Rome: Euro Camping Pt. 2

From La Spezia we to Rome took roughly five hours, getting us there around 10 P.M. We lucked out at the station and found a group of American exchange students who were headed to the same spot we were, another campsite, in Rome of all places. I wasn't sure what to expect. A pair of free bus rides (Public transit is a joke there, I' not sure if I saw one person pay their fare during our entire stay in Rome) landed us at a campsite that made our previous spot look like untouched wilderness. I'm not sure if I can really even bring myself to describe this wacky place, but here's a list of silly amenities that were offered (most likely to make up for the 10 euro a night price):

1. Internet for 5 euros/hr
2. Rented towels for 2.50 euros
3. Grocery store primarily stocked with room temperature beer.
4. Upscale and overpriced Restaurant.
5. A nightly disco jam party club, with DJ
6. 4 euro beers
7. Tents spaced a roomy 18 inches apart.
8. Car wash

I'm sure there are more, but those were the all-stars. It made for a good laugh.


As for Rome itself, let's begin with the aesthetics. First, the graffiti to wall ratio is astronomical. There's hardly any clean wall space. You’d think this would be ugly, and take away from this city, but most of it is very well done. Second, as with Genoa, the street vendors, hustlers, ramblers, and gamblers line every open spot of sidewalk. As with Paris, the mixture between modern building structures and 2000-year-old ruins was startling. It's made an interesting, but sometimes sad hybrid with examples like a McDonald's across the street from the Coliseum. It makes me wonder when the McDonald's will be a relic and the Coliseum will be prehistoric. The Sistine chapel, in its range of art from ancient to renaissance was magnificent. Tapestries 100 ft. long by 50 ft. wide made me appreciate the word masterpiece. The incredible detail in all of the works gave the impression that people simply spent more time on producing quality work back then.

Following ten ours of wandering around Rome in near 100 degree weather, three gelato fixes, and some more spaghetti we trekked back to our disco-camp, packed up, and hit a train to Florence in the morning.