Italy: Rome

Ahh Rome, The Eternal City! It was good to be back!  Josh and I had both been to Rome before when we backpacked with our friends years back, but never together.  For me, Rome was one of the first spots I travelled post study abroad in college, and I had fallen in love with it immediately.  It was my first taste of Italy. As a young and naïve traveler, it felt completely magical, and was so rich with culture, history, and adorable cobblestone streets that I held it in very high regard in my memories. Josh and I went to Italy for part of our honeymoon a couple years ago but didn’t make it to Rome, so we were both excited to be able to come back! I wondered what it would feel like now, years later, after having seen so many other places.  Would I still love Rome the same way?

We arrived in the evening, taking a regional (i.e slow, with lots of stops) train from Naples.  We went right to our Airbnb apartment, and actually found the place really well considering we only had a few iPhone screenshots to go off of for directions. We had a private room in a man named Francesco’s flat, and he was waiting for us when we arrived. Francesco was accommodating and friendly. He spoke great English and gave us a bunch of information about local places to eat and maps of the area.  Since we’d had such a long day we were ready to crash immediately, then we got up the next day eager to start our short time in Rome.

We were staying in a more residential area of Rome that had virtually no tourists, which made it feel calm.  We were one block from a large regional park, Appia Antica so we took advantage of that and went for a run at the park in the morning.  It was not a typical park- it had lots of historic landmarks that were hundreds (some thousands) of years old sprinkled throughout, including active farm areas with sheep, and lots of dirt paths for mountain biking.  We were sore from all our Amalfi adventures, but slowly ‘yogged’ through the park and explored. We got some groceries and packed a lunch (our staple: prosciutto and cheese baguette with an apple), then headed into the mayhem of ancient Rome!

We covered most of the main sites in one day, since we had been to them previously. The metro line in Rome is pretty good, it runs frequently and we took it to majority of the areas we needed to get to.  They don’t have quite enough connections across lines, but since our place was right on the main line (A) we got to the Colosseum pretty quickly. What Josh and I both remembered about the Colosseum from our previous Roman excursions in the past was it always seemed to be under construction.  True to form, when we arrived we saw this was indeed still the case.

This time the back portion was being cleaned and worked on.  They had made progress though- eight years ago when both Josh and I came independently to Rome, the front main entrance was being redone, and they have made it to the back!  Much better for picture taking this time J It was fun walking through the main area here and reminiscing about our previous trips, then we headed over to the Roman Forum area and walked through. I love the rich and ancient history of this area.  The Forums have ruins of several important ancient government buildings of the city of Rome. From there we headed to the beautiful Vittoria building, then on to our favorite squares.

We went to Piazza Navona, got some gelato and just hung out for a bit to take in the chaos all around us. I love the Piazzas in Rome- there is so much life and so many different things going on all around you all the time.  We saw a wedding photographer snapping photos of the beautiful bride in lace, a guitarist playing classical guitar, a juggler, artists painting and of course a million tourists from all over the world stumbling into each other as they snap a hundred versions of the same picture. So much energy and life around the old buildings, fainted bright paint colors and green shutters open, people smoking cigarettes outside their windows.

Then onto the Pantheon…  We were able to get into the Pantheon for free which was great, and it was as epic as I remember it being.  This is one of the oldest landmarks in Rome, dating back to 27 BC and then rebuilt in 126 AD.  I think it is spectacular, and love taking silly photos with the bright skylight circular center.

We kept walking through the narrow streets and alleys until we found the Trevi Fountain. This was one of my favorite landmarks before, so I was pumped to see it again, and throw a coin into the fountain ensuring another visit to Rome is in our future. When we found it, we discovered it was undergoing massive renovations, so it did NOT look like its normal self and was not running at all.  Even though we didn’t throw any coins into the fountain, we both knew we’d be back again.

After the ‘fountain’ we headed for the Spanish steps.  The steps were really pretty and very touristy, as we had remembered. They themselves weren’t under construction but the church at the top of the steps was, as well as the main fountain at the foot of the stairs. Last time I was here the steps were the ones under renovation. I guess when you have so many old sites and monuments in your city you are constantly fixing them up. They do a good job of trying to make it look nice despite the covers over the various sections. Josh and I chilled on the stairs for sunset with our happy hour beers in hand, and watched more of the chaos as people walked by.  It was entertaining watching the peddlers consistently shoving red roses into tourist’s hands, and seeing how they responded.  Some people were completely confused, or walked away, some engaged conversation, some shoved them away, and others actually purchased them for 2-3 euro each. They came up to us about three times and Josh got more forceful each time, but every one of them wouldn’t go away until they asked us to purchase 3 times, and put them in my face.  It was actually pretty humorous when you saw how it all went down, and even more humorous when you see how many people were walking around with them.

That night we found a cute restaurant on one of the alley streets nearby the steps. It had pretty good pasta but was a little pricey for what it was. We enjoyed being out on the streets on a nice night, but decided that tomorrow we were going to cook ourselves.

The next day we decided to find the Christian catacombs- something we both haven’t done before and thought would be really unique and interesting. When reading up on the various catacombs we learned that the catacombs of San Callisto are among the greatest and most important of Rome, with 16 popes and tens of Christian martyrs buried there, along with many other Christians.  It dates back to the 2^nd century and was over 90 acres. We decided this would be the best place to go. When studying the map to figure out how to get there we realized to our luck that almost all of the catacombs were actually part of the Appia Antica park we were staying right next to! You wouldn’t know it when you run through the park, but it is massive. When the catacombs were built they had to be outside the city walls, and at that time period the park was considered outside the city of Rome. Since it was in the park and looked fairly close on the map (within a few miles) we got adventurous and decided to walk through the park to get there (we needed to get in our workout anyway).

To get there, we definitely saw a new side of Rome and went ‘off the beaten path’ (Rick Steve’s would be proud). It was a beautiful walk, but definitely not the normal way to get to the catacombs. We didn’t see a single person as we navigated through the park trails and nothing was marked. There were some old ruins along the way, and some beautiful fields- it was shocking to find such a quiet, peaceful place amidst the chaos of Rome.  Surprisingly we managed to find the main street in the park that leads to the catacombs without too much difficulty. However, the roads in the park were extremely busy and had zero shoulder to walk along, which seemed strange to us since they were in the park. We had to play a little chicken to get to the area we needed, and it required a little running, but we got there!

We stopped at St. Sebastian Catacombs first and then continued our walk until we got to St. Callixtus. Ironically when we arrived, St. Callixtus (San Callisto) was closed for two hours for lunch. Perfecto! Only an hour and a half to kill… Fortunately we brought our lunch, so we found a shady bench and had our lunch of champions (salami and cheese baguette and an apple) and read one of our travel books. It wasn’t too bad, and once they reopened at 2pm we were able to get a guided tour with a guide in English for $8 each, which seemed like a good deal.  It was super interesting! We learned about the various Popes previously buried, as well as all the history that went along with the Roman Christian persecutions that took place in early AD up through Constantine legalizing Christianity in 313 AD.

This brought a lot of the Roman history to life and sparked us to do a lot more reading of all the Roman conquerors, history, and re-learning of the Christian past.  Though Josh and I are not Catholic, but we are Christians and we found it incredibly interesting to learn about the evolution of Christian religion and how it was practiced years ago through present day. The catacombs were a perfect segue for our visit to St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City, which we visited shortly after.

St. Peter’s Basilica is breathtaking. We had both been before, but it is something that is equally breathtaking the second time, and we knew we had to go back.  This time we had to walk through a long security line and metal detectors, and they were pretty strict about what you could wear into the church. I was not dressed appropriately. Crap! I had covered shoulders, but not covered knees (shorts) so even after waiting in the long line and thinking I was safe- they wouldn’t let me in! So we got to buy a sweet new touristy scarf from a guy by the entrance and I got to turn into a skirt to cover my legs. Simply wonderful! Of course Josh’s shorts above his knee were fine, they are only strict with ladies. It was 5 euro I would’ve preferred not to have spent, but worth doing to go in. We walked through the church in awe, and got to watch the sun setting on the Basilica as we left. It was really beautiful.

We decided to stop in EATALY in Rome, since we love the NYC and Chicago ones, and wanted to see the difference.  It was right near the Ostiense train station, in what felt like a strange area, but it was definitely worth the walk! It was the biggest we’ve seen. Four floors high, it had more pasta, cheese, wine, meats, and treats than I’ve ever seen in one spot. We indulged in a glass of red wine and some gelato (of course!). It was surprising how empty it felt compared to what it would look like on a Friday evening on 23^rd street in New York City.  Maybe it’s just not touristy yet in Rome?  Not sure, but it was cool being able to walk freely through the aisles.

Our last night in Rome we cooked our own Italian dinner, and it turned out great! It was nice having a kitchen and a balcony enjoy the nice evening.  There are so many different types of pastas and oils available in Italy than in the US, so it was fun to experiment with some different pasta. We had quite a feast!

Rome proved to be just as great as we had remembered before, but it was enjoyable seeing a little bit of a different side.