October 27-29, The Travesties of Our Time in Rome Part I

Rome just might be my favorite city ever. I love the life of the city and that around every corner is another piece of incredible history. I also love that the city is a real city – overcrowded, graffitied, smelly and generally inhospitable until you learn its ways. But once you learn its ways the city is glorious.

We hopped on the train in Arona and arrived in Rome in the afternoon.

The first travesty of Rome is not Rome's fault – we did not have much time budgeted for this magnificent city – only 3 nights. We tried to get 4 nights but our hotel was full and we couldn't manage (mentally) finding another hotel for just one night.

The second travesty of our time in Rome (this is Rome's fault) – accommodation is EXPENSIVE. We thought this was even more true about Rome than it was about Paris. Because we couldn't find any doubles in our price range, Rome became our first experiment with the dorm. Fortunately for us we found (through Rick Steves book) The Beehive which advertised their dorms as quiet – with quiet hours. We booked it and were very pleasantly surprised that it was great (for a dorm). Duncan had some trouble sleeping the first night but was exhausted enough the next two to sleep well. I, surprisingly slept like a baby all nights.

Third travesty of our time in Rome – to the Wilson's, the Colosseum is overrated – the true gems are the Forum and Palatine Hill. This travesty really stems from both our dislike of huge, disrespectful, unmanageable crowds and paying a lot of money. I had been here once before and had some fuzzy memories, mostly of being annoyed that I couldn't hear the tour guide. The Colosseum is interesting and makes for a great picture, but because its image is so accessible and identifiable, if you know its history it (to me) does not add much to my image to physically be there fighting through crowds. The interesting part of being at the Colosseum for Duncan and I was following around a Thai group and Duncan eavesdropping on their tour.

What was incredibly interesting and made the ticket to the Colosseum worth it was the Forum and Palatine Hill. It's incredible to stroll the streets of the Forum and imagine Caesar walking the same route. One particularly impressive building was the HUGE basilica that Constantine had built. The scale was also impressive on Palatine hill. You can completely imagine the gardens and flowing fountains from the palatial ruins in front of you. On one hilltop we were able to see Circus Maximus below us, a oval shaped track for chariot races, that could hold up to 250,000 spectators!!!

Fourth travesty of our time in Rome – open bus tour in the biggest rain storm in 15 years. To get the lay of the land we bought tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour around Rome. We hopped off at the Colosseum and did our tour. When we hopped back on and began our way back to Termini train station we encountered torrential rain. Because it had been raining earlier in the day, I bought a cheap umbrella from one of the many men (mostly if not all immigrants) trying to make some money to live. I bargained him down to a 'special price' especially for me – right. . . :) Of course by the time its pouring my special price umbrella already has one part of its fabric cover detached from the frame. We were soaked!!! Being good citizens of whatever country we happen to be in, we dutifully took home as much water as we could carry in our shoes, socks, and pant legs. Who knew that jeans have capillary action and suck up water like a straw? :) Apparently it rained 3 inches and areas of Rome were completely flooded and some roads impassable.


Andrea