Christianity mainstream. Ciao Ciao
Well here we find ourselves in the centre of the ancient world - Roma! To be honest, while we were looking forward to seeing the sights and ticking the big box that is Rome, we were expecting to not enjoy Rome. We were expecting pickpockets galore, bad food, crazy Italians, everything so expensive we can’t eat, 2 hour waits for all the sights and a typical “big city” feel. Upon landing at Rome’s Leondardo Da Vinci airport and effortlessly catching the “Leonardo Express” train right into the main train station which happened to be 200 metres from our apartment we were pleasantly surprised. The central station was a hub of activity (and no doubt pickpockets with very nice Italian leather shoes!) but it had a certain energy to it that other big European cities we’ve visited didn’t have. Our Rick Steves’ guidebook (yes I know, very American of us but he has great commentary on the Vatican City sites!) describes this feeling as; “while Paris is an urban garden, Rome is a magnificent tangled forest.” For those that haven’t been to Paris, the comparison will not mean much but you can get the tangled forest bit for sure
Colosseo (Colosseum aka The Flavian Amphitheatre)
Look familiar? The Colosseum is 2000 years old and showcases the ingenuity of the Romans in building. They could build on this massive scale because they had pioneered the use of concrete and the rounded arch. It could hold 50 000 fans and unlike today, it had a ginormous awning that sailors would hoist up and fix to protect the fans from the rain or the sun. - that is Rome! In this city you don’t wait for traffic (or pedestrians) to give way you have to walk out in front of them confidently, a bit difficult when they’re coming towards you at crazy speeds! In order to fit everything into the time we have to spend in Italy we had to take a day off our Rome visit which meant we had to plan our sightseeing and Go Go Go! It was utterly exhausting but at the end of each day we’d crash and have a good night’s sleep.
Our first day in Rome we made a quick trip to the church, Santa Maria della Vittoria to see the famous St Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini. The church looked like nothing special on the outside in fact didn’t even look like a church but inside was very pretty and some nice man in front of us put 50 cents into the machine to light up the statue so we could all take photos of it. We decided we weren’t up for the crowds at the Vatican so decided to visit the National Gallery and Colosseum instead.
The Colosseum is as you’d expect it -
massive! And most definitely in a state of ruin. We knew it was in ruins but the image in our heads had it in much better working order than it was. We had a quick stroll around the Roman Forum before heading to the Borghese Museum where we had to reserve our tickets at a certain time. It seems in most of Italy’s big cities, the sites that have the biggest drawcards require reservations. Some you need to book 2 months in advance, even in slow season! Crazy amount of tourists in this country.
We also paid a visit to the most well preserved site in Rome, the Pantheon. From the outside it looks like a jail to be honest, it is an enormous structure but not very pretty. Once inside though it is gorgeous and perfectly preserved. It became a church dedicated to martyrs and so it was spared by the Barbarians who plundered Rome and so the locals didn’t use it for building material as they did the Roman Forum buildings and the Colosseum.
Trying to put off the crowds of the Vatican as much as possible our second day began with a proper walk through
the Roman Forum with our guide books “commentary”. It was so interesting and amazing to learn what these ruins used to be. Kind of hard to imagine what it would have looked like in its heyday though. We’ve tried to write detailed captions on the pictures we’ve attached so hopefully they bring some meaning to the Forum. Other than that, it is quite literally just a very large area of buildings now reduced to rubble! This day was also the warmest day we’ve had in months (about 17 degrees in the sun). We even got a bit sunburnt! It was so lovely to have the sun shining on us again.
We navigated our way through the streets of Rome and found the stunning Trevi Fountain. This monument is again, massive and absolutely spectacular. A little too packed with tourists to truly appreciate it but it was a beautiful site surrounded by an ordinary city square. We both threw coins into the fountain over our shoulders to ensure our return to Rome! To add more luck (and because we didn’t want to throw away good euro currency) we threw in our last Czech crown (our favourite country yet). Fingers crossed
Inside the Colosseum
See the maze of tunnels that used to sit under the floor. it works as we’d both like to return to Rome again.
We had some time to spare so decided to check out the Vatican today and upon finding the lines manageable at St Peter’s Basilica decided to check it out (plus it’s free so we can always come back tomorrow!). It, again, is as you’d expect - massive. We actually got some half decent photos of the interior but they still don’t do it justice - you’ll all just have to see it for yourselves one day. The statues in this church are ginormous, the biggest we’ve seen but then again it is the Vatican isn’t it! We didn’t climb the dome as we were exhausted from the days trekking around the city so decided we’d come first thing tomorrow (dome opens before the museum which was the last thing on our list of must see’s). When we came out of St Peter’s Basilica the weather had changed, no more sun just dark rain clouds. Oh well, we enjoyed it while it lasted!
Our last day in Rome began with an early (ish) pilgrimage to Vatican City to join the masses waiting to get into the Vatican Museum.
Romans outside the Colosseum
These guys are so crude and rude. They dress up as Romans and try to con tourists into paying loads of Euros to have their photo with them. We thought it might be a good shot but they were so rude we decided to steal a photo from the top floor of the Colosseum. We were surprised to find the queue not too bad and lined up for an hour and a half in the rain only to be told when we got to the entrance that the line was for guided tours only!!!!! We were instructed to join the line for individuals that by this stage was extremely long! Not happy Jan! There was someone letting people in just around the corner from the entrance and we tried to sneak in but got told no. But we were fed up (and wet even though we had umbrellas - the rain was persistent) so slipped in a few metres up. Not being the most inconspicuous of couples Daniel crouched down a bit and we covered our faces with our umbrella’s so the people on the corner couldn’t recognise us....and we got in! For karma’s sake of course though - we let a few others in front of us! Things got even better from there on in because we managed to both get in at student prices using our “Under 26 cards” even though of course, Daniel is no longer under 26......and neither of us are students! We saved ourselves 10 euros so decided to
add that to the lunch budget and spoil ourselves with a sit down pizza.
The Vatican Museum is, like most Rome sites, very large and we did get lost a few times amongst the halls and halls of tapestries and heads of past emperors and nobleman. There were only a few things that we really wanted to see (which of course were the same things everyone else did as well) but we got to see them all relatively easy. We can only imagine how awful Rome is during the height of summer when the tourists numbers double (at least). It rained all day so we didn’t think it worth climbing the 300 odd steps to the stop of the dome just to see nothing but rain. Lucky we threw those coins into Trevi Fountain - we’ll have to come back to do the dome some time!
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Sonya
non-member comment
Hi Trish and Daniel, Just wanted thankyou for taking the time to write all these wonderful travel blogs and to let you know how lovely and refreshing it has been to read them all these months and to see all those wonderful and amazing places you've been so lucky to visit. Love hearing about the history of each place too. You both look really well and sound like you are having a fabulous time over there. Keep smiling and take care, look forward to hearing more. Love Sonya, Simon, Marina, Alana, Hannah and Sean xxx