Roman Holiday

Roma, I miss you already.


My work friend, L. and I decided that I had not been on enough obscenely decadent holidays recently, and so we decided to book in a girl's weekend to Rome. We met at 3pm out the front of our office and giggled the whole way there.

We arrived around 9pm and immediately headed to the Trevi Fountain to gawk like tourists, and then headed out for the first of many pasta dinners. Built in the 16th century it is quite a spectacular sight - it is said that if you throw 1 coin into it you will return to Rome, if you throw 2 coins you will fall in love with an Italian, and if you throw 3 you will marry him. I finally found a use for the pennies I've been carrying around for 5 months.

L and I were up at crack of dawn on the Saturday, Italian time, keen to explore. We left the hotel at 10am after a lovely rooftop breakfast having planned to go directly to the Vatican - but of course we got sidetracked on our walk there, as every turn and every corner contained a breathtaking Roman monument.

The Vatican was great, even if you are anti-crazy-catholics. It is of course its own country, size 110 acres, with a population of 800. And half of that area is covered by gardens only accessible to the Catholic Church. It was segregated from the rest of Italy by Mussolini in the 1920s. In my never ending cynicism, I assumed it was for tax avoidance purposes but was actually because the Catholic Church refused to acknowledge the Italian Government, choosing to side with Napoleon, who had control of Rome at the time.

St Peter's Basilica is the main church in the Vatican, and one of the Catholic Church's most holy sites, being the burial place of St Peter. It can hold 60,000 people (not including the piazza outside) and on an average day there are 20,000 visitors.

Inside St Peter's Basilica

The Vatican Museum (home to the Sistine Chapel)

We then went to the other major site at the Vatican, which is the Vatican Museums, home to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is housed inside the Vatican Museum, which is approximately 7km in length, with another 20,000 people also trying to shuffle through on an average day. At first, the museum itself was breathtaking, but after over an hour of walking, one magnificent artwork ran into another. You think by the time you shuffle to the Sistine Chapel you will be over it, but it is more magnificent that you would expect.


It is the site of the Papal Conclave, where new popes are elected. The ceiling was of course painted by Michelangelo, taking 4 years to complete.


It depicts all the major events of the bible (Moses in Egypt, crossing of the red sea, descent from mount sinai, the baptism of christ, the temptation of christ, the last supper and the day of judgement).

Our favourite bit was the scene depicting the judgement of men - where God decides who gets to go to heaven and who goes to hell. In the hell scene he painted a man who bore an uncanny resemblance to one of his largest critics, with a snake curled around him, biting him in the groin. The critic had complained that Michelangelo's nude men in the hell scene were immoral and proposed covering them all with fig leaves (known as the famous "fig leaf campaign"). Hilariously the Pope declared he had no jurisdiction over hell, only heaven, and so the nudes remained.

Post Vatican Pizza (one each) 

 The Spanish Steps

Our favourite Piazza -Piazza Nervona

We then spent the rest of the evening exploring the piazzas of Rome eating amazing pizza and gelato and people watching. Or, rather, watching the Italian men adore Italian women. I found the Italian men to be delightful (who doesn't like being called Princepesa in the street?) and the perfect antidote to Moroccan men. They are impeccably dressed and truly adore all women - they seem to really appreciate the variety of beauty that is women in all forms and truly just want to tell you how lovely you are. L and I couldn't get enough. My favourite was the Gladiator who wanted me to be his wife, and L.'s very obvious discussion about the pros and cons of pistachio gelato with the gelato shop owner.

 

 Day 2 was the Colosseum - which we both immediately loved. It was built in 80 AD and was used a gigantic arena where people could watch Christian's being thrown to the lions, gladiators fighting it out and public executions. Again, 20,000 people a day.

We then did a walking tour of the other various Roman Ruins in the area and got lost in delightful back streets.

And then we decided to hit the shops, which, it turns out, only works if you like either D&G and Chanel or eurotrash.

The Pantheon

We had a drink and then hit the Pantheon and had yet another pasta and pizza dinner nearby before nearly missing our plane due to too much time in duty free.

We got home at 2am on the Monday morning and both had to be at work early, but it was worth every second.