When in Rome...

Well I can pretty much promise that Italians visit Rome like Floridians visit Disney. Yes it happens, but unless you have a job there it’s for a weekend or short visit rather than hanging out and riding the Tower of Terror over and over again. There were a lot of Italians… Americans, Germans, etc. but I believe very few actual Romans visiting the Coliseum or working through the mob at the Spanish Steps. I am happy to report that when Dad and I got lost on a search for the Pantheon, we did see a lot of actual Romans in the cracks of the city between all of the tourist destinations and we saw a lot of Rome as a result too.

Dad and I were attempting a MySpace photo in front of the Coliseum and a nice man who spoke either French, German, or some combination of the two motioned and offered to take the photo for us. I love fellow tourists.

I am proud to report that after being forced to figure out how to get home from Ostia Antica, we were pros at getting into the city. (Getting around it was a different story, but I’ll explain more of that in a bit) A bus and two trains later we were walking up the steps at Colosseo. If you have never had this experience, it’s one I highly recommend. This was my second time, I knew what to expect, and I still got giddy. You exit out of the Metro station and literally across the street is the Coliseum… and not it in the distance, but very much in your face. We voted against waiting in line to get in because we have both seen the interior and just wanted to experience of walking around it and taking the vastness in. Saying it’s big is an understatement and it still amazes me how old and massive it is. This is one of those things that I would’ve loved to see when it was in its prime. At some the Catholic Church decided it would be cool to strip it of the marble and statuary because they thought it would be more beneficial in … yeah. Renaissance churches and palaces… yeah. Oh well it’s still pretty impressive when you consider what when on there and the number of people they could fit in the structure. We also decided to walk around the forum and not actually go in. The forum and Coliseum are neighbors and I actually got better photos walking around both than going in. Sometimes with the Roman remains it’s better to photograph from a distance rather than up close… columns start to resemble each other and one rock looks like the next. Dad and I had both seen the Forum also so it was cool to just walk around it and take it in that way.

This is a side detailed shot of the Coliseum. I decided that because it is thousands of years old that it would look cool in black and white – I have to say it does.

The best photos of the Forum are taken from the top of the hill you climb after you’ve walked through it. We found where the base was and climbed up to get the photo of the Forum with the city of Rome behind it.

This car makes the Smart Cars look big. It’s Luigi from the movie “Cars”!

We decided to do something neither one of us had done so we took a cue from Fodor and made reservations to go to the Borghese Gallery located on the outskirts of the city in what is considered Rome’s Central Park. The museum requires reservations to enter and they only allow so many people in for a 2 hour period of time in order to view and experience all of the art. We had to check our bags at the door and like I said had 2 hours to explore. The art was alright. I got to see Caravaggio’s “David and Goliath” which was awesome and a bunch of Bernini sculptures which was fun too. Other than that the art was interesting, but nothing to write about. What was great were the frescos inside of the villa. The entire purpose of the building was to serve as a villa for the Borghese family to have a private residence that could also be used as a diplomatic seat and place to house the extensive collection of art they had acquired. The marble, mosaics, and frescos were more breathtaking than the art hanging on the walls and that alone made the trip out there worth it.

We were pretty beat by the time we got out of there and decided to refresh at a café for a cold drink and my first gelato which I am happy to report not only recharged us completely, but was fantastic. We chatted with a couple from New Zealand who were on a month and a half long holiday. The man was an engineer and did some sail races in his neck of the woods… small world.

Mow and I enjoying our first gelato of the trip. It was so good and so refreshing.

When we were ready to move on and try to find the Pantheon, one of the points of interest on our list, we realized we had no idea where we were. Dad fired up the Garmin, which has a Darth Vader voice by the way, and it started leading us in one direction, then another, then it would get lost and shut down… this is the point in the story where we got to see the “Real Rome”. I have no idea how much we walked or where we were on the map. What started off as a .8 mile walk all of a sudden would change to 1.2 mile and then to a .6 mile. Then it would lose its place and shut off and we would wander trying to use the map located in the Fodor. I’m not sure we could’ve looked more like tourists. Not that it matters really considering we are tourists, but we were far off the beaten path. I have to say that even though we were hot, and even though we were terribly lost and walking in circles in a very big city, I had a lot of fun. It was a really great experience seeing the neighborhoods and various shopping districts I would’ve never seen if we had actually made it to our destination on the first try.

On our quest for the Pantheon we passed a Disney Store… it looks exactly the same as a Disney Store in the states. On the way to the train station, on the bus, we saw a fair like park that had paintings of Disney characters along the gate. The Mouse is everywhere here. There is no escaping him.

I found Frankie, my pug, a boyfriend. He’s a little on the plump side, but he’s that Italian stallion I promised I’d bring back for her.

Something else you run into in a city as old and historical as Rome is a multitude of churches and monuments. We must’ve run across 4 different points of tourist interest before we reached our final destination. We stumbled across the Spanish Steps on accident and didn’t even know where we were. There was a sea of people and we had no idea what was going on. We eventually found an English speaking person and asked “Where are we?”. The nice lady answered that we were at the Spanish Steps one of the most popular destinations in Rome. Oh.

Where are we? With that crowd you would thing Disney World, but no we were at the Spanish Steps. This is the view from the steps, the sea of people was amazing.

When Dad and I realized we had stumble across a tourist destination and the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican we decided to sit, enjoy the sights, and regroup.

When we finally did make it to the Pantheon, it was more of an accomplishment than a sightseeing destination. It became a quest, and that was our Holy Grail. I don’t remember why we chose to see that over other things, but we did and we made it! It’s a cool building. It had one of the biggest domes for a really long time and there is of course some pretty cool statues and marble work.

The Pantheon! They were doing some sort of restoration work so there was scaffolding on the front, but it was glowing like the Holy Grail to us. We went inside and ohhed and Ahhed at the dome and statuary and then sat down to gain enough energy to make it to the Metro.

On our walk to the Metro the sun was beginning to set and the light was hitting this church at such a great angle I couldn’t pass it up. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little rusty with the camera, but I can still see the light.

The next quest was to find the Metro station and get back to the boat… during rush hour. Again we got to experience what Romans really do. 3 trains this time and a bus ride home we got to walk back to the boat in the dark and crash. I think we had crackers and munchie food for dinner because we were both too tired to actually make anything or to walk to a restaurant and eat.