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Off to Rome - Suggestions?

Hello all!

I, and my pregnant partner (6 months), am off to Rome on Saturday next (10th). We are there for a week culminating in a friend's wedding.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for off the beaten track or oft overlooked sites, sounds, tipples, nibbles or indeed anything of interest apart from the obvious.

All recommendations, Fortean or otherwise, gladly taken.

Toodle Pip,

LD
 
when i get back home after work i'll check on my books for places of fortean interest in rome.
while you're in the fori (because you're gonna go there, aren't you? i consider them as part of the <obvious> things to be seen...), take a not so long but pretty steep walk up to campidoglio - the piazza in front of it is wonderful (designed by michelangelo).
if you plan to go to the vatican museums and cappella sistina be prepared for long, long, long queues.
what else can i tell you? beware of the restaurants and pizzerie in the most touristic part of the city. they are made to rip off tourists.

a favourite place of mine in rome is a little church inside the old university. it's called sant'ivo alla sapienza and it was designed by borromini (bernini's rival). it's very small and the inside is not very significant, but the outside is the most beautiful, perfect, genial example of baroque architecture.





i almost forgot: do not miss galleria borghese

one last thing: it's gonna be very hot
 
Thanks for the tips.

No real plans bar Colleseum, Forum, etc.

So all suggestions welcome.

LD
 
The fizzy wine is very cheap and the pizzas are the size of cartwheels. Bring us back some chocolates would you?
 
Where abouts in London are you? I'll just get the pilot to dip the wing and I'll deliver the chocolates.

LD
 
Look down over Holborn and you'll see a massive estate with a swimming pool in the shape of the Beastie Boys (circa "Paul's Boutique"), grounds which stretch as far as Hackney containing the world's largest hamster run and a massive sign saying "Throw Posts From Here" plus a gargantuan marble statue, pointing at the sky, of a slightly plump young man in jeans and a t-shirt which is visible from space. Drop them anywhere in there and I'll send one of the groundskeepers to fetch them. Much appreciated.
 
Church of the immaculate conception on Via Veneto - capuchin catacombs.

(Not supposed to take pictures, but you can if you're quick and careful!)
 
If you like ruins I can recommend a day trip out of town to Ostia Antica, the old port of Rome. Rather quieter than the forum area in Rome itself. Its in park land so also more overgrown as well.
 
I'd say anywhere, Rome is one of the most vibrant, exciting, interesting, amazing, contrasting, historic and living cities I have ever visited.

Around every corner there is almost something of interest.
I love Rome.
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, all much appreciated.

We have an apartment rented for the week and the wedding we are going to does not happen until the last day or so, meaning we should have a good few days to look around and do our own thing. I am really looking forward to it.

I have always been an off the beaten kind of person, the minor gems glimpsed thorugh an arch have always been more special to me, that's why I thought who better than a host of Forteans to tell me where to go!

Cheers again and I'll let you all know how we get on.

LD
 
rjm said:
I'd say anywhere, Rome is one of the most vibrant, exciting, interesting, amazing, contrasting, historic and living cities I have ever visited.

Around every corner there is almost something of interest.
I love Rome.
Click to expand...

I second that. It's the most beautiful city I have ever been in my entire life. I would give my left arm for a great job there. Don't forget to visit the Vatican.
 
A useful suggestion, rather than kill yourself climbing up the spanish steps, go round to the left of the steps as you are facing them and into the metro station, up half a dozen escalators and you will be spat out a short walk from the top of the steps (much easier). You are also then very close to the Hard Rock Cafe (sorry folks, there is only so much pizziaola steak I can eat).

Rome is a surprisingly open city given its age - lots of green spaces, very relaxing and most worth exploring.
 
hope it's not too late...

i checked my books and i found two kind-of-interesting things

- in piazza vittorio emanuele II, in the park, there's a so-called <magical door> (or gate) from 1680 or so. interesting for the symbols and writings etc.

- from an oldish book (1967), i gather the following information, which i have no ways to check at the moment: in Lungotevere Prati 18, at the corner with via Paolo Mercuri, there's a non-official museum called (at the time) <museo delle anime del purgatorio>. in order to visit it, says the old guide, you have to ask the sacristan of the church right across the street. it's not a real museum, rather a very small cabinet containing pictures of... well, pieces of wood, clothes and other stuff on which half-saint, half- weirdo guys left their hands' "burnt" imprints in XVIII and XIX century. (sketchy, but so is my book).
 
Hi All,
well back at work today, not very tanned, but definitely larger than I used to be thanks in large part to Roman cuisine, and Icecream!

Well, we did the usual spots, the Forum, the Circus, the Palatine Hill, The Vatican.

Then on the advice provided did Ostia Antica, the ancient port. Fantastic. They really are spectacular. Then we went on to the beech for some chilling.

We also, ad the advice from here went to the Villa Borghese and were stunned by Carravaggio filled rooms, simply unbelievable. The man's technique and expression are just awe inspriring. Plus they are hanging on the walls of a house, so you can get close enough to see the signature and the texture, even the brush strokes can be seen.

We did the Santa Mario Maggiore, the Gothic Church as well as the Pantheon, Castello San Angello and so much more. It is a bewildering place because as you wander around you just chance upon the most amazing things.

Finally, we went to the wedding on the Friday and it was in a most magnificent church, San Silvestro where there is a cache of popes buried.

So, thanks to all for the advice, it was appreciated and the for most pasrt, followed. I would go back in a minute.

LD
 
Fantastic,
I really got the impression from the map room of Julius II pacing up and down planning his military campaigns in that room.

I had no idea that anything of the like existed in the Vatican, so the surprise and delight were of equal measure.

LD
 
The Occultopedia has a lot of good links to sites and book suggestions:

http://www.occultopedia.com/r/rome.htm

And here is a close encounter:

http://www.worldofthestrange.com/cev8036.html

There is also a tour of strange parts of Rome (although you could probably find all the places yourself with a good book):

* THE GHOST IN ROME
A fascinating walk in Ponte quarter where it is possible to discover some strange and mysterious histories of ancient Rome wirh an evocative atmosphere. The tour will take among Navona Square, Via del Governo Vecchio, Piazza di Ponte Sant'Angelo, Piazza Farnese. Meeting-point will be in Navona Square near the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

* MITHRA OR THE SPIRITUAL SALVATION THAT COME FROM PERSIA.
We can take part to a mitriatic rite inside the Saint Clement's mitreo where there is an esoteric, dark and terrifying atmosphere of the cave in which Mithras was born..

* THE GODNESS OF MAGNA MATER OF TROADE "TAKES" IN THE ROMOLUS CITY A MYSTERIOUS "BLACK ROCK". A foreign cult has a site on the Palatine, the sacred hill of the origin of Rome, for facing a terrible calamity.

* THE CELIO HILL CROSS-ROAD OF THE ORIENTAL CULTS. The Celio was a cross-road of several cults and oreintal rites that pacefully coexist togheter with the Roman religion until the lare-republic age.

* THE ISIDE MYSTERIES OF CAMPO MARZIO. The myth of the godness and her trasformation through the centuries in the quarter that housed her temple.

* SERAPIDE COMPANION OF ISIDE. Serapide companion of Iside, he reigns uncontested the Roman Pantheon during the Caracalla empire, when the Isiaci cults raised to an absolute supremacy.

* THE FORO BOARIO FASCINATION OF THE GREEK QUARTER. The epos of the wandering Enea, the drammatic chronicle of the foreign buried alive and the astral magic of the persin god Mithras, that they create the strange charm of the Greek quarter of the classical Rome. Meeting-point near the church of Saint Maria in Cosmedin (from the book written by S. Spoto “Nuovi Percorsi” Atanor editor).
Click to expand...

http://www.romeguide.it/FILES/visite/curiosity_rome.htm

And I moved the thread over here to join the others.
 
We had a school trip to Rome when I was about 16 years old. Lovely city.
One of our trips was to the Catacombs of St Callixtus, just outside Rome, only they didn't bother telling us beforehand where we were going (geography teacher's revenge, possibly).
I was gobsmacked and delighted by it all. :)
Here's one link, though if you try Googling "catacombs" and "Rome" you'll find lots more.
http://www.catacombe.roma.it/
 
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