Sunday

Fred Shedden — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Although it's Sunday we get up early and head for the local flea market at Porta Portese. It's only a 15 minute walk along the bank of the Tiber. The river itself is pretty murky-looking with loads of debris floating about. The walkways are strewn with litter, including large numbers of discarded bottles and cans. So we immediately feel at home. Actually it's worse than Glasgow. Everything is covered in grafitti, some of the Banksy variety but mainly gang slogans and symbols. It all looks fairly shabby and run down. We're on the south side of the river and we wonder if things will be different on the north side of the river where the historical centre of Rome is.

Nasty debris in the Tiber

..but it can also look beautiful...

Porta Portese market was disappointing - very extensive but mainly cheap clothes, fake perfumes, trainers, dvds and cds etc.

Porta Portese market

Strange-looking furs for sale in the market

After a quick breakfast in the market we retraced our steps and crossed the Tiber. As we suspected things looked a lot smarter as soon as we reached the other side. We headed for the Foro Romano which is an amazing site (and sight). When I studied Roman Law at University I learned a little bit about the Roman Empire but when I finally retire I want to spend more time studying it.

Part of the Foro Romano

Temple of Saturn

Although the transport system in Rome is pretty shambolic it's not difficult to see why. The whole of Central Rome is an archaelogist's dream. At present the Roman underground system has only 2 lines. They've been constructing a third line for ever but historical sites keep getting in the way. I love the way that buildings from 2 millennia sit cheek by jowl. The Teatro di Marcello for example which started life as a smaller version of the Collosseum became a ruin but a Renaissance palazzo was simply built on top of the original columns.

Teatro di Marcello

We strolled about for ages before drifting back to the apartment.

In the evening we ate locally again. Il conto was down to about 90 euros but still too much. Must do better tomorrow.

Arrival in Rome

Fred Shedden — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Ryanair got us to Ciampino more or less on time. Their fare structures are getting ridiculous. The actual fare part of the cost was £75 each return which is obviously too low. But by the time we paid for checking in, airport taxes, luggage, getting on the plane, oxygen, lunch for the pilots and so on the total fare was almost exactly double. Actually if they had told us that a return flight to Rome would cost £150 we would have thought that that was very good value but by splitting the fare into numerous different parts Ryanair leave passengers with the constant feeling that they are being ripped off.

When we looked into spending a week in Rome we decided that we wanted to be in an apartment in a residential area. The plan was to shop in local markets, eat in the apartment, visit some more out of the way places rather than the usual tourist destinations and generally live fairly modestly. Hmmmm.....

The apartment we chose was in Trastevere (accent on the second rather than the third syllable as we quickly learned). As the name suggests Trastevere is south of the Tiber and used to be a traditional working class area. As has happened in so many European cities however the area has now been gentrifed and is now more of a middle class/arty/studenty area.

First impressions are that it's a typical Italian higgledy-piggledy residential area, full of very narrow, cobbled streets. Our apartment is fine but very small. Cooking facilities are limited however and there is no table to eat at. Already the prospect of eating in on a regular basis is fading.

The front door to our apartment

Our window box

By the time our neighbour Claudia has shown us the apartment and explained the recycling rules in great detail it's already 9pm so we decide to look for something to eat. There are plenty of local restaurants around but inevitably we make the typical tourist mistake of heading for the main piazza in Trastevere. The meal is very pleasant but nothing spectacular. With one bottle of wine the bill comes to 150 Euros. We won't be coming back here.

The expensive restaurant in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere

When we get back to the apartment there's a note from Claudia asking us to call her - our taxi driver has called to say that he's got my mobile phone which must have dropped out of my pocket in the taxi. We decide it's too late to call Claudia but she comes to the door about midnight and gets very excited about the whole thing. Anyway we call the taxi driver and he duly turns up about an hour later and hands over my phone in exchange for a modest mancia (tip).

It's been an expensive first day.

Roman holiday - Fred Shedden

Sunday

Arrival in Rome