Roma Eterna (April 19-22)

I arrived at Rome in the late afternoon. The train station is on the other side of town from where Megan, so I hiked the 30 min walk from there to her place. Along the way, I walked past all sorts of interesting sights, such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the city center, and a whole lot of other things. Megan lives in a prime location, basically on top of where Pompey’s grandiose villa, theater, and alternate senate house used to be (famously, where Julius Caesar was murdered). Now the ruins are just full of cats (they really are). Finding Megan’s place was interesting, as I had a very poor map at the time. As it was, it is right next to the ruins, but I walked past it a bunch of times before realizing that. After maybe 15 mins of wandering around the area where it was, I found it and met up with Megan. She lives with 4 other girls from Cornell, whom I met. After sitting around and visiting for a while, Megan and I wandered around her area a little bit, heading over to the Trevi Fountain, the Parthenon (which was by then closed), and another piazza. We then met up with Mel (one of her roommates) and went to eat dinner at a restaurant in the nearby Piazza Navona. I forget exactly what I ate (it was some sort of pasta), but the food was quite good. Afterwards, we headed back to Megan’s place and hung out with some of her other roommates till fairly late.

The next morning I got up and lounged around for a while, including doing a crossword puzzle with Megan and planning what I wanted to do around the city the next few days. Megan and her roommates had a soccer match, so I was on my own for the day. I decided to hit up the Ancient Roman part of Rome, so I headed over to the Capitoline Hill and walked around it a bit (there is a massive building/monument to the king there). I then walked down to the Roman Forum, passing a parade of sorts and various other things on the Imperial Way. It was very cool to be in the actual place where so many important events occurred. Unfortunately, the forum is also just ruins, and even with my knowledge of Ancient Rome, it is pretty challenging to make much sense of everything. After wandering around in the actual forum, I headed up the bordering Palatine Hill, which is also preserved as ruins. It was where most of the wealthy lived back in the day due to its prime location right above the forum. It is also the birthplace of Rome, and sports the ruins of what the Romans believed to be Romulus’ hut. Most of what remains up there is the ruins of the Imperial Palace, which slowly grew to take over much of the hill. After that, I headed over and visited the Flavian Ampitheatre, better known as the Colosseum. Although also only a shadow of its former glory, it is still quite an impressive structure. I then headed up the nearby Esquiline Hill, which was another fashionable area to live back in the day (Nero had his giant palace built there after bulldozing the existing residences). It too is mostly just ruins, but still interesting to see.

Afterwards, I returned to the Colosseum, as I had planned to meet up with Josh in front of it at 5:00. As it turned out, there were 3 other Americans from QM also in Rome, whom Josh had run into. The group of us went over to the ruins of the Circus Maximus (very cool – it is now just grass, but the depression of the stadium is still very visible, as is the track and the raised middle section) and hung out for a while, as there is a nice view there. We planned to meet up the next morning to see the Vatican, as well as later that evening and maybe walk around a bit. I then headed over to the Tiber (which is right by the Circus) and walked back to Megan’s along it (she lives right by the river). The Tiber has some trash in it, but is relatively clean and scenic. There are some neat ruins of bridges going across it, as well as a cool little island with some buildings on it near the lower bend.

When I got back to Megan’s, I hung out with her and her roommates for a while (I ran into them just outside her place, as they were walking back from soccer – they had won their tournament). They made burgers, which were quite good (it was very nice of them to cook them). I then decided to head back down to the Colosseum to meet up with the other QM people. Naturally, the people whose idea it was to see it at night ended up not showing, so it ended up just being me and Josh. The Colosseum is pretty cool lit up at night, I must say. We headed up to walk around in the northern part of the city, seeing things like the Spanish Steps, some of the other plazas, and the Trevi Fountain (he hadn’t seen it yet). Rome is pretty interesting at night, with all the lights and shadows playing off the structures.

The next morning, I got up bright and early and hiked over to the Vatican, which is about a 20 minute walk from Megan’s, on the other side of the Tiber. It started to rain just as a got there, but I had luckily thrown in my windbreaker/rain jacket, so I was set. The plaza in front of St. Peter’s is pretty awesome – it is too bad the Pope was in the US at the time, it would have been interesting to see him give a speech. The plan was to meet in front of the giant obelisk at 8:45 am and beat the lines. Only one other person from the group showed up: Joelle, one of the other QM students (she’s from Minnesota). We waited around for a little while, but no one else showed up (we later found out that Josh and an Australian girl he had met at the hostel had shown up in front of the Vatican Museum and been waiting there, even though we had made clear the day before to meet in front of the obelisk).

We were able to walk right in, without a line, which was quite nice. St. Peter’s is easily the most impressive cathedral in the world (and I’ve been to most of the famous ones now). It is simply massive, but also full of priceless and amazing artwork. Walking around inside, I couldn’t help but wonder how expensive it would be to create something like this today (the size alone would make it pricey, but it would be the artwork that would really drive up the price, as well as all the solid marble). After seeing the main church, we went and saw their collection of relics and things and the tombs of the popes. We then hiked up the 500 or so steps to the top of the dome, which provided a great view of the city below. The climb up was very interesting, as near the top, one had to bend with the shape of the dome (which made it difficult for me, since I am tall, and had to walk in a really strange manner).

We then headed over to the Vatican Museum, where we waited about an hour in line before getting in (not too bad of a wait, it is normally much worse). There was a lot of random junk in the museum, but they also have some of the greatest masterpieces in the world. Their statue collection is amazing, as is the Sistine Chapel, of course, as well as the nearby rooms painted by the greats like Raphael. Easily one of the best art museums in the world. While inside the Sistine Chapel, I ran into Ashley Eastin, another USC student (she’s up in Scotland for the semester). Apparently USC and QM students have taken over Rome. After seeing the museum, we hiked up the nearby Janiculum Hill. It is the highest point in Rome (at least the older part) and offers a great view overlooking the city (the Romans used to have their main lookout tower up there to spot invaders). Then we walked down through the Trastavere region and down to the Tiber, where we split up to head back to our respective places. I then got some pizza with Megan and hung out for a while with her and some of her roommates. Later, I met up with Josh and another friend he had made at his hostel and the three of us wandered around the city, including yet another visit to the Trevi Fountain (where we were in theory going to meet up with some more people from their hostel, but who never showed up). On the way back, it started to pour, and we all got very soaked.

The next day, Josh and I walked around and saw some of the things that we had missed, such as the Pantheon (which is really amazing – it is still in great condition and would be a engineering masterpiece today, much less 2000 years ago). We then took the bus out along the Appian Way to the famous catacombs. Naturally, they were closed for 2 hours for lunch when we arrived, so we walked up and down along the old road (very, very cool). Part of the old road (along the catacombs) has been kept very clear of modernity, so it is lined with the traditional trees and surrounded by fields and one could easily imagine oneself in the Roman era. We eventually went down and saw the catacombs (which were alright, but nothing really special) and then headed back to the city. I decided to head back up to the Capitoline Hill to get a nice view of the forum again, while Josh parted off to see the Tiber area. I then returned back to Megan’s, where I hung out with Megan for a while (she had just gotten back from taking a final) before walking back to the train station and catching a bus to the airport.

Overall, Rome was a very neat city. Since I love Ancient Rome, seeing the actual place where it all happened was especially interesting. There are literally cool ruins everywhere in Rome – the city has done a good job of preserving them. The Papal section is also very neat to see (definitely something one should see at least once). It was great seeing Megan again, and really nice that she let me stay with her. Now I just need to come back at some point and show Karli it, as she would really enjoy Rome.