Arriving late morning on a public holiday and having had barely an hours sleep the night before we are all a little frazzled but nonetheless excited. Pushing ourselves to make use of the rest of the day we stride into Rome with little appreciation of what we were missing. The dreary confines of our exhaustion leaves little room for the beauty and the crowds out to appreciate their holiday seem too much to cope with. The struggle to make sense of a 3d film, adding nausea into our conundrum, leaves us more dejected than we would like, disbelieving that the city could hold any magic for us.
Woken by the morning sun streaming through the window as the street below, now sleepy and quiet, wilfully struggled to open its eyes, last nights cacophony from Rome’s insomniacs is but a mere recollection as we prepare for our adventure.
Having bought some ‘pane’ and croissants from a local baker we set off to explore. The streets mysteriously reveal their secrets to us as we wind our way through the heart of Italy’s most precious treasures. Stopping frequently to take snaps of our discoveries we are soon overawed with Rome’s charm. The beauty of the river Tiber flowing indiscriminately between the bridges is a delight to behold and the horse drawn chariots atop Vittoriano (Victor Emmanuel’s Monument) dance irreverently above the trees like a modern Father Christmas, out to distribute its views.
Seduced into a piazza we are soon drinking coffee and marvelling at the magical transformation that has befallen us through the night before taking our leave of Italy’s most infamous preoccupation and fall upon Portico D’Ottovia and the Teatro di Marcello - Theatre of Marcellus. The two thousand year old theatre, now one of Rome’s most ancient relics, opens our eyes to the mystical brilliance of the archaeological arches and pillars and walls, whilst wistfully wishing poppies bend flexibly amid the stones.
Approaching the Vittoriano we can’t help but be impressed by its vastness and height. A monstrous marble monument, modern in terms of Rome’s heritage, looks somewhat out of place amid the romantic ochre’s of Italy and will always stand out as a bit of an impostor and yet the spectacle that it gives is nonetheless quite unique. The views from its heights allows us a panoramic vista above the rooftop gardens and clay tiled roofs that I will never tire of with the backdrop of hills and mountains snuggling us within a comforting time warp.Encouraged off the tourist trail we seep down a less inviting route to come upon a pizzeria and order a satisfying but typically calorific meal. My initial concerns to an expanding waistline get predictably ignored as we relish the delicacies before we once again prepare to further unravel the historic heritage of the hidden city that lies between the seven hills. Coming upon the Coliseum are hopes aren’t disappointed as we are expertly guided through a maze of stories about gladiators and roman’s alike, out to impress and entertain their countrymen. The barbaric attacks on human rights are as confused in that time as they are today. The matter of destroying many animals in the process of entertainment goes to show how thoughtless and violent the times really were.
Once saturated with the Roman way we take a respite and watch pigeons vie for out attention in the hope of a crumb or two. The heat which has been glaringly responsive up until then starts to ease its focus and leaves us a little cooler as we walk up the hill. Dropping into Carcere Mamertino, The Manertime Prison where legend dictates that Saints Peter and Paul were detained, we enter a circular lower room where the sense of despondency hangs gloomily from the stone blocks, a far cry from the barbarism we had just been hearing about moments before, but nonetheless stiflingly relevant. Popping into a gift shop we shudder at the cost of triviality as we individually mull over our day.
Our evening meal in a trattoria is both restorative and enjoyable and as we walk contently back with sleep on our mind, the locals, who wish to abuse the silence of night, come out to play.
