Roman Holliday

It’s really hard, sitting in Siena, only 2 days after leaving Rome, to write about it. So much was seen, and so much experienced, that it feels not only like Rome was several weeks ago, but that separating everything into single events is impossible. Nonetheless, I will try, albeit a little haphazardly.

Our first real look at Rome was by night, and was the Colosseum, or as we later learned the Flavian Amphitheatre. We were only 3 stops from there and so it seemed the logical place to go and get a feel for the city and have our first meal. Walking out of the metro and seeing this iconic edifice sitting right there in front of you was a little unnerving. Although, after a brief circumnavigation, wine and pasta I began to feel that I was going to love the place. For those who don’t know, I am the Modern History teacher, and although any history is good history as far as I am concerned, my knowledge of the sights we would be seeing was not as extensive as James’ and so I was a little more apprehensive of how I would feel about the city.

We had set aside 5 days to see the eternal city, feeling that any less would hardly do it justice, but even so, by the end, we were exhausted. I could list all of the monuments, archaeological treasures and buildings we saw, but there would be little point, as it would be just that, a list. What I will do, instead, is give you an overview of the “best”, according to each of us. For James it was the Colosseum. The sheer size of the thing (seating 50-60 000 depending on who you believe, and believe me, there are people willing to have you pay them to do so at every turn) and the imagination that it provokes, of the gladiatorial fights (not chariot races, I learned, that’s at Circus Maximus – always knew that Russell Crowe was crap) its iconic form and the labyrinth city underneath the wooden floor where slaves worked to provide the required spectacle demanded by a Roman audience.

For me it was the Vatican museum. We have certainly seen our fair share, and more, of art and sculpture on this trip, and at times it feels like it is all too much to take in. But the Vatican amazed me with not only the size of its collection, and the range – from Egyptian mummies to Salvador Dalis – but the fact that they expected you to see it in only 4 hours, if you were there from opening to closing; apparently that’s enough time in winter. So we were there at opening and were still there, taking our second look at the Sistine chapel, when they shut up shop, literally, and we were told to leave the chapel. What struck me about the Sistine chapel is that although I’ve seen the ceiling so many times before in books, I had not quite realized just how big the space is, or how overwhelming the images are. I felt a little bombarded by them and their colours, and even when the chapel was almost empty and we were pretty much the last people in there as they were herding the tourists out, I still felt that there were too many figures in the room.

Other than that what really sticks with us at this point is how good the weather was, especially compared to now, when it is raining. We had blue skies every day and the only catastrophe was when the digital camera decided not to turn on when we went to Palantine Hill and we were forced to go old school and rely on memory for visuals – funny how you don’t really realize how much you depend on the camera until the battery dies! We were also very excited to discover that Venice is in the grip of flood and hooray for us for deciding to see it first, rather than last, as we would have needed gum boots to see anything. However, we better not crow too loudly, in case the rain doesn’t let up and we have to suffer it for the next two weeks, as I’m not sure that our Florence umbrellas will last that long!