Rome- "Closed by reason of circumstances beyond one's control"

Rome, Italy
October 19-22

There are times that you go to a city and you feel an instant connection. You stay for a day, maybe for a week, and magical things happen during your stay. You have amazing experiences with wonderful people and places and food and it breaks your heart when you have to leave. For us, Rome was not one of those places.

Rome as viewed from the Piazza Venezia.

We should have seen it coming, the signs were all there. I have been joking with Shaun for months now that all of the amazing things that have fallen into place for this trip were signs from the universe that we made the right decision to do this. Well this time the signs were all saying "Closed" but somehow we just missed it. It all started when we left Buonconvento. We were driving to Rome to return the rental car and Silvanna had told us that the quickest way was to drive down the SS2 and pick up the A1 highway in Chuisi, which I kept calling Chiuso, a word we had heard a bunch of times, and which I now know means "closed".

We had very few issues actually getting to Rome. The highways were fairly well marked and the airport was outside the city so we simply dropped the car off and followed the signs to the train. We had booked a hotel right near the train station so it was just a short walk to the hotel from Termini station. After checking in and unpacking, we walked over to the Tourist Information center. The plan was to blitz the sights during what amounted to two and a half days in Rome so he suggested the 3 day Roma Pass. They cost 25 Euro each, but allowed you free transportation on all Metros and Buses as well as free entrance to your first two Rome sites. It made a lot of sense considering our plans so we got our Roma passes and set out to do some sightseeing.

It was fairly late in the afternoon at that point so we decided to go see a few of the more famous outdoor sights; the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. The guy at the TI had told us that bus 175 was the best one for those sights, so we ventured out to find the bus. Now, let me be clear. We have taken the buses in almost every city we have been to; in France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In every case they were clean, punctual and very easy to navigate, so I have nothing against buses. The Roman bus system was the problem. First of all, there was not a bus map to be found. Every other city would have maps of the bus routes at all the stops so you knew which one to take. Here, they seem to expect you to just know which buses go where. And the timelines they give for how often the buses come seemed to have come from some kind of fairytale world. Most of the time we would wait forever for a bus to arrive, then the driver would get out and go do some kind of paperwork. Then he would usually come back, smoke a cigarette on the bus, trim his fingernails, do some origami and write letters to his family before deciding to finally open the doors to the people waiting to board. We would all rush onto the bus and then we would all sit there, crammed on board for another 15 minutes before leaving the station.

So that was our first experience with Rome's public transportation. By the time we got off the bus we were both feeling pretty gross from the ordeal, but we were determined to see some "wicked old stuff" so we were off. First stop was the Trevi Fountain. We knew vaguely where it was, but the city map from the TI had teeny tiny lettering that was virtually impossible to read so we were a little turned around. We knew the fountain was of Neptune (Triton) and we were on Triton street so when we came upon a mossy statue of Neptune I originally thought we had reached the Fountain. It seemed disappointing but there were a bunch of people taking pictures so we did too. It only took a minute or two before we realized that this could not possibly be the fountain that everyone talks about. We moved on, and when we found the actual fountain we had a good laugh at the difference between that fountain and the one at the Trevi bus stop.

This was the first crappy fountain we came to. Even Shaun's face is saying, "Really, this is what all the fuss is about??

Now that's more like it!

We were still laughing about the mossy fountain vs this one.

The fountain was gorgeous but it was also an absolute mob scene. People were packed in on the steps leading down to it, waiting for their chance to throw a coin in the fountain, something that will supposedly ensure your return to Rome. I had read that the tourists throw around three thousand dollars into the fountain per day, but the coins are collected and donated to the Italian Red Cross. So we ponied up two coins and stood with our backs to the fountain and tossed them in. Then we made our way through the crush in search of the Spanish Steps.

The Spanish Steps is a wide staircase of 138 steps that rises up from the Piazza di Spagna and looks down on the fountain called "The Old Boat" in the Piazza. It is mostly known as romantic spot where couples come and sit at Sunset or at night and bask in the loveliness of the city. I think it might have been more lovely if the guys offering to give you "free" roses didn't come up to you every 10 seconds and try to jam them into your hands. A firm no was all it took, but it was still a bit annoying. So we had our little romantic moment and headed back to shower for dinner.

The Spanish Steps at night. Very romantic, especially with the Hawkers swarming you every ten seconds.

It was Shaun's birthday that night and we wanted to go somewhere nice. We will both celebrate our birthdays on this trip so we made a deal that we would just do a nice dinner to celebrate. When you are taking a trip around the world, you don't really need presents too! So Shaun had found a place on trip advisor called Ad Hoc and attempted to make a reservation for 8:30PM. I say attempted because they had a service like Open Table, only instead of telling you right away whether you have a reservation, this one said someone woould "get back to you". Since we were heading out we didn't find out what the response was before we left.

Just like the time before, the bus situation was out of control. We waited forever and then finally got on, just to wait some more. By the time we got over to the end of town where we needed to be, it was too late to do any sightseeing so we figured we would try to find the restaurant and make sure they had our reservation. It was 7:30 so the restaurant had just opened, but when we explained that we tried online that afternoon, she said "Oh no, we have been booked for days, we are all full!" We must have looked really sad, because she said she would double check. Then another woman came over and she explained what was happening. I told them we would eat now if that would make a difference. They conversed for a second and then she said, "OK come with me" and seated us at a romantic little table for two near the window. The other woman said she must have liked us!

The first thing they did was brought us some complimentary champagne! I thanked her again and told her it was Shaun's birthday so we were really grateful they had seated us. She helped Shaun pick the wine to go with our meals and then brought the bottle. It was called Chiuso, which she explained means "Closed". Hmmm. The meal was great. We both got a pasta course, in Shaun's case a Carbonara Sampler. If you've never had pasta carbonara, get out of your chair, drive to the best italian restaurant you know and order it. Its like a combo of Pasta with bacon and eggs. It is so rich and delicious and creamy and I am drooling just thinking about it! Shaun's sampler had traditional carbonara, a mushroom carbonara and a Truffle carbonara. It was sooooo good. So the birthday dinner was a big success and we were already fat and happy when we went to leave. Just as we are putting on our coats the woman who gave us the table came back over and gave us a little brown bag. It was a bottle of sparkling wine as a thank you for choosing Ad Hoc for his celebration. A nice touch.

Shaun enjoying his carbonara sampler. Please note the bottle of wine called Il Chiuso. The waitress pointed out that Chiuso means closed.

Even funnier was when we got back to our hotel. We had booked it with a last minute rate the night before arriving in Rome, so it was a pretty nice place even though it was close to the train station! They must have seen it was Shaun's birthday when we checked in and gave them his passport, because they had left us a bottle of prosecco in the room! It was like the city was trying to woo us. And they almost had us at that point. Almost.

Such a beautiful sunset. Too bad it was a sign of the Apocalypse!

The next morning we woke up early and heard a very strange noise. Thunder. We had been on the road for about 8 weeks at that point and we could only remember two days where there was any considerable rain. We've truly been blessed with the most unseasonably warm fall Europe has seen in years. So it was strange to hear thunder and even stranger to look out and see it absolutely pouring!! We needed to get our train tickets for Venice so we decided we would dress warmly, walk up to the train station, get the tickets and head out to the Vatican. Within about 20 steps we were both soaked to the skin. We ran to the train station and found water coming in all over the place. It was literally streaming down from the ceiling in some spots like someone had left a hose running! We found this rather odd, but chalked it up to Roman engineering, got our train tickets and a coffee and watched the mayhem. At this point there was so much thunder, lightning and rain that there was no way we were going sightseeing. We headed back to the hotel, hung out our clothes to dry, ordered a pot of coffee and worked on our blogs for a while.

By the time the rain slowed at all it was lunchtime, so we headed back up toward the train station. We figured we would take the metro over to the Vatican area and get lunch before heading to the Vatican Museum. When we got to the train station, we followed the signs downstairs to the metro where we were met with a huge crowd of people trying to read some sign. "Chiuso", it said. Closed. The rainstorm was apparently so bad that it flooded the metro and so it was closed for the day. We would have to take the bus. And so would every other person in Rome who usually took the metro.

I don't think I need to explain to you how bad the bus situation was that day. Lets just say that there are a number of gentlemen in Rome who I now know far too well. Shaun and I were crammed in like absolute sardines. It was an endless ride, but eventually we got over to the Vatican area. We grabbed a quick bite and then went to the Vatican Museum. The museum is interesting, not only for the art, but also for the way it runs. They know everyone wants to see the Sistine Chapel so no matter which route you choose, the longer intererary that allows you to view everything or the shorter itinerary that cuts out most other stuff, you will end up at the Sistine Chapel.

The museum was founded in 1771 and houses many great works of art that were amassed by the Catholic Church over the centuries. If we really wanted to we could have spent all day there looking at statues, sarcophagi, paintings etc. Unfortunately, after all this time we have a bit of "museum fatigue" so we really just wandered and checked things out on the way to the Sistine Chapel. The one dazzler for both of us though, was the "Gallery of Maps". I know, it doesn't sound very interesting, but trust me it was gorgeous. A huge hallway just filled with paintings on the walls and up the ceiling, frescoes and topographical maps all inlaid with these beautiful frames and lit from the sides. As I've often said, I'm not sure a photo can do it justice, but I'll try.

Two views of the Hall of Maps. My neck hurt from craning it in all directions to take it all in!

Unfortunately they don't allow photos of the Sistine Chapel, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was amazing. At this point, we've seen a lot of works by Michelangelo and I'm just blown away that the same guy who sculpted David from a single block of marble at 29 also spent 4 years painting 12,000 square feet of this chapel ceiling. You would think he only lived to about 40 with all that hard work, but he lived to be 88 years old. Crazy. I am officially a Michelangelo groupie at this point. He is, as we would say in Massachusetts, Wicked Awesome.

Once we left the Sistine Chapel we headed around to St Peter's square to take a look at the Basilica. (Dome designed by Michelangelo of course) The line was huge to go in, so we just hung out people watching in the square for a while. We had dinner plans with family and we needed to shower and change which meant more buses. Ugh. We headed back to clean up at the hotel.

Saint Peter's Square outside the Vatican.


That evening we met up with my cousin Kate and Ed's daughter Maggie. Maggie goes to college at Catholic University but she is spending a semester abroad in Rome. We both remember what it was like to be a starving college student so we invited Maggie to bring a friend along and join us for dinner. Maggie suggested the area around Piazza Navona, which was a great choice. The fountain there is gorgeous, second only to the Trevi Fountain, and there are tons of restaurants around. We met up with Maggie and her friend Helen at Piazza Navona at 8PM and headed off to dinner. It was another good meal, and more free prosecco. The funny thing was we had brought our sparkling wine for Maggie and Helen, and then the waiter here was giving us glasses as well. Must just be a Rome tradition, we can't be that popular.

Anyway, the food was good but the company was excellent. It was interesting to get Maggie and Helen's take on Rome. They both said they had a rough start, but had really grown to love Rome. During their fall break they get to do much more travel around Europe, visiting Dublin, London, Paris and Barcelona. What a great experience! As someone who didn't get to Europe for the first time until I was 32, I think it is wonderful that they get to do this. Hopefully it will spark them to continue to see the world and inspire their friends and family to do the same. I am a firm believer in Mark Twain's idea that prejudice cannot survive travel. That once you get to know a place and a people you have a better understanding for what they go through and how they live.

So after our nice meal, we went back to the fountain in Piazza Navona and said our goodbyes to Maggie and Helen. For those of you who don't know, I am from a big family on both my mother and father's side, but my father's side, the is particularly large. My dad had 12 siblings and I have 66 first cousins on the Flatley side. In Maggie's generation there are 129 more! My cousins were all really close growing up and we still love to get together when we can, but it isn't as often anymore now that everyone has their own families. So it was really nice that Maggie's semester in Rome coincided with our trip and we got to do some Flatley Family bonding! In a few weeks we will be in England and Ireland where I hope to do some bonding with even more distant relatives if they will have us!

Maggie, Shaun and I at the fountain at Piazza Navona.

Me, Maggie and Helen. It was fun to see them!





The next morning we headed back up to the train station to see if the metro was running. After the strangeness of the day before I had doing some poking around on the internet and found out that the storm had been much bigger than we realized. Two people were actually killed! There were over 7000 recorded lightning strikes over Rome and there was massive flooding throughout the city. That is the why the metro had been "Chiuso". What we didn't realize was that that word would continue to follow us.

We got on the B metro, which we planned to take to the Colosseum. The Colosseum dates back to 72AD and is one of the most important sights in Rome. We were all excited on the train to finally see some of the Wicked Old Stuff as we had been calling it. So you can imagine our surprise when the Metro slowed down at the stop but didn't actually stop! At first I thought we had missed something. (Were we supposed to jump?) but when we got off at the next stop there was an electronic sign flashing something about the Colosseum stop and "Chiuso". We should have seen the rest of it coming.

Always the optimists, we started to make our way over to the area around the Colosseum, but we were both starving so we decided to get something to eat.
We found the cutest little restaurant down a side street called Cafe, Cafe and the lunch menu was inexpensive and interesting so we decided to just have an early lunch so we could go all day. I had veal meatballs in curry sauce with basmati rice. It sounds strange but it was delicious! Shaun had a serious case of food envy. We had a nice relaxing lunch. After all the Colosseum had been there for thousands of years, it would still be there another hour.

Bellies full and feet rested, we walked back over to the Colosseum. It was truly a sight to see from the outside, but something was strange. There didn't seem to be any lines to get in? People were just milling about aimlessly. We finally got close enough to see why. The gates were still closed and on the gate was an 8x12 peice of paper with a notice scribbled in Italian and English. The English one made me laugh out loud. It said "Today the Colosseum is closed by reason of circumstances beyond one's control".
Well that explains everything! At least we knew about the big storm the day before, nobody else seemed to have any clue that had happened so people were just bewildered! (Some were clearly angry as well). It was the saddest group of tourists you ever want to see.

I find this sign hilarious, in a really sad way.

We decided to try to salvage things by walking over to Palantine Hill. Maybe we could see some things over there? Nope. Chiuso. Oh well, lets just go see the Forum. We went into the visitor center and saw lots of people. Good sign. We couldn't quite find the main entrance though so we finally asked. Chiuso. Of course it is. And why would you bother putting up any kind of sign? Why not just let hundreds of people wander around and ask you individually? Do I sound bitter?

At that point you would think we would be furious, but we found it kind of hilarious. We had this one day set aside to do these sights and they were all closed. Plus, they were the whole reason we bought the Roma pass. That and all the free transportation on Rome's wonderful bus and metro system. Sigh. We decided we weren't going to let Rome beat us down, no matter how hard it seemed to be trying. We would continue to wander the streets and take pictures of Wicked Old Stuff from the outside. We were kind of like the Griswalds. "Look honey, there's the outside of the Colosseum!" "And the outside of the Forum!" Good grief.

The Colosseum...as viewed from the outside

The Forum...as viewed from the outside

We did see some really cool things that day though. We wandered up and down the streets around the Colosseum and did the same around the Forum, where at least you could look down on some of the Old Stuff. We went to a Piazza that had been designed by my buddy Michelangelo and then one of my favorite spots, the Piazza Venezia with the Altar of the Nation. We stopped by the Pantheon and then went back to visit the Trevi fountain again, just to try to end on a high note.

Piazza Venezia was beautiful

The Pantheon


The final night our stay in Rome was typical of everything else we had experienced. We wanted to go to Trastavere for dinner, a cool section of Rome across the river. The metro didn't go that way so we needed to take a bus. After waiting about a half hour for the bus and watching buses come and go to every other destination we finally gave up and went back to Piazza Navona. We had a mediocre dinner and headed back to the hotel. We were heading to Venice in the morning and we were both pretty happy about it.

So I will just say this about our stop in Rome. The whole visit was a bit of a mess from start to finish, but I do realize that not all of it could have been prevented. Nobody could have predicted that a massive thunderstorm would cause total chaos in the city for two of our three days. Nobody could have known that it would flood every major archaelogical site and shut down the metro. There are millions of people who go to Rome every year and love it. There are T-shirts and bags and hand towels and ashtrays that all attest to the fact that people "Heart Roma", so take my experience with a grain of salt. We had some good food, some time with family and a number of laughs over the craziness of the situation. And if nothing else we learned some Italian. I don't think either of us will ever forget that Chiuso means Closed!

One last look at the Trevi fountain. It was beautiful.