Italy 2.2 – All roads lead to Rome

“Seule Paris est digne de Rome; seule Rome est digne de Paris.”
“Solo Parigi è degna di Roma; solo Roma è degna di Parigi.”
“Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.”

That’s quite a bold thing to say. Paris and Rome are reciprocally and EXCLUSIVELY twinned to each other, meaning each city has no other twin cities (there are still “sister” cities and friendship cities). Voilà, after Venice, Rome was next on the list as my dad and I continued our Italian holiday. So Rome, huh. Aside from Paris, Rome is probably considered the other “big shot” in European travel. Yet, after my experiences with Paris and other big, popular cities like Amsterdam, I honestly didn’t hold much high expectation for Rome, though I did give it the benefit of the doubt seeing that I loved the other Italian cities I’ve visited so far. We’ll see if Rome is really that “worthy” of Paris…

Dad and I arrived in Rome as the sun was setting, and after having settled down in the hotel, we set out for a leisurely stroll. The purpose was to get an overall orientation of the city and to figure out where we were with respect to the places we planned to see. It seemed like Rome was quite compact and we’d be able to walk everywhere. The first destination was the Colosseum, which was a mere 20-minute walk from Termini station in the city centre. The Colosseum was accompanied by a beautiful full moon that night. Of course, it was too late to go inside – that would be for another day. I’m gonna go ahead and say that the Colosseum didn’t seem TOO impressive upon first look, but I liked the way that it stood quietly there and didn’t scream for attention…*ahem* Paris. I’m totally going to get hated for being a “Paris-hater”…