Rome, October 07

 

Rome (Fiumicino and Ostia Lido) 20th September -  3rd October 2007
There are two seaward entrances to Rome on the west coast of Italy. The northern waterway is the Fiumicino canal and the southern one the Fiamara Grande river. The latter appeared the more appealing of the two at 8am when we arrived after an initially boisterous overnight trip. We slowly meandered upriver waiting for the offices to open so that we could contact the many marinas/yards regarding overnight stays. There are many different businesses lining both sides of river. We found that the VHF rarely illicited a response, so we started phoning. Each time we got the office secretary who could only say no.  As we subsequently discovered the power to find that extra little space for a few nights lays with the head honcho, not with the office secretary. The secret is to go alongside a raft of boats, climb ashore, and then go and find the man with the power. Our first experience of this at ‘Delta’ just before the bridge earned us a free nights stay for one night. He said this is the worst time of year to arrive, as the boats are not going out, and all the winter boats are arriving, or waiting to be hauled out. Next day we walked to the Fuimincino canal (about 5 miles!!) to have a look. The marina there was dirty, smelly, badly looked after and a swell was already working its way in. We eventually found a bus back and experienced our first traffic jam in 14 months.  Also within 30 minutes of arriving we saw a 3 car shunt complete with shouting and arm-waving as only Italians can do – fantastic!!
After our free night we drifted back down the river looking for likely spots. We saw a space alongside a wall in a small club, tied up and attempted to get ashore along the crumbling wall. We found the head honcho who shook his head gravely when he heard where we had tied up, and how we had got ashore. ‘Didn’t you see the signs ?’ he said. ‘Oh you mean the small sign only in Italian hidden behind the other boat tied to the same wall ?’ we didn’t reply. After he got over his disgust he introduced us to Jo and Alan, an English couple who had job swapped to Rome, and kept their catamaran in the yacht club. They were off to Corsica that night, so we could use their berth for up to 2 weeks. This was fantastic news. We asked the ‘boss’ what the price was , and we both heard – ‘tonight you are guest, then €50  3 nights.’ Excellent value we thought. Alan and Jo gave us a lift to the supermarket , we cooked them some supper, and helped them untie their lines when they left at 1am. We happily occupied their berth alongside the wall that wasn’t falling down but had listened with interest to their comments of what the lower reaches of the river are like in a blow.
The local town south of the river where the marina touristico is based is called Ostia Lido. It is a residential/seaside suburb servicing Rome by frequent trains. It also has substantial social housing which makes life on public transport full of colourful characters. The next day we finally found the train station in Ostia after another long walk. We subsequently found  that it is dead easy to get a bus to the train station on the same 75 minute train ticket. This ticket costs €1 and covers all transport in and around Rome- what a bargain! Thirty minutes on the train and a direct change to the underground all on the same ticket we were in the heart of Rome, our first view the Circo Massimo – the ancient city’s main chariot racing venue, which had a capacity for 400,000 spectators in it’s glory days.

What a city !! We wandered the ancient city centre remains for free in complete awe, visiting the colisseum, circling the ruins of the Aventine and Palatine hills, the Roman forum – heart of the senate, Imperial Forum – surprisingly intact remains of ancient Rome's shopping centre. With a little imagination you could still see Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero making their way from their luxury real estate on the hill to the centre of power of most of Western Europe.

The roman forum excavations, in the heart of the city, free to enter.

 

 

After a cheap and cheerful tourist menu for €15 each, we headed back to the train, and back to the boat at our little private yacht club, for a peaceful night tied up! What bliss!

The colisseum – showing the underfloor changing rooms of the gladiators. The wooden floor had trap doors with lifting platforms to raise the animals taking part in the games.

www.enjoyrome.co.uk has a useful tourist guide, particularly highlighting what can be visited for free.  We spent several days going in and out of Rome on the bus-train-underground trip seeing most of our list of sights. You really could spend 6 months here just exploring. Every corner of Rome has something interesting to see. For us the favourites were the Pantheon – the most complete ancient Rome structure in the city – with a 9m hole in the perfect domed roof and holes in the marble floor to drain away the rain, and the Roman forum where you can just take along a picnic lunch and a book and sit on some old pillars lying in the ruins watching the world go by.

Inside the Pantheon, the oldest surviving Roman structure.

The hole in the roof. Rain comes in and drains through holes in the floor.

We also visited the catacombs out on the Appia antica (old roman road leaving the city gates), the extensive burial chambers of the first christians in Rome.  We visited one of the six sites, it is thought that there are 50 others as yet un-excavated. The one we visited alone had 7 miles of tunnels and had been the resting place of 100 000 bodies, including the apostles Peter and Paul at some time, before their remains were moved elsewhere when they became saints.
On another occasion we left the final resting place of St Peter at the Vatican, the famous landmark square, the Pope was out, and walked along the Janiculum hill with superb views out over the city, to Trastavere, a laid back neighbourhood with many good value trattorias. We ate a feast for €10 including wine! If you are sensible, Rome will not cost a fortune to eat out but beware of buying property. As there is a ruin around every corner there is also one under every building, or possibly concealed in the walls of the existing one. One wealthy land owner who bought property in central Rome to build a hotel in the 1930s,  upon digging the first hole found a temple. 'No problem', he thought, 'it will look great beside my new but slightly smaller hotel'. Unfortunately there was another one under the next plot and more under the rest of the land. In the end he gave up and donated the entire site back to Rome.

A bummer of a real estate deal

We were by now getting quite cocky about knowing our way around, and we returned to Ostia station at 10pm one night getting on the no 62 bus. All the bus routes do a figure of 8 route passing via the train station on each loop, so when we realised the bus was going the wrong way we thought we'd just sit tight and go back to the station. When the driver noticed that he only had a couple of Inglesi left on board he asked us where we wanted to go. He then gave us the unwelcome news that this was the last bus and it did not return to the station. By this time we were out in an enormous park miles from anywhere, truly in the middle of nowhere. The driver showed us where to wait for a bus that would take us back to the station, but he didn't know how long we might have to wait. So we stood on the side of a dual carriageway running through the middle of this park/ forrest, in the pitch black, not really knowing where we were, without the number for a taxi, with not a soul in sight, trying not the think about Ostia's violent past and reputation as the place where a blind eye was turned to mafia-style shootings!
When the bus finally came we had to jump into the middle of the road in front of it shining a torch on ourselves for the driver to see that someone was waiting at the stop – his face was a picture, he really wasn't expecting to pick up any passengers in this neck of the woods!! Back at the station we sought out a taxi to take us safely back, and had to knock up the night-watchman to let us into the marina. You'd think that we had learnt our lesson, but the next night we got on a bus going the wrong way again!!! This time we realised after 2 stops and walked back to the station to wait for one going the right way.  Once your ticket is validated, for a period of 75 minutes, on train, tube or bus you don't show your ticket to the driver so there is no natural opportunity to check that it is the right bus!!! After that excitement we never had a problem again.

Back at the marina we thought we'd check with the boss man about our continued stay. He said he told us that the cost is '2 nights you are guest then €50 per night'. Not quite what we heard last time. The unspoken rule is that this is cash in hand and goes in the yard staff pocket, not via the taxman! We were quickly learning that in Rome nothing is as it first seems!! We'd heard that there was some bad weather coming from the west and looking at the river entrance, and hearing the comments of various people it was becoming clear to us that in a westerly a huge swell works it's way into the river creating standing waves. As we were moored alongside a bank in the main river, we predicted that this was not going to be a comfortable place for Matador to remain, so we were making plans to move to the Porto Turistico just south of the river entrance, with a reputation for rip-off prices.  We offered to pay the boss then and there so we could move off in the next day or so, but he just said 'later'. That was the last we saw of him, as the next day was his day off, then he was somewhere else ! When we gave up waiting and tried to pay the girl in the office, the price was €75 per night, no free nights!!!!! We firmly told her what we had agreed with the bossman, left what we owed and left.  Who knows if it found it's way to the right person or not!
On entering Porto Turistico you have to speak to the control tower by VHF radio. They do not speak any English. They told us to wait. We waited and waited, circling in the entrance. Finally someone came along in a boat and asked what we were doing. 'You have to call the tower for a berth' he said in Italian. 'We did' we said. 'Ah ' he said, and after a short discussion in rapid Italian with the tower,  led us to a vacant berth. Once safely tied up he told us to go to the office 1km away along the prom. It is a huge marina. The office was closed early for lunch for 3 hours. So we went to Rome instead, intending to return at 6pm before the office closed at the stated closing time of 6.30pm. When we returned at 5.50pm the office was closed already!
The next morning we walked to the office again. The girls in the office were very friendly, spoke English and the price was only €44 per night, dropping to €22 after 1st October - so not so much of a rip off really, considering that there is little swell in this marina and all facilities are available. But we could only stay in this berth for 1 night, so then we had to return to the boat and move it to a new place, where we could still only stay for a few nights, and would have to move again.  No problem.
We took the opportunity to visit more of Rome's sights, and to go to the excavations of Ostia Antica. This is outside the city, to the north of Ostia Lido. At the time of ancient Rome it marked the coastline, and was the vital port of the ancient city of Rome, with a population of 100,000. After the decline of Rome’s power it gradually silted up and was stripped of most of it’s marble and left to be covered by alluvium deposited by the Tiber as the river changed its course though the years. It was re-discovered in 1909, and is now an extensive site of warehouses, meeting places, baths, dwellings, cafés, temples and theatres. It takes at least half a day to cover the site, and is pleasantly tourist-free. It is possible to take a picnic lunch and sit in the courtyard of the remains of one of the merchants houses.  As it is more low-key than Pompei the mosaics have mostly been left in situ,  leaving you with the feeling that the Romans have only just left. It's another place not to be missed!!

Ostia Antica -the port of Rome
 

We won’t fill the entire website with descriptions of all the sites of Rome, and we could. Open any guide book and be astounded, not as astounded as you will be when you see it for yourself. Suffice to say that Rome could keep you entertained for months, would we have stayed longer? Yes.

The column of Trajan, from 112AD with a detailed story of what happened during the campaign in what is now modern Romania.

The drinking water flows freely all around Rome, just bring a bottle

The Trevi fountain-toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain to ensure you will return to Rome

St Peters square – waiting for an audience with the Pope

We tried to negotiate a berth for the winter, to return in November after further cruising, as it was still too early for us to consider starting our winter lay up. This proved to be further opportunity for modern Romans to practice their favourite art of rip-off.  After declining an offer to pay the list price in cash up front for 6 months to secure a berth with no paperwork we decided to leave. But first the office had to deal one more blow to our faith in fair dealings. To be fair, rip off is a bit harsh, we have discovered it to be an Italian, predominantly Roman sport to eek just a bit more out of you than you expected. It’s not the quantity that counts, it’s how cleverly you can obscure or withhold the whole story.  The published price list states that there is a weekly rate which amounts to the 7th night for free and following that a monthly rate with further discount. Having been there for 10 days we  calculated 10 days at the weekly rate, however the office informed us that we didn’t qualify for this discounted rate as although we had been in the marina for 10 days, we had at their request, moved to a different berth mid-way through our 10-day stay, thus not completing a 7 day period on either berth, and as the berths are rented from different berth holders the published rates did not apply! This news given with a smile and a shrug! By now we had given up arguing against logic like this. We paid up and waved goodbye to rip-off Rome. We were not disappointed or dis-heartened, we were just astounded by how many opportunities the modern-day Romans take to extract a little bit more money off you than you thought you'd agreed. Hardly worth the bother, it really is a game for them, a source of irritation to us in an otherwise fabulous city. But rest assured, they don't just do it to foreigners - anyone is fair game. As an example we were in an Indian restaurant in central Rome. There is always a cover charge per person, we were used to that, and by law the menu has to state how much it is, usually €1.50 or €2 each.  This restaurant it was €4 per table, fair enough we thought. When the neighbouring table of 4 Italians got their bill, they queried the cover charge of €8. The waiter smiled, shrugged, and lifted up the tablecloth – 'it's two tables together' he said!!!!  You just have to admire the nerve!
For information, the price in the marina drops by 50% to €22 per night from 1 October, making Porto Turistico a bargain at this time of year, sorry nearly got you, there is a 2% additional charge for water. It is still a good deal being so close to Rome, but it may still be potluck as to whether you can find a berth. Our friends on Marlin had trouble getting in a few days after us. The control tower would not admit them, and we had to go and negotiate on their behalf with a private contractor who operates some other berths in the marina to find a short stay for them while they circled outside the marina.  All this the day after the office had told us that there was plenty of room for our friends to come.  Eventually we were successful, more euros changing hands, but if we had not already been 'inside' Marlin would have had to go up the river and take their chances there. It sounds as if it is easier to get a place in high season as the locals are out using their boats and anchoring around the islands, but then you have to suffer the city heat of Rome, and high season prices.
To explain what we have found in numerous marinas in Italy: the berths are all sold to private individuals and they in turn allow third party “ommagiotori” to let them out to visitors when not in use. This is why often there is more than one supplier of visitor berths in the same marina and why you should not accept the first price or rejection on the radio, but they hotly guard their charges, and will rarely offer  information regarding other competitor Ommagiatori, unless you ask,  seems that we got a lucky break.