fluffymark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fluffymark) wrote2003-01-12 11:23 pm
fluffymark) wrote2003-01-12 11:23 pm
ROME
The city of history. The ancient city. The age and rich culture of everything was all around me (and Val and Joe and Penny, who I went there with) and I drank it thirstily. Rome is very much an outdoor museum. Around ever corner is another treasure, another Roman ruin, another column, another Egyptian obelisk, another statue, another Renaissance masterpiece, another papal or religious relic. The place rings with an enchanting magic, and it caught me. And then the Italian architecture, the colourful crumbly buildings. And the delicious cuisine. Pizza, Pasta and Ice-cream are my favourite foods, and I felt I was eating like a Royal.
Major sights in vaguely chronological order of visiting:
Trevi Fountain Stunningly beautiful fountain that dominates one of the roman piazzas. A magnet for romantics like myself, this is an awesome spectacle. Spoil slightly by the huge crowds during the day, and the annoying men trying to sell everyone roses at stupid prices. I went there during the night, when it was quieter and more peaceful and tranquil. I tossed a single coin in, which traditionally means I must return to Rome someday.
Palatine Hill Right by the Forum, with a wealth of Roman ruins. Many old villas of the more wealthy Romans reside on this hill, which has spectacular views of the Forum, the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus. We had a picnic sitting on some ruins.
Colosseum The big one. This is huge and while obviously crumbling, is truly amazing. It could hold thousands of people and you can still see the gates, the stairs, the layout, the arena, and the pits underneath where the animals were kept that fought the gladiators.
Castel Sant'Angelo An ancient castle by the river. Originally the mausoleum of the emperor Hadrian, this castle has been fortified, destroyed, rebuilt many times over the past 2000 years, and is a beautiful architectural hodgepodge of many different eras, from Roman to Medieval to Papal. The Roman constructions are at the base, and at the top are papal chambers where the pope used to flee to in times of siege. The view of Rome from the very top (the angel's gallery) is very pretty.
Capitoline Museum The oldest public museum in the world, the museum itself is a stunning bit of work (by Michelangelo, no less) and sit proudly on top of the Capitoline hill, another site where the ancient wealthy Romans build their villas. The museum contains a huge collection of Roman art and other remains, including the famous she-wolf statue, and the head and the foot of what was previously a giant statue of the emperor Constantine, as wall and many many other treasures. Lots of statues of naked gods, philosophers, emperors and other ancient wealthy people.
Appian Way The Via Appica Antica is one of the oldest roads in the world. It runs straight out of the center of Rome even today, and has been extremely well preserved. Just a short bus ride out, and the bus dumps us on the paved road, surrounded by trees and green fields and its like suddenly the clock as gone back 2000 years. Its peaceful, theres animals around, theres no sign of the modern world (excepting the very occasional car driving up the road) and you can really imagine it has remained unchanged for all these centuries. The paving stones are still there, with centuries of wear from cart wheels. The road was famed in its time for being straight, and is just as straight today. The sides of the road are littered with ruins and pillars and Latin inscriptions.
The Square Colosseum(Palazza della civilta del lavoro). This is a modern, but stunning building. Built by Mussolini, this is a very powerful and awesome piece of Fascist architecture. Like the roman Colosseum, it has layers of arches, but it is arranged in a square, and has statues in the arches. There is a grand stairway leading up to it. The building was used in the film 'Titus'. Unfortunately, for some reason it was fenced off, so I couldn't get very close, nor could I get a decent photo. Pity.
The Vatican Whoa. The queue for this was looooooong (going the day after the catholic holy day Epiphany was probably not the wisest idea) but it is well worth the wait to get in. A vast collection of holy treasures and relics and many other ancient roman, Etruscan, Egyptian and other artifacts. Easily rivals the British museum, and one could spend days in here, just glancing at all the items on display. Famed for the Sistine Chapel, which is devastatingly pretty, the other art on display also stunned me. The Raphael rooms in particular are exceedingly rich in detail, and the modern religious art in the Borgias chambers had the odd gem that made me stop and gape. I also got fascinated by the map room, which had ancient maps painted all over the walls. Place was however full of tour groups, and a bit labyrinthine, and the Sistine Chapel itself was very crowded. Eeeep.
The Cat Sanctuary In the middle of on of the major squares in central Rome (I believe its the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated) lies another lot of Roman ruins. This one belongs to the cats. Hundreds of cats appear to live there, safe from humans, and well fed by many nutty cat-ladies who roam around the walls of the sanctuary with bags of catfood.
The Roman Forum The remains of the old Roman forum are stunning, although I must admit by this stage I was becoming a bit overdone in the ancient ruins thing (oh - another ancient arch - another column.....yawn....) but it was thrilling to know that very spot used to be the centre of everyday life in Rome (and indeed the world at that time) and full of everything going on. The spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned is still marked, and was covered in fresh flowers that people still place on the tomb, even today.
Chisea di Santa Maria della Concezione In the crypt of this church lies a spectacular sight. The skeletons and bones of 4000 monks have been used to 'decorate' the crypt. Like the Paris catacombs, but a lot smaller. However, a lot more decorative, creative and artistic - the bones are put together in pretty ways, and despite the morbidity and disturbing aspect of it all, its fascinating and enchanting.
.....and many more besides. We saw churches galore and grand piazzas and old columns and the very pretty river, the 'typewriter', the Elephant, dozens of fountains and much much prettyness. On new years eve we went to the Piazza del Popolo and saw a spectacular firework display there, to the tune of classical music (however, anything they played ended up sounding like the 1812 due to the continuous bang of fireworks going off the whole time). After midnight things turned nasty, and people got very silly throwing live fireworks and broken glass bottles into the crowd, resulting in large explosions of sharp glass, and we got very panicked and ran away back to the hostel as quickly as we could.
Foodwise Rome is divine, cheap and we ate out many times. Baffetos was our favourite pizzeria, and we got to see our pizzas being made, before we ate them (and they were indeed yummy). And for ice-cream, nothing beats Giolittis. My stomach was very happy for the whole time (excepting the time Val made garlic carrot salad, but the less said about that, the better). Despite being midwinter, It was warm enough to eat picnics outside most days so we found convenient roman ruins to sit on, and ate yummy food.
Theres a million more things I could say, but I think i'll never do the place justice. It was simply breathtaking, and one day I hope to go back. After all, I did throw that coin into the Trevi.
A small selection of photos are now online at my italy photos page. Yay! :) pretty pretty pretty
Major sights in vaguely chronological order of visiting:
Trevi Fountain Stunningly beautiful fountain that dominates one of the roman piazzas. A magnet for romantics like myself, this is an awesome spectacle. Spoil slightly by the huge crowds during the day, and the annoying men trying to sell everyone roses at stupid prices. I went there during the night, when it was quieter and more peaceful and tranquil. I tossed a single coin in, which traditionally means I must return to Rome someday.
Palatine Hill Right by the Forum, with a wealth of Roman ruins. Many old villas of the more wealthy Romans reside on this hill, which has spectacular views of the Forum, the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus. We had a picnic sitting on some ruins.
Colosseum The big one. This is huge and while obviously crumbling, is truly amazing. It could hold thousands of people and you can still see the gates, the stairs, the layout, the arena, and the pits underneath where the animals were kept that fought the gladiators.
Castel Sant'Angelo An ancient castle by the river. Originally the mausoleum of the emperor Hadrian, this castle has been fortified, destroyed, rebuilt many times over the past 2000 years, and is a beautiful architectural hodgepodge of many different eras, from Roman to Medieval to Papal. The Roman constructions are at the base, and at the top are papal chambers where the pope used to flee to in times of siege. The view of Rome from the very top (the angel's gallery) is very pretty.
Capitoline Museum The oldest public museum in the world, the museum itself is a stunning bit of work (by Michelangelo, no less) and sit proudly on top of the Capitoline hill, another site where the ancient wealthy Romans build their villas. The museum contains a huge collection of Roman art and other remains, including the famous she-wolf statue, and the head and the foot of what was previously a giant statue of the emperor Constantine, as wall and many many other treasures. Lots of statues of naked gods, philosophers, emperors and other ancient wealthy people.
Appian Way The Via Appica Antica is one of the oldest roads in the world. It runs straight out of the center of Rome even today, and has been extremely well preserved. Just a short bus ride out, and the bus dumps us on the paved road, surrounded by trees and green fields and its like suddenly the clock as gone back 2000 years. Its peaceful, theres animals around, theres no sign of the modern world (excepting the very occasional car driving up the road) and you can really imagine it has remained unchanged for all these centuries. The paving stones are still there, with centuries of wear from cart wheels. The road was famed in its time for being straight, and is just as straight today. The sides of the road are littered with ruins and pillars and Latin inscriptions.
The Square Colosseum(Palazza della civilta del lavoro). This is a modern, but stunning building. Built by Mussolini, this is a very powerful and awesome piece of Fascist architecture. Like the roman Colosseum, it has layers of arches, but it is arranged in a square, and has statues in the arches. There is a grand stairway leading up to it. The building was used in the film 'Titus'. Unfortunately, for some reason it was fenced off, so I couldn't get very close, nor could I get a decent photo. Pity.
The Vatican Whoa. The queue for this was looooooong (going the day after the catholic holy day Epiphany was probably not the wisest idea) but it is well worth the wait to get in. A vast collection of holy treasures and relics and many other ancient roman, Etruscan, Egyptian and other artifacts. Easily rivals the British museum, and one could spend days in here, just glancing at all the items on display. Famed for the Sistine Chapel, which is devastatingly pretty, the other art on display also stunned me. The Raphael rooms in particular are exceedingly rich in detail, and the modern religious art in the Borgias chambers had the odd gem that made me stop and gape. I also got fascinated by the map room, which had ancient maps painted all over the walls. Place was however full of tour groups, and a bit labyrinthine, and the Sistine Chapel itself was very crowded. Eeeep.
The Cat Sanctuary In the middle of on of the major squares in central Rome (I believe its the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated) lies another lot of Roman ruins. This one belongs to the cats. Hundreds of cats appear to live there, safe from humans, and well fed by many nutty cat-ladies who roam around the walls of the sanctuary with bags of catfood.
The Roman Forum The remains of the old Roman forum are stunning, although I must admit by this stage I was becoming a bit overdone in the ancient ruins thing (oh - another ancient arch - another column.....yawn....) but it was thrilling to know that very spot used to be the centre of everyday life in Rome (and indeed the world at that time) and full of everything going on. The spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned is still marked, and was covered in fresh flowers that people still place on the tomb, even today.
Chisea di Santa Maria della Concezione In the crypt of this church lies a spectacular sight. The skeletons and bones of 4000 monks have been used to 'decorate' the crypt. Like the Paris catacombs, but a lot smaller. However, a lot more decorative, creative and artistic - the bones are put together in pretty ways, and despite the morbidity and disturbing aspect of it all, its fascinating and enchanting.
.....and many more besides. We saw churches galore and grand piazzas and old columns and the very pretty river, the 'typewriter', the Elephant, dozens of fountains and much much prettyness. On new years eve we went to the Piazza del Popolo and saw a spectacular firework display there, to the tune of classical music (however, anything they played ended up sounding like the 1812 due to the continuous bang of fireworks going off the whole time). After midnight things turned nasty, and people got very silly throwing live fireworks and broken glass bottles into the crowd, resulting in large explosions of sharp glass, and we got very panicked and ran away back to the hostel as quickly as we could.
Foodwise Rome is divine, cheap and we ate out many times. Baffetos was our favourite pizzeria, and we got to see our pizzas being made, before we ate them (and they were indeed yummy). And for ice-cream, nothing beats Giolittis. My stomach was very happy for the whole time (excepting the time Val made garlic carrot salad, but the less said about that, the better). Despite being midwinter, It was warm enough to eat picnics outside most days so we found convenient roman ruins to sit on, and ate yummy food.
Theres a million more things I could say, but I think i'll never do the place justice. It was simply breathtaking, and one day I hope to go back. After all, I did throw that coin into the Trevi.
A small selection of photos are now online at my italy photos page. Yay! :) pretty pretty pretty
no subject
I threw a coin in the fountain when I went there, and after looking at the pictures I want to go back sooon. *romesicksigh*
no subject
I will go back there - let me know if you (or anyone else out there reading this) intend travelling there again - maybe i'll be able to join you? A slightly less wet time of year would be nice (it rained a couple of times, and everything promptly shut, which got annoying), although not too hot, as I can't cope with heat. Not summertime, as I'd melt.
*romesick*
*grins*
We'll see if Giorgio will let you visit sometime :)
Re: *grins*
Re: *grins*
God help me.
Oh and...
Yum yum
Re: Oh and...
Thankyou sweetie for taking me there. I'm trying to recall what combinations of icecream i had - but failing....too delicious.....
Re: Oh and...