We stayed in a convent-turned-hotel in the city center, a great location and a charming building (Pontificio Istituto Maestre Pie Filippini Casa Per Feria, Via della Botteghe Oscure, 42.)
The view out our window was a snapshot of Roma – below, the ruins of Ancient Rome, littered with modern garbage. The sidewalks above would get crowded with tourists soon after sunup. The classic European business/apartment block has a cell tower mounted to the roof. Peeking above is a bit of the massive monument to the first king of a unified and named by locals as “The Typewriter” due to its shape. Another window gave a view of a church dome partially blocked by a variety of antennae.
The convent itself reflects modern Rome as well. There are still some nuns living in it, but at least half the building has been converted into a hotel. The courtyard features bits of ancient mosaics and decorative carvings mounted to the wall, opposite the new glass elevator. The lovely chapel is just down the hall from where breakfast is served to guests staring at their cellphones.
Accommodations aside, let’s hit the streets. The thing I love most about Rome is just wandering around. Suddenly, there’s a block of Ancient Rome. Duck into a random church and be astounded. Sculpted fountains. Gorgeous doors. It is tough to resist photographing every square inch of texture and detail.
The city center is a lot more crowded with tourists since my last visit (how did more than 20 years flash by?) resulting in sold out attractions, long lines, and some challenges in finding fantastic yet affordable food. Even open-air sites like the Trevi Fountain were so crowded that I didn’t bother pushing into the throng, having seen it before.
Maybe you’re a spontaneous person that prefers to drop into things on a whim. I get it. But I missed the only two museums I really wanted to see because we didn’t get tickets in advance and failed to realize one was closed the following day, May 1, for a holiday. In another instance, we got tickets through third party vendors but didn’t have access to the email and the company didn’t get our info to the museum. We had a similar failure on restaurant reservations in Napoli.
So here is some advice if you’re planning to visit:
- Buy museum and other attraction tickets in advance. Make sure you’re buying them from an official site. There is something called a “Rome Pass” that provides entry to several sites, like the Forum Capitoline Museum, etc. probably worth looking into.
- Research food in advance. It used to be you could stop in just about any non-tourist-strip restaurant and walk away grinning. I didn’t feel quite as lucky this time. If it’s a place that you can find a good review of and they take reservations, make them. Again, try to ensure you’re using a genuine site.
- Get comfortable walking shoes. Break them in. You’re not going to look like a local. Give up. I have no idea how Italians survive on slick, pointy cobblestones in their fashionable shoes.
That said, you can still wander around plenty of Ancient Rome without tickets, and often on sidewalks not too crowded (at least in April/May.) The Forum is crisscrossed by many streets, sometimes with explanatory billboards giving you a vague idea of what once stood there. You can check out the Colosseum’s exterior, much more impressive than the ruins of the interior, look at triumphal arches and endless toppled columns and scraps of temples all for free.
We took a break at a café overlooking the Circus Maximus, the chariot racing track that was the NASCAR of its time, before trekking across town to the park featuring Villa Borghese and the Borghese Gallery and Museum, only to find them closed on Mondays. The park itself was worth the visit, however, featuring countless busts of famous figures, most of which were missing their noses due to vandals. One end of the park offers a great view of Piazza del Popolo, with St. Peter’s in the distance, from above the Spanish Steps.
Even on a rainy Monday afternoon at nearly closing time, the line for St. Peters wrapped halfway around the piazza. We waited more than an hour, but it’s something you can’t skip if you’re visiting Rome. Don’t miss the basement featuring a handful of dead popes and the supposed tomb of ol’ St. Pete himself. We happened to be there on a day when they’d removed the bulk of the interior seating, making it feel less crowded and easier to move around.
Just across the river from the bulk of the historic sites is Trastevere, a hip neighborhood packed with restaurants and bars. Last I was in the city, the area was just being discovered by tourists. Now, there are long waits for better restaurants and finding a scrappy little bar serving mostly locals feels like an accomplishment. (Photos from various trips across the river at different times.)
I still love the city, but the tourist areas feel less Italian than on my previous visits. Next time, I might stay on the edge of Trastevere, hit up some of the new and/or less famous museums, and heed my own advice about advanced tickets and reservations.
Next episode: the island of Ischia and a day in Napoli.
Great photos with the author’s usual flair for insightful comment. Looking forward to his take on Ischia and then Napoli, a city which also has its own amazing character.