For travel bloggers and travel addicts alike, the day the UK government announced its list of Covid-19 quarantine exempt countries was like a starting gun. Vague travel plans were immediately fixed and flights hurriedly booked. Just five days later, Mr Fluskey and I donned our face masks and backpacks ready for an Italian escape. Of course, as with pretty much everything else at the moment, flying was likely to be very different. We readied ourselves the new normal in air travel.
To catch up on the first part of our visit, read Rome, Italy Part 1 – Popes, Paintings and Parents . Day two of our three day stop in Italy and we set out for some more Rome-based shenanigans.
Morning saw us waiting on a sun-drenched platform, waiting for the local train into Rome. The station itself was very unkempt, graffitied heavily and nearly deserted. The train was equally dilapidated but had the added advantage of being somewhat quaint, adding up to charmingly shabby. Let’s call it rustic. Once in Rome, we hit the streets, ready to do some serious sightseeing.
We started at the Colosseum, where we greeted by an enormous queue. We grudgingly took our place. The stewards decided to split the line and somehow Karl nipped into the new line, saving us a good half an hour’s queue time. Irate tourists began to yell at us and I desperately tried to turn myself invisible. Horrendously embarrassed as I was, I only managed to turn red. I didn’t move out of the queue though, so maybe I wasn’t all that bothered after all. After studiously ignoring the European insults flying at our backs for twenty minutes or so, we made it to the ticket office and entered the Colosseum itself.
The Colosseum is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. The list (which we started in 2009 and finally completed on our honeymoon in 2016) consists of:
The Colosseum is very special. I loved the way you could see the different layers of the building. At the bottom the cells of Gladiators and their victims. Moving up to the fancy boxes where the great and good of Rome would watch the bloodbaths.
My Horrible Histories came flooding back and I marvelled that I was standing in the largest amphitheatre ever built, that has lasted (more or less) nearly 2000 years. I have worked at the Royal Albert Hall, a concert venue in London that is based on a roman amphitheatre. It holds 5000 people, and to think that the Colosseum could hold 10 to 15 times this many is mind-boggling. At least they didn’t have to worry about people taking photos.
“Excuse me Sir, but when the performance starts, you’ll have to pop that flint and tablet away. Maximus Flavius has requested no carvings this evening”
Back onto the streets, and after a lovely little lunch opposite Andrew’s old international school, we ventured onward by bus to more famous sights. I now can’t remember which order we visited them, so here, in no particular order…
The dome of the Pantheon is immense, it is the largest unsupported concrete dome in the world. However, you enter from the front of the building thinking that the whole thing looks a little squat. I think we are used to seeing these vast domes balancing atop great churches and so, unable to see it behind the classical facade, I was a little unsure of what to expect. But, when you step inside and take in the huge hole in the roof that opens to the sky, the scale of the thing really hits home.
It was originally built almost 2000 years ago and it has been in continuous use since. It began life as a Roman temple but was converted into a Christian church when Roman Gods fell out of favour. It’s a bit of a geometrist’s wet dream, all circles, squares and perfect alignment. The top opens to the sky, an oculus that lets in the sun, people are theorising that it may be a giant sun dial. Very pleasing to the eye.
In the centre of Rome sits a cluster of ancient temples, churches and public buildings which date from the Roman Empire. Tourists are free to wander among these ruins and picture the throngs of people who lived there 2000 years ago. Whilst nowhere near as well preserved as Pompeii, the names of the buildings ignite something in the imagination. The area is literally littered with famous spots. The podium that Shakespeare used to give Mark Antony his big moment, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears”, the place where the original Roman senate sat (although this is now a reconstruction) and most evocative for me, the temple of the Vestal Virgins.
Romans worshipped fire in the form of the Goddess Vesta and the priestesses charged to guard the sacred flame were white robed girls, recruited at a young age and required to remain pure and untouched until they had completed their 30 year service to the Goddess. I had visions of ethereal ladies in floating white gowns carrying urns of water and wine, I wonder which childhood book I saw this in…?
We gathered around this beautiful Baroque fountain, arguably one of the world’s best known, and gazed at the rippling water. There is something oddly pleasing about a nice fountain. It can hold me spellbound for a much greater time than the equivalent statue, that’s for sure. If I ever become famous enough to be memorialised in stone, I would like to be expelling water somehow. We tossed our coins into the water using our right hands and throwing them over our left shoulders in the time-honoured tradition. I don’t normally go in for chucking my money away quite so frivolously (excluding my trips to Primark) but it would seem rude not to! Throwing the coins in means that we will return to Rome one day. Having lost all our photos, we probably will.
In the evening, back at the house, Andrew’s Dad provided the dinner table with a gargantuan bowl of spaghetti carbonara. Karl and I had both expressed our great love of the dish and he had taken on the challenge. It looked wonderful, and if I liked onion, it would have been. Unfortunately, I intensely dislike the entire allium family (excluding garlic), and so I spent the duration of the meal trying to subtly pick it out of the tangle of spaghetti, sauce and bacon. I wonder if they noticed the pile of translucent layers hidden under the last little bit of pasta at the end of dinner?
The next morning, a quick lift back to Ciampino Airport and we jumped on our next flight, en route to Barcelona.
(I took some pretty good photos in Rome but the camera was stolen elsewhere on the trip so I don’t have them any more)
Rosie xx
You join us on our first day in Rome, Italy as part of our mini trip around Europe.
Ciampino is Rome’s second airport and it lies 7.5 miles South of the city. To reach the centre, jump aboard the E1 bus which takes you to a train station, from which you can travel into Rome’s main train station. For once, however, we had somebody coming to meet us. Andrew, our university friend, lived near Castel Gandolfo in a forested community of large, rather fancy houses. We were booked in to stay with them for three nights.
Castel Gandolfo is an extremely picturesque little town 15 miles South-West of Rome. It is home to a peach festival in July and sits on the shore of the beautiful Lake Albano. The Papal Summer Palace dwarfs one side of the town’s central square, guarded by the flamboyantly bedecked Swiss Guard, the Pope’s military guard.
Looking for somewhere to stay? Check out A Bed in Castel Gandolfo – Atlantis Inn B&B Review
Our first day in Rome, we decided to tackle the Vatican. Although August’s tourist rush in London was a distant memory, the crowds were still flocking to Rome where the temperature was peaking at 28°C. As we approached Vatican City we saw a snaking queue that disappeared around the corner in both directions. Touts descended claiming a three hour wait and offering queue jumps and private tours for a hefty sum, around €80 a pop. Declining and locating the back of the queue, we settled in for the long wait. I wonder if I would have been willing to shell out if it had been a freezing cold day?
The line took about about an hour, which was a pleasant surprise. There was airport style security at the head of the queue which was weirdly exciting. They didn’t stamp our passports though which I was a little sad about. If you call yourself a city state, you should get a passport stamp for going!
Travelling in Europe one can experience a touch of church fatigue (known in Asia as temple fatigue). This is a condition caused by seeing too much of one sort of amazing building or art. The sufferer can become blind to the beauty around them, the feet can begin to hurt and a general sluggishness can set in. I found that my touristy trudging around the Vatican left me feeling a little churched out. Fine art was everywhere. Paintings and sculptures lined every room and corridor. No doubt, the Italian renaissance work on show is great artistry but I ended up feeling a little blasé. I caught myself wondering if the car park we were walking past was full of nun’s cars, and trying to spot the Popemobile.
Check out all our travels around Italy
The highlight for most visitors is the Sistine Chapel. In large groups, you enter the room, past the no photography signs. Once to capacity, the doors are shut and everyone stares skywards at Michelangelo’s famous ceiling. While undoubtedly a backbreaking, breathtaking artistic accomplishment (amazing for something over 500 years old) and very beautiful, the whole experience is marred a bit by the guards berating the camera-wielding tourists (I can only imagine that this is ten times harder with the proliferation of smartphones). Add to this the fact that I am partially sighted and so couldn’t see the thing from ground level and you’ll see why I couldn’t wait to get out and look at it on a poster instead.
Next door to Vatican City is St Peter’s Basilica. It sits in a grand piazza with great columns marking out a large semicircle on one side and the Cathedral on the other. It is from here that the Pope delivers his sermons. St Peter’s is vast, grand, titanic! An unexpected “oooo” escaped me as I looked up at the dome in the distance. Tiny people were moving around the edge. We had to climb it! So off we trotted to the lift that whisks visitors to the base of the dome. Gazing back down to the people below gave the tummy just a little flip. Then began the great climb to the top. Stairs that varied from a winding stairway disappearing around the bend of the dome, to a ladder like scramble upwards led us ever skywards. We emerged into the roof breathless and disorientated. It is the highest dome in the world (when you include the cross on the top) and so the views over the rooftops of Rome and the Vatican are fantastic. To celebrate the climb we indulged in some creamy gelato just across the road from the Vatican.
Check out our second part Rome, Italy Part 2 – Coins, The Colosseum and Cutting Queues
That evening we were taken, by Andrew’s incredibly generous Mum and Dad, to a restaurant overlooking a glittering lake. I ordered the four cheese gnocchi. When it came, I was saddened to see it was the most diminutive dish on the table. The gnocchi was small and light but the sauce was incredibly rich that I almost couldn’t finish the dish. It was super filling and utterly indulgent. I went to bed wondering what crazy cheese-filled nightmares awaited me.
(I took some pretty good photos in Rome but the camera was stolen in Barcelona on the trip so I don’t have them any more)
Rosie xx