Away a Wile: Rome Wasn't Seen in a Day

Rome. The eternal city. Home of the greatest ancient empire ever seen. Home of the Catholic Church and the impressive Vatican City. Home of legends, monuments and history. Rome is the former centre of the world and still retains a lot of it glory and magnificence, even if some of it is in ruins. Loading up our schedule with all of this and more we set about discovering not just the tourist sites but the ‘real Rome’. Join us as we ‘do as the Romans do’ and explore not just the main sites but some out of the spotlight spaces as well.

We arrived at Rome Termini and were fully prepared to do battle with hordes of beggars, pickpockets and unsavoury characters that previous travellers and online sources had told us about. It wasn’t that bad in the end and we easily made our bus connection to our hotel without being hassled. Our host was so friendly he spent about 30 minutes taking me through every last detail of the place and the transport system and what to see. A little overkill but I appreciate enthusiastic service and a warm welcome to an unfamiliar place.

The Vatican

Just down the road from where we were staying is the Vatican City, the world’s smallest nation with only ~800 citizens including the new Pope Francis, or Frank as we like to call him. We decided to drop by and say G’day as we heard Cardinal Pell had been called to Rome to sort out a few things. You’ve no doubt seen St Peters square on TV or even in Angels and Demons but in full sunlight on a clear day it is really quite something. The circular shape of the square is meant to represent the arms of the church embracing all who enter the square. St Peters Basilica is the impressive building from which Frank speaks to the crowd for mass on Wednesdays, we almost went on Wednesday just to see him but opted for the ‘regular’ tourist experience instead, apparently hearing Frank speaks comes at further cost… a little cheeky we think.

The chairs are out for Franks visit on Wednesday

St Peters Basilica is the single most impressive structure we’ve been to, the outside is impressive enough but inside it stands alone on its own tier of opulence, magnificence and pure overwhelming beauty. We did buy an audioguide for the place but it’s so big with chapels in every available space and statues in every other available space that to listen to it all would take hours. The floors, walls, columns and ceiling are masterpieces of architecture and decoration and you literally just stand and stare, gaping at the splendour of it all. I could go on and on but just trust me, we’ve seen just about every top tier cathedral in Europe and this place is next level, naturally Michelangelo had a hand in it.

The next stop was the Vatican museum including The Sistine Chapel. Or as we jokingly call it, the sixteenth chapel. To get to it you need to exit the Vatican and walk around the border, which is a massive high wall about a kilometre long to enter the other side through the museum. The usual hands were out every 10 meters of the walk around the wall along with the usual pan handlers and knock off sellers. False guides offering tickets and their services inundate you with offers too. By this stage we simply ignore, not even a shake of the head or a glance in their direction, it’s not that we’re cold hearted but if you give these people an opening they can trap you or will follow you for ages. We saw many tourists try and talk to them, politely refusing offers only to get pinned down. Head down, eyes forward and walk briskly.

Saint Peters Basilica is free to visit which is pretty good given how impressive it is. The Vatican museum is not. It’s not quite outrageously expensive, but it is close. We spent hours inside exploring all the exhibits from ancient Egyptian pieces to Pope Franks latest ‘popemobile’. A recurring question in our heads was, why does the Vatican have this stuff? Principally referring to ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek and other exquisite parts of history that have found their way into the Vatican’s extensive collection.

It seems a combination of donations from important people throughout history to win the Popes good favour (Kings, Emperors, Queens and so on) and Popes themselves that have fancied the pieces and bought them for the collection. Its unthinkable today to imagine a religious leader using donations to purchase works of art and ancient statues but apparently that was the norm back in the 1600s. We question the ethics of it all…The paintings throughout the museum in former apartments, halls and corridors are out of this world. Works by Raphael, Michelangelo and other renowned artists literally cover the interior of the building like wallpaper. Your eyes don’t know where to look at times as there is just too much to focus on one point which brings us to, the Sistine Chapel.

Right at the end of the tour through the museum is the Sistine Chapel. We had been warned going in that they take the ‘no pictures’ policy very seriously. Sure enough no fewer than ten ‘shooshers’ were roaming the room and loudly calling out people who dared defied the ‘no pictures’ rule. That aside the ceiling is overwhelming. You seriously don’t know where to look, there’s so much going on that you can’t look at one thing it just makes your brain explode! We sat on the side of the chapel for a long time, craning our necks to try and absorb as much of the astonishing ceiling as possible. Obviously we don’t have our own photos, the ‘shooshers’ were far too efficient for us to get even a cheeky snap off inside. Trust us, we bring you a lot of ‘naughty shots’, these include the statue of David, not because he’s naked, but because he’s off limits for photos…

We finished up going outside into the gardens for a bit of sunshine before we went to the ‘popemobile’ exhibit. We saw everything from exquisite horse saddles right up through carriages to early cars and the final white Fiat jeep ‘popemobile’ complete with bullet proof case, even the ‘popemobile’ that John Paul II was shot in. There was a peculiar piece in there though. A brand new 2003 model original beetle. The very last one to roll off the production line in Mexico in 2003 was donated to Pope by the president of VW Mexico when the production line closed.

The exit of the Vatican Museum

After we left the Vatican we got to the metro to the Spanish Steps, they’re very famous for some reason, I personally think they’re overrated… they’re just stairs. Regardless we were there to get the walking tour of Rome and see some of the classic sights. Unfortunately half the tourists in Rome were there too, making finding our tour guide on the limited information in my memory impossible. We gave up and decided to do our own walking tour anyway.

View from the Spanish Steps

We made our way down the main shopping drag which is in front of the steps and down the central street of Rome before finding the Trevi fountain. This is where the other half of all the tourists in Rome were congregating, nevertheless we made our way around and through the throng and completed the Trevi fountain ritual of flipping the coin in and making a wish, only to see an enterprising man with a magnetic wand fishing out coins. He was aiming for the big coins, we only threw 2 cent coins in, guaranteeing our wish a longer life in the Trevi pool.

A little further down from the Trevi is the Pantheon. This is the oldest single piece concrete dome in the world. It’s also a little different in that the ceiling is left unpainted or decorated which we liked. The feat of pulling off a single piece concrete dome like this back in the day is impressive enough without covering it murals and frescos. Whilst the pantheon is technically a religious building with many chapels it is not a church and no ceremonies or masses are held here. Best part is, it’s free!

The Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Dome of Illusion.

We were determined to cram as much in as possible in Rome, Italy in general really, so rising early we go to the colosseum at a reasonable hour. This did not mean anything though, the queue was already ridiculous. The line was several hundred people long and because the site is round (duh) you couldn’t see the end of the queue. Fortunately a man came around and told us if we wanted to do the guided tour (which we did) you could walk straight to counter 10 and buy tickets bypassing the general queue! Awesome! Walking past the enormous line we paid with our organs for entry and the extended length all access guided tour, it turned out to be worth it though. With 40 minutes to kill before the tour started we walked the site on our own, just taking in the size and scale of it.

Being honest I was initially disappointed, where was the gleaming structure you see in all the advertising and photos? Turns out the inside was completely stripped from about 500AD onwards and the marble reused elsewhere, fortunately at least the underground level was buried preserving at least some of the original parts of the monument. So the inside is a mass of red bricks and requires your imagination to see the huge crowds, gladiator battles and lion hunts.

We met our guide who is a genuine archaeologist and has done numerous excavations at the colosseum and the surrounding area. She took us through the place, bottom to top. The lower level is the only intact area as it was buried and saved from plundering unlike the above ground areas. She showed us the intricate lift system that brought the animals, scenery and fighters to the surface and explained the horrid conditions the slaves would have worked in.

Above ground we went through the levels and learnt about the ringside safety system of copper fencing and spinning swivels that nothing could grab hold of. In nearly 500 years of operation no crowd fatalities from escapees were recorded. Amazingly all the societal classes were not only separated on different levels but also had different access halls so they never even saw each other in passing! Phew, heaven forbid the politicians meet the people who pay the taxes.

The colosseum is a massive place with an incredible history. The amount of death and suffering within this ancient stadium is insane, everything for the entertainment of the Roman people. The place itself was financed with plunder taken from the Judean (modern day Israel) campaign. Nevertheless it holds a significant place in history for its importance in the managing of the mood of Rome and the popularity of the Emperor. As usual (in our experience) the monument was covered in scaffolding on the outside ruining our chances of the classic semi-circle photo but Amy being the dedicated professional she is, still took amazing photos.

The Roman Forum is the ruined remains of the old centre of business and religion in ancient Rome. The massive excavated site in the middle of the city is a sprawling ancient metropolis featuring markets, temples, government buildings and private homes. We wandered the ground for a while checking out the various exhibits and picturing the place in its heyday, a bustling centre of trade and the hub of life in Rome. Somehow I don’t think in 2000 years there will be the ruins of anything built in our generation on display for anyone to see, we just don’t built things like they used to.

Just outside the forum is the ‘Altar of the Fatherland’ which according to Wikipedia, is a controversial monument to the first king of united Italy. We don’t really know much more about it except that it is impressive and holds a pride of place location in Rome.

This evening we returned to the Spanish Steps and found our walking tour guide. We usually are brand loyal with our walking tours but as our usual company doesn’t operate in Rome we took a punt on a different group. We were let down. Whilst she was very knowledgeable about the facts and numbers of the places she took us she failed to capture our attention and that led to us being quickly bored. She did take us to one cool place though. The church of Saint Ignazio which has a very convincing optical illusion inside, a false dome. The church was meant to originally have a dome on it (like every other one in Rome) but due to community opposition due to the cost the priest came up with a cheaper alternative. A fully flat ceiling with a dome painted on in a way that tricks the eye into see a dome. It’s actually very convincing. Despite this though by the time we were half way through the walking tour we did what was usually inconceivable to us, we left the walking tour mid tour.

Ordinarily we frown on these people, but it was just so boring we decided we couldn’t handle another hour of it and our time is precious (as is our tip money). We decided on a better use of our time; exploring the local wine-bar scene. We had local wines and put it down to tasting the local produce - which was good by the way! After the wine bar we went to a pastry shop that had out of this world reviews and bought some mini cannoli’s, the little tubes filled with sweet ricotta. We tried one of each, deciding the regular ones were amazing and returned for four more, it was closing time so 50% off everything didn’t hurt either.