...without Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn...

A Roman Holiday...

...and of course, when its me, there can be no vespa !!

It could have been Howrah. At times I thought it was. The old red-brick buildings, the tall water tanks, the graffiti on the walls, garbage by the tracks, construction site waste. And the train slowing down to a halt, almost, just outside the station. But it wasn't Howrah. The train from Fiumicino airport was pulling into Rome Termini station (the only place in Rome that was bombed during the second World War).

They say "When in Rome do what the Romans do". The only problem was that I never quite found out what the Romans did. So I did it my way. Walk, walk and walk. For two-and-a-days I just walked. All around Rome. Letting the grandeur and splendor of the Eternal City sink in.

My first stop was the Spanish steps. It connects the Church of Trinita dei Monti to the Piazza di Spagna - house to the beautiful (this is probably going to be the most used word in this post) Fontana della Baracaccia (1629 - Bernini). Here I discovered something that would keep my body running in the sweltering heat of Rome. You can drink from the fountains !

From the Spanish Steps I headed to the probably the most famous fountain in the world - the Trevi Fountain (1732-1762). Huge. Magnificent. Majestic. Legend says that anyone who throws a coin into the fountain will return to the Eternal City. Whether everyone who throws a coin into the fountain returns to Rome I'll never know (I did not) but it sure is a source of easy change for a few Italians with long sticks having magnets attached to their tips.

From Trevi Fountain I headed to the Piazza Venezia - house to the Palazzo Venezia, the King's palace. Made famous by Mussolini's speeches from its imposing balcony. Then onto Piazza Navona. A beautiful oval-shaped square built on the ruins of the ancient Domiziano Stadium and home to Bernini's Fontana dei Fiumi. The fountain has four giants supporting one of the many Obelisks of Rome (treasures from the Roman Egyptian conquests). The four giants of the fountain base represent four rivers: the Ganga, the Danube, the Nile and the Rio della Plata.

That was a lot for half a day. May be not in terms of the places I visited, but when one considers the fact that I did it all on foot, and that none of the places were quite near to each other, it does amount to a considerable amount of Rome that I saw.

Day 2 and time to visit another country. The Vatican City. (In fact all churches in Rome are administered by the Vatican and that makes all of them foreign territories scattered throughout the city. The reason why soldiers of the Third Reich never entered any of the churches in Rome and they became the ideal refuge for the Romans.) I started at Saint Peter's square. Designed by Bernini, surrounded by a colonnade on most of three sides and the massive Saint Peter's Cathedral on the other. The square is fed by the Via della Conciliazione running up from a bridge across the Tiber.

Like most things in Rome what hits you first is the size, the grandeur. Laid out in white marble, decorated by a single obelisk in the centre and two adjoining fountains, St. Peter's Square is awe inspiring. A true indication of the Church's powers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But what frightened me most was the long, winding queue - covering almost the entire circumference of the square (actually more of a circle) - waiting for a chance to enter St. Peter's Cathedral. Simply, the largest church in the world. And I cannot say any more about it.

From the cathedral it was time to join the tail of yet another queue. This time for the Vatican Museums. Probably the largest collection of art and sculpture in the world. Mostly featuring works of Rafael and Michelangelo. Also featuring a room completely dedicated to sculptures of animals. And all this leads to the Sistine Chapel.

When you enter the cool, climate controlled environment of the Sistine Chapel and look up you will get goose bumps (provided of course you have heard of the Sistine Chapel before). Then you start turning your gaze downwards on to the walls. Look around and again look up. See the "Creation of Man". Look down. The artificial tapestry, painted into the walls. The walls and again the ceilings. There are no words to describe it. You see it you believe it. Even if you don't, take my word for it.

No time is enough time for the Sistine Chapel. But it was time to move on. To a pizza and the one thing definitely not to be missed in Italy. Ice-cream. But not the time to have too much and sleep-off at one of the Roman fountains.

Now on to Castel Sant'Angelo. (Don't remember it quite well, but I think this place had a lot to do in Angels and Demons.) Built on the tomb of Emperor Hadrian and then turned into a castle for the Pope's to hightail (via a secret underground passage leading directly from St. Peter's Cathedral) during times of danger.

Now its time to see some older places. Really, really old places. So I start off with one of the Wonders of the World. The Roman Coliseum. (It was not always called so. Originally called the "Flavian Amphitheatre" it gradually took on the current name when Romans started meeting at the base of the Colossus of Nero at the base of the monument. The statue of Nero no longer exists, but the name stuck, from "at the Colossus of Nero" to "at the Colossus" to "at the Coliseum".) There is nothing I can write to describe the Coliseum.

Then on to some even older monuments of Rome. The Palantino Hill. House of The Roman Forum. The hill on top of which Romulus founded the city of Rome after he killed Remus. The structures existing here date back to the BCs. Everything is at least 2006 years old. Some around 3000. Still there. The pillars of an ancient civilization rising from grassy hillocks.

On one side of the Roman Forum is the Circus Massimo. The stadium for chariot races. With a capacity of 250000. That is the correct figure. Enough for a day. Time to sleep.

Day 3 started with my visit to the inside of the Coliseum (which I had missed by just 5 minutes yesterday). As I said about the Coliseum previously holds. No comments. Then I start walking down via dei Fori Imperiali on to the via del Corso (lined with designer stores all along) leading up to Piazza del Poppolo at the base of the Pincio Hill on the edge of Villa Borghese. In between I took a little diversion to head to the Pantheon. Built by Emperor Hadrian as a temple to all Gods (pagan of course and thus was converted into a church once the Vatican was in power) in 27 AD. It is one of the oldest surviving buildings in all of Rome.

Then I went up to the Pincio Hill for a panoramic view of the city of Rome and a has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed view of St. Peter's Cathedral commanding the respect of the entire Eternal City. A hike through the shades of the Villa Borghese (a definite relief from the heat) took me to the Galleria Borghese - not before I had taken a quick dip in a fountain on the way !

At the Galleria Borghese I faced a never-before situation. The tickets for the day were sold out !! At 2:00 in the afternoon !! A quick bus ride away, on the via Veneto, lay the most macabre creation of man in Rome. The Capuchin Cemetery. With beautifully decorated niches and magnificent religious symbolism (not much knowledge about it though), home to a few tombs for the Capuchin monks. All made out from human bones.
At the exit there is a quote in Latin that translates to,

"What you are, we used to be. What we are, you will be."

Before I headed for my last stop in Rome - San Giovanni in Laterno (the seat of the Pope as the bishop of Rome) - I dropped in for a souvenir at the Hard Rock Cafe, Rome.

That was it two and a half days of Rome. Not by any stretch of imagination enough to completely scout the Eternal City. But enough for a first experience. And also for a last.

Rome can be described in only a few words. Grandeur. Walk. Magnificent. Walk. Vatican. Walk. Coliseum. Walk. Huge. Walk. Beautiful. Hot (the weather and the people !). Lots of water (to drink). And fountains. And walk.

"When in Rome do as the Romans do" - I guess they walk !!

Time to leave for Florence, and then on to Pisa.