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Rome in 48 hours – Finding Memories
24th January 2016
Project: Green Scarf
I originally wrote this diary entry on January the 1st 2016. Everyone makes new years resolutions, but who keeps to them? This year we’ve vowed to see as much of the world as is possible this year. For this we will be booking cheap trips and flights way in advanced and using as much public holiday and long weekends off work to get in as many holidays as we can. We will also be buying back an extra week of holiday from our work, a great scheme they provide for there staff. Lets Pant teh skys Tartan this year!
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Wheels up on a early morning flight from Edinburgh to Rome, were both shattered already but looking forward to it. J has been to rome when he was a child but doesn’t remember too much about it he does however have a few photos of locations from old family photos. One of our main aims while we are here is to try and find those locations and bring back some memories.
We land mid afternoon and take the metro to the Vatican area as thats where our hotel is. We are staying at the Best Western Franklin Feel the found hotel, and its one of the coolest little boutique hotels weve seen, Its cheap and also very colourful with instruments in every room. Your bedside tables are made from snare drums and the lights lampshades are made from drum kit cymbals.
A very cool over all theme, theres a wireless music system you can plug into and a disco ball in the bathroom, what more could you ask for? oh yeah 3 minute walk from the main Tourist area. Perfect.
We quickly unpack, grab our gear and head out into the city. We had been toying of maybe putting together a video for youtube or something so we’ll take a few videos while were out and about as well as lots of photos to put something together later on, We don’t really have much of a plan or script but we know what locations we want to hit and also that we easily have enough time to do all of it.
We first head toward the vatican and St Peters square as soon as we turn the corner we notice a big que, J wanders off for a bit and starts taking photos while I join the queue. Eventually J comes back and says this is one of the locations, I’ve been here I have a photo with my mum and dad over there next to the pillars what an accidental find but a good omen as to how the weekend might run. We wait for a good 40 mins and then realise we could have got a Queue jumper pass for a few pounds, NOTED we hate queuing and we will be looking online for any other attractions in Rome where we can get one. We thought this was just an american thing; but apparently not.
We get into the Basilica and its stunning, it’s so lush with gold gilded… well everything! as far as the eye can see the opulence is mind blowing, Marble floors run for miles in every direction, J gets a telling off form a security guard as he didn’t removed his hat when entering the building, an easy mistake and another thing to be NOTED for next time.
Ains is laughing at me as the security guard pulls me aside and asks me “politely” to remove my hat, I say politely but he has an air of do not mess with me, God is my boss and we are in charge, so I immediately do so and apologies. Im in big Frankies house and he seems like a great guy, I have respect for this forward thinking Pope. Ok so that may sound a bit xenophobic? its not at all I was brought up in a strict Irish Catholic family,I’ve lived this religion for my first 15 years on this planet, I’m no longer practicing etc as I became disillusioned at a young age by it and sought the ideologies of science but I still completely respect the opinions and faiths of others around me, I can’t prove there ins’t a god, or even that the idea isn’t appealing, its just not for me right at this time of my life. I think that pope Francis seems to be the best thing to happen to the faith for a long time, a lot of the old secrets behind the vatican corruption has already been exposed and its now time for the religion to make a new start. Well that went off topic very fast … sorry wrong meeting!
We get to the staircase to start the climb to the top of cathedral but decide to pay a few euros and take the lift instead … or so we thought … as we exit the lift we now realise that we were only half way up and that we still had over 300 steps still to make up on our way to the very top. We enter the next staircase, a large parabolic spiral curving walkway, its very claustrophobic and stuffy, it’s crazy how tight the stairs gets the nearer we are to the top. The walls tiles have a strange degree of familiarity to them, tiled walls reflective of an old Glasgow tenement style mixed with the colours of that retro avocado green bathroom set that our grans or aunt used to have n the 1980’s, strange but familiar.
The spiral doesn’t smell like it does in the church bellow, it smells more mechanical, more of paint fumes and engine grease, its feels warms yet the banisters and walls are cold to the touch..or, maybe were just over heating?
We get out to the top cage… well thats what it is! it a caged of balcony, like a big jail high in the sky. The 360 panorama of the city is un-relentless, you can see everything and it goes son for miles in all directions.
What would we go see next? we gazed down the main thoroughfare and caught a glance of the Castel Sant’Angelo and its massive roof angel.it looked very familiar…. Target acquired.
We make our way back down and “politely” (ah the old switcheroo,) get in front of a group of noisy Italian tourists who have caused nothing but problem since their arrival, they are currently stuffing their faces with potato chips (we’re in Europe thats what they’re called here) they don’t even notice or care that they have been holding up the queue up for ages, so no big deal was made – a well warranted skip – seriously though who brings crisps to the vatican? I mean if it were something like Cheetos or Doritos I could maybe forgive it but lays? there just boring old walkers right. On our exit of the vatican we try and book tickets for the Sistine Chapel but they are sold out.
We pass by a crowd of Police and Swiss guard in full dress gear who have have arrested a few pick pockets, there are signs everywhere so take note and be careful. Ive never seen so many police forces before? they have the normal Italian police, state police, polizia di stato, carabinieri, guardia di finanza, polizia penitenziaria, corpo, the swizz guard, the tourist police….and finally the Army, They had a hug visual presence eon the street of Rome, army jeeps and personnel carriers everywhere.,.. so yeah we felt very very safe in rome, but what if some disgruntled neighbouring country tried to invade in a whim? what would happen then? all their Army is in rome and Florence guarding its statues….. ponder that for a while if you will Austria (in a John Oliver style Voice).
We reach the castle entrance and cross the bridge to take a photo of this glorious and mysterious castle and one time pope prison. Its inner workings are like a slow winding circular ramp that goes down in the deep depts of its basement jail cells and up to its main halls and defensive locations.
The castle has lots of cannons and catapults and was said to be impenetrable and un escapable.
Finally we reach the roof and the view is incredible, the clash of colours between the vibrant green Tiber river clashing against terra-cotta pinks and whites of the surrounding buildings.
Ainsley is off taking some photos of the skyline but Im fixated on the angel statue, it matches the one of my photos! Second location found and I’m a very happy camper, today was turning out perfect.
We take some more photos of the city, we could see it all form here, its like a city built from Ivory, with the Tiber flowing through her green like blood running through veins, a very pretty fairy tail like place. The sun is slowy setting and were both tried form the 5 am rise. We call it a good day and head back to the hotel.
Were peckish and look for something to eat, We drop into a local bistro to try some of the local pasta and beer….
What ? wait a minute? really? this what your house beer is? You drink here? Tenants super lager here?? ? J asks in complete shock and with a very perplexed set of eyebrows. The waiter replies with that yes, its the most popular beer in rome, its imported in and its very strong and tastes great, we like that here.
Two lasagnes later and a few bottles of super and its snoozy time, we stair at the old photos, two down?
and it had been so simple, we flip through the photos and wonder what the men pictured would have thought about this Trip? What would Dad & Uncle Tom think? J quickly orders the bill and an Aperol, Campari to go as its what Dad & Tom would have done,he takes a big sip and his face says it all really,…. oh and the gagging…. and the coughing and the tears, I don’t think he liked it much. lesson learned. We shoot for the moon and hit hotel, put everything on to charge and pass out for a few well deserved hours of R&R.
Day two starts with a traditional slice of pizza for breakfast, it wasn’t very good but it had to be done and then on to the colosseum; we had seen that you could queue jump this sight so we went online and got ourselves two passes and walked straight in past the line.
The place was very busy, there were South Korean Tourists everywhere and they were all armed with selfie sticks and ipads.
People who take photos on their ipads on holiday is a very big peeve of mine. You A) look so stupid and B) you have a mobile phone, and C) you ruin other peoples photos as they are that big and shiny thats as a photographer its impossible to avoid getting them in your photographs when framing up a shot, or a video. Rant over sorry.
We walked the opposite direction from the large group of tourists who were now pretending their light selfie sticks were light saber – and began to earwig into an english scholar who was giving a tour, he now lives in rome and this was his job. After about 5 minutes we walked away in total jealousy, the information was relentless and entertaining. We were gutted we didn’t do that but we genially didn’t think we would have the time. We explored for an hour or two. J starts Reminsing, – basically rambling on – about how he’s climbed up most of this place in the video game Assasins Creed, Its like the venice chat all over again! will it ever end?
It’s find the location time again! We get out another old photo and begin scanning the horizon and surmise where the next location may be hiding; after a few minutes we make a discovery about the buildings structure having one wall higher than the other, this gave us a rough location and once we fitted the jig saw pieces together we had found it.
We we were both chuffed, we felt two like detectives or secret agents on foreign soil trying to solve a major case, we had but two more photo to go before we could light those stogies and get he drinks in.
Our next photo was at the Trevi Fountain, we though it would be cool not to use google maps and just try and find it by following signs, and groups of people we love getting lost in places like this, so we did; and the phrase #lostaf was born!
Having left the coliseum we next headed to the roman forum, Rome’s oldest and most ancient site. Entry was free as it was included in the coliseum ticket price. You could easily spend a full day here wandering through ancient rome taking in all of the old temples and statues but we needed to make it quick.
After the forum we headed on to the Altare della Patria – hated by locals when it was first constructed, it has become more synonymous with the names wedding cake and Typewriter because of its un flattering appearance when placed with the rest of Rome’s grand buildings. J remembered getting stuck on the ring road for what felt like eternity, while it railed hail stones the size of golf balls, he was 4 after all so that may have been plausible. We inevitably end up somewhere near Trevi, but we’ve also wandered in circles for the past half an hour #lostaf; we turn the corner and there she is, the real Trevi fountain! we had seen teh fake one in Las Vegas last year, and were inspired to see the real deal at some point.
The first thing that hits you is the sheer noise! Not of the water as you would expect, but of the people, it was so loud, so many different languages all competing to be the loudest, there were people everywhere, it was hard to even see the fountain at places, all with selfie sticks for there phones, cheap selfie sticks pretty flimsy in comparison to the gopro one we use what we use.
I find my self at a bit of a dillema. I really want to have a go at selfie sticks, there invention has ruined travel photography for ever. It’s now impossible to get a good clear photograph of most tourist spots in the world now because theres always at least 10 idiots taking there 30th ducklip selfie in front of some ancient monument, they have ruined the ambiance of whatever sight your at for ever! …. but I cant really say that! I cant be a hypocrite and turn on them. its not in me, we use them on all of our adventures. On the flip side of their invention its now possible to changed the way people can film, photograph, document, and even more importantly tell a story! We now have this unique 3rd person view of our own life’s without actually having to have that person there to film us, its simpler. I leaves the person in the shot feeling in control, less intense and ultimately more engaging and intimate. With ought them we wouldn’t be able to tell our story! no matter what direction we end up going in, weather that be a youtube channel or just this simple blog.
On behalf of all us who use them, remember the golden rule! Please Selfie stick responsibly, and don’t be an ass!
We compared the location again to the photo and it easily matched! 
Hunger was setting back in we and decide to get a sandwich. We accidentally fell into a a small cafe when the crowded street got too much to handle, we thought it was a wineshop but it was fact a deli. The shops heavy aroma of burnt coffee wetted out appetites wandering around we have a look at at what delights they have in store for us. Instantly were confused by there artisan open sandwiches that have a tie die like appearance and strange pattern in the flower, balsamic and oil is aded to the sandwich during the baking procces giving the the flower unique green, red and even blue bread, we order two different ones and then also a beer, super Tenants again and a red wine.
The price wasn’t to expensive;
We are asked if we want oil i our wine? “Oil?” I asked “is that a traditional thing?” and the shop keeper says yes it makes the wine sweeter and give sit better flavour and keeps the bugs away. We think about it and say yeh why not?
The wine was very sweet and spicy yet smooth and supple complimented perfectly by the sandwiches. They were very strange and moist, yet super tasty and left us with a moreish feeling. We walked this time towards Rome Pantheon which is one of the oldest functioning open air churches in the world. it has a hole in the roof for the sun and the moon depending on what was required by the religious ceremonies of the time.
Were feeling a bit tipsy by this time and pass by a gelato shop and notice that the price are nearly treble from that of further outside of town! beware the tourist trap! We finish our drinks and enter the ancient building.
Entry is free and donations are accepted. Voices and static reverbs around the amphitheater, the fish bowl shape has a strange effect on your hearing and senses. The building is very dark but lit up by light being reflected from its gold gilded walls and statues. The building was beautiful in side and is one of the oldest building we’ve ever been in. Sufficiently blown away we left the Pantheon and headed in the same direction we had been travelling in, next stop the Piazza Navona, and on to find our last photo location.
We entered the square and immediately in front of us we saw the fountain with the statue that matched our final photograph we had done it! it almost felt a bit too easy, like fate had guided us at points, it was strange, ever since I tried that crazy Aperol, drink last night it’s felt like something had changed, that my Dad and My uncle Tom were somehow happy we were here and making things happen. As I said earlier I’m not a man of superstition and religion but I did have an ominous feeling. I felt we were both really safe and the everything was going to work out perfectly. Weird seeing my self type something like that but its the truth and thats why I shared it. We walk around the Piazza Navona for a good bit taking photos of the three fountains and the people surrounding them. Now what ? guide book time? nah wanna get lost a bit more? I ask Ainsley? hell yeah, lets do it.
We trek on and get on the metro and end up at Spagna, getting off to immediately be confronted by the spanish steps, they were being worked on heavily which was a shame, and they were boarded up but it was still cool to se them and be in the metropolitan are of the city. We walked around shops for another hour or so and visited the Peoples Square with its large Egyptian needle, images immediately filled us of Mark Anthony Confessing his undying love to Cleopatra, a gift maybe to her who knows? ill need to do some more reading when we get home and again there is a heavy army presence.
We head back to the hotel looking for another restaurant on the way to have a dinner in, this time we opted for something different and get a something with more protean and carbs, a classic chicken and chips combo with a nice bottle of Italian wine. We were shattered again, its been a long day and our feet were on fire. Another early night was had, it was out last day tomorrow and we had a few things still to see and a mid evening flight to catch.
My Alarms goes off and I slightly panic as we haven’t bought magnets yet! I Siri a reminder to myself on my useless Apple Watch (seriously don’t even get me started on how disappointed I am with it) we pack up, check out and hit left the luggage.
Our first port of call today is somewhere that every lazy-smart world traveler does, Your hungry right? you’ve got stuff that needs to be done today and don’t have time to wait about or try and find something good? Screw it! Mc Donalds breakfast the safety net breakfast for travelers world wide. We hit the local McCafe and get a breakfast Pastry, 10 mins later were on the road again coffee in hand.
Today itinerary is possibly a bit Assassins creed inspired! were off to the vatican museum to see a piece of eden and then the sistine chapel. We approach the museum and see adverts for online bookings but we don’t have any phone reception, we quickly nip in to a cafe across the road purchase two bottles of water get their wifi password and book tickets online, 5 mins later we’ve skipped all the queues and are in the museum, a top bit of advice.
The Museum is crammed with patrons and theres camera flashes going of everywhere. We make out way to the main square where the big gold globe is, this is depicted in the Assassins creed video game series that one of us spends way to much time playing, J’s a happy camper, bucket list item ticked off ( I do worry about him sometimes) we head inside the museum and head down its mile long corridors with gold leaf painting everywhere. The amount of wealth in this one corridor is un tenable, its just beyond all comprehension, the wealth, the history of the things on display,
It makes you think if this is the things your ok with sharing with us then what do you actually have in your vaults that you don’t want us to see? how much money is actually this single square mile complex. baffling.
We have a small giggle as we find a map of the uk with the head of Scotland missing, hadrian’s wall was built just after this was dated. Good old scots, the Roman era John Smeaton’s of our wee country must have been happy with themselves.
Finally after a lot of old Egyptian looking thing we enter the sistine chapel area, Ain’s is in front and I get lost in the queue a bit I notice that theres a sign for no flash photography allowed, people are openly filming and none of the security guards are saying anything to them, Just flash photographers I discreetly flick my GoPro on and get a few seconds of footage of the ceiling.
Now this is just my opinion…. ah… I don’t know, I’m not a Philistine! I guess I just found the mile long corridor leading to it to be more impressive, maybe because I could see the detail as it was closer. it was still amazing to even think about the scaffold structure that must have been used by Michelangelo to paint it and the time it must have taken to complete. As we leave I notice a security guard deleting images of a mans phone, I’ve never seen that before, I hate tourist police. Seeing images of it online isn’t going to cause people not to come? in fact surely it would do the opposite and draw them in, more exposure?
Were feeling pretty happy that we’ve seen everything we wanted, we had just a little time left to go get lunch and revisit one of the sites, the decision was easy! the Pantheon had impressed us that much that we wanted to go back and chill out there and possibly get lunch and a beer before we head to the air…….”oh wait a minute! HOLD THE BUS J” says very panicky. “What is it ?” I ask as he shoots back up the enormous spiral staircase we had come down without a word and hits the gift shop hard! two seconds later he appears back with a bag of Fridge magnets. That was a close one! we always get magnets for our selfs and family its a tradition passed down from both our family to us and we now pass it down again to out our new family and friends.
We hit the metro and head back to the pantheon and the stangest things weve ever seen happens
A gagle of nuns rip through the crowd, they are in a hurry and shouting, the crowds parts like the red seas, like this is an everyday normal event in Rome and I swear one of them jumps the barrier at the gate as if she doesn’t have a ticket or the time to get one. Was this actually happening? were we seeing this?not even ticket gates can stop gods work!
We find ourselves in the pantheon one last time and spend a good 40 minutes just letting the details of the building soak in, it’s an amazing building and I think one of the oldest places weve ever been, yet it still feels timeless and modern. We grab a quick bite to eat at the main sqaure, we are fully aware of the tourist trap were about to enter and had budgeted for one nice meal while we were here. My beer was £8 thats all I’ll say but it was worth it, such a relaxing end to the trip.
We head to the main Bus station! it feels quite strange and has a funny sense of unsafeness about it, there are lots of homeless people in the station and we get shouted at for some reason. Something just doest feel right about this place.
We head back to the hotel pick up our cases and head back to the airport. Our feet were murdered on this trip we walked about 42km while we were here according to our fitbits, it would be nice to put our feet up for an hour or two and chill on a the flight. The plane is full and we learn a very valuable lesson that night, first of the bat the plane an hour or so late and the queue is huge, no announcements are made and we are near the end of the queue, we get to the desk and a “YELLOW TAG OF DEATH” is stuck to our cases, we had no idea what this was at the time as it been a long time since we had flown this airline. An airport worker wrestles Ainsley case out of her hand on the tarmacs and then tries to get mine but I’m not having it, we get to the plane and J has a massive argument wit the cabin crew about not being made aware of the situation. J had old black and white 35mm film in a camera that he had been shooting and the cold temperature of the airplane hold could damage the film. We have a one sided argument that we cant win and our cases are eventually taken off us. We manage to get a few things out of them for the flight before they are placed in the hold but we will always be flying priority boarding form now on. The film was partially damaged in trans port but there not much we could do about it, lessons learned. BEWARE THE YWLLOW TAG OF DEATH!
The flight home was a bit rough! there was a lot of turbulance, for those of you who dont know may be very very surprised that even though we travel as much as we do, J is a terrible flyer. Work that one out! We hit a rally bad air pocket and js not too happy I then notice that Christopher Millington (Scottish Male model) is also on the plane and as equally uncomfortable. I mention who he is to J as we think he bought my old flat in mount florida.
Ains tells me that teh legendary Millington is on the flight, I love this guys photography I know hes a model but he does a lot of self shot stuff as well with another few guys, I feel like talking to him but I’m that annoyed at the current film situation that I decide against it! after we land he and I both pick up our bags at the baggage return at the same time, he looks tired and annoyed. I wonder if he pissed off for the same reasons as me lol? a quick Scottish man chat of “aw right” and a walk away is given. amazing end to a shite flight. Its late and we are both up early for work tomorrow.
Home and bed
The morning after we read about a terrorist event in the main bus station that took place less than 10 minutes after our bus left, A man was spotted with an automatic weapon within and the police were called to the scene, it all ended peacefully.
We are starting to believe a bit more in Guardian angels angles now.
Jaimsley signing off.
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