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Italy : Rome

[This section is in the earliest stages of development: 28 December 2006]

I visited Rome for a week in August 1998, and have been trying to return ever since. I went to see ancient ruins, and the centre of Roman Catholicism, and discovered Michelangelo and Bernini. Expecting a disdainful, arms-length, supercilious city, like Paris, I was met with a surprising amount of warmth. I loved the drinking fountains on so many street corners, spouting cool water with a taste equal to most bottled water, and better than some.

I loved, in the way that, as a tourist, one does, the Pantheon, and its rich, ripe, round, paganness; the perfectly proportioned Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill; the Forum, with its Temple of the Vestal Virgins. I was more cautious about the Colosseum, with its reverberating echoes of ancient slaughter (celebrated in the film Gladiator). With its fountain of the four rivers, and two piazza-end fountains, Piazza Navona leaves little to be desired apart from lower bar prices. Nothing, however, prepared me for the Trevi Fountain. Were there a fountain in the world to match the Trevi, then it would indeed also be worth seeing, for the Trevi is the embodiment of the essence of what a fountain is and should be. Hollywood films, tourists, vagrants, beggars and pick pockets, were insufficient reason to be discouraged from visiting the Trevi. I can think of no human-made view in the world more worth waking up to in the morning. I treasure the video recording I made of the visit at 05:30 on the morning of my departure.

 

 

I visited the Vatican. The Piazza San Pietro (St Peter's Square), for all that it was surrounded by an impressively massive colonnade, was grubby and strewn with litter, which contrasts with other parts of central Rome. Entry into San Pietro was through a tourist-vetting procedure: tourists, though not apparently beggars, considered inappropriately dressed were summarily turned away. The basilica is a large building in which are displayed a number of works of art, including Michaelangelo's Pieta. The tomb of San Pietro is striking. However, the church was more like a gallery or museum than a place of meaningful religious worship: it was hard to get in touch with much that was holy or spiritual. The same cannot be said about the Sistine Chapel. Despite the presence of hundreds of tourists, and the frequently barked "Silencio" from peculiarly dressed Vatican officials, the Sistine Chapel is a place in which it is easy to be reverential: Michaelangelo's frescos are rich, tortured, visionary, beautiful. There were many features of the Vatican that I either did not see or passed by in the tide of people sweeping everyone to the Sistine Chapel. Two features stand out in my memory: the double helix entrance stairway (is it that either Crick or Watson visited the Vatican prior to their determination of the structure of DNA?), and the long gallery with wall-paintings showing the geography and political history of the known world.

Warning

I had read about the involvement of gangs of children in pick pocketing, possibly not dissimilar to the racket that Fagin ran in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. Within minutes of arrival in central Rome, laden with luggage (and therefore not manoeuvrable) I was accosted by just such a gang. It was not immediately obvious what was happening, but when I felt a hand in my pocket, I realised that I had to extract myself from the situation. The children had an adult minder to prevent the children from getting hurt. I subsequently saw two attempted pick pocketings, both on the underground railway at Termini.

Days out from Rome

 I went by train to Ostia Antica, which is the now-inland location of Rome's ancient seaport. It is not very far from central Rome, and is included within the range of the transport travel passes, so is inexpensive to reach. The books say that Ostia Antica is the best preserved ancient Roman town in Italy after Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the photographs look good. Frustratingly, the excavated ruins are closed on Mondays. The village is not much worth visiting for any other reason, apart, perhaps, from a castle, which is also closed on Mondays. So I shall visit the excavations next time I go to Rome, avoiding Monday. There is a beach a short way further down the railway line, but my fantasy is that it consists of mile upon mile of beach towels and reddening bodies.

 The other place supposed to be good to visit from Rome is Tivoli which has three villas: Villa d'Este, with fountains; Villa Adriana, the out-of-town palace of Emperor Hadrian (of Hadrian's Wall fame); and Villa Gregoriana (which has waterfalls and lush vegetation). Next time, perhaps.

p.g.h@btinternet.com

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