Advertisement
Published: January 8th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Our last stop on our Christmas trip was Rome.
Rome is sometimes described as big, dirty and polluted. Those who describe Rome like this, clearly haven’t been to India.
While the outskirts look a bit shabby, Rome was really beautiful and we had a great time. Of course, we weren’t the only people who had come to enjoy Rome this Christmas. It was absolutely packed.
Luckily we had four full days to see the sights so we could approach it quite leisurely. In saying this, we made sure we were up early to see the ‘big sights.’
The
Colosseum was just down the road from our apartment but I’m still glad we were there early to beat the crowds. We passed by again a few hours later and the queue was stretched halfway around the building! We booked into a guided tour otherwise we wouldn’t have a clue what we were looking at. In reality, not much detail inside remains so we listened to the stories and tried to imagine what a hell-hole it must have been back in the day.
In Rome, every last Sunday of the month, the
Vatican Museum is
open for free. The idea of saving 24 euros was appealing but we had been told that the crowds would be unbearable. We thought we would be safe by planning our visit for the following morning. We arrived 20 minutes before opening time to see a queue of at least 200m already!
Luckily it moved quite quickly and we soon found ourselves inside the absolutely jam packed museum. Complete with flag waving tour leaders, tourists intent on photographing EVERY SINGLE EXHIBIT and tired looking parents. In many parts of the museum it was so crowded that you had no option but to move with the river of people - yuck.
Despite this, the museum was beautiful - highlights being Raphael’s ‘School of Athens ’and of course the
Sistine Chapel. I don’t know how many times we wrote the words ‘Sistine Chapel’ in art history class - but it was nice to actually see it. I pity those who were arriving at mid-morning. By 11:30 the line stretched around the corner and down the road to the entrance to the Vatican City - the wait would have been over 3 or 4 hours.
Some of the other ‘must
sees’ in Rome -
The Roman Forum. A bit more space and therefore more relaxing. Trying to imagine the area a few thousand years ago was unreal.
The views from the hill up above the Roman Forum.
The Pantheon. Like the Vatican, absolutely jam-packed so no photos except the roof from outside. Bizarre to see a McDonalds directly opposite this amazing building…
The Trevi Fountain was beautiful but the crowds provided the entertainment. It was so packed that we photographed the tourists photographing The Trevi Fountain.
St Peter's Basilica. A massive building and utterly beautiful. (Try to ignore the thousands of camera flashes from fellow travelers. I watched tourists shoving each other out of the way to get photographs of nuns inside the confessional and at prayer. Not exactly spiritual but a mind-blowing piece of architecture. That’s what I’ll try to remember).
Wandering around
Trastevere , and the stunning views from the hills above the town.
People-watching in the piazzas and the
Spanish Steps. The Capucin crypt - one of the more bizarre places we have visited. The crypt is made out
of human bones from former monks. There are thousands and thousands of them. The bones make up the chandeliers, wall decorations everything! Very, very unnerving - especially the writing at the end
What you are now we were, What we are you will be. I don’t know how other people found it, but we walked out feeling happy to be alive so that made our day really!
On our second to last day, after walking from one end of Rome to the other, I read about the
Torre Argentina cat sanctuary. A cat sanctuary was too good an opportunity to pass up so we were determined to find it. From our rubbish directions we found the square but after searching for nearly an hour in the rain we still hadn’t found the elusive kitty crash pad. Chris saw a children’s book in shop with a picture of a cat on the front. After learning the Italian word for “cat” we approached a newspaper seller.
Chris: “err ciao gatto, gatto err like meow, meow?” The bewildered lady pointed to a spot at the far end of the square. When we got there we couldn’t see any
Inside the Colosseum
Imagine walking down these halls a couple of thousand years ago.. sign of a cat sanctuary and had no idea why she had sent us there. When we looked up, we realized we were standing outside the ‘Hello Kitty’ store!
We were about to give up hope when we decided to have a closer look at the Roman ruins in the middle of the square. Suddenly we noticed cats slinking through the ruins. Cats everywhere! We found the entrance and got a grand tour of the sanctuary. The lovely staff introduce all visitors to their cats and explain why they are there. They had 250 cats - all abandoned. Cats with three legs, cats missing ears, blind cats, sickly cats and cats with ‘neurological conditions’ (like the one that climbed up my back and settled down behind my neck when I was bending over. When Chris tried to remove him, he hissed, snarled and bared his claws!).
The sanctuary rehabilitates cats, provides medical attention and allows people to adopt cats once they are healthy and tame. They have a scheme that neuters cats so the feral cat population in Rome can be stabilized.
It was great! Within moments of sitting down, we both had purring fluff balls in our
laps - and we stayed like that for an hour! We left a surprisingly hefty donation (how can you not, when a one eyed cat is staring at you?) and promised to go back the next day. Which of course we did (only after seeing all those ‘must see’ sights of course - we didn’t go all the way to Rome…!)
If you don’t mind the catty smell then go visit the cat sanctuary. Their web site is
Romancats.com Wandering around the city and seeing ancient remains everywhere. Every building and column had a story - layers of history at every turn. This is what makes Rome remarkable.
The weather in Roman actually warmed us on the last day and we spent and afternoon sitting in the sun looking out over this amazing city. While we were happy to get back home again, we were less happy to walk out the doors of Heathrow straight into zero degrees! Welcome back to WINTER!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 18; dbt: 0.0302s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb