ROMA, BABY GURRRRRL
Elly and I flew from Paris to Roma on the 15th of July, finally arriving at the grotty Roma Termini station in the late afternoon. We were reunited with Stef, Elly's housemate who had just finished Croatia sailing, and we slowly and through the ridiculously unreliable transport system made our way to plus hostels Roma camping, where we'd be resting our weary heads for the next four nights.
The next day, we caught a shuttle bus run by a true Italian old man with a bushy black moustache, half-unbuttoned collar shirt with the chest hair poking out and a cigarette and non-chalant attitude pouring out of his mouth. We finally arrived at Cipro metro station beside the Vatican and got swarmed by immigrants trying to sell scarves, hats, stupid irrelevant toys and objects and then meandered through to the area across the river near piazza navona where we found our favourite gelati and cute delicatessen stores with their truffle and olive spreads and moscato tastings. Nearby was the Trevi Fountain which we accidentally found after visiting the exquisite pantheon. We wanted to throw a coin into the fountain but were behaving like scabby Australians so upon finding a coin on the ground beside us, all three of us cupped our hands underneath one another's and threw the singular coin together.
A walk around seeing other attractions and a granita later and it was edging onto dinner time, so we found what quickly became our favourite restaurant in the trastevere area called Carla menta, with its 2€ marinara pizzas, gorgeous pomodoro salad (literally just juicy, ripe tomatoes, and prosciutto e melone (the perfect marriage between sweet and salty). We also had two bottles of Pinot Grigio and a litre of vino del casa and ended up quite drunk and speed walking home along the river, back past the Vatican and singing all the way home on the bus the words from the lizzie McGuire soundtrack "what dreams are made of". Another featured song of our time in Rome was "why not" by Hilary duff because we based our trip there off the Lizzie McGuire movie.
The next day we decided we would tour the Vatican City. We joined a tour and were enthralled to have Roberto, a middle aged Italian man who had eyes for only us (but especially Stef) the entire tour. His love for the art history of the place was unmatchable with anyone else I have ever met. He was a real story teller, and though a little bit cheeky, he was full of life. We saw the Sistine chapel and all I could imagine is the Internet meme that has god creating Adam but actually it is god wearing a headset w/ microphone and a McDonald's hat and passing Adam from across the window a mickey-D's takeaway bag.
We also saw the basilica del st. Pietro.
The afternoon we got to visit piazza di Popolo and up the top gave us the most exquisite afternoon view of the tiny city. We had another sweet and salty marriage snack in the form of Gorgonzola and white chocolate in the park near villa di borghese, a little snoozy in the park then a ride around on bicycles to compliment all the sight seeing and tiresome walking we had done the two days prior. On our way back home we discovered a street-art installation commenting on the treatment of the city by both tourists and those benefiting from them, and because of our close attention the artist, a little old Italian man came running up to us thanking us and giving us his card. At the end we donated some money and wrote a thank you note for such a gorgeous display. Our bus that night was so late that we arrived back home around 12:30 am and our feet were screaming bloody mercy when we finally fell asleep.
With the realisation the next day that we had probably seen too much of the city's scenic points, we slept in the next day then took a train out of town to visit the San Callisto catacombs nearby the via appia antics (one of Rome's oldest roads still intact today). We had to cross a hilly field/park/confused wasteland to get there, which took us through farm land and a little bit out of our comfort zones "where the bloody hell are we" but it was also as if we were in the arid, bushy Rome from early days, making a pilgrimage across unsettled land. Finally arriving at the catacombs, we joined an English tour and learnt about the different layers and grottoes within the underground cemetery. It was eery but absolutely fascinating. A bus took us straight back to San Giovanni where we followed some early city walls and suddenly discovered the colossal coliseum and roman forum, as well as the arch of Constantine. Dinner was a revisit of our trastevere stomping ground and we were happy with our adventures in the Christian Mecca of the world and took a cheeky train back early readying ourselves for the next leg of our trip where we would part company.
