Jessica in Rome

I survived White Night 2007

All I can say about white night is:

Crowds,

Throngs,

Chaos,

and even more Crowds:

I think in theory La Notte Bianca aka White Night is awesome with tons of cool things to see and do. But in reality there is just too many people and too much chaos. I had a LONG list of things to see including going to the zoo, watching the acrobatic performances in Piazza del Popolo and seeing the Phoenix fire dancers in Eur. But I only saw the zoo and made it (barely) to the acrobatic show because there where MILLIONS of people, fights, accidents and garbage. At 2am after being practically ripped apart by a mob, we decided to head home. We didn’t make it until nearly 5am! But there were some good times to be had:

Posted in Lose the Guidebook, Postcards from Rome | 9 Comments

Sep 10th, 2007

9 Responses to “I survived White Night 2007”

on 10 Sep 2007 at 3:51 am1*Bluefish*

So cool
on 10 Sep 2007 at 1:06 pm2Leanne

Ciao Jessica,
I am new to your blog, but love it (and your wedding dress too from the previous post. The skirt is gorgeous!) Reading the current post I forgot all about the Notte Bianca…I was in Rome for it last year and it was crazy - we had a Notte Bianca here in Taromina, Sicily too, but on a such smaller scale then Rome.

P.S I am going to link your blog to mine if that’s ok.
on 11 Sep 2007 at 10:53 am3Shelley, At Home in Rome

I should have warned you. I only went to the very first N.B. which was I think about four years ago. After being nearly suffocated and violently elbowed and shoved trying to get into the Musei Capitolini, I said never again. Thank God we live downtown and didn’t need to rely on the “free public transport” offered by the city. The buses were stuck in sheer gridlock in Piazza Venezia as waves and waves of humans flooded the streets. Please. I’m over it.
on 11 Sep 2007 at 11:01 am4Kataroma

We went to the white night too. Didn’t stay out too late, though, as Rene has to get up at 7 every morning to make breakfast for the B&B. We did manage to see the amazing light show in Circo Massimo - it seemed like the aliens had landed. It was great. Then we headed over to Via Nazionale and tried to go to the Palazzo degli esposizioni but the line was just too long (and it was midnight!) So we made do with the Asian Art Museum on Via Merulana which is right near our house. Kind of weird to be looking at ancient Pakistani reliefs at almost 1am! Nice museum, though.
on 11 Sep 2007 at 2:45 pm5Cherry

A lot of things to do and too much crowd to do them :S
It happens quite often here in Italy and in Rome more than elsewhere!
on 13 Sep 2007 at 10:06 am6Francesco

2.5 millions of people, to be precise; according to what I heard from the news.
and that’s why I never went to the Notte Bianca even if I’m from Rome… XD
on 30 Sep 2007 at 4:41 pm7Robert

I regret that we missed the La Notte Bianca this year. It has become a bit of a ritual to trek to Rome for this event - we arrive the morning of the Notte Bianca, do the tourist thing and have lunch with our friends there, start the evening at 11pm at Castel Sant’ Angelo and then work our way round to the Colosseum and then back to the hotel (usually around the Vatican City somewhere).

The crowds are a downer it is true, but if you know the city well enough you can usually avoid the worst of them.
on 24 Oct 2007 at 5:31 am8Mitch McDad

Jessica,
Just bumping around some Italian bloggers and found you. I was in Rome for La Notte Bianca staying near the Spanish Steps (Hotel Homs). What a madhouse.
Fortunately, I was too hungover from the night before to dive into the masses.

Nice blog. I’ll be checking back.
on 12 Feb 2008 at 4:22 pm9dylan

Man I love reading your blog, interesting posts!