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Postcards: Centro storico di Roma (IT)

It has been a good decade since I last visited Rome. I have forgotten just how enormous the buildings are, how many churches and cathedrals you can find within a stone’s throw, how chaotic everything could and would be, and how much I enjoyed hearing melodic Italian around me. However, I recall vividly the sheer number of people who flock to the main sights (even during the “shoulder” season)…

Rome

Rome

F and I started our two weeks trip to Italy with a quick stopover in Rome. How quickly? Just a little over a day. Frankly, I did not have the courage to brave the August crowd in the August heat, but when our schedule necessitated flying into Rome (but also out of Rome), it also seemed silly not to give F his first quick tour of the Eternal City.

We ended up walking and sightseeing around the historical center, devouring a good many gelati, losing our temper while trying to visit St Peter’s Basilica (the only spot we tried to enter), lamenting the scaffolds over great fountains, and sighing over the beautiful panoramic view of the city when viewed from the Pincio. All these emotions in a day had got to be on par with an Italian saga!

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

We saw pretty much all the usual stuff on Top-Sights-to-Visit-in-Rome and the likes, from the super-duper ancient Colosseum and the Roman Forum (along with modern day “gladiators”), to the Renaissance and Baroque marvels (including whatever glimpses of St Peter’s Basilica and Piazza Navona), to parks and cityscapes (Pincio is a great spot for panoramic Rome), and all those in between. However, as the Trevi Fountain was under massive renovation and we never got round to chucking a coin into the water, we may not be visiting in the near future?

One truly disagreeable incident occurred when we were trying to visit the St Peter’s Basilica, having been told we could get an immediate, no-queue entry if we rent an (expensive) audioguide. We regretted giving in to the temptation a few minutes in yet ended up trapped in a 45-minutes wait. It was impossible to escape sooner because F’s passport had been taken away for the dossier preparation while we were left to actually queue at one side, and on arrival at the sales counter, it was madhouse melee that we refused to participate. We were also annoyed with the sales tactic employed by the staff of the basilica which failed to deliver on its promise. No queuing? What a joke…

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Luckily, great gelati worked wonders in restoring our good humour. We continued to explore the historical centre by foot, until our feet screamed in silent for a break. Well, I guess 8-9 hours of walking on the first full day of our vacation could constitute “overdoing it”…

Centro storico di Roma: full photoset on Flickr

All posts in this series:
Italy: Postcards: Centro Storico di Roma | Flickr Photoset
Italy: Postcards: 2-hours in Florence | Flickr Photoset
Italy: The walled city of Lucca | Flickr Photoset
Italy: Dining in Lu.C.C.A – L’Imbuto
Italy: Sunsets of Cinque Terre
Italy: The villages of Cinque Terre | Flickr Photoset
Italy: Postcards: Lost in Parma
Italy: Bologna: the city of a gazillion porticoes | Flickr Photoset
Italy: The Sanctuary of Madonna di San Luca
Italy: Verona: a lot more than a Shakespearean drama | Flickr Photoset
Italy: Postcards: In search of Padua
Italy: A very picturesque Bassano del Grappa | Flickr Photoset



Category: Europe, Italy, Travel

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4 scribbles & notes

  1. medca says:

    Oooooo…such rich history and also gelati eh kekekek :)

    • Lil says:

      Plenty of ancient history except I could only remember a fraction of them to tell F when we were looking around… gelati, well, one simply cannot be in Italy and not eat gelati. We had them at least once per day! :D

  2. sila says:

    so, you like gelati, is it? :P

    too bad about the basilica craziness and marketing strategies (and lies).

    • Lil says:

      you mean it has not been obvious until now? :p
      (by the way, minty watermelon ice cream, soooooo good!)

      it was crazy and yes, what annoyed us most was the lying. and the guy had the gall to tell us, when we witnessed the craziness at the audioguide retrieval counter, “if you don’t want to queue, then don’t come here at this time of the year, go somewhere else” which completely missed the point. if we had not been promised no queueing access, we would not even be there waiting in the first place – we would have left 45 minutes before that!

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