Sunday, October 9, 2011
Rome, Italy and a Sunday walkabout
Jan and I wanted to make sure that D&S had time on this trip to make their own memories, without us hanging around all the time, so we headed out on our own today to visit some sights. D&S were going to head downtown too, but to the hop-on-hop-off bus for a city tour, etc.
We took the Metro 'B-line' downtown, transferring at the Termini stop (the main train station) just before the colusseum. There we transferred to the 'A-line' heading north, and exited at the third stop, 'Spagna', for the Spanish Steps attraction.
First on our list of sites to be revisited was 'The Spanish Steps', but we had second thoughts after walking the five minutes from the metro stop. The place was thronged, packed, swamped, and full. Tourists, like us, were everywhere - on the streets and on the steps and surrounding the fountain at the foot of the steps. Mixed in were the vendors, masses of them, selling everything immaginable, including scarves from India and the most common - these little plastic blobs that when thrown down on a board would recover their round blob-like shape in about 20 seconds. Only to be thrown down again by the tireless vendors trying to entice the buyers. These blobs, and their vendors, were everywhere. Always the same 'Hey Look ... Very Nice' and then throw down a blob. Splat. Then pick it up, and repeat. Mind-numbing, and a bit of a turn off for us potential customers. It's interesting, and neat, the first time or two we see it, but when it is on every street corner it becomes annoying and a definite no-buy. The poor guys have to keep plugging it though, and they don't really appear more interested than us tourists.
We moved on fairly quickly, toward the Trevi Fountain. Got there to find the crowds beat us to it, probably since first thing in the morning. Packed, just jammed, no place to stand anywhere near the fountain, and the crowds of Japanese tours were very aggressively pushing wherever they could. So Jan had a gelato and I had some cantaloupe, and we stood and talked about how the spring off-season is the only time to be in Rome. Who would have thought that early October would be like this. Then we moved on to 'The Lantern', a little restaurant toward the forum from the Trevi, and had lunch. It wasn't crowded at all until we were nearly finished about an hour later, then two tour busses of German tourists arrived. They sat inside, Jan and I were outside, so we didn't interact much but they did tie up the washroom for a bit.
Then on again to the forum which was crowded also and we skidded past that toward the Vittoriano. Along the way, at a tall column, we met a couple from Sechelt and Khazakstan, an interesting combination and an interesting story. Which may become a novel in due course, as he is a writer in Sechelt and she a mathematician and accountant. I will buy the book when it comes out.
We moved on to the Vittoriano, always a hit for us with its giant 'winged victory' statues way up high, and the huge bronze statue of Vittorio Emmanuel on his horse. And the whole parade of Rome spread out below as it passes by on the streets. Scooters and Ferraris, tour busses and pedestrians, and the ever-present and swarming and annoying tourists, among which we number. Wonderful mix, and it all fits.
Then on down to the coluseum, down the 'via formi' which was turned into a pedestrian street today. A couple of days ago as I passed through here, to be on this road was to be dead. Crowded, six lanes of traffic wide, no lane control at all, scooters and tour busses mixing it up together, pedestrians cross only at the lights and even then you take your chances. Today, traffic diverted, pedestrians were everywhere and a street market was literally set up on the street selling everything from meat and cheese to produce and wine to clothes and kitchen goods. In Canada we go to stores to buy this stuff. Here, on the weekends, the stuff comes to the people and they shop for their weekly needs. It's different, of course, but it sure works for them.
Finally a tour around the coluseum and then on the subway to 'home' with our camera batteries dead and our tails dragging, but happy.
