A Roman Holiday

Deriving inspiration from the famous quote 'A rolling stone gathers no moss', we embarked on a journey further south to the ancient city of Rome, capital of Italy and a land of great historical significance. My OCD induced hyper planning had given birth to a small red notebook whose chequered pages were filled down to the last little square with my scrawls…metro train routes, snapshots of what to see in each city, brief historical inputs, dos and don't s……so on and so forth. This notebook is worth a mention as I never believed till then that I was capable of doing such research on a handful of cities. It is hence a very important relic in my ever growing collection of knick knacks from my travel adventures and I am willing to lend it out to people planning their vacation to these cities for a small fee ;-)

The hour and a half flight from Paris to Rome was made slightly more interesting thanks to the chatty old Italian man occupying the seat next to us. As I immersed myself in the French version of a gossip magazine, my fellow-traveller - Arjun -  humoured the old man by indulging in general banter. I later found out that by doing so, Arjun was mentally checking off a point in his own, personal bucket list- talk to a complete stranger from a distant land.

We were in for a surprise as we alighted on Italian soil. As opposed to the cold, rainy countenance of Paris, Rome presented us with a warm, vacation'y' visage. One would think that this warm welcome would have facilitated a harmonious beginning to our 'Roman Holiday', however, us being us, we could not do away with the usual bickering and squabbling. So, we quarrelled all the way to the Roma Termini (the main train station). I am very sure we weren't a pretty sight with me grumpily staring out of the bus window and Arjun resolutely silent, staring straight ahead into infinity. Ironically, if one asks me today what we were arguing about, I will not be able to recollect even though at that instant it seemed like the single most important issue worth standing up for. As the city rolled by us, the cold war continued till we reached the main station; where it then blew right through the roof. I continued to sulk and refused to help Arjun figure out where the Tourist Information centre was and Arjun's frustration continued to soar heavenwards as he kept running into dead ends. After one particularly nasty skirmish with a rather unfriendly shopkeeper, Arjun stormed out of the building determined to find our hotel on his own. What he did not realize was that in his anger fueled haste, he had left me far behind. Certain that Arjun was doing this on purpose and that he was somewhere around the corner deriving sadistic pleasure from my uneasiness, I took my post at the station entrance, determined not to give him the pleasure of seeing me fret. As seconds turned into minutes and every other tall, lanky man in a red t shirt did not turn out to be Arjun, I began to realize that I was really lost.

LOST…the word flashed like a red neon sign in my head. For no apparent reason, images of me being taken to the police station in a blue police car with sirens blaring, started swimming in my head. 'What darned luck' I thought!!!! Imagine getting lost at the age of 27. How ridiculous is that? I am not tiny, well, most certainly not 3 feet kind of tiny, neither am I someone who might blend into the European crowd (I am sure owing to my colour, wild black hair and typical Indian looks, I stand out like a green thumb amongst the predominantly white European populace). Then how did I end up getting lost!!! My annoyance was reaching an all time high as I felt the first drops of tears threatening to tumble down my flushed cheeks. To cut a very long and painful story short, despite the state of dread that I was quickly sinking into, I managed to weave my way through the busy Roma Termini to the store where I had last been together with Arjun. Relief swept all over me as there, amidst all the white, blond general public stood my very own brown skinned, black haired knight in shining armour looking equally panic stricken and scared as me. In that moment all my anger vapourised and I simply wanted to cling on to him and never let go (thoughts of super gluing myself to him crossed my mind).

Having lost precious hours, we rushed to the hotel (which Arjun had somehow managed to locate in the middle of the entire aforementioned fiasco), dumped our luggage and headed out to our first destination- The Colosseum- Rome's most celebrated and popular monument.

The Colosseum stood in all its magnificence across the road in front of the metro station-a piece of history decorating the present modern landscape. It resembled a tiered wedding cake which had been carelessly nibbled at, perhaps by a pesky little kid, so that it now had big chunks missing from random places. A monument which constantly reminds us of how barbaric mankind can be. A monument which tells us a story of a time when royalty meant being able to witness and enjoy heinous acts of violence from the choicest of perches. As if to cleanse this architectural marvel of centuries of sins committed within its edifice, during and after the medieval era it was used as a venue for religious events. Circling the Colosseum, we encountered street performers dressed as Gladiators, stalls groaning under heaps of dime-a- dozen souvenirs and kiosks offering food and drinks to the visitors. Right next to the Colosseum was an arena of Roman ruins. Popularly known as the Roman Forum, this enclosure houses the ruins of the most important government buildings around the main market place. The once grand site is now just a heap of architectural remains which pitifully speak of wealthier times. Standing here, one gets an impression of how the mighty fell despite their strong belief in their own invincibility. In about three hours, I felt I had already had enough of excavation sites. I was longing to see something complete, something without dents and holes, something which did not make me sad.

The perfect antidote to our 'Roman Ruins'-induced sadness was the bright, one hundred percent intact, gigantic and spectacular Trevi fountain. In deep contrast to the tiny avenue where it was located, the Trevi soar majestically above the surrounding buildings. This famous Baroque fountain enjoys the status of a celebrity having been featured in many popular films like 'Three coins in a fountain', 'La dolce vita' and of course the heart warming 'Roman Holiday'. I happened to read somewhere that the bearded, muscular Adonis-like man in the centre of the monument is none other than Neptune, the God of oceans. One can see him riding his shell shaped chariot which is drawn by two well built horses. The sheer strength which the sculpture exudes is unimaginable. An enormous Italian dinner comprising of sea food spaghetti, but of course the Italian pizza, red wine and strawberries with cream for dessert was the perfect final act of Day 1.

Day 2 was packed as we had lots to see in very little time. The Spanish Steps were first on our jam packed itinerary and a 200 meter walk from the metro station brought us face to face with a flight of stairs which would have ordinarily qualified as any other staircase had we not known that we were looking at the widest staircase in Europe. The sun shone mercilessly upon us as we sweated our way up the 138 steps to the Trinità dei Monti church which towers over the Piazza di Spagna. Piazza di Spagna houses one of the many many fountains in Rome and after having seen the mighty Trevi, this seemed like a mite to us. Another Piazza on our list was the Piazza del Popollo which is known for it's symmetrical architecture. The two prominent domes here are mirror images of each other. The sight of these twin domes makes one reflect upon how brilliant the architects of yore were. Also, I guess it was a trend in those times for European conquerors to pillage Egypt and bring back obelisks to decorate their Piazzas back home. The Piazza del Poppolo also showcased such an Obelisk right in the centre.

'When in Rome, visit the Vatican city'- This is my version of the famous saying and we followed it verbatim. In order to avoid long queues, we had booked tickets to the Vatican museums in advance. Unlike the Louvre, the Vatican museum did not offer any thematic trail. This was a bit of a problem as we ended up spending nearly 5 hours inside trying to cover all the 54 galleries. The Gallery of Busts interested me the most as it gave faces to all those characters whom I had read about in school books. As we scratched our heads, in an effort to revive our brain cells, we were only able to recognize the busts of Julius Caesar, Marcus Agrippa and a few more who had once been sketchily described in our NCERT textbooks.

Even though each gallery had some thing of extraordinary beauty to offer, The Sistine Chapel with it's famous Michelangelo frescoes took my breath away. The nine paintings which form the elaborate ceiling fresco depict the various phases of man's relationship with God- The Creation of the World, God's relationship with Mankind and Mankind's Fall from God's Grace. The Last judgement, also painted by Michelangelo on the altar wall, is a fiery depiction of Judgement Day- A day which is experienced by all humanity and based on individual karmas results in attainment of nirvana in heaven or condemnation to the fires and demons of hell. The figures which fascinated me the most were those of Charon and Minos-Judge of the Underworld. The figures looked extremely menacing with their horns and sinister expressions. Minos with the serpent coiled around his body, looked dark and scary.The damned souls were shown being pushed out of the boat by Charon into a sea teeming with awful ogres. On the other hand, the depiction of Heaven is sunny and peaceful. Angels and Saints along with the Almighty seem to reside here. The Sistine chapel's sanctity is maintained by disciples of the Pope ensuring that no one takes pictures, people are appropriately dressed and there is complete silence inside. If I had my way, I would have spent an entire evening admiring the works of Michelangelo but our hectic schedule did not give us the luxury to fritter away time on one item of our To-Do list.

The St. Peter's Basilica guarded by the richly dressed Swiss guards beckoned us as we made our way out of the Sistine Chapel. Living up to it's fame, this church is the mother of all churches. As the name suggests, the church is the final resting place of St. Peter who was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. Michelangelo's dome, Bernini's Baldacchino and other renowned artists' artwork define the St. Peter's basilica. One can imagine the beauty of a structure brimming with such great art. We were lucky to get an opportunity to attend the Mass and we would like to believe that we left the holy church a little more enlightened.

Exhausted and beat, we managed to reach the last point on our itinerary - The Pantheon just half an hour before it was scheduled to shut down for the day. As luck would have it, we were not only able to feast our eyes upon Raphael's tomb and the coffered ceiling of the structure, but were also entertained by a uniformed brass band playing an impromptu symphony right outside the massive Pantheon. The festivities helped in elevating our tired spirits and as we gorged on traditional Italian spaghetti and wine, we could not help but recapitulate the adventures of the day, impressed by our own stamina.

The beauty of Rome lies in the fact that as opposed to the chic and organized Paris, Rome comes across as disorganized and rustic. The difference is the same as between fine cuisine and comfort food. A certain warmth oozes out of every nook and corner and bidding adieu can be very difficult. However, I have a ray of hope - The 2 cent coin that I flipped into the Trevi fountain will ensure my speedy return to this wonderful city…So, here's hoping!!!