Rome

After visiting Malta, Sicily and Sardinia, Rome was the next obvious choice of destination. We have been before, but with the Trevi Fountain hidden under a mass of scaffolding and blue tarpaulin, Mr Bunny has yet to see this sight of beauty. More about that later....

It is May. Is May a good time to visit Rome? No. No it is not. Least of all in a Jubilee year (whatever that was supposed to mean as we saw no evidence) and certainly not when a certain Race for Life type marathon was taking place. Add to the fact that the world has gone travel crazy, Rome, in a nutshell was swamped. Our time in the ancient city started very well. With accommodation extraordinarily expensive in the historic centre we secured ourselves the best little apartment, within a few steps of St Peters Square. Just the wrong side of the river to be classed as the historic centre and its super prices, but so close to everything, and yes it was still. expensive. `Close** wow, now that`s a term I use loosely. Explanations to follow. later Day one we took our hosts advice and climbed the hill behind our apartment bock until we reached a number of great view points. The first was just a random bench in a field, that just so happened to have a very clear view of the dome of St Peters, but the second a beautiful fountain with fabulous views over Rome. It was also clearly a little too far out for out to be swimming with tourists. From there we ambled our way back down the hill using a different route, paused to listen to pleasant voiced busker for a while, then meandered back down to river level and to our first `must see` tourist attraction. There are a whole host of iconic `must see` tourist attractions Given that we have been to Rome before, and have see all of them, We chose to revisit the Castle San`t Angelo as it was the building we remembered the least. This unique building is surprisingly one of the lesser visited attractions. The shortest of wait times, a booking made online, and we were in. We could wander this impressive structure with time and space. We never felt crowded, or rushed. There is a lot of reading to be done within this round castle like structure, the what, why and when, but this Bunny finds the endless waffle somewhat tedious preferring to admire the building walls, paintings and quirks like holes in the floor that look all the way down to the people at the bottom. Wave hard enough and you may even get someone to wave back. If you climb to the very top of the castle, you will of course, find a cafe. No matter where you go in the world, no matter how sacred the space, or peaceful the surroundings, you always seem to find a cafe. One day in the future, a hiker will be greeted at the top of Mount Everest with ` Welcome, well done, do you prefer regular coffee or decaf...` What I did not find is the supposed hidey hole at the back of a statue as per the film Angels and Demons.

Our following days in Rome all followed the same sort of pattern. We had a small map, a real hard copy map, backed it up with google (or course) and divided the city into areas. Day two Colosseum, day three Spanish steps, day four Trevi, that sort of thing.

What we could not do was anything with a ticket. As I said at the start of the blog, we have been before, and on those visits, we did, to coin a cheap overused phrase, tick off all the big sights of Rome. We have been inside the Colosseum, inside St Peters, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. Wandered (for free then but no longer) the Roman Forum. This time we decided to wander the streets of our chosen areas, and just generally take our time looking. Not walking with noses glued to a photo, or walking blindly towards a certain iconic place, we really made the effort to be in a street, we didn`t sheep, if the sheep went right, we took the back street, if everybody followed the main road, we walked one street over. One day we walked along the river side to Isola Tiberina. We crossed the bridge to the island itself, then stood and marvelled at this incredible bridge that everyone else was just blindly walking across. Ponte Fabricio dates back to 62BC. A working, fully intact bridge, built over 2000 years ago. It was the details such as this that we enjoyed the most this time. A church, non descript from the outside, but with detail inside that makes you just want to sit and gaze. We found a lot of churches, non of whose names I can remember unfortunately. We found one, now lets find another. We have over 900 to choose from, so why should so called `influencers` determine what is the best? Must see Church painting in Rome!! that`s what they say, meh, yes, the church they suggest was lovely, stunning in fact, but round the corner sits a church waiting in peaceful serenity hiding its majesty with a wry smile. A ceiling space so incredible , you just need time to sit, stare and think how? In churches like these we would often sit alone, maybe one or two others in the church, but never with the same amount of people as in the church that shouldn`t be missed The same day we walked the river, we crossed into Trastevere, another favourite tourist area of Rome, did I like it? Not sure. Very old, cobbled streets, traditional restaurants, and graffiti. Lots and lots of graffiti. Graffiti is to be found all over Italy, like a pandemic they seem powerless to control it. The only buildings that seem to escape this disgusting blight of colour, (not even pictures, or patterns, just scrawled writings of rubbish) are the Roman structures. I beg to ask, if they can respect those, why can they not respect the rest of their homeland? Once again, I found myself the tourist wanting to see, but not wanting to be there. Rome is a filthy city, but how much of the rubbish we see is tourist created? We bunnies are just so careful to leaving nothing but footprints, and take only memories. I wish others would be as respectful.

We covered over 20,000 steps that day, and everything we saw was `close`** to where we were staying. That is what I mean by close, with a Ha!! No matter how condensed an area we chose to wander, each day we averaged around 16,000 steps. Can you do Rome in a day? No!, no you cannot. With impressive fitness, an ability to just keep walking, pre booked early entries for every major sight, and you may get to see the best sights in three days. We were there six days, and still left Rome with my all ears, always listening Facebook account reminding me of all the incredible places we missed.

St Peters. As we stood in the centre of St Peters, totally surrounded by people, I still recall the photo of me, stood in front of the obelisk, with no one behind me. It is hard to comprehend the sheer numbers of people in line now. Stretching from the entry on the top right hand side of the columns, the queue of people stretches almost 3/4 of the way around the square. As for the number of people in line for the Vatican museums? Just crazy numbers. Massive numbers of sheep being herded in the same direction. I can only imagine how crowded and stuffy the Sistine Chapel would be. When did the world become so busy?

Trevi fountain. I have read so much about the Trevi being over run and crowded, I thought of when and how we could visit this beautiful fountain, how could Mr Bunny see this fountain as I had many years ago, when once again, it was just me, a friend, and a few pigeons. The second time I went it was busier, but still I could walk around, no jostling, large amounts of free space, even room for sellers of tat to wander around, badgering people to buy their naff souvenirs, but now? You can hear the people by the fountain before you are anywhere near it. Every recent picture you see online at the moment, about how crowded the Trevi is, is entirely true. Not an ounce of space anywhere. Just a huge, en masse group of people all wanting that photo in front of the Trevi. I gave up with the idea of going at 4am, or midnight, enough reading suggests there is no such thing as `quiet time`. We braced ourselves, and entered the square. We queued, we jostled, we hustled and we squeezed. We got our photo. Thank you phones for having a delete unwanted objects button. We left.

Our time in Rome was eye opening, this amazing city, as old as its seven hills, is just too busy. We loved every minute of our time there, even managing to find our own little bit of space now and again to just enjoy it. I went to the Wedding Cake Building, interestingly enough I was calling it that 20 years ago before google became the number one go to for information, yet now, you only need to type Wedding into Google, (at least when in Rome), and the beautiful white Victor Emmanuelle II building is your number one hit. Twenty years ago, I climbed to the top and found a newly opened little room selling hot tea and cups of coffee. Mr Bunny and I climbed to the top of the same building, and this little room is now a whole floor open air/partially covered restaurant with a fully fitted kitchen. A glass elevator takes you to the very top, and the views to Forum now extend to both sides of the road as Rome continues its excavations.

This amazing ever evolving city is well worth a visit, just pick your time of year carefully. Avoid May.

We leave Rome and and many of its secrets as yet unfound, and continue our journey. Will we return? I would think so, not for a while, but I dare say one day we will be back.

Thank you for your kind hospitality Rome

Ciao!