Rome — Statues, Churches & Cobbled Piazzas
“Could we get the bill please?”, I asked the waiter while motioning in the air the universal sign for “the bill”.
“Si, signor”, he nodded and then promptly asked us, “Vuoi il caffè?”. Hearing the word “caffè”, I knew he was offering us coffee.
“On second thoughts, si”, I answered him. “Uno caffè”. Margarét hadn’t quite yet gotten used to the powerful taste of Italian espresso just yet and ordering cappuccino any time after 11:30am outside of the tourist areas results 99% of the time in a dirty look and an espresso anyway.
The midday sun blazed down upon us as the put-puts of mopeds interrupted the silence of the quiet side-street and Piazza San Francisco. The coffee was strong and bitter and just enough to be knocked back in two sips. “Could we get the bill please”, I motioned yet again to the waiter as he came back to collect the empty cup and saucer.
“Si signor”, and he ducked back into the restaurant. He was dressed imacculately. Imagine Manuel from Fawlty Towers in his sixties, dressed in a white cotton, collared shirt and black waist coat. Rather overdressed for a quiet streetside trattoria.
Five minutes passed by before he emerged, this time carrying a gigantic silver bowl. He placed it down in the middle of the table in front of us. Nuts. It was filled with hazelnuts. Still in the shell. We cracked a few open with the supplied nutcracker and ate them. This time the owner of the restaurant walked by. “The bill please!”, making an even more pronounced gesticulation with my arm.
“Uno momento”, he replied and ducked off back into the restaurant. Perhaps this time we would be lucky and he would actually understand us. He re-emerged carrying a tray of tiny glasses filled with a clear liquid. He placed them down in front of us. This was starting to get a bit worrying.
The drink was bitter and tasted of herbs with a kick like a mule. My whole body shuddered as it slid down the back of my throat. At this point, I smsed my friend Guido and asked him what we should do. Every time we asked for the bill, they would bring us something totally unexpected. “Just go pay inside”, was his response and it worked.
Welcome to Rome. Loud, busy & very, very old. It is beyond cliché. Narrow streets. Gigantic cathedrals. Sidewalk restaurants. It would take a lifetime to take it all in. To be more precise Romans say it takes two lifetimes. It is at first, bewildering. Our first encounter with this city, was Roma Termini — the central train station. It is here that thousands of people arrive and depart the capital every day. It is the third most visited city in Europe and the 11th most visited city in the world. Suffice it to say, it is jam-packed with people, cars and tourists, only to be exacerbated further, on this occasion, by being the week before Easter.
Our apartment was located in the neighbourhood of Prati, about a 10 minute walk from the Vatican City and about a 25 minute walk from most of the main historical sites.
On our first morning, we woke up fairly early and went for a run along the Tiber River. This was most probably the highlight of our visit. It was a Sunday and the air was crisp and chilly. The city was dead quiet. There were no cars, no people, no tourists. We zig-zagged our way down tiny alleys and passed small piazzas (squares). The cobbles Rome is famous for clinking under our feet. Eventually we popped out of an alley where a massive road opened up and a gigantic, white structure stood before us. “That looks like the wedding cake!”, Margaret exclaimed. Wedding cake indeed, it was the monument to Victor Emmanuel and Italy’s tribute to unification. We headed down the road, passed what looked to be a park filled with colossal, ancient Roman columns — some standing, some lying on the ground. Further on down and a few more alleys later, we came upon the Spanish steps, completely devoid of people. At first, we weren’t sure what it was, as all the photos normally show it completely engulfed in people and flowers. Neither of which were present at this time. On the hill, above the steps, we got our first proper view of Rome with the light-blue dome of the Vatican in the background and tolling of church bells coming from the church tower above our heads.
We continued on into the gardens of the Villa Borghese, one of Rome’s biggest parks. Throughout the gardens — and Rome for that matter — you are constantly reminded of the presence of ancient Rome. The mark of the Roman legion (SPQR) on the manhole covers. The heavily eroded water fountains. The odd column or piece of stonework. A partial or entire marble statue of a Roman god. There is so much history here it is boggles the mind.
What’s great about Rome, is you can pick a favourite artist and then track down his paintings in the side chapels of various churches. One of my absolute favourite artists is Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, or Caravaggio for short. If you ever have time I can highly recommend watching the BBC Panorama episode: Who Killed Caravaggio. His paintings are dotted all over Rome and tracking them down is fairly easy if you have the inclination. What’s even more rewarding is seeing them in the chapels of their patrons rather than a stuffy art gallery, especially when you are the only people in the church. The works he produced still hold a spell over their viewers, moreso for me, than most of the other artists I saw in Rome.
Highlights of Rome were the Forum Romanum, with its enormous columns and arches — a remnant of the power and glory of ancient Rome. The Trevi Fountain was beautiful, albeit inundated with visitors. St Peter’s and Vatican is stunning from the outside, but we found the museum to be a bit of a let down — the Sistine Chapel, as amazing as it is, was just too overcrowded. To be fair however, we were here during Holy Week. I really, really loved visiting the crypt at the Santa Maria Concezione dei Cappuccini — the resting place of over 4000 friars — whose bones are arranged in a decorative fashion on the walls and shelves of the crypt. A macabre and beautiful sight.
Despite visiting the Forum Romanum, the Colosseum and the Vatican, the Pantheon with its Oculus was my favourite building. If not for the sheer size of it, then for its age. It’s unsupported, concrete dome is still the world’s largest and is nearly two thousand years old. The power and scale of Ancient Rome, for me, is embodied in this building. Today it is used as a Catholic church but it was built during the time of Jesus as a Roman temple by Marcus Agrippa for his own private use. It has also seen continuous use since then and is beautifully preserved.
Our five days in Rome were ultimately too short to see everything we wanted to, so in order to ensure return we tossed a coin into the Trevi fountain on our last day before moving on to picturesque Todi and beautiful Umbria.
