Ah ... Roma!

I finally made it to the eternal city, Rome - glorious Rome. What a spectacular place! And as luck would have it, my last minute panic booking paid off - I scored myself a BEAUTIFUL apartment right in the heart of historic Roma, on the corner of the Campo di Fiori, and I started to walk ...


Off the piazza

How beautiful is that!?! Every piazza is just bursting with fountains. And the water is still being delivered by the 2000-year-old (hard concept for most Aussies, 2000 years of history) ancient Roman aqueducts - pretty decent engineering hey? Think the Burnley Tunnel will last that long?


Street corner

Just another wonderful street corner with a superb building to behold!


Historical story column

Thankfully Rome has so many other beautiful vistas for a tourist like me, because what I did discover is that May is 'clean the monuments in time for summer' month. So many of Rome's more famous piazzi and fountains were hidden under scaffolding, or buried behind a mass of American hairstyles, that I couldn't do them justice with my little camera.


Building façade

But then there was the odd attraction like the Pantheon, which the ancient Romans also constructed 2000 years ago (!!) that I could be totally enthralled by.


Roman dome

Or another famous dome ...


St Peter's dome

It is absolutely impossible to express how much of an impression the sheer enormity and grandeur of that church gives - it's most certainly not at all humble. But as the home of the Catholic religion I guess that it makes sense to make a big, bold statement in a place where your people were once fed to wild animals for public amusement.

I spent a (rather warm 28° - dammit) day in ancient Rome, crawling over the Forum and the Colosseum (named after the 30m statue that used to stand out the front, not for the size of the arena), learning that there must have been some mighty talented event managers working for the more unpopular emperors, as more than 6000 African beasts (not to mention gladiators) were sacrificed in arena spectaculars over 100 days of celebration to appease a dissatisfied electorate. Some emperors seemed to be continually hosting festivals to appease their public!


Ancient Rome

And the following day I popped in to the Vatican Museums (the most expensive attraction I visited in ALL of Italy mind you) to catch a glimpse of the Sistine Chapel - and have a totally different cultural experience, moving forward a millenium or two.


Corridors of power

Unfortunately photographs of Michaelangelo's ceiling are not allowed, and it's a bit hard in anycase to divert your eyes for a second from his masterpiece. It is magnificent, and definitely something worth travelling across the globe to see. The vast wealth contained inside the museums is impressive all on it's own regardless.


Vatican staircase

And there's also a couple of architecturally satisfying modern scalas too.

So from antiquity to organised religion - and following another 9 weeks enjoying the delights of the Syama kitchen, I moved onto MY religion ... food!!!


A fine selection

Living right next to the Campo di Fiori market allowed me to indulge in the freshest, juiciest asapargi not to mention the pomodorini that I was able to cook for myself again - daily - at long last! I did make a grave error in ordering an asparagus risotto in a restaurant of no renown in the Vatican City to learn that it being asparagus season does not necessarily mean your dish will contain fresh vegetables - yuk!!!

But then, thanks to my fortunate meeting up with Ben and Laura, at the end of their two-week Tuscan birthday break (many happy returns again Laura), I began exploring in the Trastavere area. What a lovely discovery - it was here that I managed to find the best selection for a fresh and exciting all vegetable luncheon experience, complete with vino blanco after perhaps one-too-many greasy pizza slices.


Vegetables! Praise be ...

The tapas selection at happy hour at their (and now my) favourite Trastaveran watering hole was to die for - rather more appealing than a dish of old peanuts!

On my last night in Rome I decided it was time to check out an enoteca for a spot of wine tasting, so after consulting all the guides I decided NOT to go to any of their recommended venues, and instead visited Enoteca di Fiori at the bottom of my stairs. In a happy coincidence that was where I met Angela, and Jacinta and Stewart and their gorgeous three-month-old daughter. Bizarrely, Jacinta runs a wine retail business in Melbourne (not 700m from my Dad's house!) and has a special interest in Italian wine. So that was amazing and delightful - and thankfully close to my aparto because I was a little out of practice on the wine tasting front!

Finally, I couldn't leave Rome without letting you know what people are wearing darhlings ...


Fashionista romani

Mauve is the new black!