{"id":19,"date":"2009-12-10T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katebailward.com\/drivinglikeamaniac\/?p=19"},"modified":"2011-04-03T12:12:24","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T10:12:24","slug":"caecilius-est-in-colosseo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katebailward.com\/drivinglikeamaniac\/2009\/12\/caecilius-est-in-colosseo\/","title":{"rendered":"Caecilius est in Colosseo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>(The Forum – image by Kate Bailward<\/a>)<\/em><\/div>\n

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Fountains and monuments aside, the thing that I was really excited about seeing in Rome was Roman ruins.\u00a0 On Sunday, therefore, I was up early and heading towards the\u00a0 – er – flea market at Porta Portese.\u00a0 Ahem.\u00a0 Oh, all right, I know it’s not particularly cultural, but I figured I could do with a bit of a break before heading over to the Forum and the Colosseum, which were the real stars on my agenda that day.<\/div>\n
Sunday is a good day to visit the Roman area of town, as the Via del Fori Imperiale is closed to traffic.\u00a0 All along the road are people walking, chatting, laughing, pushing pushchairs, and taking photographs.\u00a0 Above all, however, they are gazing in awe.\u00a0 It’s true architectural porn.\u00a0 Everywhere you look there are marble columns, foundations, statues, carvings, arches – you get the picture.\u00a0 As you walk around the Forum you see, tantalisingly small in the distance, the Colosseum.\u00a0 Then you reach the Via del Fori and start the long walk directly towards it.\u00a0 At points it seemed as if I would never reach it, but eventually there it was, looming over me.\u00a0 In full tourist mode by now, I abandoned all shame and took a photograph or six of myself in front of it, arms outstretched, giggling like a loon.\u00a0 A middle-aged Italian gentleman walking past me was most bemused by this strange activity, but I really didn’t care.\u00a0 This was the big (literally) reason that I had come to Rome, and, unlike the Trevi Fountain, it was surpassing all my expectations.\u00a0 Like the Pantheon, the ancient rawness of it is mesmerising.\u00a0 There is nothing prissy about this building: it is about power and cruelty.\u00a0 The sheer size of it is breathtaking.\u00a0 It’s fair to say that I was somewhat overawed, and I only wish I could do it proper justice in either words or pictures.<\/div>\n
Feeling very small and not a little dazed, I backtracked into the centre of town, ignoring the street hawkers trying to sell me tripods and Colosseum snowglobes.\u00a0 I kid you not.\u00a0 For all the wonder of Rome, there is an awful lot of rubbish as well.\u00a0 Piazza Navone is a case in point.\u00a0 I had imagined a wonderful Continental Christmas market, selling all manner of beautiful things.\u00a0 In fact, it is 20 or so stalls all selling movement-activated cackling witches on broomsticks.\u00a0 It’s a bit like being in a bad version of Macbeth, with 300 rather than 3 crones.\u00a0 Then, in between every tat-seller’s stall, there is a ciambelle <\/em>stand.\u00a0 Ciambelle <\/em>are giant ring doughnuts which can, if you so wish, be slathered in Nutella before being deep fried.\u00a0 Delicious though they sounded, I decided to plump for piadine <\/em>instead.\u00a0 I’m learning to love chocolate, but melted cheese still beats it any day.<\/div>\n
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