The sky-high prices of everything in the capitol (I paid 50% more than usual for a particularly skanky hostel) and my ever-shrinking budget meant I'd limited myself to just three nights in the city. The problem is that you could easily spend a week there and barely scratch the surface of all there is to see and do.
With that in mind I spent every waking minute walking the streets, in weather that was scorchingly hot from the moment I arrived. On Saturday I stumbled on some kind of giant street protest/party, with crowds of crusty goths and punks rocking out around a big fountain as a huge number of police watched on. I carefully studied their tactics, and as far as I can make out crowd control in Italy mainly consists of chatting up any hot girls that walk past.
After wandering around for a bit, wishing I spoke Italian so I could find out what was going on, I ducked into a nearby church for a break from the heat and noise. It was an impressive place, and it turned out I'd stumbled in there just as a wedding was taking place. I got out of the way as quickly as possible, a few minutes before the bride came in - looking like an A-list movie star. I watched for a few minutes then went back out to the streets - straight back into the party. Italy truly is a country of contrasts.
Over the three days I was there I tried to cram in as many of the major sights as was humanly possible. I will now attempt to describe them as briefly as possible:
- Colosseum - crumbly, familiar, ever so slightly smaller than I imagined
- Trevi Fountain - beautiful, but only when you've fought through the crowds to catch a glimpse
- Pantheon - well lit
- Vatican Museum - Longest. Queue. EVER.
- Sistine Chapel - amazing (despite the angry security guards), surprisingly colourful, very quickly makes your neck ache
- Circus Maximus - the place where they had the chariot races, now just a big field. Probably a nice place to walk your dog
- Isola Tiberina - island in the river; lots of fishermen
- St Peter's Square - nuns galore. Don't go on a Sunday, it's nuts
- Piazza del Popolo - beware of careless chumps doing Segway tours
- Piazza Navona - the amazing fountain was closed when I went, so not so good really
- Quirinale - silly uniforms
- Piazza della Republica - full of crusty ravers, sleazy cops and public weddings (probably not always though)
On my last night in town the other guys in my hostel bribed, blackmailed and begged me into going out on a pub crawl. Looking into their pleading eyes it seemed cruel to deny them my awesome presence, so I gave in (reluctantly) and soon found myself playing drinking games outside the Colosseum, which was lit up impressively against the night sky.
I don't remember many of the events that followed, although I know that Fraser, an Aussie guy, bought a megaphone, and none of us could figure out why people don't take them out drinking more often. The many barmen of Rome certainly seemed delighted and amused to be bellowed at repeatedly by a group of chuckling pissheads who were making less and less sense as the night wore on.
I was up and out of the hostel early the next day, so the hangover only really kicked in as I was standing in the line to buy international train tickets. I had no clear plan about where I was heading, and logical thought was getting harder by the minute as my dehydration worsened in the Italian heat.
I have to be back home in a few weeks for a friend's wedding (I'll be travelling again afterwards though), so I changed my plan to go to Croatia from Italy and replaced it instead with the vague idea of drifting back through France and Spain over the next few weeks. There were three people working on the ticket desk; a friendly, smiling guy that people seemed to be thanking a lot and sharing jokes with, a grumpy but efficient looking guy, and a woman who looked as if she hated nothing in the world as much as train stations and the ticket-buying public. Guess which one I got.
Our conversation went a little bit like this:
Hungover Jim - "buon giorno, parla inglese?"
Angry Woman - *disgusted look... brief pause... tiny nod*
HJ - "I'd like to travel to Spain today please, do you have any trains going there?"
AW - *making no effort to check computer* "No."
HJ - "Umm, OK. How about the South of France?"
AW - *still not checking the computer* "No."
HJ - "Nothing?!"
AW - "No."
HJ - "What about Paris then?"
AW - "Why go to Paris if you want to go to Spain?"
HJ - "My plans are very flexible."
AW - *gives me a look as if I just leaned over and spat in her coffee, then makes no attempt to check the computer or answer my question*
HJ - "Do you have any trains to Paris?"
AW - *sighs deeply as if the whole world is against her and proceeds to sell me an extortionately expensive ticket to Paris*
That's how I ended up on a night train to Paris, back to the City where the trip began, with a pounding head and a much lighter wallet. I left Rome a tired and broken man.
No comments:
Post a Comment