BELLA ITALIA: TREKKING ACROSS THE ETERNAL CITY

A WALKING STEREOTYPE: SEEKING ART & ARCHITECTURE, MUSIC & GARDENS, ACROSS ROME

I posted this selfie on FB and titled it “a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum” and a pedant commented “that’s not the Forum!” Well, duh!

Following on from visiting the Caravaggio exhibition at Palazzo Barberini, I spent my days in Rome exploring the eternal city. I like to walk a city, which is appropriate for Rome as its metro system is narrow in range, while the city’s buses often end up snarled in traffic.

Indeed, one afternoon, feeling a little weary from the sun, I got on a bus only to find we were moving so slowly that an infant crawling would have outpaced us. When we finally reached the next stop I leapt off, wise to covering the historic quarter on foot.

This noted, my accommodation was a good distance from Rome’s historic centre, ensuring I made use of the metro system. While many visitors might determine staying in the historic centre is a wise decision – you will, surely, be spending most of your time here – I chose an apartment in the city’s southern suburbs. Essentially, this was a decision motivated by financial mores, it turned out to be a good one.

My apartment was a few minutes walk from Numidio Quadrato Station on the red line and the hostess, Donatella*, was charm personified and ensured I had an understanding of the essentials – how to electronically gain entrance/use the espresso machine/which cafe to go to.

It turned out this Roman neighbourhood wasn’t too different from my London one ie home to people from across the globe – the couple who run the pizza slice outlet were from Bangladesh (“over 200,000 of us in Rome” he told me), while Francesco, who serves superior coffee at Gran Caffe, is from Quito in Ecuador (my pigeon Spanish came in useful here). There were lots of Chinese shops and, I imagine, plenty of other nationalities. This wasn’t a tourist area – which is a relief as Rome’s historic centre was jammed with such. Me being one of them…

Francesco’s Gran Caffe. Cappucino & cornetto to start the day.

I’d map out my days by planning an expanse of the city I wished to explore. Not that this always worked out as planned – on my first morning I visited Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo so to view two Caravaggios (Saul blinded by the light + Peter about to endure a sticky end), both paintings continue to convey their dark luminosity.

I then wandered into the nearby park Villa Borghese, which is lush and lovely, with the idea of visiting Galleria Borghese. Upon arrival I found, even by 11am, all the day entry tickets had sold out. While I’d booked my Caravaggio ticket months prior I hadn’t considered I might need to book online to visit certain galleries.

Oh well, more time to explore the city. And as its been at least a decade since I was last in Rome, it took a while to reorient myself. These days a phone can offer concise directions but, being resolutely old school, I still prefer studying a paper map and working out which way I will wander.

The penitent Magdalena. One of my favourite works by Caravaggio and part of Galleria Doria Pamphilj’s collection.

And wander I did – visiting two more churches where Caravaggio paintings have hung for over 500 years ago, alongside various museums and palaces. Most notable was Galleria Doria Pamphilj, a private palace whose collection includes three Caravaggios (3!) and, amongst many gems, Titian’s Salome with the head of John the Baptist and – deep breath - Velasquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X.

A study in power: Pope Innocent X

The former remains shocking because the painting is so beautifully handled while its subject matter – a petulant, powerful woman, who has had a man beheaded, displays her trophy – while the latter is surely the most penetrating psychological portrait ever painted. Innocent himself apparently reacted to seeing it by stating “È troppo vero! È troppo vero!" ("It's too true! It's too true!"). This is the work Francis Bacon used as basis for his “screaming pope” series; Bacon, while occasionally capable of enthralling viewers, wasn’t a patch on Velasquez (or Titian or Caravaggio) as a painter.

One morning I joined the pilgrims heading to St Peter’s Square – Leo requested an audience but I was just too busy – and then braved the heaving masses who gathered at the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain (the latter being rammed; Rome’s pickpockets must feast here).

A dome like no other: inside the Pantheon.

I also queued to gain entry to the Pantheon (there’s now a fee to enter – a change from my last visit). It was worth the wait (and entrance fee), the marble interior with its dome – the oculus open to the sky – is two thousand+ years old and so striking in design and execution that I can only fall back on such tired adjectives as “magnificent” and “sublime”. Yes, I’m a walking stereotype, part of a centuries old tradition of arts tourists who visit Italy to admire antiquities, gaze in awe at architecture and ponder old masters.

Once upon a time in ancient Rome….

I strolled around the outskirts of the Colosseum and the Forum (queues too long for me to be bothered with gaining entry), as enamoured with these sites of historic ruins today as when first reading about them when a child. Being here allowed my imagination to run wild as to what might have happened in ancient times, statesmanship and suffering intertwined as the Caesars’ decreed on bread and circuses (and much else). Unsurprising then that I enjoy Mary Beard’s podcasts and went to see Gladiator 2 at the cinema (nonsense, yes, but ancient world nonsense is somehow more appealing to me than, say, sci-fi nonsense).

This is the ruins of the Forum - note the Colosseum in the distance.

Unsurprisingly, I’m not alone here and apparently the Romans/ancient world is a major obsession with many blokes. There’s a brilliant Saturday Night Live sketch about such that I’ll find and share on my next Bella Italia post. Oh, needing a break from historic sites and picture galleries I paid five euros so to enter Rome’s botanic gardens, and this was money well spent: they are lush and lovely, with a Japanese garden on the hill providing views across the city. A good place to relax and escape my fellow tourists.

Predictably, I visited a couple of record shops. Discoteca Laziale is Rome’s historic record shop, having been trading since 1953. Its situated in a striking semi-subterranean space close to central station – in a neighbourhood that now appears largely Nigerian (no afro-beats LPs on display) and is far more beautiful than any record shop in the Anglo world (Italians insist on aesthetics in every aspect of design).

That said, Discoteca Laziale’s stock is like new shops everywhere - classic rock + jazz (largely LPs + a serious CD selection) plus T-shirts/merch’/stereos etc. Demonstrating Italian enthusiasms were racks of new albums by Manu Chao and Måneskin. As for the one used LP shop I ventured into, nothing there caught my attention. Which was a relief – I own too many records - and travel with hand luggage only.

I then met up with Megan, an Italian journalist friend, and she mentioned how Rome isn’t much of a city for live music (beyond superstars who can fill football stadiums). Fortunate then for this record+gig obsessive that I live in London. Foodies would surely say the opposite – I once dated an Italian woman long resident in London whose sister came to visit from Sardinia: all said sister could do for the week was complain about how inedible London food was (yes, including that in Italian restaurants…).

The funky drummer on Ponte Sisto.

Actually, the only live music I caught while in Rome was made by buskers. There’s not a huge number of buskers – surprising considering what a tourist hub it is – and thankfully none of them were doing what London’s often unimaginative buskers do (sing famous tunes by Ed Sheeran, Neil Young, Bob Dylan etc). Instead, I caught a young dude who set up his drum kit on Ponte Sisto, a historic pedestrian bridge, and played along to jazz-funk recordings. His groove was good.

Then in Campo de' Fiori, one of Rome’s most attractive public squares, an old dude was playing a cimbalom (the small-table-sized, 4 legged string instrument only found in Romanian Gypsy string bands today). Hitting his instrument with tiny hammers he played beautifully, the cimbalom evincing a resplendent shimmer of sound.

Drums and a cimbalom, not exactly easy instruments to carry around a crowded city - respect to both chaps for making the effort and conveying the majesty of their music. I tipped and wished them well.

The shimmering cimbalomist in Campo de’ Fiori.

Other observations? Italians were, I decided on my initial visit here in 1992, the best dressed people on this planet, easily the most stylish Europeans. 30+ years on and casual wear’s taken hold here, as its done everywhere, but the Italians still carry themselves with a sense of sartorial pride. And they are rarely obese - a slim and trim people raised on pizza, pasta and gelato…amazing!

I enjoyed Rome’s ambience, its blend of antiquity and modernity, the parks and fountains, a capital city that possesses an Italian and an international character, one which continues to speak across the centuries. Just as New Orleans is my favourite city for experiencing music, Rome remains the place where I like to wander and ponder, thinking on empires long turned to dust and artists who pioneered new ways of seeing. Yes, tourist hoards and all, Rome remains a delight!

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* if anyone is interested in enquiring about Donatella’s apartment message me and I will provide contact details.

Through the city walls and into another resplendent neighbourhood.