Feeling At Home-A In Roma
We are definitely getting faster at packing up and slicker at leaving a place. It must be all the practice. We said goodbye to our great little apartment and farewelled the Cinque Terre with a delicious croissant from our favourite little ‘Wonderland’ bakery and one last selfie at the beach – the least crowded we’d seen it; everyone must have still been tucked up in bed. We were embarking on a 3 leg train trip to Rome: Monterosso to Viareggio; Viareggio to Firenze and Firenze to Roma, I must admit, when I was booking it I was a little worried about all the changes, not sure how complicated it would all be and wondering if we’d be up to it. In reality, it actually wasn’t too bad although every one of the three trains we caught came a few minutes earlier than scheduled, just to keep us on our toes.
Maisy, Toby and Sam continued their movie marathon onboard and Ross and I read and relaxed, while we zoomed through the Italian countryside; its neat fields of vegetables in rows and gorgeous rustic farm houses our moving vista. We had allocated seats on the train and the novelty of those fancy little tray tables hadn’t worn off. A food carriage was advertised so Ross and Toby made the trip down the train to call back with what was available. The answer was lots, but all of it a mystery due to the descriptions being fully in Italian. Bereft of an interpreter, Ross phoned us and proceeded to rattle off all of our options in his best Italian. When asked what they were he simply replied “How am I supposed to know?” There were no pictures. It was only towards the end of his list of mystery meals that we recognised some Italian we were familiar with…’lasagne’ and ‘bolognaise’…so it was lasagne or bolognaise for all four of us. Ross on the other hand, felt like a game of food roulette, choosing an unknown panini, that turned out to be nothing more than a ham and salad roll. Got to love the language barrier.
Arriving at Roma Termini, in the heart of Rome, we were immediately struck by how hot it was. People had been warning us during our trip, “if you think this is hot, wait ‘til you get to Rome!” They weren’t kidding. It was a scorcher – somewhere in the 40s I’m guessing. The station, just like Milan had been, was more like an airport than a railway station and everyone seemed to be in a hurry, wheelie bags spinning behind their owners in all directions. A quick taxi got us to our accommodation; another apartment (cheaper by far for us than having to get 2 hotel rooms) which blissfully had airconditioning (and a bidet!). The big, heavy, double, dark timber doors on the street – right next to a pizza restaurant our taxi driver highly recommended – opened to a lobby with ancient looking concrete stairs that led to our front door. Someone met us to show us the ropes and everyone put dibs on which bed they’d like. One of the beds pops down out of the wall. Pretty cool!
Dumping our bags, we set off to explore the Eternal City and were gobsmacked when we turned out of our front door and spotted the Colosseum right at the other end of our very street! None of us had expected it to be so close to houses and shops. I assumed it would be set back away from everything but it was right there, looming large; SO much bigger in the flesh, so to speak, than we had imagined. It’s so impressive and so quintessentially Rome! Just as someone who visits Sydney might feel like they are truly in Australia when they view our beautiful Harbour Bridge and Opera House for the for the first time, seeing the Colosseum in the heat of the day…we really knew we were in Rome! Sam had a map and confidently led the way through the ancient cobbled streets, past churches, monuments and fountains. There were lots of fountains, most of them ornate and grand, with statues aplenty and streams of water flowing in arcs from various statues’ orifices. I was convinced every single fountain we came across was the Trevi Fountain. The rest of my family would say, “No, not yet Mum” and although my fruitless search continued, alas we didn’t find that elusive Trevi Fountain today. Maybe tomorrow.
We also found the Via Del Corsi, one of the city’s longest streets, right in the historic centre and a bustling thoroughfare lined with a wealth of fancy boutiques, designer stores and Italian shoe shops. Ross was on the lookout for some slick new work shoes but didn’t manage to find quite what he was looking for. The menswear shop windows displayed dapper models wearing slick-looking skinny-legged suits with cravats, checks and colourful shoes. So Italian! Women’s shops were full of bling – sequins, tulle, jewels and sparkles – everything a bit tizzy and over the top. Tourists covered the footpaths like a surging sea, in and out of doorways and crossing roads en masse. It’s a good thing not too many people have heard of this place.
Our afternoon of exploration also took us to the ancient part of Rome, full of ruins, columns, statues and bursting with history. Everything is inscribed with a date and it is absolutely mind-boggling to think some of these buildings are 2000 years old – around while Jesus was still walking the earth! It’s incredible how much history has unfolded in this amazing town! We absolutely loved all the ruins and ancient artefacts lying around. Later in the week we have a guided tour to look forward to where we’ll hopefully learn a whole lot more about all this “really old stuff” as Maisy calls it.
Tonight we ventured a huge 3 metres from our front door for authentic Italian pizza served with a smile. We can definitely concur with our taxi driver that this was a good pick for dinner…and so convenient! Back upstairs, in the shadow of the Colosseum, we immersed ourselves in all things Roman and watched “Gladiator”.
