Well on Sunday I head to Rome. I shall be in the Eternal City from the afternoon of Sunday 27th until noon on Friday 2nd. And in the best traditions of me going everywhere:
- The Vatican Museum has free opening on Sunday for World Tourism Day. I will miss the chance as I won’t be there early enough.
- For only two months, the Vatican museums are open late night on Fridays (one of only two days I will not be there.)
- The State Archaeology Program finishes on 26th Sept. This program gives tourists unprecedented access to current digs and parts of the forum that haven’t been open for decades. It finishes the day before I arrive.
- The Church of San Teodoro that I’ve tried many times to visit unsuccessfully, I’ve discovered is only open Sunday 10:30 am til noon (i.e. just before I arrive.)
- The Mausoleum of Augustus (one of the most interesting and impressive ancient monuments) is closed for restoration and the whole area is being re-done. It will be ready later this year.
- I arrive on Sunday, but my payday is on Monday, so I will be very poor for the first day.
In all, I have just so organised my time in Rome just in order to miss some of the most tremendous opportunities. I have a history of this. Three separate holidays near Alicante we tried to visit the ruins of Roman Lucentum. And everytime it happened to be closed. We drove about a hundred miles round the south coast of Spain to get to Baelo Claudia on a Monday, only to find that Monday is the only day it’s closed.
Moreover, expect Rome to collapse in dust and rubble in around a week. I carry with me a curse.
- In 1990 I went to Venice and the next year they announced that the city was sinking.
- In 1990 I went to Assisi and a few years later there was an earthquake that almost destroyed the basilica.
- Sometime around the millennium I visited Girona in Spain (have been several times). That same year, some of the city walls fell down.
- In 2004 I went to Rome and we saw Nero’s Domus Aurea. It was open for the first time in 20 years. Two years later it suffered massive water damage and has been closed ever since.
Offhand those are a few examples I can remember. There are many more. Just don’t invite me to a house-warming!
And I’ve still got this stinking cold. It’s officially the tail-end, but I feel it’s a very long tail with some serious muscle. I suffer quite badly with inner-ear-pressure problems during flight landings. When I have a cold, it’s 10 times worse. Whoop.
On the bright side:
It’s Rome. There’s ancient monuments galore. There’s Peroni Nastro Azzuro. There’s Pizza. The weather is apparently very good.
Ah hell, who am I kidding. I’m as excited as a kid getting a Tie-Fighter for Christmas!
Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo….
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