Falling In Love With Rome

Rome was my last stop in Italy before flying off to Paris.  My stepfather, Dieter, had me more than a bit scared of Rome.  My guide book did not help to allay those fears.  Being a woman alone in Rome was starting to feel like the biggest mistake I had made since I decided to perm only my bangs in grade school.  (It’s true.  No other part of my hair was permed at the time.  Just my bangs.  Who knows what I was thinking).  But both the guide book and Dieter had me worried unnecessarily.  I wasn’t pestered by random Italian men on the subway.  For awhile I thought that it was because I seemed so Italian myself that they couldn’t tell I was a tourist.  Then I looked in the mirror.  My face was covered in mosquito bites that I had acquired in Venice on my last night that refused to disappear, (seriously, I had never been bitten by a bug on my face before, what’s with that?), and I was having issues with the shoes I had brought with me so I was forced to buy brand new runners, which were bright white.  So there I am walking around fashionable Rome covered in bug bites with bright white runners. 

Maybe that’s why everyone gave me a wide berth.

 

 After climbing to the top of the Duomo in Florence I wasn’t ready to haul myself up the hundreds of steps at St Paul’s so I took the elevator to the top of the Vittariano or “the typewriter” as Italians call it to check out the views at sunset.  In this case, my guide book didn’t lie.  The views of Rome at sunset were beautiful.  I had fallen in love with the Coliseum earlier that day and was very happy I could see it from above.  Much like David, I could stare at the Coliseum for hours.  I was totally taken by it.

 

Rome was a great city, but it posed a bit of a problem for me.  Although I know that I didn’t do everything that Florence and Venice had to offer, I did feel content when I left those cities that I had done everything I wanted to do.  After my first hour in Rome I knew that I would not feel the same when I got on the plane to Paris.  Everything in Rome is something.  At every corner there is a ruin or an amazing church, or something that requires your attention.  There is no way to do it all in one go.  And I really had to wrap my head around that.  Rome is a beautiful mixture of the ancient, very old, old and new.  I took a subway to the Coliseum and while looking at that amazingly ancient and well preserved building you I could hear cars on the highway.  It’s a wild juxtaposition.  I would go back to Rome tomorrow if I could.