My striking view of Rome...
Friends have always said I'm a bit mad, but even I have to admit this was pretty random. It all started about a month or two ago - I was bored and found myself on the Ryanair website. Always a mistake. I found a flight for about £50 return London to Rome inc. all taxes and, as you do, I booked it.
So last week I flew off to Italy - completely alone. I was booked into a hostel and everything went surprisingly smoothly, went to the Colloseum, Roman Forum and ate copious amounts of pizza. I also found myself on a coach of old women on a tour to the catacombs in the south of Rome, they kept mentioning a Metro strike that was planned for the next day. Not too worried I decided to skip walking to the Vatican City as I was flying back that afternoon and to be honest 7AM was way too early to be getting up.
Sure enough on the Friday morning the Metro closed, I was happilly wondering around the streets of Rome and decided to go and see the fountains on Piazza Novona. There were lots of police around which seemed pretty normal, but I got the impression something was up when I started seeing Communist Party of Italy flags. Italy was only having a general strike!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4468732.stm
So Piazza Novona turned out to be the centre of the rally - not quite the idillic fountains I'd envisaged. So with time ticking on I started my walk back to the main Termini to get my coach to the airport (which was thankfully still running.) Lots of road closures, some blockades of police and up infront a helicopter hovering. Hmm, never a good sign. As I neared the Roman Forum I met the front of the parade, spearheaded by 20+ police vans and the systematic crack of what I presume was the police firing blanks as a deterrant. "I think I'll walk back a different route."
To be honest the whole situation didn't feel that threatening, there were a fair few other tourists simply walking by and all the protests seemed very peaceful. But still, an experience nonetheless.
(If anyone cares my flight was only delayed 1 hour)
So last week I flew off to Italy - completely alone. I was booked into a hostel and everything went surprisingly smoothly, went to the Colloseum, Roman Forum and ate copious amounts of pizza. I also found myself on a coach of old women on a tour to the catacombs in the south of Rome, they kept mentioning a Metro strike that was planned for the next day. Not too worried I decided to skip walking to the Vatican City as I was flying back that afternoon and to be honest 7AM was way too early to be getting up.
Sure enough on the Friday morning the Metro closed, I was happilly wondering around the streets of Rome and decided to go and see the fountains on Piazza Novona. There were lots of police around which seemed pretty normal, but I got the impression something was up when I started seeing Communist Party of Italy flags. Italy was only having a general strike!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4468732.stm
So Piazza Novona turned out to be the centre of the rally - not quite the idillic fountains I'd envisaged. So with time ticking on I started my walk back to the main Termini to get my coach to the airport (which was thankfully still running.) Lots of road closures, some blockades of police and up infront a helicopter hovering. Hmm, never a good sign. As I neared the Roman Forum I met the front of the parade, spearheaded by 20+ police vans and the systematic crack of what I presume was the police firing blanks as a deterrant. "I think I'll walk back a different route."
To be honest the whole situation didn't feel that threatening, there were a fair few other tourists simply walking by and all the protests seemed very peaceful. But still, an experience nonetheless.
(If anyone cares my flight was only delayed 1 hour)
posted by Quack at
10:17 PM
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