What an experience! What a place!! Only back from my week's visit to Rome, and I have a feeling I'll definitely be back! We arrived in mid afternoon - the heat unbelievable (30 degrees plus). The ride from the airport to the centre of Rome was interesting - you drive through the outskirts containing flats with a lot of graffiti you literally turn a corner and the old walls of Rome are in front of you....majestic.
We had hired an apartment for a week on Via Bergamo, right beside the Porta Pia (the old gate that apparently Mussolini entered Rome through). The city is enchanting. The smells, the sounds, the papping of motorbike and moped horns. This is the part of arriving somewhere that I love - the first night's exploration of the strange place. I was in Rome many years ago when I was about 13....but you appreciate little at that age and certainly things like the smells etc are lost on you.
After something to eat, it is clear that you aren't going to see everything in one night!! The touristy locations are something that are (generally) to be avoided.....but in a city such as this, how can you not visit the sites...they are of such cultural importance! So the usual suspects were visited - the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter's Basicila and Square, the numerous churches, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Temple to Saturn. It's almost hard to take it all in!
But for me, the key elements were (other than my friend getting married!) wandering around the city (on my own) and getting lost - deliberately! I enjoy this, you know you'll always end up home, but you see so much more of the city - the real streets, away from the European, American and Japanese tourists happily clicking away. You see the food shops, the mechanics etc, you come across parks tucked away in areas that only the local Romans know about. For me, these are the real treasures of a city.
I was left, though, with a distinct impression of how much better the continentals do....well.....everything! Their attitude towards life differs from most here, and it is commendable, enviable and one I wish to have! I will not die in this province....of that I have no doubt!!
