“Rome! By all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live.” – Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday
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Rome isn’t an enormous city & it’s true that the Colosseum & the Forum are probably two of the biggest attractions there. Just by looking at the mobs of tourists in those places, it’s easy to believe that there really isn’t much else for visitors to see.
This, of course, is total bullshit.
Since Olivier & I hit these chaotic tourist places on our first day in Rome, we had our second & final day free to explore the city in a bit more detail.
We left early in the morning & embarked on a walking tour through the historical center of the city. This started at Largo di Torre Argentina. This archeological site is fenced off, but is inhabited by a large number of stray cats, hanging out & napping on the ruins of the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C.
We spent a while here. Mostly because I was geeking out pretty hard & because… well, who doesn’t like standing around watching a bunch of cats lick themselves?
After this, we stopped by Elefantino. Okay, it’s just a sculpture of an elephant. It sits in front of a church. Rome is full of churches, & since we don’t really care much about churches, we were more exited by the elephant. We checked out the Pantheon, but only for a few minutes. There was some kind of church service being prepared & it was wall-to-wall dipshits with fanny packs & pasty, white legs, so we didn’t stay long before heading to Piazza Navona.
Back in the 17th – 19th centuries, this place was occasionally flooded for mock naval battles. Now it’s filled with street artists, performers & fanny packs.
We passed through a big outdoor market & couldn’t help ourselves – we had to stop to linger over all the spices, pasta, meat & produce. The colors were hypnotic, calling like sirens, urging us to hand over money so we could stuff our faces with colors.
Summoning as much self-control as possible, we picked up some spices, checked out a few more buildings, & then stopped for lunch.
It was only around noon & we didn’t have much a plan for the rest of the day. We were winging it. So, when we passed by the sign advertising an exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci’s machines, we couldn’t resist. After we gave the guy behind the counter our 18 Euros, we went down the winding steps to the exhibit & were pleasantly surprised to discover that this wasn’t one of those exhibitions where you just stand around staring at shit & reading. No, we got to actually play with stuff, so Olivier entertained himself for a while in there, getting his geek on.
After he was sufficiently geeked out, it was my turn. Well, after a stop for gelato.
We headed straight for the Piazza di Spagna, where you can find the Spanish Steps that lead up to the Trinità dei Monti.
But that’s not what I wanted to see.
Next to the Spanish Steps is the Keats-Shelley Memorial House where John Keats died in 1821. The house is now a museum & has an impressive collection of letters & memorabilia. We spent a couple of hours in there, reading letters, looking at photos, paintings & other random objects belonging to Shelley, Keats, Byron & several others.
Upon leaving the Keats house, we decided that we were sufficiently drained, both mentally & physically. We jumped in the metro & returned to the neighborhood where our bed & not quite breakfast was located. Nearby is a restaurant called “Le Streghe,” which in English means “witches.” We walked a few blocks & soon after found ourselves seated on a large patio, sipping on red wine & shoveling gnocchis into our mouths. I’m pretty sure that by the time it was all over, my stomach was really just one big lump of cheese, shellfish & gnocchi. What we really got a kick out of was the witchy theme of the place. Witches on the walls, hanging from the ceiling on broomsticks as though in flight over the tables… a witch on the label of our bottle of wine.
One thing we considered doing during our short stay in Rome & that we have been asked about is, Vatican City. Did we go visit Vatican City? Uh… no.
But, didn’t we want to visit Vatican City? Um… no. Not even a little bit.
But… the Vatican Museum! The Pope! Other Popey, Catholic-type Vatican stuff! Nope. Not interested. Sorry. We didn’t go.
We instead spent the day getting our nerd on with artist & inventor shenanigans… reading hand-written letters from one poet to another about writing, loss & having adventures. Then we finished it off with some gluttony while surrounded by witches.
Like proper heathens.