Sunday, June 10, 2018

200 Reviews of Rome: Stadium of Domitian (Piazza Navona Underground)








Stadium of Domitian, Piazza Navona


Negative 11 stars out of 5 stars.




Rome is my favorite city in the world, and when it comes to amazing sites, museums, history, and the glories of the human craft, surely there is no place so rich with them as gorgeous Rome. So I don't easily hand out negative 11 stars to any museum in such an amazing place. I also am vastly more inclined to become unhinged in my love for a place in Rome, and so unable to provide accurate information, and it is a unique situation wherein I dislike a place so much that I cannot not speak in a review with the proper scholarly dispassion.

That said: don't go to the Stadium of Domitian.

My God! I beg of you! Don't go to the Stadium of Domitian!

Don't go if you have only three days in Rome, and don't go if you have been born in Rome and will live there for 120 years.

"Wow", you exclaim. "It must be terrifying and horrible."

No, it's fine, you know, in its evil way. It's a small bit of ruins of what used to be a stadium a couple thousand years ago in the place that is now Piazza Navona. If you walk by this, I guess you call it a museum, along the North exterior of Piazza Navona you can look down through a pretty neat window there and see the museum and some of the ruins. Looking through this window you have now seen pretty much everything worth seeing in the museum.

But you want to go in? We wanted to go in too. It's only 145 euros per person. The audio guide is free with the admission. One of the things that drew us in was a dignified mention somewhere near the entrance that this was a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

That sounded neat.

After our visit I was going to do an expose' on how there was something terribly wrong with the whole UNESCO World Heritage Site thing.

There is nothing wrong with the UNESCO World Heritage Site thing! 

As far as I can tell the whole of Central Rome is, quite appropriately, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Stadium of Domitian is as much a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the Tiger Store where I bought a hand crank personal fan for one euro.

I'm pretty sure I gave that Tiger store five stars. And why not, it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So was the Apartment we stayed in, and our toilet. Yes, our toilet was a UNESCO World Heritage Site! But our stupid, crappy apartment shower was not. I simply refuse to say our funky, decrepit, handheld shower was a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Even if it was.

Just like The Stadium of Domitian.

The exhibits are well labeled and full of information. The gift store is pretty good. Which saved it from getting minus 12 stars. But only just.

Don't go.

I'm not suggesting or asking...

Don't go.















2 comments:

  1. I was planning on going to the Domitian Stadium site at the Piazza Navonna, but not now dammit! There is no way in hell I'm ever going there now! Screw that place! >:*(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How did I miss this! I'm sorry for taking more than a year to reply! Here is my reply:

      Right on!
      And thank you for coming to visit my Unesco Heritege Blog!

      Delete

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