Roma (cont.)

Or maybe just starting.

By the time we dropped the car at the airport, worked out the trains and got back to the hotel, Saturday, our first day in Rome, was pretty much over. Besides, we needed a rest so the balance of the day was spent planning the uncommitted parts of the rest of the week.

Sunday, hop a train about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, into the city train terminus (Termini) in about 35 minutes for just $2.40 each each way, then on a BigBus for a 10  stop tour of the cities highlights (48 hours for $62.40 each hop on hop off). We stayed on to sus out what was what with a plan then to eventully hop off at each of those things which attracted us. We had Colosseum/Palatino Hill and Vatican City tour tickets (jump the queue) booked for Monday and Tuesday respectively so it became a matter of priotorising the rest. Well there are a lot of things you see on the bus tour but it actually only stops at a few of them but stops near enough that you can walk to several from the one stop. Put another way, there might be only 10 stops but there are a lot more things to see. We eventually walked and walked and walked.

Rome is an odd city. It is a mixture of old and very old. Old is renaissance,very old is Roman, as far back as 750BC. The very old is mostly ruins such as the colisseum dating back to 40BC. Some ruins are purported to be older but most we saw all seemed to be around 100 – 200BC. Rome is said to have been founded on the Palitino Hill by Romulus in around 750 BC – thats Romulus of Romulus and Remus, brothers said to have been raised by a ‘she wolf’ when abandoned to die by their uncle who wanted no usurpers to the crown (more common belief these days is that the ‘she-wolf’ was in fact a prostitute – I prefer that version) But the brothers fought and Remus died around the time of their attempts to establish Rome as a new city. You gotta love this family fellowship because the next few hundred years are full of acts of patricide, infanticide, matricide and sibling killings all for the sake of a few hills and ultimately the largest Empire the world has known. The tour guides/bus commentaries tell us that the Roman Empire lasted several 100 years until its demise in 476AD (not sure how they can be so specific although they didn’t attempt to give us the month and day) but we’re told its demise was attributable to its size, corruption or even Christianity. Nobody actually writ this so where cometh the Bible?.

Anyway there are great stories to be told and I’m guessing lots of heated debate over the facts of the matter. Nevertheless Rome is a fascinating and beguiling piece of human history. On a more positive note, it is the cleanest of the cities we’ve been to in Italy although the outer suburbs, where we’re staying, are not. There are still beggars everywhere and floggers of everything from battery chargers to hats to cold water to wooden platters at every attraction. Then there are the bloody tourists – they’re in front of everything with their f…ing selfie sticks, thousands of them. You cannot get a decent unencumbered photo for love nor money, but I tried from the height of various buses…

Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore (back side – see later entry)

guess what

no, wrong, it is a theatre built a bit later than the colisseum (Teartro Marcello)

the current seat of Government (I think) built in the 1800’s on top of old churches

the Castel Sant Angelo where popes hide out

just an interesting 1800’s building in the Piazza Della Repubblica

the ancient city walls from around 150AD

the courts and central law and order centre built around 1850 and referred to as an ugly child

the front of the current government buildings and below, several ancient ruins

the last two being a view of the Palatino Hill and the historic mansions thereon overlooking the Circus Maximus where chariot racing took place back in the Roman days.

Monday, repeat the trip, meet tour guide to do Colisseum and Palatino Hill. So pleased we got a guide – the queue was 2 1/2 hours long. 4 1/2 hours later with no waiting in queue and a lot of walking we’ve got a fabulous potted history of all that surrounds us..

Its taking ages to upload photos through the interwebby thingy and I’m tired so explanations of all the above will have to wait until the next instalment.