Travel Archives '06: Rome, or, The Lost Story of How I Almost Didn’t Make It To Tokyo (Part I)

One of the great benefits of backpacking can also be one of its greatest frustrations. Indeed, the old adage that one man’s treasure is another man’s trash can certainly be applied here, and it all depends on how you accept the cards that Fate has dealt you. For some, spending an extra 350 euro for a flight with a budget carrier after missing the initial flight that cost only 45 euro might prove demoralizing. So might spending another 100 quid on a taxi from Lutin Airport to Heathrow. For some, the damp and mangled passport that had accidentally been left in the pocket of one’s shorts might be enough to put a damper on any trip. Or perhaps a greasy, micro-waved burger from a cheap pub in London would be enough to put one over the edge. Any one of these experiences on their own might be considered discouraging, but combined have the potential for forcing even the most resolute traveler to admit defeat and to never travel again. I’m just grateful it provided a good story to tell.

I was excited to visit Rome since it is one of those grand European cities where modernity and antiquity exist side by side, and whose landmarks are some of the most recognizable in the world. This, of course, makes Rome attractive to about every single tourist in the world, which can make a visit to Rome an almost unbearable experience. Not only was I in the city during one of the peak tourist seasons, the League of Central European Christian Youth, or some such organization, had decided to hold their convention in Rome at the same time I was there. What seemed like an endless horde of Aryan youth waving flags and singing songs about God and the Fatherland descended on Rome and infiltrated every nook and cranny of the city. No stone could be overturned, no street corner could be passed, no breath could be taken without having to push through a crowd of youth poised to save your soul or burn you at the stake trying. This, of course, made getting to and from one destination to the next all the more difficult, as line-ups for star attractions were quadrupled, forcing even St. Peter’s to shut down early one afternoon due to the overwhelming number of visitors (forcing me to return the next day).

Getting around Rome was a lot more difficult than other European cities I had been to. There are only two Metro lines that never seem to take you to exactly where you need to go, and the system itself shuts down fairly early each night, as do many of the bus lines. Due to the immense size of the city, getting from one place to the next on foot is an arduous task, especially if you really don’t know where you’re going. The transit system in Rome is also infested with Gypsies, so a lot of Gypsy-dodging is involved, often adding unnecessary time to your trip when forced to find a ticket machine that isn’t being staked out by a thirteen-year-old “mother” with an infant in her arms ready to assist you in purchasing your fare. That being said, the combination of accordian and beat-box on the subway does offer a unique ambiance all its own.

Of course, no trip to Rome is complete without visiting the ancient ruins. These proud monuments to Rome’s historic past offer the tourist a glimpse of history, and offer the city the opportunity to cash in on tourist revenue. All kidding aside, paying to get into the Coliseum and Palatine Hill beside the Roman Forum is entirely worth it. Simply put, there is a kind of romantic nostalgia associated with these structures that cannot be fully explained, but rather experienced. It is as if they offer an opportunity to create a direct conduit to the past, allowing one to see, hear and smell what Romans would have experienced thousands of years ago. For instance, during my first day in Rome, Billy Joel and Bryan Adams performed for thousands in front of the Coliseum.

After my first failed attempt to visit the Vatican due to the influx of Aryan pilgrims, I managed to get a peak inside St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum. Both venues offered excellent reprieve from the heat, as well as spectacular examples of Renaissance art and architecture. The best part of the Vatican Museum, in my opinion, was its collection of “modern religious art,” which included works by the likes of Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. Most people seemed to bypass the section altogether in their haste to make it to the Sistine Chapel, but I found this part of the museum most interesting and relaxing, due mainly to the fact that no one was there, an the art was drastically different from anything else in the collection. The Sistine Chapel, the gem of the Vatican Museum, is something you really need to see in person to really appreciate, however, I recommend visiting the Chapel sometime between the third week of September and the second week of November when no one is around. Despite the requests by security asking patrons to not take photographs, not to mention the many signs repeating the same message, I was amazed at the number of tourists attempting to take photographs to preserve for posterity their memories of the place, which I might add, is fairly dimly lit and certainly not ideal for any picture taking; the irony of course, being that no one’s pictures would really turn out and could in no way capture the essence of feeling one experiences looking up at Michelangelo’s masterpiece.

To be continued...