Italy 2011, Rome, The Roman Forum and Italian Unification

The tour began from outside the Colosseum and went first past the Arch of Constantine where Silvio explained that this was the only Roman monument that still had its marble reliefs intact because successive Christian regimes in Rome after the fall of the Empire were reluctant to destroy a monument commemorating the first Christian Emperor. And then we made our way into the Forum and began to climb towards the top of the Palatine Hill stopping frequently to listen to and absorb more information from Silvio. After a while he became quite tedious and increasingly annoying with stories about himself and the exposition of his own personal theories so after the aqueduct, the stadium, the palace of Augustus and the Domus Flavia we had a quick discussion and the consensus view was that we should slip away from the group and explore the ruins by ourselves without the irritating narrative.

High on this hill overlooking the Forum was apparently a pleasant place to live because the site intercepted the welcome breezes coming in from the west and it was relatively free from the dust and diseases of the Forum below. According to legend Romulus and Remus were brought up here by a wolf in a cave. Later, the orator Cicero had a house here, Augustus was born here and lived with his wife Livia and the Emperors Tiberius, Caligula and Diocletian all built extravagant palaces on this site.

There was a path that took us to the bottom of the Palatine and into the Forum which for the Romans was the centre of political, commercial and judicial life. According to the playwright Plautus the area ‘teemed with lawyers and litigants, bankers and brokers, shopkeepers and strumpets’. As the city grew successive Emperors increasingly extended the Forum and in turn built bigger temples, larger basilicas, higher triumphal columns and more lavish commemorative arches. We started at one of these, the arch of Titus, and followed the original Roman street down into the heart of the Forum past the Temple of Romulus and the house of the Vestal Virgins and then the Temple of Julius Caesar erected on the very spot that he was cremated following his assassination in 44 BC.

It was very hot now and we were becoming weary as we walked along the uneven streets and through dusty excavations. We visited a small museum which provided some temporary relief from the sun but we were soon back outside walking past the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian and finally leaving through another arch, this one erected to the memory of the Emperor Septimius Severus after which we climbed some steps and found some welcome shade and took a quick break from the schedule.

Although there was still lots of Rome to see and we couldn’t possibly hope to achieve it all in just two days in the middle of an exceptional heat wave we had one last area to visit before walking back to the train station.

The Capitol, the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill was the centre of the Roman world and the Temple of Jupiter was the scene of the most important religious and political ceremonies. We approached the top via a zig-zag path up from the Forum into the Michelangelo designed Piazza Campidoglio with a statue of Marcus Aurelius dominating the centre of the geometric paving and the Renaissance façades of the surrounding buildings. We descended by the Cordonata staircase and passed the adjacent Aracoeli staircase where according to popular belief if you climb the one hundred and twenty-four steps on your knees then you significantly improve your chances of winning the Italian lottery. No one was attempting it today either because it simply isn’t true or on account of the searing heat!

After the unification of Italy in 1861 the Italian State planned a massive memorial, the Victor Emmanuel Monument, to commemorate the achievement and at the northern end of the Capitol constructed a huge white marble edifice which although impressive is far too big and sadly out of place amongst the mellow ochre stones of the surrounding buildings and it is unloved and savagely mocked by modern Romans who call it the wedding cake or the typewriter amongst other unflattering names. Today the National Monument looked especially immaculate as part of the hundred and fifty year celebrations to mark unification and the twelve metre long equestrian statue of the first King of Italy was flanked appropriately on either side by Italian tricolour flags dancing delicately in the occasional breeze.

After two days and several kilometres of walking around Rome we were exhausted now so set off in the general direction of the station. Christine almost bought the souvenirs she needed but unwanted intervention from Kim stopped the transaction at the very last moment necessitating more souvenir shop visits as we walked along Via Cavour (the first prime minister of Italy) stopping about half way along for a much needed rest and a drink, which we were glad of despite the excessive price.

I think it is fair to say that by the time we reached the Termini and walked the final four hundred metres to the platform we were all completely done-in as we boarded the cream and blue train, found seats and enjoyed the ride back through nine stations and stops to Albano Laziale thankful for a seat and a carriage air-conditioning unit.

On the way back to the hotel we had a stop at what had become our favourite bar and this being our fourth visit we were treated to complimentary tapas like bar snacks while we sat in the shade and reviewed the two days of visiting Rome. Later we returned to the same trattoria that we liked and as this was our last night ordered more food than we really needed, paid a little more than we had expected and, too embarrassed to leave it, wastefully threw some away on the short walk back to the hotel.

Italy 2011, Albano Laziale and a Bandit Hold-Up

Located in the Castelli Romani region of Lazio, Albano is a busy commercial centre, a virtual suburb of Rome and one of the most important municipalities of the area. For a Saturday afternoon however the town was curiously quiet as we wandered along the main shopping street looking for somewhere to eat and then drifting into the side streets full of ancient buildings that betrayed the town’s almost secret Roman heritage.

Because of its close proximity to Rome it inevitably has a history that is closely linked to the famous city and everywhere there was evidence of a varied and interesting past. Albano is located in the area in which, according to the legend, the son of Aeneas, Ascanius, founded the city of Alba Longa, which was one of the main cities of the Latin tribes and, again according to the legend, the birthplace of Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome. As we wandered through we could fully appreciate that the town has its fair share of ancient buildings with the remains of an amphitheatre, Roman baths, catacombs, tombs, towers and villas.

Pompey the Great had a villa here, the Albanum Pompeii, and a villa belonging to the writer Seneca was discovered within ancient ruins found on the south ridge of Lake Albano, bordering the town of Ariccia. All of these residences, at the time of Domitian, were appropriated and owned by the Emperor’s within which they erected a monumental imperial residence, with the ruins today mostly contained in the Villa Barberini at Castel Gandolfo and is now a part of the Papal Palace as we have seen previously. Around 202 the Emperor Septimius Severus had installed in place of the old town huge camps for Roman Legions that remained in operation until the end of third century. Albano developed from this settlement and the streets still follow the ancient infrastructure and design and remains of the large baths built by Septimus’ son, Caracalla, are still visible at one of the road intersections.

Micky and I identified a place to eat, the extravagantly named Pizzeria La Bufalina di Cristiano Erminia, but it was ruled out by the girls because behind the bar it had a microwave to heat up the self-service food selections which was considered unsuitable (Micky pointed out that if the microwave wasn’t in full view in the bar it would be in the kitchen anyway!) so then we continued on a fruitless trek around the streets to find something they might approve of. On the positive side we found the train station and I established where to buy tickets so on the way back we purchased some from a supermarket for only €1.80 each return for tomorrow’s intended train journey to Rome.

And so after a circuitous route we found ourselves back at the place Micky and I had found earlier and despite the microwave issue everyone reluctantly agreed to eat here. I’m not sure exactly what the problem was because the food turned out to be very good indeed, the place served large glasses of foaming cold beer and we had a nice seat in the garden outside with a canopy of trees to shade us from the seering hot sun.

Following the late lunch we went back to the hotel and I started to identify all of the things that were wrong with it. The rooms weren’t actually in the hotel, the air conditioning in our room didn’t work and it was stiflingly hot, we had been allocated the wrong rooms which upset the financial arrangements and Micky’s TV remote control didn’t work. I complained but was stonewalled by the man at the desk who explained that the hotel was full (it clearly wasn’t) and that he thought it was best for us to be in the annex because a party of students were staying in the hotel (they weren’t it turned out) and this irritated me because I like to make my own assessment of what is best for me or not. We eventually agreed a reduction on the room rate where Sue and Christine were staying, he promised to have the air conditioning promptly repaired and he found a TV remote controller that worked for Micky.

After we had sorted all of this out we went back out againand looked for a restaurant for later and having found somewhere promising off the main square and quite close to the hotel we returned to the Pizzeria La Bufalina di Cristiano Erminia and sat and enjoyed the warm late afternoon sunshine and the pleasant atmosphere of the little town.

Back at the hotel we found an outside table to sit and chat and play cards and then curiously a door opened and a man emerged and gave us a cold and unwelcoming glance as he walked past us and towards the hotel. It turned out that he lived in the annex, which seemed a rather odd arrangement to us (a bit like the major in Fawlty Towers) and this was his personal outside table and that we weren’t really supposed to be using it. We worked this out while he was away and when he returned we apologised for our mistake and he explained several times that this particular spot was ‘privado’.

Having upset our unexpected neighbour we returned to the town which was much busier now, the square and the town gardens were full of pedestrians, the roads were throbbing with impatient traffic and all the bars and cafés were open so we joined the local people on a Saturday evening stroll along the streets to work up an appetite.

The trattoria that we had selected was called World Pizza, which didn’t sound very thrilling but it turned out to be a splendid choice. It was a traditional sort of place that reminded me of the restaurant where Michael Corleone assassinated the gangster Salazo and the Chief of Police in the Godfather film. It had two rows of tables, simple furniture, white tablecloths and pictures of old Albano on the walls. The food and the house wine was excellent and the highlight of the meal was the arrival of the town half-wit who came through the doors in cowboy outfit and mask and staged a theatrical hold-up with a toy pistol. Later he played harmonica in return for a couple or Euro payment and he stayed with us for a while because we gave him a glass of wine and indulged him in his fantasy game.

Christine however, didn’t find him all that amusing!