Rome - Days 1 and 2

It's almost two weeks since we got back from Rome, and I haven't blogged much about the trip.

Here's my first post about what we did and saw on Day 1 and 2 of our 5 day visit to this ancient city.

We set out early on Sunday 11 Feb to drive down to Heathrow. Not being too bright eyed and bushy tailed at 06:00 in the morning I took a wrong turn after going over the Runcorn bridge. It took us about 15 minutes to find our way out of the unsignposted trap for the unwary traveller that is the area around Runcorn railway station, this involved going back over the Runcorn Bridge until we could find a place to turn around.

Panic over, we got down to the "Pink Elephant" car park at Heathrow by 09:00 with loads of time to spare for our flight at 12:30

A bumpy flight across to Rome (lots of turbulence) with the worst air passenger in the world sitting next to me and crushing my hand we arrived in Rome's Fiumicino airport around 16:00.

We usually save ourselves money when we can by not bothering with arranging airport transfers at extortionate prices - e.g. 37 quid each for a pre-arranged taxi as opposed to a train and tube journey for about 8 quid each. This invariably means that the first foreign word we have to learn on arrival in a country is the "ticket".

This didn't take too long to suss out, even though there appeared to be four places you could buy tickets from. We picked the one that looked like it belonged to the train company, rather than a newsagent/gift shop.

Clutching our "bigliettes" we boarded the train. We then realised that the ticket had to be "validated" (i.e. punched) but there was no machine on the train to do this, so I found myself legging down the platform, finding a yellow machine, punching the tickets and dashing back onto the train with a minute or two to spare before it left.

Half an hour later we were in Rome's Termini railway station. More fun negotiating the tube - sussing out the machines to buy a ticket from, and the right platform.

We got out at Flaminio tube station and turned the corner into the Piazza del Popolo which according to the guide book is the best first view of Rome that you should have if you can arrange it - it's an ancient entrance to the city from the North.

Our hotel was just off this square. The Hotel Piranesi on the Via del Babuino, which is on the left of the church, behind the obelisk in this picture:



After checking in, and sussing out our room we went for and evening stroll. The hotel is at the top of il Tridente, three streets that fan out from the north of the city centre and lead into the rest of Rome.

We went found the Spanish Steps, then carried on until we found a Roman column that looked remarkably like Trajan's, but turned out to be the column of Marcus Aurelius. We took some pictures on the following day.





Found somewhere to eat just around the corner. This was probably the first most touristy place we could find, but it looked easy enough for a first meal when we couldn't be bothered going further afield. Food was OK, but I think the waiter was taking the piss by giving me a stein, and a beer for the lady, rather than the two beers that we ordered. Decided just to drink it anyway (I was on holiday after all).

Breakfast was in the basement of the hotel. They made up for not having a roof terrace by painting a mural of a rooftop view of the hotel surroundings around the wall - kept us out of the rain that was drizzling down from time to time.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum. Two funny things actually:

We went out and discovered the speediness(not!) of Italian banking when we changed our first travellers cheque. This was after walking into a building that had the words "Bank" carved into the wall on the outside only to be told "this is an office". I suppose if it was in the UK I'd have been trying to change a travellers cheque in a trendy wine bar.

We decided to visit the Trevi Fountain, which we passed on the way to the Forum. The last time that I was here in 1982 doing an Inter-Rail tour with a bunch of pals, I chucked a coin in this fountain. My return here thus proving the myth that chucking a coin in the Trevi Fountain ensures your return to Rome (even though some Italian urchins with magnets on strings probably retrieved the coin moments later).



Because it was first thing on Monday morning there was no water in the fountain, and a couple of blokes were mooching around the empty pool with a hosepipe and a broom.
We weren't disappointed with this, as it's a sight most visitors are unlikely to see - besides which it was easy enough to return later in the week.



By 10am we were at Trajan's column which Pope Sixtus V has adorned with a statue of St Peter - this particular pope seems to have renovated Rome, sticking his name on any antique or ancient building that he could find.



We spent the morning wandering around the building sites that are the Forum of Trajan
and the Forum of Augustus"




We also took a look at the Forum of Caesar



This is the back of the Senate House, so I reckon that this is the spot where Julius was stabbed to death by Brutus and co.



We entered the main Roman Forum which is just at the bottom of the Palatine Hill and wins the prize for packing in the most ancient Roman ruins in one spot.

Here's the House of the Vestal Virgins



This is the temple of Antoninus and Faustina. There are a number of temples like this in Rome, where they've used the original temple structure and formed a church out of it. Some had just bricked up the gaps between the columns. This one just plonked the church in the middle of the temple.



You can see how the Romans built the big temple steps here. Instead of spending loads of money on huge marble blocks, they built an arch of bricks, then faced the curve of the arch with marble steps.



These are the front doors of the Temple of Romulus.



We also took a look at the spot in the Temple of Julius Caesar where his funeral pyre was alleged to have been. There were indeed bunches of flowers laid at this spot - as the guide books says. Odd to think that he's being worshipped to this day, although I suppose the name has continued through time Caesar - Kaiser - Tsar etc - even though it just means "hairy".

Although it was a drizzly Monday morning, by midday the place was full of Geeks with guidebooks so we headed out of the forum at the south end and got our first view of The Colosseum




After fobbing off some middle aged Italian blokes dressed in Roman fancy dress costumes, who charged for you to take photographs with them, and ignoring the guides who were trying to persuade you to hire their services and jump the queue (which only took about 15 or 20 minutes) we entered the Colosseum.

Spent the afternoon wandering around this famous amphitheatre.

Novelist Supermum pointed out that although the place was a historical killing ground where thousands died there was no atmosphere of horror or sorrow about the place (I've been to Auschwitz, so I know what she means).

She was right.

My theory is that perhaps this is because it was primarily a place entertainment ("Are you not entertained?"), and people are still going there to be impressed by the scale and grandeur of the place, and the excitement that went on there, rather than to dwell on the terror.






A flame haired she-warrior.



Bought a few postcards in the Colosseum shop, to send back to relatives, plus a couple depicting gladiator helmets to send back home to The Hobbits.

There was an exhibition of Greek statues related to the Iliad inside the arches on the second level, plus a gladiatorial mosaic.






We also had a good view of the Arch of Constantine, which we'd looked at close up before entering the Colosseum.



Before we headed back to the hotel we went back into the Forum and walked up the Palatine Hill - since our Colosseum ticket also gave us access to this. Lots of orange trees up here, with oranges still on them - even though it was February.

We went down the Palatine Hill, back through the Forum and up the Capitoline Hill. There's a statue of a bloke on a horse up here, which I took to be Hadrian, from the word HADRIANVS, amongst others on the plinth. It's actually a statue of Marcus Aurelius.

Note that unlike General Maximus in the film Gladiator he has no stirrups. These weren't invented until the 4th Century AD - an anachronism which Novelist Supermum points out every time we see the film.



Had a snack and a bottle of water in a side street cafe before heading back to the hotel for a kip.

Woke up hungry again so decided to get changed, go out and look for somewhere to eat. Found a nice little Trattoria on the Via di Ripetta, not far from the hotel where we had a thoroughly decent evening meal, and a bottle of wine.

Picked up one of the books that I'd bought to read in Heathrow (The Malice Box by Martin Langfield), but passed out before I could get very far.