When in Roma.....
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2006
1
2
8
Trip End
Mar 01, 2006
Roma, Italy
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Our Alitalia flight landed after dark, which made us think that every innocent Italian looked like a potential pick-pocketer. Perhaps we'd listened to too many stories or had read a little too in depth regarding the potential dangers in Rome? Whatever the case, we left Malta as two laid-back tourists and arrived in Rome as a couple of paranoid foreigners on 'high alert'! Thank goodness we decided to skip Naples!
We caught the express train into Rome from the airport, arriving at around 8:30pm. We followed the directions that the hostel had provided perfectly, only we'd left the train station at the wrong exit. We wandered around the not-so-classy streets surrounding the train station for some time and managed to get ourselves completely lost. It was only with the help of an extremely friendly Roman lady that we found ourselves back on the right track to our unsigned hostel, located on one of the streets that we'd passed around an hour earlier in the evening.
The hostel was in a lovely old building, which was sparkling clean. There were plenty of bathrooms to go around and there was a good vibe about the place. As far as Italian hostels go, it came at a fairly reasonable price and we were within walking distance to many of Rome's wonderful sights.
We woke a little less paranoid the next morning, very eager to see what Rome had to offer. We'd not been out long when we were approached by a well-dressed gentleman in a nice car. He called us over and asked for directions to a few different places. He seemed friendly enough, claimed to work for Versace in Paris, and said that he was in Rome on a short business trip. As a kind gesture, he offered us a lovely soft leather 'Versace' sample jacket on the provisor that we wouldn't sell it. At this stage we were very suspicious, and became increasingly so when he kept signalling for Clinton to lean further into his car, and then strangely enough asked for a couple of Euros for petrol - we think, in an attempt to get Clinton to open his wallet in his car. We caught on to what we think was clearly a bit of a scam, handed him the jacket, thanked him for his 'kind' offer, and walked away. Disgruntled, he placed the jacket on the back seat of his car and drove off - very strange!
They say that a lifetime in Rome is not enough - so it's fair to say that we didn't even skim it's surface. We managed to cram in The Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Colosseum, Fontana Di Trevi, The Pantheon, The Vatican and Sistene Chappel (among many other monuments and sites of cultural interest).
We had a fly-by visit to Rome's huge Sunday Markets, where we managed to score a cute vintage leather jacket for just 2 Euros! Bargain! With more time, patience and space in our backpacks, we could've grabbed a few more bargains but we had to run to catch the Pope's 12 noon Sunday address at St Peter's Basilica.
We enjoyed our time in Rome. It's not the cleanest city, but being there really made us appreciate all those compulsory History lessons that we sat through at school! It's just so rich in famous artworks and impressive architecture that it would be a very tough ask to see all it has to offer.
Perhaps one of those coins we threw into The Fontana di Trevi will ensure our return? We hope so!
