Travel
ei'iv enl'Ak ROME
City of movie memories
Think of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck riding about Rome on a scooter, making like a princess and a newspaperman in love in Roman Holiday. Better, think of them ascending the Spanish Steps at Piazza di Spagna, off to the church of Trinita dei Monte. Rome is the most filmic city in the world.
Not convinced? OK, 51 years after Hepburn and Peck, Italy’s answer to Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti, was also scootering about Rome. In Dear Diary Moretti took his Vespa out to city suburbs such as Garbatella and filmed himself, and that was enough, because even the ’burbs of Rome are filmic.
Italy’s filmmakers reinvented cinema in Rome with something called neo-realism. Roberto Rossellini got the ball rolling with Rome, Open City, a wartime Resistance drama filmed immediately after the war around the rubble. A few years later Vittorio De Sica filmed on the neo-realism hoof, following a father and son about some of the seedier sites and sights of Rome as they searched for Bicycle Thieves.
So Rome doesn’t even have to look good for filmmakers to make it look good. The theme of La Dolce Vita might have been the ugly moral decay of a generation of Romans, but Federico Fellini’s 1960 film contains two extraordinarily beautiful images: a helicopter flying across the city carrying a statue of Christ, and voluptuous party girl Anita Ekberg flouncing through the water of Fontana di Trevi. Despite focusing on the grotesque, Fellini indulged his passion for the place.
and recreate Gladiator
‘Hollywood om. leer’
114 THE LIST '. - 2.
And let’s not forget, passion for the place isn’t the soul province of the Italians. Come the 19505, Hollywood couldn’t get enough of Rome. It sent its stars and filmmakers to Cinecitta, the vast studio complex Mussolini opened in 1937. After they shot such epics as Ben Hur and Cleopatra there, Cinecitta was dubbed ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’.
In this light, it’s only right that anyone visiting the city ought to get a look at the places they’ve previously seen only on screen. And, considering just about every part of Rome has been filmed by someone at sometime, you goes to Roma, you likely to be in for a case of deja vu.
l was. Helped by the fact that I made a conscious, and quite pretentious, effort to dress like Gregory Peck when I started my hike through the city at the Villa Borghese. This is a big park on a hill that overlooks the city and can be reached via the Spanish Steps, so I immediately get to make like Peck, although sadly with no Hepburn on my arm.
And then: what luck. En route to the Pantheon over in the Centro Storico, l chance upon the old Fontana di Trevi. It’s quite magnificent with its cavorting sea horses and horn-blowing tritons. You can see why Ekberg jumped in. I don’t; I light a cigarette and continue to make like Gregory Peck.
Finally, the most cinematic of all Rome’s locales: the Colosseum. It’s dusk when I arrive, but despite the bad light and the fact that the structure’s decayed into something akin to a giant Swiss cheese, I squint and think of Ben Hur and Gladiator and I’m back in 72AD with chariots and swordsmen, lions and Christians. (Miles Fielder)
.. R'V. ‘9 ’ Grab a passing Christian l . ,. 3
do the Spanish Steps
Excess baggage
Festivals, flights and fabulous fares
i‘ir‘vaoiéé‘taazma
for a holiday with a difference why not try a Charity fundraising trip? Mencap has organised Cycle Sierra Nevada. a five-day Andalucian adventure covering 190km. The trip runs 27 September—1 October. and the minimum
sponsorship you have to
raise is 531.250. Call 0845 9777 779 or log onto www.mencap. Org.uk for details. If you think you need more time to raise the funds. how about the Breast Cancer Campaign's fundraising trek across the Great African Rift Valley in Tanzania? The trip runs 28 February—9 March 2003 and you‘ll need to raise $2.675. More info on www.bcc- uk.org or call 020 7749
where the waves are and that could include Sutherland, East Lothian or Caithness.
I WETSUITS NOT your favourite fashion item? Other outdoors events coming up include Highland Wheels Extreme, 31 May-2 June near Aviemore. which features streetluge. gravity bikes and skateboarding. OK. so maybe you'll just be going as a spectator: wwwgravitysportscou k/scottish for info. Or there's the Tissot UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William on 1 & 2 June. a maj0r coup for the area, with a full programme of events and activities. More at wwwfort williamworldcupcouk. I WHAT DO YOU mean you couldn’t care less about all this outdoors stuff? All you want is a
3700. glamorous city break I MAYBE YOU LIKE where you can enjoy to do your advent- the finer things in
uring closer to home, life? OK then, toddle
in which case it might along to STA Travel be worth checking out and say: ‘Tell me www.surfariscotland. about your Party
com. This Edinburgh- based company runs weekend ‘learn to surf’ courses, for £140 per person (group discounts available) with all equipment and tuition provided. You won’t know where you’re going until a few days before: they’ll go
Poppers promotion please.’ In return it’ll offer you New York from £199 rtn, Vegas from £289 rtn or Hong Kong from £419 rtn. Three for two accommodation deals are also on offer. Call 0870 160 6070 for or log onto www.statravel.co.uk.
TRAVEL. GUIDE
PETER MOORE No Shitting In The Toilet ._ ,. (Bantam £6.99) 0.00 ‘
No Shitting in the Toilet
Taking its title from a sign on
the loo door of a dodgy cafe
in China. Peter Moore's travel companion isn't your "WW" mum“ H traditional fodder. Instead of
emphasising the positive 4
travel experiences. Moore
revels in the most undignified.
Seasoned traveller's v/ill find plenty to relate to in this witty and ()l).‘3(?.".iil‘i mink, especially the gentle dig at some of the more conventional guides: ‘Q: \‘Jhat tells lies. (:oitstar‘tlg. gets things wrong and costs a small fortune to iiiaintai't'z‘ A: No. it's not your lover, it's a travel guide-hook]
Whether it's accommo<Iatioii. emh.’ ssies o' {Eillll‘tl Moore has an opinion. And he (‘i‘oesn't Juat sto : with the travel advice. In the ‘Sex And Romance ithapte": ‘If you’re no ()Il painting. don't worn. It's (it"il.’-l‘vg} -’l()‘.'.'
handsome the geekiest guy can look to :1 girl unho's spent twelve hours on a bus heing molested h, oversexed hill tnhesman.‘ lhe tll‘.8()tlf§()".(}(l I.’£l‘.(?ilt}l may never step out the front door agaii‘, /\lll‘.tl lvl Ila"