Rome, Day 2

Day 2 in hot, hot, hot Rome was a blast. We walked 20 min or so down to the Coliseum and got in right as it opened.  The Coliseum/Forum/Palatine Hill Complex, in the heart of Rome, is the most visited tourist site in the world (particularly the Coliseum bit of it). There’s not much to be said about it that you probably don’t already know or could easily know with a quick internet search, so I’ll skip to talking about how the kids liked it.  

They loved it. James dived right into talking about how impressive the engineering was, and asked a million questions about gladiatorial games. Juliet held her own with questions, mostly about the differences between what cultures consider right and wrong. In fact, she was in the middle of a little dissertation on the matter when a giant seagull got angry with a pigeon and started chasing it all around us. The poor terrified pigeon flew right into a low glass barrier and fell to the pavement stunned, after which the SEAGULL GRABBED IT IN ITS BEAK AND REPEATEDLY THRASHED IT ON THE GROUND UNTIL IT WAS DEAD AND THEN PROCEEDED TO EAT IT. Did you even know seagulls would do this? Well, they would, and be proud to do so in front of a horrified crowd of onlookers. Juliet lost it for awhile (fair, tbh), but at least it distracted her from the little moral lecture she’d been giving, the relativist. 

Anyway, the crowds at this place are immense, but they kept us moving through the site with rapidity. Really, the worst are the giant, lumbering tour groups (I’ll be giving them the what for in tomorrow’s installment on the Vatican Museums), and the heat doesn’t make coexisting with them any easier. But with our trusty Rick Steves guide, we learned all about it in the cadence of an upper Midwest Lutheran.  

After the Coliseum came the Forum and the Palatine Hill (the site of the ruined imperial residence, from which we derive the word “palace.”) It was flippin’ hot, but the kids sallied on. Juliet read to us from her Kids’ Guide to Rome cartoon book, and I supplements with Mr. Steves. We saw where Julius Caesar was cremated, the spot (called the “Umbilicum”) from which all distances in the Empire were measured, and the Temple of the Vestal Virgins (required some ‘splainin’). The Powers That Be could do A LOT better with crowd flow. It was scorching hot and packed and there were lots of people everywhere, but they seem determined to drive the crowds through as few outlets as possible. At least when you’re up on the Palatine Hill the crowds abate. 

See, no crowds

We found a little lunchtime spot in the nearby Monti neighborhood and carbed it out. Then walked back toward the forum and climbed the Capitoline hill (from which comes the word “Capitol”) to the Capitoline museums. This crazy place houses much of the Roman art formerly owned by the Popes, and in particular the stuff dug up in the excavations around the Forum. It’s the world’s oldest public museum, no biggie. The kids really love this type of museum. Juliet can best be entertained in such places by the naked butts, and Erica and James like to keep up the tradition started last year in Greece in pointing out which parts of statues have been knocked off. Plus, it sorta, kinda had air conditioning? We got a good two hours out of this place, then went back for a considerable siesta in the AC of our hotel, before stepping out into that good night for an evening in Trastevere.

Iffin you don’t know, Trastevere (meaning “across the Tiber”) is a colorful, gritty neighborhood full of little vine-strewn alleyways and ramshackle terracotta-colored apartment buildings and venerable old enotecas and elderly persons smoking and sitting around in the heat in pants and hats and sweaters nursing amaros and the like. It’s managed to retain a lot of its character despite being a very hip place to go for the evening, but it’s also inevitably attracted money and monied eateries and bars keen to look like they aren’t monied in order to blend in with (i.e., exploit) the local character. We ate at a local favorite Tonarello, whose Cacio e Pepe is divine. After, we strolled the banks of the Tiber with drinks in hand (sangria for the adults, granitas for the kids), popping into shitty little tzotchke bodegas and the like under well after dark. On the way home, we discovered some First Century Roman ruins just chilling next to a little parking lot like it was no big deal. It’s so great here!

Trastevere