The 8am wake-up was tough after the a few wobbly pops on the piazza, but the Colosseum was something to see in that morning light. |
I arrived late while Alek was out with his family along the Amalfi
coast. I checked into my penzione and, on my own, I went for a night-time Discovery
Walk and quickly got lost.
It was night in a strange city, but I still thought it would be a
good idea to get some gelato, collect myself and get un-lost, which actually meant
taking a wrong turn into the Parco Del Colle Oppio beside the Colosseum.
The park is almost all fenced, which I found out when I walked the
perimeter in search of the exit. I managed to find a few familiar landmarks and
made my way back to the penzione and to bed, safely.
Alek was going to come in that afternoon and I would meet him
after I visited the Vatican Museum. But here’s the thing: It’s really easy to
get lost in all the pretty things there. And there are a lot of pretty things.
I skipped the ancient Egyptian and Etruscan rooms, going straight
to the old Greek and Roman sculptures and then the Gallery of Maps – all so
absorbing that you forget that you have the whole Renaissance to get through
too.
I almost missed the Borgia Apartments on the way to the Raphael
Rooms. Then between the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel is a collection of
incredible contemporary pieces – a rarity in Renaissance-loving Rome. These
would have been easily ignored if you put your head down like everyone else and
charged towards the Sistine.
Then I got lost in the Sistine, but who wouldn’t get lost looking
at that immense pretty thing.
Oh yeah! There was a whole other museum after that, and it’s no
sideshow either. When I should have been running to meet Alek, I lingered and
doddled over the Da Vinci’s and Caravaggio’s. I ended up missing dinner
but that didn’t matter much, because we reunited at last over a drink... then
we ordered ‘one’ more.
The flipside to all those drinks was the 8am wake-up call for our
Colosseum. Alek had found a decent deal that would take us under the Colosseum
and to the higher levels where few tourists are allowed to tread. It was also a
sunny day, and while we were able to stick to the shade in the Colosseum, we
couldn’t escape the heat for the second leg of the tour on the Palatine Hill. A
combination of heat stroke and hangover is no dolce vita.
Then we Discovery Walked our way to a patio and recovered over
wine and free potato chips. We ate gelato, gained our strength, visited a few
churches and had another night on the town (not too late because of the heat
stroke/hangover combination).
With little time left the next morning, we stopped at a final
church and had a farewell gelato together. Alek caught a train to the airport
and left. I wandered the town for one day on my own, hitting a few more
attractions (St. Peter's, a few churches, and the Castel Sant Angelo) before I too left.
Vatican Museum |
The Raphael Rooms. Whoa. |
Some incredible contemporary art in the Vatican. |
What the gladiators would have seen |
All that remains of the Roman Forum. |
Despite hangovers and heat stroke we made it through the Colosseum to the top of the Palatine. |
The Pantheon |
"CHOCOLATE!" # Even the man behind the Chocolate breakfast wasimpressed. |
From atop the Castel Sant'Angelo, ominous skies over Rome the day I left. |