Easter in Rome.

We spent the Easter weekend in Rome. We took a direct flight from Heathrow to Fiumicino, and arrived in Rome on Wednesday evening. Some days earlier, the nearby city of L’Aquila had been hit by an earthquake, which left some 200 people dead, and many more injured and homeless. The second night of our stay in Rome, we actually felt a slight tremor while in our hotel room. It turned out to be an after shock, which caused even more damage in L’Aquila.

The first day of our stay we fulfilled the boys dream of visiting the Colosseum. (Above right, one of Kees' many action photos of his hero "graeco-romanus" on location). It took us a while to figure out that the ticket was also valid for the Forum Romanum and the Palatine Hill, so we could skip the line. After our visit to the Roman antiquities (tiredness started to replace Kees’ and Thomas’ enthusiasm somewhere on the Palatine Hill), we took a walk through along the Tiber, crossing the Tiber Island, and ending up in the Giudecca. The weather was very pleasant, and the smell of the wisteria alost overwhelming. I realized I had only been to the Forum in mid-summer before, when it was always unpleasantly parching hot.

On Friday, Good Friday, we decided to visit some ancient Christian sites. We took an early metro and bus to the Via Appia, and took a pleasant stroll along the San Nicola and the tomb of Cecilia Metella. In a small road-side cafe we discovered this Bocca della Verita; the day before the line before the original had been so long that we never got to see it. But this one, after insertion of a euro-coin, could even tell foretell your future, something the original Bocca is not capable of. Afterwards, we visited the catacombs of San Callisto, and saw the famous crypt of the Popes. Later, we visited Saint John in Lateran. To our surprise, the site was not very crowded at all. This was especially in contrast with our later visit to the Scala di Spagna, and the Trevi Fountain. Visiting Rome at Easter time can actually be quite pleasant as long as you stay away from the obvious tourist spots.

This is why, on Saturday, we visited Ostia Antica. Visiting these extensive Roman ruins was perhaps the highlight of our visit to Rome (left). But nearby Renaissance Ostia (the seat of the Cardinal Ostiensis) was also a pleasant surprise; shortly after the sixteenth century, the Tiber changed its course, and Borgo di Ostia became a sleepy and insignificant village (the photographs below capture the sleepiness very well). A visit to the Mediterranean beach in Lido di Ostia (not the most beautiful beach ever, but it is the Mediterranean) completed this perfect day.

Below: Kees and Thomas play in the Mediterranean at Lido di Ostia.

Next day: Easter Sunday in Rome. We visited the Chiesa Valdese in the Piazza Cavour, for a beautiful, very "Calvinist" Easter morning service. And that left us plenty of time to walk to Saint Peter’s Square, and see the Pope. The festive atmosphere was quite worth it. A walk over the Gianicolo Hill and a visit to the Capitoline museum concluded our Easter visit to Rome. Rather than closing with a picture of the Pope (whom we only saw from a kilometre distance), we'll close off with a photo of the cat sanctuary at the Piazza Argentina. The cats were considerably better fed and cared for than when we last visited Rome, in 1996.