So, what do I think of Rome? It´s hard to say. I felt, and feel, pretty ambivalent. Sometimes I was annoyed, sometimes I was totally enamored. Occasionally, I felt like I was stuck in an amusement park. Mostly, I was a mess. Emotionally, a mess. I managed to stand directly in front of the sculpture, Laocoon, in the Vatican museum, and seeing the anguish in his face and the veins, the tension, in his thigh brought me to tears. Seeing stones shaped and placed by people who have been dead for over 2000 years made me stop and wonder -- but it wasn´t over the craftsmanship (which was usually fantastic), it was over the idea of mortality. I´ve never felt so mortal and insignificant in my entire, if brief, life. Linguistically, a mess. Conversations that took two or three languages to get through were very common. Physically, I barely kept it together. It took two maps to get around the city, and while we occasionally allowed ourselves to wander, I had trouble letting go at first. With every step I was both exhilarated with the sights I was rewarded with and mentally recording as many details as possible so I could find my way back. But even then, I wasn´t ever totally sure of my location in time and space. Rome feels so disjointed to me. Seeing the modern, the reconstructed, and the original side-by-side, on top of and surrounding each other... after even just a day it blurs into a big... mess. For me, there is no way to successfully marry past and present. Past is past, present is present. They don´t go together. Can they complement each other? Perhaps. They just don´t fuse into a seamless entity for me.

And maybe what I felt in Rome doesn´t fall into a "normal" experience. Maybe I just took everything too seriously. But it was my experience and it was unforgettable. I have never felt so unsettled in my entire life -- physically, emotionally, mentally -- and while I never want to feel that way again, I´m glad it happened.

Leaving was also difficult. I wanted to get the hell out of there as much as I wanted to people-watch in Piazza Navona, eat pastries on the Spanish Steps, lust after purses and shoes, window shop and feel sorry for the drivers who chain-smoke while waiting for their charges to come out of Cartier, Dior and Ferragamo laden with shopping bags full of tissue-wrapped accessories, and overindulge in gelato -- which is just a small portion of what I managed to do with Erica and Jen.

But getting back, even at 2 am, was a relief. Going somewhere else and being even more awkward, foreign and out of place does wonders for making your current living situation feel more comfortable. I came back from Rome feeling much better about Barcelona. I even have a little more faith in my Spanish now because I know it works... in Italy, at least.

written by  achavero on October 22, 2007 from Roma, Italy
from the travel blog: Amanda in Barcelona
tagged Rome
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Our arrival was pretty good. Came in late, around midnight, and caught a bus to the main part of the city. It was too late to really get a bus to our final destination so we decided to explore the city and walk that general direction. We had pizza and coffee and a couple local places on the way. Stop eat, stop drink, stop and look around. We ended up passing some reallllly old section of wall they built the modern buildings around. Neat, lots of old buildings, churches and misc structures along our route. We finally came to a picturesque place to rest a bit that was the Spanish Steps. So here we are late at night in Rome on the Spanish Steps some guy comes by selling cold bear (which I bought) and made out a bit with Amanda. ^_^ Don't get to that in Rome on the Steps very often. We saw some local antics while we hung out there, people playing around, a heated convo between two drivers and another couple realllly making out. After a time we got our gear back on and treked to the bus stop we had to get too and from there we rode the rest of the way to our campground. The buses were free and not too hard to figure out, everyone was helpful/friendly enough. We arrived at the township to wait wait for our shuttle and some guy just pulled up and asked us if we needed a ride to the campgrounds. I guess we just looked like we belonged there cause he just guessed it. He dropped us off at the gate and continued on his way. So cool. Checked into the campgrounds, got our plastic room and crashed out. Will continue this later. Just saying we're here!!!

Big hugs,
James n Amanda

written by  Slade's Elucidation on August 1, 2008 from Rome, Italy
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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We got into Rome around midnight and decided to spend the night in the city rather then pay for a night in the hostel. We caught a bus from the airport to the city centre, as it was so late most of the public transportation had shut down so we opted for wandering through the city for a couple km to the nearest train stop that would take us to our hostel in the morning. During our wandering we happened to come upon this rather picturesque spot that turned out to be the spanish steps.

Us at the Spanish steps

Trinita del Monti, Spanish Steps

“day one”

The Camping hostel... well I'll hit the bad first. No A/C, our room was a plastic building duplex, if we moved it moved and the wall was paper er plastic thin. It was very expensive there for just about everything. We arrived really early, things had gone fairly decent, we were just really tired and hot. So the no A/C bit was a huge negative, so a cool shower to rinse us off and cool us down and we crashed out for as long as we could til the day got too warm to sleep. Thus we went off for food at the local cafe and found everything very over priced. Can of sprite: 3 Euro or around $4.50 for a CAN. You get the idea. Anyways the mosquitos were quit bad and they were totally eating Amanda. They were even in our room so not much reprieve and the citronella candle we bought didn't really have any citronella in it and well wasn't much use. Ok lets go more positive. The room was private enough, warm shower, decent beds, most of the lights worked and the pool was really nice there. We ate dinner there (ouchie the price) and got some sleep because the next morning we were getting up early and checking the hell outta of there!!! Booyah on the road again.

Well the trip back into Rome city proper was sooo much smoother on the return trip. Got easily back to town and to our next hostel, checked in and our gear unloaded and it wasn't even 11 AM yet. We got our bearings and walked to the Colosseum. Saw a lot of very interesting ruins along the way. Like the Domus Aurea.

Domus Aurea

Ruins

Colosseo

Colosseo

Arco Di Tito

We continued our journey up to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanule II and then over to Campidoglio. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what these places really are but the first one is HUGE with all white stone and then there blue angels on chariots on various points of the building. The latter was like a palace courtyard, I think it was all museums now. We just walked through looking really. Then we decided to head over to the Trevi Fountain.

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Fontana di Trevi

BTW Gelato = the win. We've eaten a ton of it and I love the lemon by far. Doesn't help they have it at every corner either. We decided to head back to the hostel for some free dinner. Which wasn't bad by any means. Salad, pasta, cheap wine decent enough I reckon. Showered up, and then we went back out to see Trevi fountain at night.

Fontana di Trevi aka Trevi Fountain

Ok picture time:

Statue in St Peters Basilica

St Peters Tomb

Statue in Vatican Museum

Egyptian statue

James in front of the giant pine cone and peacocks

Laocoon and His Sons

Ceiling in the map room

Down with art up with religious dogma

Heaven vs Hell, Sistine Chapel

The following days we went to stay along the coast at an awesome resort in our own little bungalow and enjoyed the beach.

James at the Beach by Rome

A flutteryby came over to say hello

The Beach

As soon as we got to the airport we easily found our way to the bus ticket office. Two tickets were bought into town and we were good to go. Until I lost one. It turned out alright though, 'cause Shelley got a replacement gratis. Our first night in the city left me feeling cold about Rome. I seemed to be constantly on the lookout for somebody wanting to mug us!

The next morning we headed to the central train station to see about getting around to see the sights. We decided to join a bus tour. Although we knew it to be expensive (considering a metro ticket to anywhere is two dollars) we only have a day and a half here and it was just easier. We reached our first stop, the Vatican and I duly got my camera out for some happy-snaps. I turned it on and... nothing! I checked inside and there was no bloody battery. We turned around, going back to the hostel to search for it. Couldn't find it anywhere. I checked my backpack again and found I had the battery the whole time! Idiot.

Shelley seemed to take this remarkably well. I think it was from the cold and flu meds she took earlier that morning. We decided to do the Vatican the next morning. We managed to see Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Colosseum. Not bad work for a day's work in the pissing-down rain. We spent about three hours looking for a conversion plug for Italy, but it was well worth it to have dry shoes again (courtesy of Shelley's hair dryer - an essential piece of kit).

We have to figure out our next port of call (most probably Prague) on the morrow. We really have to get a move on - only a couple of weeks to go!

written by  10bastards on December 15, 2008 from Rome, Italy
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
tagged Rome
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