When it comes to incredible, kick-arse, jaw-dropping, beautiful cities, Rome has got to take the cake.
Everywhere you wander, thousands of years of human history is laid out before you...or crumbling before you in many cases.....and it rocks (no pun intended).
The city centre of Rome is very compact, cobble stoned and incredibly fun to explore. It
will test your self-control as every cafe will tempt you in for wicked coffee, every shop will wink suggestively at you with the latest fashions, and every taverna will grab you around the throat and just insist that you have yet another pizza.
Mmmmmm, pizza.
Around each corner is yet another church (there are 2300 of them in Rome), piazza, fountain, ice cream shop or taverna - the place is definitely up there with my fav cities in the world.
The plan was simple: stopover in Rome for 4 days on the way through to Paris for Christmas. The fact that Singapore Airlines fly in and out of both cities is massively convenient for Australians - you can easily fly into Rome, spend a few days, jump on Easyjet to Paris (our flight cost $50 one way :) then fly directly back to Oz from Paris. A great itinerary.
So over our 4 walking-filled days we hit all of Rome's famous sites: the Vatican, the Colosseum, Pantheon, Forum, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona etc etc
Piazza Venezia. Above, the view from the top towards the Colosseum.
One thing that did strike us during the trip was the commonalities that exist between cities all over the world:
- Wherever you go, each major city will always have a Peruvian panpipe band
- There will always be buskers dressed up in ridiculous outfits outside every major monument offering to have their photo taken with you (in the case of Rome, it is bunches of blokes dressed up as Roman soldiers)
- Every time it starts to rain, you will start being accosted by gypsie-looking men trying to flog you cheap umbrellas, even if you already have one
- Every time the sun comes out and it's scorching hot those same men will try to flog you bottles of water (probably refilled from a scungey bucket in a backstreet)
- Taxis will always rip you off, regardless of how hard you haggle or how good your language skills are (this is one of the 10 great facts of life, I think. Don't ask me about the others)
- You'll meet at least one person at a cash register who will scowl at you, unhappily take your money then throw your change in a little dish in wanton disgust.
One of those pesky buskers
We ate at the funky Ducati Cafe (dedicated to the famous Italian motorcycle) - this funky restaurant/bar/shop is definitely worth a stop. The food is brilliant (although pricey if you're a student), and it has great atmosphere. The other standout meal (amongst all the brilliant food we ingested) was at Lo Zozzone, a tiny pizza joint packed full of locals in the streets behind Piazza Navona. Our reviews are on our
tripadvisor profile.
One afternoon, standing under a crystal clear blue sky with the cold eating into our bones, we spotted pigeons in the sky.
Now I'll admit that in itself doesn't sound so exciting, but the fact that there were 100,000 of them probably was. Every pigeon in Rome was up there and they were flying formation - breaking into huge groups of thousands of pigeons, ducking and weaving. These black clouds were dancing across the sky like live art - it was truly something spectacular to see. Who would have thought that humble pigeons could create such a visual spectacular!
Simply amazing. Here, tens of thousands of pigeons doing what they do best: mindlessly flocking.
The Romans, who live with the miserable, cretinous pigeons day in day out just looked at us like we were idiots on drugs.
Not happy, Jan.
Rome is full of great little tavernas where you can eat for just a few euros and, as cities great for tourists go, it is right up there. We'll definitely be back!
Marine makes a wish and throws a coin into the Trivi Fountain
Rob, somewhere in Rome, on a crisp crystal clear European winter's day.
Sometimes it's nice to play tourist: taking a ride in a callech.
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