Roman adventure

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I have to apologise for the slow rate of these stories, we've been having too much fun and with the limited internet access there isn't a lot of time to upload the stories. I'll try to catch up - Al

13 August

Travelling now from Venice to Rome, it’s a long day of over 500km. The country side is getting drier and hotter, there’s even eucalypts in the fields, no koalas and it seems the locals here haven’t heard of drop bears.

Al tends to write these stories in the morning on the bus while things are quiet. The story tends to flow much better after the first coffee stop of the day “uno espresso….gratsi” . Often “uno” turns into “duo” and then the writing really flows.

The drive has taken us across the valley of the river Po which is a large farming area. Most importantly it has taken us past Bologna - yes the home of bolognaise sauce, this is such a beautiful cultural experience.

Most impressive though is the Apennines, the range of mountains in the north that divide the Italian peninsular and then delivers us through the Tuscany and Tiber valley regions.

Driving into Rome was apparently much easier than normal due to the fact that we were arriving on the days leading up to a major holiday, 15 August and everyone leaves Rome to go to the beach. In fact we have never seen a city so quiet, not even good ol’ Brisbane. It was also incredibly hot, 34 degrees when we arrived and other afternoons of 35 and 38. So if there were people around it was too hot for them to move about too much.

Not too hot for us touristos though. We set off in the afternoon for the Spanish Steps (which do empty down on to the Spanish embassy). The great trek across Rome continued to the Trevi Fountain for the tradition of throwing coins in, only to have to them retrieved by the local street urchin. In amongst the crowd of people was an old guy with two car antenna strapped together which were surreptitiously whipped out at the sight of anything bigger than a Euro to drag the coin up the side. Wouldn’t have minded so much if he used the money for a shower. The police chased him up regularly but there isn’t much they could do.

Continuing the march across Rome we visited the Pantheon, probably one of our favourite buildings now. This was originally built in 125 AD as a pagan temple but of course since converted with Christianity. The dome is the most amazing feature as it is one of the earliest large concrete pours, using varying density aggregate to keep the weight down towards the top. The dome is designed as a semi-sphere at just the right height so that the bottom half, if you built it, would line up with the floor. Amazing design skills.

Every great march of an army needs food, so we set off for Piazza Navona to see another fabulous fountain and find our restaurant. The Piazza comes to life once the sun has finally gone and the day starts to cool and there are musicians, artists and the standard souvenirs and knick nacks.

14 August 2009

It’s hot again, and even fewer people about, and except where we want to go.


First stop for the day was the Colleseum, next door to the Roman Forum. You have all seen photos and the Hollywood movies, the only thing we can add along with our own photos is ‘wow’. The skill of the ancient Roman architects is breathtaking .

A trip to Rome cannot be complete without a visit to the Vatican and particularly the St Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel. It is hard to properly describe the scale and sensations you experience when visiting these places and this doesn’t necessarily come from a religious connection. When the significance of the shrines and this place of worship for so many Catholics is taken into account it is a very moving experience.

The Sistine Chapel is essentially the Pope’s private chapel and doubles as a combined caucus/ tally room when a new Pope is elected. Michelangelo apparently completed these frescos under some protest because he was a sculpture, not a painter but the Pope liked him and what the Pope wanted, the Pope got. Fuji Film sponsored the restoration of the frescos about 15 years ago and since then you have not been able to take photographs in the Sistine Chapel, we presume there are some commercial rights associated with the sale of any images of the interior, the commercialization of faith is disappointing. As a form of protest, please feel free to use the few photos I managed to take in amongst the guards wandering through the throng of people accosting hapless pilgrims yelling at them ‘no photos, no photos’.

We’ve spent the afternoon trying to stay as cool as possible before going out for a stroll through markets and to the local Trattoria for tea.

This has been an all too brief Roman adventure.

Ciao baby,

Al and Tess.

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Photos

Spanish Steps, Rome
Marble at risk of melting in the hot Rome afternoon

Pantheon
Our favourite building, hard to get a photo of inside to do this justice

Piazza Navona
The fountain at night

Uno espresso
The writer's fuel at an overhead Auto Grill

Touristos at the Colleseum
Melting

Colleseum
This is huge

Ceiling of the Sistine Chape 1
Free to use

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 2
Free to use

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel 3
Free to use as well

Swiss Guards
Not their pyjamas