ITA LYJULY 2019 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 57THE HOLLYWOOD ARCHIVE/DINODIA PHOTO LIBRARY
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ome! By all means. Rome!”
Princess Ann’s proclamation of
Rome as the place she’ll always
cherish was brought to life by Audrey
Hepburn inWilliam Wyler’s runaway hitRoman
Holiday. Also a runaway in this Vespa-gelato-
adventure-filled 1953 romantic comedy was Ann
herself, who longs to postpone her royal duties
for a day of freedom in the city. Scoop-hungry
stringer Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) ferries the
“hot princess,” falling for her along the way.
Beginning backwards will take you toPalazzo
Colonna, where Ann chooses duty over love at
a climactic press conference. One of the city’s
oldest and largest private palaces, it is packed
with baroque architecture, ceiling frescos, and
spools of history (a canonball wedged in the
Great Hall’s marble stairs invokes the 1849 siege
of R ome).
With that sombre moment out of the way,
you can flick on a pair of rose goggles and dive
into the duo’s day trail. Start at theArch of
Septimius Severus—a marble triumphal arch at
the northwest end of the Roman Forum—where
Bradley finds the princess half-in-slumber after
her escape from the embassy. Close by are the
ruins of theTemple of Saturn, its eight surviving
pillars standing tall like spectres watching over
the cit y.
TheColosseumcan never be too far away
when you’re in Rome, so of course the largestamphitheatre in the world makes an appearance
in the lives of our one-day lovers. Its 2,000-year-
old history weaves in the glory of an invincible
architecture and the violence of gladiator battles
and animal hunts.
Playing the tourist in a city like Rome is
as rewarding today as it would have been for
Hepburn and Peck, but what’s in it for an
incognito wanderer unless it comes with a
haircut and an epiphany? It is in a barber shop
by theTrevi Fountainthat princess Ann realises
her lust for liberty, allowing the barber to
trade shoulder-length curls for a trendier short
crop. While you will not find Mario Delani’s
barber shop, thetravertinefountain still stands
mammoth-magnificent, thronged by coin-tossing
tourists hoping for its magic to rub off on them.
Ann’s appetite for change also leads her to
her first gelato, bought from a street vendor and
enjoyed at theSpanish Steps. The sweeping
stairwaylinks thePiazza di Spagnaat its base
withthe 16th-century church of Trinità dei
Monti at the top. Neighbouring the erstwhile
residence of English poet John Keats (now a
museum) and Babington’s Tearoom, the Spanish
Steps have long inspired dreamers and drifters.
Ann is a bit of both as she mulls over the tender
possibilities Rome presents in the frame of a
single day. “Sit at a sidewalk café and look in
shop windows, walk in the rain—have fun, and
maybe some excitement.”ITA LY
Castel Sant’Angelo has
served as a mausoleum,
a fortress, a museum,
and as the backdrop for
the Princess Ann’s lush
night of dancing.Rome