Roma if You Want To

I stepped out of Roma's termini station, instantly greeted by chaotic streets and the steady flow of pedestrians from all regions of the world. Cheap pizza stands and knockoff designer bags laid out on the street form a tricky obstacle course along the hurried sidewalks. The infamous rotaries mark almost every square, forcing a dangerous game of pedestrian versus vespa.

This is not the elegance or beauty found in places like Firenze or Siena. This is 1950s New York City. A mix of locals pawing at the open wallets of tourists, and sharp dressed businessmen going about their business. The ideal romantic European city, this is not. Well, its hidden a bit.

Within the low rising boulevards lined with orange trees, you find the working class neighborhoods. Small areas squeezed between monuments and ruins. Restaurants not trying to grab a dollar from an eager tourist. Genuine food and people who call this bustling city home. This is the ideal that was made famous by Roman Holiday.

But Rome has its own charm in the hubris that built it. Kings, dictators, holy pontificates, French war heroes, charming republicans and crazier heads of state all built this city in a 3000 year long game of one-up-man-ship. From the early Grecian styled forums, to the over-embellished catholic-baroque churches; every leader managed to stamp their name on the city. In so managing to create a hectic but marveled capitol of the new and old world.

And nothing can quite describe what its like to stand, awestruck, by a basilica that has endured, and reinvented itself 2000 years over by the bright minds of Michelangelo and Bernini. Words can't express the feeling of standing atop an ancient city, whose remnant skeletons are lit by both led light and full moon.

I leave the eternal city for the southern home of my great grandfather. Enormous bag in hand, a little lost in thought from a good week. Memories of time spent in Rome made better by the people I spent it with.