
22/08/2025
As summer begins to close, sadly so too does my time as a tourist; generally, any travelling I do is done during the summer months with this year more than any other year, being a particularly enjoyable one.
Often hotspots are disregarded because they are too touristy, too crowded or too packaged with the chase for “authentic” experiences being the higher form of holidaying. That said in our new world of AI, authenticity might be compromised to the point of extinction even though (and in full disclosure mode), AI and I have become ‘close’ this summer.
But back to the “hotspots”. There can be no other spot on the continent of Europe hotter than Rome in August. Why we choose to go there (now nearly) every summer at the peak of Italian heat is frankly inexplicable. That said, it works and it means we get to steal a mini-holiday with our emigrant kids, who make their way to meet us there. They are in-love with the place and it has to be said that for a city so full of history, it remains new to us and never disappoints.
Inherent to being tourists in Rome, is our penchant for rooftops. We just look up, imagine the view and make our way there. Roaming Rome’s rooftops might not be the most authentic experience of Rome, but it’s no bad thing to sit in the sky amongst the steeples and domes of Rome with the mother of all domes – St. Peter’s – illuminated in the distance.
Now we do venture off the roofs and commit to at least two cultural experiences, in so far as three days will allow. We did the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel last year so it was a three-hour tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and The Forum this year. As we are wont to do as a family, we picked the hottest time of the day because it was 30e cheaper per person than any other slot. And can I say that, in a place riddled with tourists, it was a hugely authentic experience (for one thing… the heat gave us a real sense of conditions the gladiators had to live with), because our tour guide was a “Guide-Extraordinaire”. It was her second tour of the day and even in the unfiltered sunshine, she lost none of her energy, passion and attention to detail. That tour lives on in our conversations even now. The poor walking-food-tour-guide the following day, didn’t stand a chance after her, although the food and the Campo di Fiori spoke for themselves.
So what is the point of all this? I am not a travel writer and I am not working for the Italian Tourist Board. Unfortunately, I am just taking a longer route than planned to get back to the whole realm of authenticity.
I suppose my point is this; that in a tourist drenched city, in a tourist drenched season in a place we have been to many times before, the whole experience felt authentic. One particular moment, bland as it might sound, stands out. We were walking home on our last night, chatting, laughing. We were caught up in a crowd of others just like us, couples, families, solo travellers – tourists - all with the obligatory ice cream in hand, all rambling home after our touristy day. No one was rushing, everyone was smiling, the heat was intense, and the Roman moon was shining. That sort of thing is the stuff of nightmares for some but in that moment and in that place, there was happiness, there was love and there was peace. And in that moment, I felt privileged to a be a tourist, to be part of a family and to be in the eternal city (which thanks to Guide-Extraordinaire, I now know why it’s called that) on a hot August night – eating ice cream. The real deal.