Denise and Harry's Blog: Rome at Christmas Time

We have been to our first Christmas pantomime -they seem to be a very English thing to do. Every city, or town seems to have one over Christmas - Cilla Black is starring in one in Birmingham and we had Mickey Rooney in ours. It was a lot of fun and it is true what they say that they are for all ages as little ones enjoy it and we were old enough to get the adult humour. In front of us there were little ones dressed up as Cinderella and they danced in the aisles as we laughed and sang along. At one point we were squirted with water pistols (to the music of Mission Impossible), had toilet rolls thrown at us (the gift on the 5th day of Christmas) and somehow this was all entwined with the story of Cinderella that we all know and love. When we told people that we were going (and some could not understand our excitement) they said 'oh no you aren't' and after a while we realised we were meant to say 'oh yes we are' and then they would say 'oh no you aren't' and we would say 'oh yes we are' ... We were quite well practised by the time we got to the night.

Then we went to Rome for the weekend. It took us 10 hours from leaving work to get to our hotel in Rome - this might seem like a long time for a 2 hour flight and it was!! Anyway, on the bus trip into the centre of the city we watched with amazement, opened mouths and startled expressions as the bus driver negotiated his way through traffic (after a while we began to relax and the occassional laugh escaped our mouths). Where 2 lanes were marked on the road you could guarantee there were 4 lanes of traffic, where a driver left a space between his car and the one in front - it was filled by a scooter or a smart car or a very brave cyclist. We decided that all drivers seemed to aspire to be in the next remake of the Italian Job. We got around Rome using a mixture of public transport (we bought a Roma card which gave us unlimited travel on the public transport system - underground, buses and trams - and free entry into lots of places), the hop on hop off bus (which took us to 14 different places of interest but didn't really tell us much about them) and leg power (which took us to lots of places - we learnt to cross roads like Italians - look straight ahead, not to the left or the right, saunter across as though you have all day. If you stand uncertainly at the edge of the crossing, like we did at first, drivers ignore you. If you act like an Italian the car will probably slow down just enough to let you across but in most cases will swerve to go round you. And we weren't fooled after a few crossings we learnt that green lights for pedestrians means that there is a red light for a car to go through and we ran!! It hardly seems surprising that the Easyjet magazine had this to say about Rome

"why not see the city by scooter and avoid overcrowded buses and the limited metro system...You just need a drivers licence, sharp senses and nerves of steel!"

The transport system did seem quite effective in the busy city, we only saw one set of polizia sweeping up after an accident and there were little electric buses that take about 16 people along the not so popular routes and electric vans everywhere selling expensive ice-creams, drinks and paninis. And if you drive a car you can park it almost anywhere!!

The week before Christmas was busy for locals Christmas shopping, but few tourists were about and with beautiful weather (we couldn't resist sitting and soaking up the sun on occasions) we saw most of Rome with no queues. I think we were lucky as there was some evidence of wetter days preceding with lots of puddles and flood marks on some of the buildings and rubbish in trees near the river. I was looking forward to seeing Rome at Christmas time, sort of expecting lots of lights, but except for a few Christmas trees and a couple of lit streets and shops there wasn't much in terms of a light show. We did see a Father Christmas at a Piazza and some nativity scenes which Rome specialises in (I think they run tours of 14 different nativity scenes - and we were lucky enough to see 4). It some how felt right for the city to celebrate Christmas this way.

The blue skies gave us ample opportunities for seeing Rome at it's best as we climbed to the top of the Colosseum and other high spots to look across roof tops to the snow covered mountains, to the lower hills and across the River Tiber. And in the evening we stumbled across (well we were in a bus going somewhere and I said 'that looks interesting let's get off' as I sometimes do) the market at the Piazzo Novona - it was early evening and the Romans were doing their Christmas shopping and I was taking photos of the Caballeria and Santa and his reindeer. Interesting that the markets are quite different in countries. In the UK markets sell lots of clothes, books, christmas decorations and teatowels, while in France it is mainly cheeses, bread, mushrooms, olives, books and handbags while in Rome it was little ornaments, miniature water fountains, sweets, little houses made from bison board, nativity scenes, witches on broom sticks and shoes.

So, we packed quite a few things into our 2 days in Rome. We first stopped at the Colosseum - one of those 'must sees' - as it is about 2000 years and although a ruin in quite remarkable condition for a ruin. We wandered inside (no queue) and thought about this stone architectural feat that housed 87,000 spectators while they watched gladiator combats, navy battles, wild animal hunts and more tamer events. After a while the crowd preferred tamer sports and entertainment which I was pleased to hear as knowing that cruel events had taken place took some of the fascination out of it for me.

I did enjoy wandering through the Palatino. Park like surroundings, lots of trees and heaps and heaps of Roman ruins - thankfully some of them still standing. We walked through the Roman village picturing daily life and understanding some of the hardships that these people must have had (in another part of Rome we did see some housing built for the poor - and it looked a bit like council housing today except only a couple of storeys high and I did wonder that if we gave the poor homes they could be proud of would we have a different society today).

We visited Tiber Island linked to the rest of Rome by two bridges and which now has a hospital filling about half of the island. It used to be a quarantine station and earlier still than that home for really bad criminals. The legend says that Tiber Island was formed by angry Romans throwing Tarquinius Superbus (510BC) into the river and dirt and silt built the island around where he was thrown. We wandered through the hospital (trying to find a loo but with no success), and then across the bridge noticing that at some point the river must have been a lot higher - as the water mark went a long way up the hospital (did not quite reach the windows), and there was a lot of rubbish caught in the leafless trees.

We had time to see the Trevi fountain before wandering back to the train station to pick up our bags. It was designed in 1643 just after the completion of the Barberini Palace (the fountain backs onto one of the walls). In earlier days, and thankfully not now, the dead were laid in front of the fountain and at the call of the town crier the people of the town would come to claim their family members. Not sure if the legend is related to the earlier events but if you stand with your back to the fountain and throw in a coin legend has it that you will return to the city one day. We took a video of us throwing a Polish Ztolety and a UK 5 pence into the fountain and wondered if foreign currency counted - only time will tell. There is no point putting the video on the blog as only the lower part of Harry manage to get filmed.

Castle S.Angelo was rather an impressive circular building that we could see from the Cupola of the Basilica - so off we went to explore on the second morning. It was built as a family home in about 123AD for Emperor Hadrian (the same Hadrian that built Hadrians wall between Scotland and England. The map showing the Roman Empire showed that the wall marked the end of the Roman influence ie Scotland and a little bit of central Wales never succumbed). The castle has played a major part in Roman history including a dungeon, prison, residence and a tunnel provided a secret escape route for the Pope to flee the Vatican if necessary.

St Pietro Basilica is hard to describe. It is steeped in Pope tradition a bit like England is steeped in royal tradition. The Basilica was built above the tomb of the Apostle Peter who died around 60AD. Inside, is a wonder of paintings, statues, mosaics all about the history of the Popes, rather than focussed solely on Christianity. In fact we took a photo of a stone tablet labelling all Popes from S Petrvs 76 AD to the present day Pope - a perfect thing to memorise for that pub quiz. We climbed to the top of the Basilica (the cupola- about 500 steps - it actually felt like we were climbing on the outside of a huge cup as we went round and round and round). There was a magnificent view of the city and of the Vatican (couldn't visit so only looked at the little city from on high) and then we wandered through the building that houses all the tombs of the Popes under the Basilica (I thought it must be nice for them to be buried somewhere really special with all the familiar things around them and knowing that they were with people of similar beliefs).