Day 8: Rome

We had to wake up early for our trip to Rome. Thankfully, our hotel had provided us with some breakfast so we didn't have to search for food in the morning. Our train ride was fast, the first high-speed train ride on our trip. It only took us about ninety minutes to get from Florence to Rome.

My first impression of Rome: chaotic. It's not as neat and organized as Milan by a long shot. Traffic is crazy, buses sometimes don't go on the route they're supposed to, and trash cans are always overflowing. We hopped on the metro from Termini to the closest station to our hotel - Spagna - and managed to get inside. We waited until a worker showed up, who let us leave our things in the hotel.

Following that, we had several hours before our 2:00 PM tickets to the Borghese gallery. We decided to take in some ancient Roman sights. Our first attempt was to be for the Pantheon. We walked there, but found that the line to get in was way too long for our liking. Next, we would attempt the Roman forum. Should be no problem, right?

Wrong. To start, it was surprisingly difficult to get there. We used a bus, but it didn't help us much and we had to walk through a confusing route where we found ourselves at dead ends a few times. In spite of the fact that the forum is outdoors and spacious, only a limited number of people could be let in - and you needed a ticket in advance. Not only that, but there is construction in the area surrounding the forum and colosseum, making it terribly crowded and confusing to get around. The wayfinding was awful: none of the signs showed us where we actually needed to go. While it was nice to see the colosseum and the forum from the outside, we weren't actually able to make it in to either of them. I was terribly disappointed by this, since the forum was one of the sights I was most excited about seeing.

The best look we would get at the Forum

It was now lunchtime, and we decided to just get something from a grocery store. We ended up buying sandwiches, apples, a bag of popcorn and some chocolate-covered biscuits. We ate our lunch outside of an "iShop" (not an official Apple store) hearing the annoying sounds of some street peddler's electronic toys nearby. While we hadn't seen any cheesy street performers before today, Rome more than makes up for it. There are plenty of them here. Haven't seen any dressed up as ancient Romans, though.

Our next objective was to make it up to the Villa Borghese. We still had a little bit of time, so we wandered around the park and came across a random street festival, somebody selling P.J. Mask balloons, and a pond that seemed way too small for people to rent canoes for a romantic ride on, yet they did so anyway.

Awesome trees

The Borghese Gallery was mildly disappointing. It, too, was undergoing some renovation and the wayfinding wasn't the best. Rick Steves had no audioguide for the place, and their own audioguides were not functional. And finally, the gallery had been overrun by works by an English sculptor named Damien Hirst. If it had just been a few works of his I would have been fine, but his sculptures were EVERYWHERE. Sometimes in front of other permanent exhibitions at the gallery. It was excessive. I came to the gallery to see Bernini sculptures, not Damien Hirst's mediocrities. Thankfully, all the big hits were still there: Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of Prosperina - as well as Canova's Venus Victrix. We only were in the gallery for an hour.

Rape of Prosperina

An example of the mediocre Damien Hirst artwork flooding the gallery

Venus Victrix

Apollo and Daphne

Another Damien Hirst masterpiece

At this point, we returned to our hotel and got the key, and rested in the room for a while. We decided to go on one of the Rick Steves walking tours of Rome - specifically, the heart of Rome tour. This one started at Campo di Fiori, and gradually makes its way past the Pantheon, the Parliament building, and ends at the Spanish Steps. At Piazza Navona, we stopped to get a Tartufo gelato treat - delicious - and enjoyed the atmosphere. While we were eating, some guy was playing a loud electric guitar, and was getting a surprising amount of applause. I guess the locals here (or maybe the tourists) appreciate street music regardless of its quality.

Tartuffo! Would recommend.

To continue, we passed the Pantheon again, and heard a lot of commotion at Marcus Aurelius's column. We never figured out quite what was happening, but the area was blocked off and the crowd was agitated. 

We moved on to the Trevi fountain, which nobody was allowed to get right next to and was very overcrowded. No coins in the fountain for us this evening. We finally ended at the Spanish steps, and sought out dinner - we settled on an inexpensive pizza place, and ordered a wide selection. The best was a balsamic gorgonzola walnut pizza (Italians like walnuts, we've learned) - the least interesting was a potato pizza.

After this, we returned to our hotel and tucked in for a well deserved sleep.

Spanish steps

Yes. Ha ha ha. Yes!