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Avoiding the Crowds in Rome - Rachel McCombie, HolidayLettings.co.uk

Avoiding the Crowds in Rome

When you experience the chaos of the Colosseum – immense queues, pushy tour guides, sweaty Italian men dressed as gladiator/centurion hybrids, street sellers with tacky souvenirs, large groups of awestruck tourists aimlessly wandering around and posing for photographs – it’s not difficult to believe that this awesome landmark receives in excess of four million visitors every year. As anybody who knows anything about Rome will know, queuing is of course totally unnecessary to enter the Colosseum: simply buy your ticket at the Roman Forum at the start of the day for instant, stress-free access to the Forum, Palatine Hill and Colosseum.

But even if you skip the queue, the Colosseum is always heaving with people and the constant jostling to get to the key viewing points can be taxing. There are many equally impressive sites which are overlooked by most tourists and offer a crowd-free and arguably more authentic experience of the Eternal City. Head to Trajan’s Markets to walk down an ancient Roman street complete with original shops; it always seems virtually deserted, and even if you’re not an archaeology enthusiast, it’s worth it for the views alone.

If old churches are more your sort of thing – and you certainly don’t have to be religious to visit and appreciate them – Rome has innumerable gems to offer, where you will usually find yourself free to explore without the swarms of tourists which sully the atmosphere of somewhere like the Sistine Chapel. Among the most interesting are to be found by exploring the Caelian Hill, the leafy area to the south-east of the Colosseum. A particularly special place for me is Santi Quattro Coronati, a small but stunning chapel of which is decorated with 13th century frescoes depicting the conversion of the emperor Constantine. The church, approached by quiet, rural-feeling streets lined with orange trees, is part of a convent home to a closed order of nuns who maintain a vow of silence, and has an atmosphere of complete tranquillity and spirituality.

If you’re feeling adventurous, or want to escape the crowds at the more famous catacombs on the Via Appia, the Catacombs of Priscilla are well worth a visit. Considered by many to be the best in Rome, they lie to the north of the Centro Storico just off the Via Salaria and are presided over by a convent of friendly Benedictine nuns. A guided tour through the cold, winding tunnels is a fascinating if slightly creepy experience and enables you to see, among other things, the earliest known depiction of the Madonna and Child.

But if you simply want to imbibe the Mediterranean atmosphere and get a sense of real life in Rome, you can’t do much better than simply casting aside your map and getting lost in the maze of secluded backstreets off the tourist trails. Head across the Tiber to Trastevere to experience authentic Rome: sun-soaked piazzas, the best trattorias, and hardly a camera-wielding tourist in sight.

Rachel McCombie

A geographic researcher at Holiday Lettings, Rachel is passionate about Rome. Since her first visit in 2005, Rachel has returned to this historic city 5 times and dreams of moving there to become an educational tour guide. Rachel has worked for holidaylettings.co.uk since 2006 and has established a high level understanding of the holiday home lettings marketplace.

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