Summing up my first months here, my relationship with Rome can be best described as a love-hate one. No surprise in that - everyone had warned us that the eternal city is beautiful but annoying to live in. What did surprise me slightly is that the overall balance is actually leaning towards the "love" part. For the moment anyway.
So how did this place conquer me (and what are the things that sometimes make me wish I was Nero and could just burn it all down)?
Love: In Rome you don't die of thirst. The city is full of fountains with fresh drinking water. Next to the Colosseum there's even a dispenser with chilled still and
sparkling water, all for free. Fantastic.
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| Free fresh sparkling water just with the view of the Colosseum |
Hate: It's great to have all those public structures to drink, but how about disposing of all the water you've drunk?! A frequent pee-er is dependent on coffee stops in bars, which only perpetuates the vicious cycle. Not convenient.
Love: Rome is quite green, and has plenty of (really) big parks. Even without leaving the city, there are lots of green spaces to go and enjoy the nice weather.
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| Some parks come with a pretty amazing view. Piazza del Popolo from the Pincho |
The only way to tell you are still in town is by the street name signpost
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| Villa Ada. Still Rome! |
Hate: Many of those green spaces are actually parks of villas, and come with big walls and gates. You might find the right gate, and you may find it open. Or not. Maybe the right gate is on the other side - which in case of these parks can be quite far.
Walls in general turn out to be an issue, especially if you rely on a map to move around. What on paper (or on a screen) looks like a crossable green patch, often turns out to be a huge wall (with the green patch inaccessibly behind it), and the only way is to go around - which might add a few kilometers to your way. Not great if you are running late.
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| Wall on the left, wall on the right |
Love: I think you can walk around Rome for a whole lifetime
and keep finding new things. It's like a practically inexhaustible source
of wonder.
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| Sometimes you wonder if you're in a capital or in a small town... |
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| If you are in ancient or in medieval times... |
The Paradise square or the Panic road... you choose, there is everything!
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| Once you enter here... not sure if you'll make it out again |
You get to see just incredible things. Like a 1000-year old book, in a place like this. I'm serious.
Hate (big bold red underlined): Great if you like walking, because often it is your only reliable option to get around. Because - transport. Ahhhh, where to start. I know, I had been warned (by just about everyone) that Roman transport was a nightmare. And to be honest, I thought it was an exaggeration. It turns out it wasn't.
And yes, I know, I didn't want to move to a place where things would be
too organised. I certainly got that wish. Because in some way, it works here worse than in Africa. Now by that I don't mean that in Rome we'd move around in packed broken old minibuses (though compared to the rush hour, even those might seem pleasantly empty). What I mean is that in Uganda you would at least
understand what the rules are: buses leave when they are full. But here -
here there are no rules.
On a good day, everything works fine. But there is no way of knowing which are those good days. The buses may have some secret pattern, but it's definitely not clear, regular nor frequent. And even if regional trains do have schedules, what is the use of them if some of the trains just don't show up - a sort of last minute secret cancellation.
In the summer it seems to be even worse - earlier this week my normally half-hour daily commute by train (a train that goes to the airport - so naively you might expect some reliability - with a reasonable frequency of every 15 minutes) turned into a more than two-hour crusade. Two trains didn't show up (secret cancellation), third arrived 20 minutes late, then got broken on the way, everyone was told to get off and take another (fully packed) train, which wickedly didn't open the doors and after standing at the platform, with all the doors shut, for good 5 minutes it just left - leaving me staring at the whole thing with my mouth open. I think you get my point.
No wonder that everyone ends up taking a car.
Right... now that I got that off me, perhaps it's the moment to add that (at least so far) I have had mostly good experience with the people here. Romans have the fame for being rude and rough, which in a folkloristic way they are - but in spite of that, I think they are overall nice. And especially after an infernal train commute, it is good to remember that you probably can't have a detailed efficiency and a relaxed human dimension in the same place and at the same time. So even if it sometimes drives me mad, overall I still prefer a friendly human place which works a bit less efficiently. End of side note.
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