Tourist attractions

Every time I open the website of our paper, there is this advertisement about how to contact Filipino women for “chat, friendship, companionship and marriage.” Then there photographs of girls in enticing poses. Something is wrong here. It is like peddling the Filipina.

I am reminded of that case where a foreigner was duped into marriage by a woman in Bacolod. The poor guy probably opened our website and got hooked.

Is this part of our tourist attractions? Perhaps the authorities should take action and get this advertiser investigated because this can be considered solicitation though appearing harmless.

Setting that aside, I must say I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of tourists flocking to the tourists attractions in Europe. Now I understand when reports say that more than 10 million tourists move daily in this continent. Perhaps the number maybe lower but it could be higher.

As I wrote earlier, the number of tourists in St. Peter’s Basilica was such that it took us over an hour to get inside. The line was six people abreast though at the security desk we had to file in fours.

In the Versailles Palace which I will write about later, we arrived early morning with only four tourist buses but when we completed the tour two hours later just before noon, there were already over a hundred with more queuing to park. The Palace is open till the evening.

The tourists that flock to Lourdes I have already mentioned but outside the Grotto area, are thousand others following the “footsteps of Bernadette” and the fortified castle and museum. This castle is by itself famous. It was a Saracen Moors fort that Charlemagne laid siege in 778 but he raise the attack when the Saracen throw a giant trout outside the castle and made Charlemagne think the Saracen had food. The trout was allegedly dropped by an eagle into the castle.

The castle overlords the entire landscape of Lourdes, in fact, the Grotto is just at its feet and nestled at its side of solid rock. When one stands are the ramparts of the csstle he would hafe a fgrand view of the basilica and what takes place in its esplanade.

The other tourists’ attractions can be a model for our own because most of them are merely peripherals or add-ons to the main spot. But they are being developed so that the tourist will stay longer and spend more.

Rome, of course, has plenty of historic and religious attractions. I don’t know how many churches are in the city alone, some say as any a fifty, others say more. But whatever is the number the fact is that each of these churches are wonderful and enriching places to visit.

Their artistic and architectural works are magnificent and religiosity that exudes from the main altar to the side chapels. Each chapel has a bilingual description of the content of the chapel, especially the names of people in history. Their remains are there, some in sarcophagus while others are just marble inscriptions. The tomb of Pope Blessed John Paul has been removed from the crypt and now rests at a side altar where tourists and pilgrims lined up to get inside. The guards, however, allowed us to enter because we wanted pray but cannot take photos. Those wanting to get a picture had to stay outside the cordon.

The Forum is a great attraction. The ruins of the Roman Senate were all over it but one can imagine in the vastness of this forum during its time. The abbreviation, SPQR (Senatus Populurum Quod Romanum) is still inscribed in some areas.

In 1980 when I visited the Forum I was able to visit the prison of St. Peter where he baptized the guards and that was for free. Now the Italian tourism office charges five Euros.

From here we see the Coliseum and another church that opens into Piazza Venezia, the main square. From here we walked to the Fountain of Trevi and the Spanish steps. When we went there, the Fountain and Stairs were bustling with people, just sitting there.

As always with tourists places stores, restaurants and bars abound even in the narrow streets that had retained the cobbled stones of ancient Rome.

Cobblestones indicate the ancient roots of the place. They are also in France. But while they are historic, they nevertheless make walking a pain especially for us who had been walking for kilometers in every place we went to because there are no bus services in side roads.

It was a time when we wished the Europeans discover the value of the trisikad and the tricycle. But these transport contraptions would just clog these cities that are already choking from too much traffic.*

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