Roma: The Unguided Guide. Review on Rome

Hi,

Why the Unguided Guide? Because unlike most other tourists I'm not on a whirlwind tour with only 2 days in my pocket, so I can take my time to soak in the splendour of Rome, without any irritating tourist guide on my head.

So I have in total of about 20 weekend days in Rome and I have exhausted 6 and still I feel the rest 14 are too few! With so many days in hand, I decided to have a feeling of Rome without any guides/maps. So here I am, every weekend morning I reach Termini(the central train/bus/metro station - very convenient to move around), and decide to take a walk in a different direction and get inside any beautiful building I see.

The first couple of days I got drunk with too much of splendour, of all things I saw, I recognized only the Colloseum(for obvious reasons) and I realized that Rome wasn't built in a day! I went to the same places again the next weekend, and this time read and realized the historical significance of the places. I wont take the same names again which have been oft repeated through all the other reviews, yeah but for central rome you must see all the monuments in the day as well as at the night - an absolute must!

One extremely good place that many tourists miss are the Catacombs, which are located in the suburbs. There are many catacombs and most of them are extremely interesting, makes you wonder about a lot of things! The biggest one, on Via S. Sebastian, can be reached by taking Underground LineA to Coli Albani and then takin Bus 660 to its last stop. All other catacombs are in near vicinity.

Why Rome is a great tourist place is not only because of the ancient splendour but also due to its amazing natural beauty. About 5-7 Kms from Rome are the the small towns of Castelli Roma (I hope the spelling is right), they are on the small foothills surrounding Rome. These places, particularly Frascati and Arecia are known for the great cuisine they offer. I ate Porchetta, a small pork painfully cooked for hours with herbs and a lemon in its mouth, served cold with wine(preferably).

A few words about the cuisine of Rome wont do much harm here. Roman cuisine has some added characteristics over the standard Italian cuisine. Pizza is a whole philosophy in itself, the kind of pizza one cooks depends on the school of pizza.

Romans normally prefer a thin light crust with a basic coating of mozarella and tomatoes, the other toppings are never in excess ( ofcourse, an average Roman hates the pizzas delivered by pizza hut - which in any case seem non existent here). For the people on the move, there is a variety of pizza called pizzarito, the rectangular ones with thicker bread and generally readymade. Suppli, a fried starter with a variety of stuffings is another must. I had one with rice and mozarella(mmm..)

Romans use a lot of internal organs of animals in their cooking, so the meat varieties( the authentic roman ones) are not too costly.

20-25 kms from the centre and accessible by public transport, is Ostivia. You can have a magnificent view of blue sea waters from here. As in any big city, the best parts of the beach are occupied by the private clubs, so you get about 10 meters from the shore of public space, then the private club properties.

The free beach is very small and extremely crowded( really it doesnt give the feeling of a beach), but that doesnt take anything away from the majestic sea. And its a photographers delight too. What do you want on plain blue water, a colorful sail! wow!, or a descending plane (the international airport is nearby).

Rome in general is a chaotic place(reminds me a lot of India). Its crowded, its extremely dirty by european standards, and whats very distressing is that the tourists dont give a second thought before littering the greatest of the monuments.

I dont know where to end so, I would keep adding and refining the reviews on Rome, its specific characteristics and nearby places like Venice, Milan. Do send you comments and keep coming.

Ciao