Pre-travelblog.org blog: Rome 2007

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This is a series of old blogs that I wrote on myspace after I visited Rome during the winter of 2007. I decided that I'll post some of my old blogs from some of my trips so I can get my travelblog.org feet wet, and so you guys have something to read if you're bored at work. Enjoy!

Monday, February 12, 2007
rome part 1
Well, I went to Rome, and now i'm back. I skipped school and left Thursday morning; there is a seven hour difference so I ended up getting there around 8:00am friday morning. I transfered $600.00 into about 325.00 euros (ouch!) and was on my way. Since I was traveling by myself, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel; 65 euros later I was at the hotel and nervous as hell, because I didn't speak any Italian. (I've got to get to class, so to be continued...)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Rome part 2
I entered the hotel and quietly went up to the counter, not knowing exactly what to say to the guy standing behind it. He started speaking to me in English (sweet!) and then showed me to my room. Anybody that's stayed in a European hotel before would not be surprised to hear that it was extremely small and cramped, but there was a balcony, which was pretty cool. I unpacked my clothes, took a shower and was off. I was actually pretty nervous at this point because I'd never been in a non English speaking country before, and I was by myself. I decided to walk the streets for awhile and ended up at the Colosseum. I walked around it until I saw a big crowd gathered in what had to be the front. An Italian man came up to me and asked me if I spoke English. I answered yes, and he asked if I would want to join up with an English speaking tour group. I didn't have any real plans, so why the hell not. There were a father and a daughter from Denmark, a family from Scotland, three college age kids, probably from South America, a group of about four elderly people from Wales, and little ol' me. The tour guide was an Italian women that spoke perfect English. We walked all around and inside the Colosseum while she told us many stories of the history of it and of Rome itself. When she was telling us about the gladiators, she described them as "big, beautiful men." She looked at this tall, lanky, pale, Scottish kid that was standing near me and said, "You... you're tall like them, but so skinny and pale. All European men are so skinny and pale. But you", as she points to me, "are in good shape, like a gladiator." In my complete embarrassment and her obvious failing sight, I said, "Not necessarily." "Oh, you Americans", she said, "are so modest, you all exercise all the time with your big strong necks and broad shoulders." Yikes! Everyone in the group had a good laugh out of that one. When the tour was over, but before we broke off from the group, she told us to meet back in front of the Colosseum at four to get a free tour of the Forum. From there I walked around the Colosseum museums for probably another hour and left towards the Palatine Hill. Before I got there I stopped at a food stand and got a "real" Italian pizza, which was so nummy. (Gotta get to class, to be continued...)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Rome 3
I finished my pizza, which was more like a sandwich, and headed toward the front of the Palatine hill. Once inside there were no real markings to tell you where you were, so it was very easy to get turned around. Also, a few places that are normally open to the public are randomly closed because of continuing excavation. As some of my pictures might show, a lot of the buildings that once stood 2000 years ago are now rubble due to the fact that Christians razed them to the ground when they took control of Rome, so I couldn't really tell by any marker where I was. On a side note, a lot of the very old statues are now headless, because original Christians were actually pagans, and they believed that the power of the god within the statue came from the head, so they chopped 'em off. Getting lost inside the Palatine hill was no big deal at all; it was actually a blessing. It's so serene and quiet, very shaded with beautiful plant life everywhere. It's no wonder that the most powerful people of the ancient world chose this spot to get away from it all. I spent quite a bit of time just walking around imagining this very powerful place two thousand years ago in all its glory. (I realize how cheesy that sounds) Next thing I knew it was time to go to the Forum. (to be continued...)

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Rome 4
I stopped back in my hotel room to change my clothes because at this point I was pretty well soaked; it rained the entire time I was there. The group met back up in front of the Colosseum, and we headed toward the Forum. The road that leads to the Forum is called the Via Sacra, or Sacred Road, because it leads to the political and religious center of Ancient Rome. It's about 2400 years old and is in fantastic shape. The Arch of Titus greets you as you enter the Forum. If you look in my pictures you'll see the road with the arch at the end. If you're someone who is uninterested in history the Forum is very unimpressive. It looks like it was hit with bomb and then blown over by a tornado (the Christians). Only a handful of buildings stand intact, the rest is, for the most part, rubble. Even the temple of Julius Caesar is in bad shape. In my pictures, I have an image of the pile of dirt with flowers on top that signify where his ashes are buried, completely unimpressive...to the naked eye. When you're in the Forum it's not what you see standing, but what once stood there. The Roman empire was arguably the most impressive and greatest political and military power this world has ever seen. At its height it went from Great Britian to France, all around the Mediterranean, throughout the Middle East, into Northern Africa and Egypt. Rome was the center of it all., and the Forum was the center of Rome. The system of government we use today is largely based on Rome as a Republic. More than half of the words we speak are from the exact words the Romans spoke. The impact they've had on this world is immeasurable. The emperors, especially Augustus, were definately the most powerful men this hemisphere will probably ever see. Nero, in his madness, built a palace out of pure gold. He also built an artificial lake, where the Colosseum now stands, for his back yard. The point of all this is that you have to use your imagination of what an awesome sight the Forum must have been in its glory. I can't go into much detail about exactly what I saw in there because there was so much: the House of the Vestal Virgins, the Temple of Romulus, the Temple of Saturn, the Roman treasury building where Marc Antony tried to publicly offer the crown of Rome to Julius Caesar who wouldn't accept, the Senate house where Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and Cassius, the Taburlarium where Marc Antony brought Julius Caesar's body out to the people and William Shakespeare famously quotes him, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar." Needless to say, for a history major, it was a very powerful place. (to be continued...)

Monday, February 19, 2007
Rome 5
When the tour was over I meandered around the Forum a bit more and looked at a few more sights with more care. I debated walking to the Pantheon, which, according to my map, could have been rather close or rather far (it wasn't the best map). I decided that I was way too tired and hungry to figure out where I was if I got lost, so I opted to get food, preferably somewhere close to my hotel. With hindsight, I wish I looked for the Pantheon because the time I spent in Rome was way too short. Of course, I say that now when I'm not at all tired, unlike then when I was going at it for many hours and jet lagged like hell. I walked around the neighborhood by my hotel and found a small bar. The bar tender was a small woman that was very busy and in no mood to talk to a tourist, and so I had one beer and left. A few blocks down I found a very nice, comfortable deli. There were two women behind the counter, and an American couple ordering food rather aggressively in English. I think part of the stereo-types that Europeans give Americans stem from couples like this. Instead of asking if the woman spoke English they just started ordering in very fast English, and when the woman didn't understand some of what they were saying, they would just speak louder, like that would help. The woman, for her part, was very patient and worked through it. I found this a lot with Italian people; they are very nice. I went up to the other woman behind the counter and asked if she spoke English, she said a little, and so together we worked through getting me a very nummy sandwich and two bottles of beer, to go. I walked back to the hotel, ate my sandwich, drank my beer, watched some BBC world and CNN international, and got ready for the next day. I was planning on meeting the tour group at a coffee shop near the Vatican the next day at 10:00am. The Vatican was quite the distance away from my hotel and I had three options as a mode of transportation: Taxi, too expensive; Bus, might take too long; Metro, may be too dangerous. This was my biggest complaint about the guide books I read in preparation for this trip. They made my nervous as hell to travel on the subway. WARNING: You may be pick pocketed or robbed on the subway, be afraid, be very afraid. Pickpockets are able to get at your belongings within up to three layers, and so on. Some of you may be able to tell from my pictures that I wore my work jacket. The only reason I did this was because it had a zipper inside pocket to carry my wallet. The subway wasn't bad at all, but I'll get into that in my next blog. I planned out my route to the Vatican, and soon there after was counting sheep. (to be continued...)

Monday, February 26, 2007
Rome 6...i think
I woke up the next morning and headed towards the metro stop, which was about five blocks away from my hotel. I was a little nervous about pickpockets, but it wasn't a big deal. When I got to the station, it was filled with other backpack clad people heading toward the Vatican. I met a very nice Italian couple, who didn't speak a word of English, also heading toward the Vatican. It was a good deal of fun trying to talk to them with hand signals and one word sentences. I asked the man where they were headed by saying "destination." He answered by saying San Pietro Bassilico (or something like that). I pointed at myself and said me too. I tried asking them questions that they didn't understand and visa versa, but yet they encouraged me to follow them when we had to transfer to another train and pointed out my stop to me. They were very nice. I had a bit of time to kill before meeting up with the tour group, about 2 hours, so I headed straight for St. Peters square with the rest of the horde of people. It was really a very awesome sight. I decided to walk around the neighborhood a bit so I had a choice to make, which basically boiled down to left or right. My choice was left. I later found out that if I had gone right I would have saw the Spanish steps and a good deal of famous fountains. This is the problem with not planning well enough. I caught up with the tour group and met some very nice people. There was a couple from Australia that were on there honeymoon around the world. I got a chance to sit down with them, drink a coffee, and have a very nice conversation. There was also an older couple from Waukesha that were very well traveled, whom I talked to a great deal. There were also four college students from Boston that I talked to a bit (don't mind me saying, but the three girls in that group were very attractive, but alas, there was no Roman magic between any of them and me). Beyond that, there was about 15 others that I didn't talk to. We all spent about an hour and forty minutes to get inside the Vatican Museums, which were beautiful and expansive. They said that if you spend one minute infront of everything they have there you would be there for something like 12 years. The sculptures and painting are indescribable. Pictures give them no justice. Entire rooms, four walls and even the ceilings were painted by famous painters that weve all heard of as children. They had sculptures that reached back up tp 2800 years plus. It was really cool. The Sistine chapel was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Besides amazing and beautiful the only word I can think of to describe it is breathtaking, by the way, for anyone who gets it, it kind of smells like Cheerios. We soon made our way to the Bassilica. Walking around inside of it was unbelieveable with the beauty, history, and especially, the sculptures. Im not very religious, but I do find the Catholic faith very interesting. I love the mythology behind it: The eternal struggle between good and evil, larger than life characters, magical relics that heal or harm, seemingly a battle beyond most everyone breathing. Inside of St. Peters they really emphasize this. In the middle of the Bassilica there are about 15 huge statues against the walls, and, as they say, above each one is held one of those magical relics. I've got pictures of two of the statues up. The one of the man holding the spear is of the Roman soldier Longeness (I know I didn't spell that right). He was the one that stabbed Christ while he was on the cross. Supposedly, Longeness is blessed or cursed to walk the earth, immortal, until Christ's return. His weapon, popularly known as the spear of destiny, apparently gives any war leader the ability to defeat any foe in battle. The church claims that the tip of the spear of destiny is held above the statue of Longeness. There is also a pic of a statue of a woman holding the cross. I don't remember who she was, but they claim to have a rather large piece of the true cross held above her. After the tour I climbed to the top of the Bassilica, which is the highest point in Rome and took some fantastic pictures. I have one of those pics up with me in it. (sorry about any spelling errors, to be cont...)

Thursday, March 08, 2007
Rome final
I walked back to the subway station and admittedly got a little turned around. I was looking for the train that went towards the Termini station, because that was where I would transfer to the Colosseo stop. Everything was in Italian, and instead of taking too big of a risk and just hopping on a train I asked one of the metro attendents "colosseo?" He gladly pointed the way for me. As I walked to the staircase a sign caught my eye that I didn't notice before. It clearly said Termini with an arrow. Oh well. I decided to eat at an open air restaurant that had a tarp over it due to the rain. The menu was in Italian, but thankfully there were pictures of some of the food. I ordered a pizza-esqe thing that appeared to have some kind of meat on it and a beer. To my surprise and dissapointment it wasn't meat. I don't know what it was. It was starting to get kind of late and I noticed that I didn't have any wine yet. Walking around the neighborhood, eventually I found a corner store. The man at the register was an older gentleman that happly greeted me with a series of words that I couldn't put together. I think he may have said good afternoon and something else. Either way, I gave him a big smile and a wave. I bought a few essentials: hair gel (something I wish I bought right away), shampo (I wasn't sure if they were going to replace mine), some toothpaste (I thought the hotel would provide some but I didn't have the heart to ask), and of coarse, their most expensive bottle of wine (which wasn't that expensive). I went up to the register to buy my goods; the old man and I exchanged words in our own languages, and while that was happening he accidently charged me twice for the wine. As soon as he noticed he tried to subtract the price of the second bottle in his head and completely did the math wrong. By his math he was charging me half price for the one bottle of wine. I tried to tell him that it was wrong and I owed him more but he didn't understand and started to explain that he charged me twice, in Italian. I made a gesture towards the cork on the wine bottle like a cork screw, because I didn't have one. He nodded and yelled at another guy that was working. I brought the bottle to the other guy, and he opened it for me. Which was nice, but now I had an open bottle of wine in the middle of Italy and no idea of how they felt about open beverages in the public. I went outside and tried to shove the cork back in as much as possible and walked back to my hotel. A half of a bottle of wine later, I thought to myself, I'm going to look for the Pantheon. It was already dark out, I was by myself in a foriegn country, and half in the bag, oh well, I was filled with Wisconfidence and headed out. I walked past the Colosseum, and man, what a sight! They light it up at night, and it is beautiful. I took a ton of pictures of it with my crappy disposable camera, and none of them turned out. I was going to cut through the forum, but I decided to stay on a major street that was only a block down. About three blocks of walking I ended up at very beautiful building, which was probably some kind of capitol building. There were cops everywhere, a huge group of protesters with candles, and a guy on a bullhorn yelling in Italian. I asked one of the cops if he spoke English and he said a little. I asked him what was going on, and he asked me if I remembered blah blah blah. I didn't know what he said so I politely said "no, but thanks." and left. I turned left, walked a few more blocks, and noticed that I really had to pee. Luckily for me I found a bar, and with that my search for the Pantheon was officially over. I ordered a Rum and Coke and sat on their patio, enjoying what turned out to be a beautiful night. The waitor brought out some peanuts and other assortments of snacks. I used this time to reflect over my trip, and realize what a great opprotunity it was. I ordered another Rum and Coke, and the waitor brought out little sandwiches, which was really neat. I took a bite out of one and realized it was raw fish, so I didn't eat anymore. I had one more Rum and Coke and decided to drunkenly retraced my steps back to the hotel. When I got there I asked the person at the front counter if they would order a taxi for me in the morning, and they told me their personal driver was a bit more inexpensive, so I went with that. I got back to the room and saw a half of a bottle of wine staring at me. Realized this was my last chance to drink wine in Italy, at least until I return, and finished it off. Shortly after, I got to know the toilet bowl intimatly, nice! I woke up the next day, got dressed, hopped into the car, made it to the airport, got a first class upgrade and was on my way home.

Rome was wonderful. My only regret is that I didn't have enough time there. There is so much to see and do, and it helps that Italians were some of the friendliest people I've ever met. I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about my trip.

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Comments

[Lilith]

Go David!
Hey Dave, We are so excited to hear all about your travels! Stay safe and keep us updated! -Lil and Tom