When Brandon came to visit the three of us took a side trip to Rome for four days. Brandon had an early morning skip-the-line tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica. Gary & I have seen both a few times and did not want to battle the crowds, so we sent Brandon on his way.
On past trips to Rome, we always marveled at what a walkable city it was, and it still is in many ways. However, this trip was the most crowded I have ever seen it — more crowded even than the time we were there in July. The temperature was in the 90s, humidity was high, and the crowds were everywhere.
When I was a student years ago, two friends and I visited Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Capri during our spring break. We stayed in a cheap pensione in Rome, a single room, with three beds and a bathroom down the hall. The door to the room could not open fully because the three beds blocked it, so we had to shimmy in sideways, one by one, and climb onto one of the beds while the others entered. There was no walking around in that room. Apparently, the room had once been the kitchen of an apartment because there was still a (non-working) wood-burning stove in the room. We opened it one evening to find it filled with Italian porn magazines, which were quite explicit and shocking to us.
We went to Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square. It was like a carnival — thousands of people, balloons, food hawkers. Somehow, I managed to take communion from one of the hundreds of priests who fanned out through the crowd.
The three of us walked in Rome; we walked to museums, to ruins, toured the Colosseum and Forums. We were trying to save money and mostly ate bread and cheese and carried a water bottle with us which we refilled in fountains. I do not remember eating a single meal in a restaurant in Rome that trip. One day we rode a bus out to the Appian Way and walked quite a distance back toward the city before deciding to get on the bus again to finish the trip. Another day we rode a bus to E.U.R., the site of the “futuristic” Rome begun by Mussolini prior to WWII and finished in the 1960s as a new business district — we had wanted to see it just because we heard it was so different than the Rome dominated by ancient ruins.
One hot day we had been walking for what seemed like forever. We were dragging. We saw ahead of us a group of construction workers and began to brace ourselves for Italian harassment. As we approached, dragging along in the heat, they all put their tools down, stood up and began applauding, shouting, “Brave ragazze” (Good girls), “Avanti, avanti” (Forward, forward). We burst into smiles and laughter and picked up our pace with the cheering squad.
One morning on our recent trip, Gary, Brandon & I set out for the Capitoline Museum. We walked past the staircase leading to the church of St. Peter in Chains and took the detour. Of course, when we reached the top, there were more stairs into the church, but we saw the chains that held St. Peter when imprisoned in Rome and the marvelous Moses by Michelangelo. Unfortunately, the way out was to go down the stairs. Onward to the Capitoline Museum, where there was, of course, another staircase to climb. Gary complained that we seemed to be climbing every staircase in Rome. (We did not climb the Spanish Steps — we waited at the bottom while Brandon did that.) We told Gary he was fortunate to be able to climb the “new” staircase to the Capitoline, designed by Michelangelo, rather than the old one. (see photos.)
We came to feel that much of this trip to Rome was spent fighting off the hucksters. Nearly everywhere we went someone would try to stick a rose, a bracelet, or other trinket in our hands or on our wrists and then demand money. Most of the time we saw them coming and were prepared, but once or twice we were caught unawares and paid them just to be rid of them. At one restaurant the owner added a 10 per cent cover charge (which was not listed on the menu even though my research indicated it had to be on the menu to be charged in Rome), and then added another 10 per cent, telling me it was a city tax. I argued with him, in Italian, telling him I knew there was no city tax on restaurant meals. We went back and forth for several minutes, all in Italian. Then he changed his story and said it was a tip; I told him his tip was covered by the cover charge (generally there is no tipping in restaurants in Italy). Again, we went back and forth; finally, Gary said to just pay him so we could get out of there, which we did. We should have known better than to stop to eat anywhere within five blocks of the Spanish Steps.
Brandon wanted to see all four papal basilicas. So, we joined him in visiting those other than St. Peter’s. We stayed a block from Santa Maria Maggiore and visited there our first day in Rome. We were disappointed to find the Scala Sancta (Holy Staircase) at St. John Lateran was closed for the year due to renovations, but the basilica itself was lovely.
Our last morning in Rome we rode the subway to St. Paul Outside the Walls. I find St. Paul difficult. While much of what he writes about faith and love is inspiring, I find it hard to ignore the sexism. Even though it is often explained by saying that he was writing from a second century cultural perspective, the fact is those writings have influenced perceptions of the role of women in church and society for hundreds of years. St. Paul Outside the Walls is an oasis. First, because it is indeed outside the walls of the old city, it is not overrun by tourists. There probably were fewer than 25 people there when we visited. Thus, the church maintains dignity, sanctity and quiet. The colonnade and garden in front are lovely and the interior is exquisite. The overall sense is one of reverence and it was a lovely way to end an otherwise hectic visit to Rome.
We rode the subway back to the train station and boarded our train to return to Firenze.
