Lost at Sea: When in Rome...

To escape our winter confinement, we decided to take a quick flit to Rome. We booked a very cheap flight direct from Dalaman to Rome and stayed for 10 days. Here's a whirlwind sample.

Megan in Tardis, our friendly lift box

We found a great hotel (Hotel PABA on Via Cavour, if you're in the area) for E 48 per night, right next to the Forum.

Part of the Forum from the outside

The Colosseum was just down the lane.

No need for a title.

... but you could feel the power of old Rome.

We walked for miles and miles (in fact, I wore out my feet, they became quite damaged), just gob-smacked with the richness of history's tapestry here.

Inside the Forum

Viaduct on Palantine hill

However, there's a point where this richness becomes over the top, just too much for the senses to accomodate. The next photo is from the ceiling of the corridor leading into the Sistine Chapel.

Ceiling detail from the corridor to the Sistine Chapel

Great art, you might think, but how do you deal with each individual work of art when it's in the context of this:

Corridor to the Sistine Chapel

How can you assimilate and appreciate each work when your eye is just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of art. We visited amazing churches and museums which seemed to compete to be the most lavish and overwrought.

Pantheon ceiling

Megan with the angels in St Peter's

Vatican art collection

Vatican ceiling

It came to a head when we walked through an unremarkable and drab door off a small piazza, to be confronted with an overwhelmingly beautiful church. We saw a poster advising us of a Michaelangelo sculpture, and we almost didn't bother to walk the length of the abbey to see it. We'd OD'ed on beauty. Well, we forced ourselves, it's terrible to treat Michaelangelo in such a cavalier fashion.

Michael Angelo's 'Christ carrying the cross'

We learned how to operate the roman buses and metro, and our 7 day pass saw very heavy use. To clear our overloaded senses, we took a trip out to Ostia Antica, the original port city of Rome.

Amphitheatre at Ostica Antica

Bathhouse mosaic at Ostica Antica

Mussolini planned a utopian city, EUR ( Esposizione Universale Roma), to commemorate 20 years of Fascism and to portray the glory of Rome. We were astonished by the grandiosity and pomposity of the architecture, vainglorious beyond comprehension.

Front door to the EUR museum, must be 100' high

Covered walkway of the museum

Everything in Rome seems larger than life, huge, in the realm of the immortals. Even this foot!

A bit toey in Rome

Of course, the view from the top of St Peter's is just breath taking, the Trevi fountain defies simple description, and the sheer scale of the monumental architecture threatens to sink Rome to its pre-civilized foundations.

View from the top of St Peter's cathedral

Trevi Fountain - Bernini

Vittoria monument - stupendo

We loved Rome, it was stupendous, breath-taking and romantic. But in the end, it was like going to a 'Death by Chocolate' restaurant; good things in moderation can become nauseating when overblown. Rome felt indulgent, too much, over the top.

It was all an impossible trick...