Defining Rome

Beyond just taking in what a city has to offer--museums, monuments, bars, restaurants, shops, theaters, etc--I find that I want to grasp the uniqueness of the city: what is it that makes Rome, for instance, uniquely Rome? I'm talking about the inherent personality of the city itself almost apart from the personality of its citizens.

Central Rome from the Quirinal Hill: not a high-rise in sight

You have the feeling in Paris, for example, that the city we see today was planned in its entirety on the day the Romans established it some 2000 years ago: everything built since holds together as if part of a grand plan. It's like a sculptor started with a giant block of city-stuff and chiseled out Paris. Rome, on the contrary, as I've mentioned before, seems shoveled almost haphazardly into place over time, and without sweeping out anything that was there before. It's a mishmash of imperial, medieval, renaissance, baroque, nineteenth-century all heaved together, often in a single building: a medieval church built over a pagan temple and containing Byzantine mosaics next to renaissance frescoes in a gaudy baroque side-chapel.

In Rome, there are striking contrasts everywhere: most of the streets are narrow and cobbled with basalt blocks and they lead to huge monumental churches and fountains. Everywhere there's evidence of enormous former power, and yet it's surprisingly small for such a major city. Its metropolitan area population is about the same as Minneapolis-Saint Paul--except that it's still surrounded by 12 miles of city walls built 2000 years ago.

Part of the wall of Rome

Leaving Rome through one of the gates

You might think it's an inconvenience the have to leave a city through gates, but think of Manhattan, surrounded by a natural moat: the only way out is by bridge, tunnel, or ferry.

When I was in Rome 45 years ago, you could look down from the roof at a restaurant that put its tables right in the street. It's still there and the cars still have to drive around the tables. 

Who can talk of Rome without mentioning the camera-tripod vendors? They're on every corner with a few small tripods set out on a towel. The reason, you may ask? It actually makes sense. Roman churches are typically dark and flashes are often banned. The only way to get a good photo is with incredibly steady hands or a tripod. And speaking of lighting in churches: you want to get a good look at the frescoes barely visible in the dome of the apse? There's a handy coin-slot nearby where for half a euro the lights will go on for 2 minutes. Everybody stands around gawking blindly while waiting for someone else to pay. Hey, it's Rome.

Then there are the various street vendors: scarf sellers (light scarfs worn loosely about the neck is a popular style among young Italian man), the vendors of Italian leather bags "made in Italy" yet sold at made-in-Vietnam prices, "artists" all selling the same drawings as their own originals, the surprisingly numerous vendors of jelly-like balls that splat flat when thrown down before snapping back into shape, the gypsy beggars who just sit there very pathetically with a cup, the guys who give you a hand at the railroad station and don't bug you for a tip (but expect one anyway), the folk who cover themselves in metallic paint and position themselves like statues in public squares with a cup at their feet for coins, the North Africans who circulate through the restaurants selling flowers, and so on...

Somebody asked us when we got back if we felt safe in Rome. The truth we never felt in danger or even pestered (except by the scalpers outside the Vatican Museum). Pickpockets are the biggest menace, but they really operate in the places where tourists are congested, especially (it seems) on the bus lines between tourist points.