cyan's Journal: Rome, Part 2

It's 5:30am, and I'm posting this from the Meridien Hotel in Nuremberg. It's been about 25 to 30 degrees out and humid as heck, a big change from the dry, continental climate of northern Alberta. At least my room is air conditioned, which can be a bit of a rarity in some German hotels. Not all of the rooms here at the Meridien are air conditioned, but I managed to fight my way to the top to get one ;)

I woke up in Rome on April 5th, a Saturday. My goal was to catch the first shuttle bus to downtown Rome at about 6:00am, which would get me into the heart of Rome sometime around 7:00am. So I quickly showered, got ready, and made my way down to the restaurant for a quick breakfast. The breakfast was a simple buffet of your standard fare: sausages, cold cuts, breads, and pastry. The food quality was better than in Germany, but not by much. What struck me as odd was how *terrible* the orange juice tasted. It tasted like it was made from Tang, or some other mix of powdered chemicals. Considering the fact that there were fresh oranges growing on the trees just outside of the hotel, from which they could use to make *real* fresh orange juice, I found this decidedly odd.

My first goal was to visit Vatican City before it became overrun with tourists. Early April is still considered to be the "low season" for tourists in Rome, but they still come out in droves. Several co-workers related horror stories of having to wait for hours in line to see anything, and I wasn't about to waste a few hours out of my weekend waiting in lines. I walked from the Teatro de Marcello, across the Tiber River, and into St. Peter's Square. On my way, I continued to pass by more random ruins from ancient Rome; temples, houses, and storefronts were represented by plaques describing their former purpose. There were stray cats *everywhere*, sitting around in clumps, sometimes stalking one another in an attempt to gain prestige over their ruinous homes.

As luck would have it, the lines just started to form by the time I got to St. Peter's Square, so I joined up with them and waited to pass through the metal detector. The throng of people slowly walked along their way to St. Peter's Basilica, passing by several of the ceremonial Swiss guards dressed in their colorful uniforms. I spent a considerable amount of time in the Basilica itself, a church of enormous proportions sporting tombs of ancient popes, and giant stained-glass windows. Confessionals lined the walls inside the church, sporting placards advertising the languages spoken within.

I then went downstairs, through the Tomb of the Popes, a giant underground cemetery featuring crypts of popes from years past. Some of the popes interred there died over five centuries ago, speaking to the longevity of the Vatican as a religious force. People were packed into the hallways like sardines, making me wonder how this sort of situation was tolerable during the tourist high season. They especially clogged up around the tomb of John Paul II, where numerous people opposite the tomb were kneeled down in prayer. Paying my respects, I continued onwards out of the underground.

I was about to leave the Vatican all together, that is, until I walked by the Vatican Post Office. The Vatican, smallest country in the world, has its own postal service that ranks among the world's best in terms of efficiency. I walked in, bought a stack of postcards, and began writing a few out to anyone whose address I could remember. It's a shame that I didn't think of it beforehand, otherwise I would've brought an address book with me. After all, it's not every day that you can get something postmarked from the Vatican!

On my way back to the ancient Roman Forum, I stopped in on an island in the middle of the Tiber River. It was about lunchtime, so I was looking for a place to eat. One place in particular had a "Michelin Guide Rated" sticker in its window, the hallmark of a quality restaurant in Europe. The menu looked good, but the restaurant unusually tiny. You had to ring a doorbell just to get in. Considering that I was dressed in my street clothes, I figured there'd be no way they'd let me in. The lack of a reservation wouldn't help any, either, so I continued on.

In the spirit of my love for the unusual, I continued along the edge of the Tiber River in search of the outlet for the Cloaca Maxima. The Cloaca Maxima was ancient Rome's sewer system, which emptied out onto the Tiber River. When you consider that this system existed two millennia ago as a surprisingly effective sanitation control, the fact that the outlet still exists today is amazing.

I found the outlet, no doubt about it. However, a few homeless people decided to take up residence all around it, leaving all manner of human waste strewn about. I actually disturbed a homeless guy in the process of dressing. Ugh. A real shame, too, because I wanted to take a picture of this special historical relic. Alas.

It was about lunchtime when this was all over, so I walked back up to the cafe on Teatro de Marcello to order some lunch. This time, unlike before, the food was excellent. The ravioli was excellently prepared with a simple tomato sauce. I helped myself to some excellent strawberry gelato before continuing on to my favourite part of ancient Rome: the forum.

The forum and Palatine Hill are entirely fenced off from the rest of modern Rome, forcing people to pay in order to gain access. The ten Euro fee was a small price to pay to gain access to one of the greatest, oldest historical sites of our time. I walked down the hill and turned right, instantly greeted with the Roman Senate building, various temples, markets, and shrines. In particular, the shrine to Julius Caesar (built by Augustus,) featured the column that supported Caesar's body when it was burned. The base of the column is still there today, adorned with flowers from everyday people paying their respects to someone who died over two thousand years ago.

I slowly made my way up Palatine Hill, gawking and soaking in the atmosphere. It just felt so surreal to be in this place, to see preserved pools, baths, buildings, or columns. A shower room is perfectly preserved, water flowing from top to bottom, showing how the Romans made use of gravity to guide the flow of water. Back then, taking a shower was a luxury that very few could afford. Tunnels wind their way through the hill itself, colorful frescoes still preserved on the walls. Ancient latin script was chiseled into everything.

I made my way to the top of Palatine Hill, to where only the most wealthy could afford to live. It's no wonder that the nobles and well-to-do of ancient Rome chose this place -- it offered breathtaking views of Rome proper, the Tiber river, Circus Maximus, and Aventine Hill. There was one scene from HBO's "Rome" where Octavian, and his sister Octavia were looking over the city from their back yard atop Palatine Hill, presenting the viewer with the same kind of breathtaking view that I had that day. The show sure did the view justice.

Also perfectly preserved was the residence of Augustus himself, with its elaborate tilework and frescoes still intact. The state of preservation is so tenuous that they only allow visitors to browse the residence three at a time.

All in all, I spent about eight hours looking around the ancient Roman forum and Palatine Hill and still hadn't seen everything I wanted to. By far this amounted to the best experience I've had abroad yet, and I have full intentions of returning sometime in the fall, provided that I'm still in Europe by then. In comparison to my trip to the Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill experience simply blew it out of the water. Next time, I'd have to stay there for the whole day. It really was worth it.

By then it was night, and I walked back to Teatro de Marcello to catch the bus back to the hotel. The next day would end up being even more adventuresome: a train trip to Naples, then to the ancient doomed city of Pompeii.