Forget about the celebrities and live your own love story with the Eternal City
Rome and the food.
As Julia Roberts said in the movie Eat, Pray, Love : “Every city has its own word. For Rome it is sex.” But in fact, in the film Rome was the scene for the “eat” part. Maybe because to the Romans food is a pleasure sometimes bigger than sex.
The variety is stunning and goes in the entire spectrum from the three Michelin stars (La Pergola restaurant) to the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Italy (Il Margutta on the street with the same name). But instead of these temples of taste we’d rather recommend that you visit any of the small family restaurants in Trastevere where grandma is cooking and the grand- daughter is staying at the cash – desk. The former workers quarter is now the Mecca for the culinary tourists. Narrow stone streets and neat little squares, small restaurants with checked covers, and the music of the street musicians. What else does a tourists tried of a long walk would need than a glass of nice local wine and a table to watch the world passing by.
But Trastevere is not just a temple of spaghetti carbonara. Among the bars and restaurants there are also a few world famous cultural monuments. Santa Maria, the bread-taking basilica from the 12th century with mosaic by Pietro Cavallini, is at the corner of the western part of Piazza di Santa Maria. Santa Cecilia basilica is on Piazza di Santa Cecilia. According to the legend, the saint survived after being burned because of the Christian faith and is today considered a patron of the musicians.
Rome and the lovers.
Even though Paris is usually mentioned as the most romantic city in the world, millions of couples choose Rome for their wedding vows and honeymoons. The streets, the squares and the parks have witnessed the love of glorious couples. And the bridges have, too. One of them, actually the oldest one that is preserved, Milvio, is popular for the tradition of having couples from all over the world “lock their love with a padlock”. The girl locks the padlock and the boy throws the key in the Tiber river. Legend has it that the water of this river brought the basket with the twin brothers Romulus and Remus.
Rome and the bridges.
The Sant’Angelo bridge is one of the most beautiful bridges in Rome. It has a charming history and dates back 136 AD when Emperor Hadrian issued an ordinance for construction. According to the plans, the facility had to connect the left bank with the Emperor’s tomb. Today the bridge is among the most famous road facilities in the world – not just because of its key role on the way of the pilgrims from Rome to the Vatican, but also due to the 10 statues of angels made by Bernini himself. Each statue holds an object associated with the crucifixion of Jesus.
Rome and the obelisks.
A symbol of power, a part of a star map, a military trophy, or a secret of the Masons? These are only part of the many legends told about the obelisks of Rome. Most of them have been brought by water from Egypt, but there are also five made in Rome. At the beginning of the century a lightning hit one of the most famous one, that of Aksum, brought from Ethiopia in 1937. The incident laid in the basis of a number of conspiratorial theories. Why did it happen at midnight, was it somehow related to the procession of senior generals of NATO and Russia who were in Rome to sigh an important agreement? Maybe you too would ask yourself a lot of questions, if you like in the mystics in style of Dan Brawn ( a great admirer of Rome himself).
Rome and Instagram.
According to the one study, Rome is the most photographed city in Europe and the second most photographed one in the world, following New York. Don’t wait and help it rank first. While doing so, don’t miss to taste gelato, the legendary italian ice -cream. You don’t have a photo of yourself eating a cornet of ice- cream in Rome? Or a selfie with pizza, spaghetti, a Vespa, or a Borsalino hat? Did you visit Rome at all?
*The Inflight magazine Bulgaria on air, 111/October 2019
