Rome, alone. (part 1)

Sometimes it is hard to find time to explore Rome without being constantly in the sight of hundreds of other people. Tours, pilgrimages, and local residents all conspire to make you feel as if you are in Las Vegas instead of The Eternal City. You don’t get much time to sit in quiet contemplation in the Sistine Chapel, unless you happen to be an 80 year old Polish man, who is lucky enough to be called "Your Holiness" You cannot sit quietly in front of Michealangelo’s Pietà for an hour with having your picture taken by three hundred Japanese tourists in from Tokyo. Trying to get a view from the top of Castle San Angelo of the dome of St Peters is possible, but only if you want to elbow your way to the edge of the wall. Trying to admire the Bernini sculptures in the fountains in the Piazza Navona will cause ten different vendors of cigarette lighters, scarves, and hats that look like umbrellas to stand next to you and tell you what a good deal you can get.

But there IS another Rome. A Rome that allows quiet contemplation in front of beautiful scuptures by famous artists. A Rome where you can look at the vistas and enjoy the sunsets. A Rome where you can go to be by yourself, or spend time quietly with the one you love. That is the Rome we all want to know. Rome, alone.

I guess that I need to say that of course we have visited all the big sites here, and we did it joyfully and appreciatively. The Sistine Chapel will move you to tears, even when it is so crowded that you cannot hear yourself think. Michalangelo’s Pietà is a heart-rending piece of religious work where you can see the hand of God expressed in marble. In the Coloseum you will be awed by the work that was done almost 2,000 years ago. There is no escaping the fact that the things that are popular, are popular for a good reason. And the city, and the tour groups, and the citizens have done a good job at making sure that it is, by and large, easy, convenient, and cheap to see what you really MUST see in Rome in a short trip. We have been lucky enough to spend a month in the city, so we have been able to pick and choose our sites, and explore smaller museums and corners of the city that are not always at the top of other people’s lists.

We bought a five day – six site pass from the City of Rome which allows you access to these smaller sites, along with some of the more well known sites for a discounted price. You get to visit the Coloseum, the Palatine Hill, The Cripta Baldi, The Baths of Caracalia, The Palazzo Altemps, and the Palazzo Massimo. I am guess that like me, you have heard of two of these places. But when we bought the tickets the entry fee to the Coloseum was 15,000 lira, and the entrance fee to the Palatine Hill was 15,000 lire ($7.50), so we figured that even if we didn’t get to any other site, it would have been a good deal. If we saw ONE more, it was a bargain, and if we saw TWO more, it was a downright steal.

Not only was it a downright steal, but we saw some of the most amazing things in the city, virtually alone with ourselves, the art, and the history.

We started our Rome, Alone tour at the Palatine Hill. While I have heard of this place, it is not on everyone’s list. Our friend David Chandler was with us at this point, and we had been to some of the bigger sites in town already. (I will talk of these more famous sites by and by. They are a joy to behold, so don’t worry that you will miss anything. If you want to request a special story or pictures, write to me here, or write to Doreen here) He had wanted to see the Circus Maximus (Another Rome, Alone site – it is largely used as a running track now, and a doggie playground. It is impressive when you see it, and think of 130,000 screaming Romans sitting there watching the chariot races) and following a walk down the Circus, we took the short hike up to the Palatine. This is where the rich people lived in ancient Rome. You can see Augustus’ house, his wife Livia’s house (and it you are lucky, which we were NOT that day, they will let you INTO her house so you can see the mosaics) and any number of other famous old Roman homes.

They also have a museum on the grounds, which you can enter for free. (Mussolini built the museum, and his name is prominently displayed on top of the front wall. Interesting point – we have seen Mussolini’s name on a number of buildings that he built, almost without shame. Do any of you think that you would see Hitler’s name on any buildings in Germany? Tojo’s name in Japan? I wonder…). IN the museum they have a great number of statuary that was dug up on the grounds, as well as dishes, gee-gaws, and decorative items. The place is really quite nice, and well curated. While there, we saw maybe three other people visiting. Rome, Alone. The funniest part about that was that one woman (Probably in her ealy 50s) sat down on a bench in front of one of the display cases filled with Roman pottery. As she sat down, she slipped off her shoes. As soon as she did this, a guard came running into the room (He must have been watching from the closed circuit TV camera), and fussed at her for going barefoot! She was forced to put her shoes back on, on pain of being removed from the museum! The floor was marble, but heck! I am sure that plenty worse things than a barefooted woman had passed over them.

The view from The Palatine is nice – you can see the Circus Maximus, the Forum, the Closeum, and numerous other famous places. Yet it was so quiet that we were able to watch a snake chase its prey (which we did NOT see) through the underbrush undisturbed. It was a wonderful experience that should not be missed if anyone has the time.

From The Palatine, we walked down to the Bath of Caracalla. These baths (huge! They could accommodate 1,600 naked Roman bathers) were started in212 AD, and operated until the 7^th century when the barbarians (Read that The Huns and the Visigoths. Trouta, Alaric, I find you two personally responsible for this) destroyed the Aqueducts. This is an amazing place, with much of the brickwork and the mosaics still extant. You can stand here and look over the solitude it offers in peace, and you are amazed by the extent of the wealth that the Romans had generated, in order to build a place like this.

(An aside. While at the baths, we saw numerous seagulls (sorry Matt. Gulls) flying over the ruins. They were noisy and obviously disturbed. They were disturbed by a small falcon – O am not exactly sure but it looked like a peregrine, that was flying nearby. We have seen other peregrines here in Rome – specifically at the Coloseum. They next in the brick walls. Well, we were watching the gulls, and sure enough, I hear a SPLAT and feel something moist on the back of my leg. I was hit. Now, this is not the FIRST time I have need hit by a bird. One day (ONE DAY!!!) in Venice I was hit THREE TIMES! Doreen thought it so funny that she could not stop laughing. I was less amused. When we first got here in Rome, we were looking at a used book kiosk, and I heard that familiar SPLAT. I felt myself, and I was OK. The fellow standing not three feet away from me said "OH NO!" he was hit – and bad. It must have been a gull, because there was a dinner plate size of bird droppings right on his neck. Half was DOWN his shirt , the other half on the BACK of the shirt and in his hair. I expressed my sympathies, all the while saying thanks that it was not me. I told him I thought it very unlucky. He replied that no, it is considered VERY lucky in Rome to be hit by bird droppings. Huh. I was lucky later in the trip while David was here as well. We were sitting at a little café on the Piazza della Republica, very close to our apartment. A pigeon had to make his presence known IN MY BEER!!! I was not hit, and the bar gave me another beer. We moved under cover. Both Doreen and Dave laughed and laughed. Ha. Ha. Ha. That is all I can say.)

RETURN TO GRAND TOUR HOMEPAGE!