Rome, Italy-Walking With The Ancients

The best way to see Italy is by train and the train from La Spezia to Rome is a perfect example.

The train meanders its way through the Italian countryside, past picturesque orange and yellow homes, vineyards thick with fruit and a shinning green sea.

All on it’s long journey to the ancient city in the center of Italy.

Rome.

The city is a city of light and dark.

During the day, tourists flock the streets wearing shorts with heavy cameras bouncing from their necks. Locals dressed for autumn maneuver through the crowds, ignoring even the lines of street vendors.

But at night, Rome bursts open with lights and music streaming from bars quiet during the day and the locals cram the streets outside of them until the early hours of the mornings.

But the oddest thing about Rome, as well as the most beautiful are not the statues or the fountains, the locals or the tourist shops. It is not even the Vatican or the delicious and hidden cafes scattered throughout the city.

No. The most terrible as well as the most wonderful thing about Rome is the ruins.

Evidence of the Roman times appear in the weirdest of places. Strong pillars, crumbling stone and beautiful carved faces peek out from unknown squares, alleyways and from between shopping centers or parking lots.

Although all are beautiful, they all speak to a dark past, a past one can guess at during the day but can almost feel at night.

The best place to sense Rome’s history is, of course, at the foot of the Colosseum and the ruins surrounding it.

During the day guided tours tell terrible tales of days long gone but at night...At night one can practically feel agonized souls looking out from the darkened chambers of the ancient arena.

The rest of the city is as rich with history as the ruins. 

Fountains tell stories of myths and have stories around themselves as well. Fontana di Trevi is rumored to ensure ones future return to Rome if a coin is tossed into it’s depths backwards over ones shoulder.

The city is filled with squares all of which are surrounded by lovely buildings that would be an architect’s dream and fountains that are bound to attract love-struck couples.

The squares are surrounded by tiny and eccentric shops or cafes and filled with street vendors and artists and musicians.

But the best cafes and gelato are to found not in the tourist squares but down the curving little streets.

One such cafe is Pasta Imperiale which offers 5 euro pasta dishes and further down the block there exists a lovely gelato shop with such flavors as fig and almond flavor or my personal favorite chocolate and wine flavor.

But the most beautiful places in all of Rome are not the well know tourist spots. 

A walk along the river is a stunning way to spend a sunlight afternoon, exploring small alleyways leading off from the river can offer astonishing views and L'Isola Tiberina in the center of the river is a perfect place to relax in the shade letting the river drown out the sounds of the city.

Then there is the Pincian Hill garden or park, probably my favorite spot in Rome.

The park balances atop a hill overlooking all of the ancient city, the perfect destination for a lover of Rome.

My first night in Rome I decided to see some of the ruins by the light of the street lamps before seeing them by the light of day.

The moon hung in the sky as if watching the ancient city from afar and the old Roman sights sent chills down my spine.

The next day I explored such places as the Fontana di Trevi, the Spanish Steps and numerous other squares and fountains dotting the city with a girl and boy I had met in a hostel in Florence where we had agreed to met up in a few days in the old roman city.

The following day I made my way to the Vatican. Here, on the last Sunday of every month, tourists may enter this corner of the city and its multiple museums for free.

That day the Pope happened to be speaking before the crowd who had gathered in the large square before the Vatican.

The square was so packed that children sat upon the flagstones playing games while adults prayed awaiting the appearance of the Pope. 

When he entered the square the thousands gathered there sprang to their feet cheering and clapping. Woman clutched rosaries to their chests, men prayed in Latin. The entire crowd sang and crossed their chests and nearly everyone took video with their phones.

The entirety of Rome has a power all of its own, not just the Vatican.

It’s power seems to creep into your skin and infect you with a kind of rawness. The city feels wild and rich and it seems to pull the same senses out of those visiting it.

People seem more confident in Rome, more open to being themselves and not so willing to hide behind self-drawn curtains.

Visitors seem more compelled to break their everyday habits for something out of the ordinary or to follow sudden inspirations or impulses.

And I was not immune.

On my last morning in Rome I fell for the wild richness of the central Italian city and, arriving in a darker, more coarse corner of Rome, followed an impulsive idea that had been stirring in my mind since I had entered the wild city and got my nose pierced.

The ancient city had worked its magic on yet another traveler, granting them the feeling of the wild strength and power within themselves.

The feeling, I think, came from walking a city which was filled with the sense of millions of old lives peeking out around every corner.

It was as if the strength of all those who had visited or dwellled within these city walls could be passed on to Rome’s new travelers, combining and condensing into each traveler willing to open their heart to the feeling.

Rome can grant it’s visitors a confidence of and within themselves if they are only willing to except it.

And that, I think, is the reason people love Rome so dearly, because Rome opens ones heart up.

“Come along Life, take my hand, let’s have an adventure together.”

~KrystleLyric