Rome had been on my bucket list for a long time. We’ve just spent 4+ days there. Here’s what I think. We’ve visited many cities whose contribution to where we are now, particularly 21st century Western society, is clear and palpable. Rome isn’t like that. The tourist guides we read were all 20 years out of date and were written by a particular kind of academic with a strong bias towards the fine arts and no real interest in day to day real life. They almost exclusively advocate spending many hours visiting the Vatican and its museums and going round tourist flytraps like the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. The real Rome gets scarcely a mention. Firstly, Vaticana. We walked all round Vatican City and were deeply impressed by the extent to which the centre of one of the world’s three great religions completely prevents access to its people. Its walls are huge and uncompromising and the message is clear – keep out! The few bits that are accessible charge a fortune for the privilege. We were sickened at the cynical way in which the Catholic church rips off its trusting sheep (sic). Secondly, Rome itself. I don’t believe in souls, but if Rome ever had one it’s lost it. Considering the power and influence of the Roman empire and how it shaped all of Europe (and much of the middle east and Africa), it is astonishing that there is no sense of Imperial Rome in today’s city. The reason is that, apart from the odd lucky survivor like the Coliseum, classical Rome was raped and largely destroyed (1) to build Christian Rome, dominated by hundreds of St Peter’s basilica clones and (2) by Christians anxious to expunge Rome’s great but polytheistic culture. The result is a city dominated by tourism, with almost everywhere worth visiting charging exorbitant entrance fees, but otherwise with no cultural heart. The reason, perhaps, is that from the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire, Rome apart from the Catholic Church has been almost irrelevant to European culture. In fact Rome is the capital of a very young and very odd country – even the date of its founding is unclear (somewhere between 1815 and 1870 or so). I wouldn’t have missed it but I was left disappointed and a bit saddened.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 14:39:59 +0000
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