Well, it's sure taken me long enough to get around to it, but I finally decided to write about my time in Rome.
Unlike when I went to Paris, I flew to Rome. But just like going to Paris, this required spending a lot of time in Belgium, since the best fares nearby were actually from Brussels National Airport. This required three different trains to reach from Maastricht. Luckily, Belgium is a little less than half the size of New Brunswick, so crossing the country via high spend train is done fairly quickly, and I actually arrived at the airport very early. After a few hours of wasting time in the airport I was off to Rome. This was my first time flying the infamous Ryan Air-for those who aren't familiar, Ryan air is basically the cheapest of the cheap, both in terms of prices and in terms of frills. Despite the many stories I'd heard, I actually thought Ryan Air was quite good-I wanted to get somewhere paying the minimum amount, so I didn't quite care about things like free beverage service or that little bag of pretzels you get on Air Canada.
Rome Fiumicino (also known as Leonardo Da Vinci Airport) is a piece outside the city, nearer the ocean, and so getting into the city requires some logistic decisions. I opted to pay €5 for the bus which, other than turning up late, was a fairly good deal, and took us to the same location inside the city as the train would have, for about a third the price. By the time I got to my hostel and checked in, it was around 8:30 PM, but, freshly arrived in Rome, I was far from ready to call it a night. I was also really, really hungry, since I'd somehow convinced myself all day "naw, I'll just wait 'till Rome to have lunch," in spite of knowing that I'd be arriving so late. So, I hit the ground running, wandering the streets of the neighbourhood looking for food that didn't look like it was geared towards tourists. Being tired and hungry makes most people grumpy, but for me I get more indecisive, and so eventually I just settled for a pizza place that seemed moderately local (people yelling at a soccer game on TV in Italian). I actually ate the pizza so quickly that I burned my mouth and didn't taste the first, oh, 90% of what I ate, but the last 10% was pretty good.
Happily fed, my next mission was to go to the Colosseum, since I had a vague notion that it was somewhere nearby. After following a group of nuns (there are plenty in Rome) down a nice street, and then heading through a charming little neighbourhood, I eventually found it. It's almost funny how unceremoniously one just sort of happens upon the Colosseum, this striking ancient building, just causally located next to a subway station and a strip of bars. Being about 10 PM (and given Rome's warm weather), the atmosphere was quite nice-less loud and obnoxious tourists than I would see there the next day, more a mix of couples and individuals with a more reverent attitude.
I actually didn't go to Rome alone; this time, rather, the plan was that a classmate from McGill, Rachel, would be joining me the second night. As she'd been to Rome before, I decided it was best to spend my day there alone efficiently knocking off all the main sites from my list, and so I headed to bed early and was out around 8 AM, hoping to tackle the Vatican before it became swamped with tourists.
I took the Metro from the area I was staying up towards the Vatican, getting off a stop early in hopes of grabbing some breakfast at a more local café. After successfully finding a place where one stands at the counter while eating a cornetto (and Italian croissant) and sipping undrinkably strong coffee (it took everything in my power not to grimace with each sip), I found my way to the growing crowds of tourists near the Vatican. I actually nearly went to the Museums first (not entirely by choice, though any order of doing things was fine by me), until I was stopped by a person trying to sell me tickets that let you skip the line (there's a long line for purchasing tickets, and almost no line for pre-purchased). Something about his spiel reminded me of similar tactics at the Terra Cotta Warriors and other sites in China, and I was pretty sure that the "price list" he had for purchasing tickets at the window was faked, so I headed to the Basilica first.
While a geography nerd like me will point out that I actually left Italy when I went to the Vatican, I was a little disappointed that there's really no sign or other markers to this effect. There's a large open square with large fountains, and off to the side one lines up for metal detectors before entering the Basilica itself. The inside of the Basilica consists of a handful of smaller altars (small not being exactly the right word, since many of them are, in fact, huge), as well as a crypt containing the bodies of many former Popes. There was also the possibility to climb the dome of the Basilica, but that's not really my thing. Instead, I went back out to the little giftshop, and over to the post office to mail some postcards (the Vatican has its own postal service, being a country and all). I'll be honest, I was a little surprised at the sleazy commercialism income parts of the Vatican-the post office wouldn't so much as lend me a pen to write a post card, instead telling me that they cost €1.50 (about three times the price a pen should cost).
After filling up my water bottle at some of the cute little fountains in the middle of the square (with temperatures now nearing the high twenties), I decided it was time to head to the Vatican Museums. Once again, I was greeted with a line of touts trying to sell me admittedly more expensive tickets that offered the possibility of skipping the line (the Vatican itself also offered similar tickets in the gift shops, but unfortunately they didn't take credit cards). The wait ended up being around an hour (which made me a little weary, since I had to be at the AirBnB at a specific time), but the plus side was that, with the student rate, I paid €8 instead of the €20+ for the quicker tickets.
The Vatican Museums were teeming with people, which made them a fair bit less enjoyable, to be honest, as did the unmitigated heat. The Sistine Chapel is within the Museums, and so the throngs of people wanting to catch a glimpse of Michelangelo's work are funnelled through a series of exhibits first, rendering these exhibits nearly un visitable, as tourists jostle their way past magnificent works of art and history. The Chapel itself is, of course, breathtaking, though its religious purpose seems now undermined by the mass of tourists who, inspire of signs (and announcements, ironically), are still not very quiet.
Luckily, the Sistine Chapel seems to keep most people for a while, and so the rest of the museum afterwards was much less crowded and, thus, more pleasant, particularly the gardens. Not knowing how long it would take me to walk to the Air BnB to check in, I didn't hang around too long (though I also didn't miss anything I wanted to see, as some sections were closed). I followed the Tevere (Tiber) river to Trastevere (literally-the other side of the Tiber), where I was staying, and checked into the AirBnB. When booking, the fact that they had A/C didn't really impress me too much-but I sure appreciated it when I got there, with temperatures in the 30s outside.
I stuck around only briefly before heading out to find some gelato and then lunch (in that order). After a nice plate of lasagna (an admittedly nonsensical choice given I was eating outside in 30 degree weather, but it was something I had to have while in Italy), and a brief trip back to the room to cool down again, I set off to see the last few tourist sites before Rachel arrived.
In the mid-afternoon heat, I can't help but think I missed a few sites here and there (or walked past and didn't stop), but one decision I'm glad of having made was to climb a hill that appeared, from the bottom, potentially mildly interesting. At the top, it turned out to host a museum (which I didn't visit) and spectacular views of the Fora Romani and the Colosseum. I had actually thought, after seeing it the night before, that I probably wouldn't mind paying the money to go in both of those attractions. The views from the hill, however, were far superior than the idea of trudging through ruins in the heat, and so I appreciated from afar for a while before climbing down the hill.
After supreme amusement at finding a free sparkling water dispenser outside the Metro, I took a train to the Piazza della Repubblica, and from there walked to the Trevi Fountain (which turned out to be under construction), the Pantheon (at which I arrived precisely at closing), and the Piazza Navona. The sky growing dark, and my legs growing tired, I walked back to Trastevere (which, unfortunately, had no Metro Station), grabbed a piece of pizza (even more delicious than the day before) and a Chinotto soda (which tastes sort of like a cross between a tangerine and liquorice), before setting off to find Rachel.
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