Between travel internet sites, advertisements, every old Italian movie (except spaghetti westerns), how could you not come to Rome with some idea of what you will be seeing. What you see is not surprising, but you are surprised when you see them. Pretty much everything in Rome defies expectations. The massive scale of centuries old buildings. The attention to every intricate detail. The skilled labor (often anonymous) that created the buildings, monuments, paintings, mosaics or frescos.
Everything in Rome overwhelms.This is what greeted us in Rome. After a rather nondescript walk from the train station, we turned onto our street and there they were, ancient ruins of Rome. (And, recent ruins under repair.)
Turn left and there was the Colosseum, far larger and more impressive than expected.
Pivot and the Arch of Constantine
Almost straight ahead, a partial view of the Forum. To the right, The Altar of the Fatherland (also called the Typewriter).
Every few blocks, another piazza (bordered by another pizzeria and another gelateria) with either a fountain,
pillar,
or obelisk (Italy really loves obelisks).
Walking through the city requires constantly stopping to admire everything around you.
Every block there are 2-3 churches, as ubiquitous as Starbucks in the US. You go into church after church thinking “oh, another church” but then you go in and it is “OH”.
And then you go to the Vatican and it is UH OH. We started in St Peters which was massive but honestly, many of the smaller churches in Rome were as, if not more, stunning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Gesù
After St Peters we thought we were prepared for the Vatican Museum, we were not. By the time we got to the halls of statues, we were feeling a bit overwhelmed by the massive scale of the collection.
Statue after statue, painting after painting, unfortunately the lighting around most of the paintings was so poor, they were hard to see. Pictures displayed from floor to ceiling, and the ceilings! The ceiling were pretty much the highlight of every room, they were heavenly.
The walking tour through the Vatican museum ends at the Sistine Chapel. But despite our sensory overload and fatigue, the Chapel provided the energy to push us past the consumer corridor of the cafe, gift shop and pharmacy (which you may need at this point) which you have to pass through to exit.
Traveling off season, we had been encountering more rain than people, but not in Vatican City or Rome. It was crowded but not quite Sunday at Costco crowded. It was hard for us to imagine enjoying traveling in the summer with more people and heat.
Rome was more than just the sights, it was also the sounds. We loved overhearing conversations in Italian although we understood very little (some cross over with Spanish). The cadence, the emotion, the gestures; every conversation sounded like it was life changing, even when we could see they were just ordering coffee. (and yes, coffee can be life changing)
Over our 5 days we were able to walk through pretty much every neighborhood, wrapping it up by taking the subway to the EUR neighborhood in the southern part of town. The Facist inspired buildings provided an interesting visual counterbalance to the previous 4 days. https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/introducing-the-eur-district-in-rome.html
Rome not only surprised on what we saw but, also surprised on how we saw it. We could not separate the beauty from the context. It was hard to consider these massive, ancient buildings created by the powerful to promote themselves at the expense of the lives of soldiers, laborers and slaves. It was hard to separate our appreciation of the art in the churches from its use by the powerful to promote themselves, again at the expense of the lives of others. The eternal problem. Some things just don’t change.
Chosen Fugue 