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Published: August 4th 2006
I arrived in Rome at the ridiculously early hour of 7am on the 21st July. I immediately discovered that it is summer in the northern hemisphere and the temperatures were pushing the high 30's. After a brief train and metro journey I arrived at my hostel, the Pensione Ottaviano. A hostel in a prime location about 100m from the North East corner of the Vatican. Seeing as I had a good 6 hours before Joel, Justin and Barry arrived I decided to set out on my own and do a bit of exploring, I had literally only gone about 20m before I was asked whether I wanted to go on a free tour of the Vatican. Excellent.
Our guide took us first to
Saint Peter's Basilica. In front of the basilica is St. Peter's Square, a large, open area that is packed with tourists and rises slowly up to the huge form of the basilica. There is a dress code to get in, ladies must have their shoulders covered and men must be wearing trousers. I managed to sneak in wearing shorts and felt as though the Pope himself was frowning at me. The inside is cavernous, just a mind
Self Portrait
The face on the sculpture is that of the Danish artist, not Pope Pius VIIboggling expanse of space that stretches forward towards the tomb of St. Peter and rises upwards towards the curved ceiling . The most famous piece of art inside is
La Pietà, a sculture by Michelangelo of the Virgin Mary cradling her murdered son. This piece is famous not only due to the brilliance of the sculpture itself but also because, when critics of the day doubted that the young Michelangelo had carved it he snuck inside and chisseld his name on Mary's dress. My favourite story from the basilica however involves the art work commissioned to a Danish artist who's name I forget. He was to provide a sculpture of Pope Pius VII but was told he could not sign his name because he was not Roman Catholic. Feeling agreived he never the less finished the work. At the grand opening, with the pope, cardinals and numerous VIP's of the day in attendence, the statue was unveiled and instead of the pope's face it was the face of the artist staring down at everyone. Needless to say the pope was not pleased and the artist was not paid.
Discovering you had to pay for the rest of the tour
I headed back to the hostel where I met up with Joel, Justin and Barry, there were lots of man hugs between old friends. That night we headed down to
Campo di Fiori, a square filled with some slightly seedy pubs, but the beer was cold and the conversation flowed as we all caught up on each others stories.
The next day we headed to the
Colosseum. The outside was very impressive and it was amazing to see such an iconic image right there before my eyes. It looks especially amazing lit up at night. I felt that the inside was a little run down and was slightly saddened that it had deteriorated so much over the centuries, we also had an idiot tour guide which did not help. I came away wishing that I could travel back and see the Colosseum in all her glory, filled with 50 000 Romans cheering the gladiators below/screaming for blood! We then had a tour of the
Roman Forums the political centre of the Roman Empire. Luckily we had an amazing tour guide for this who was much more informed than the previous one and she kept us all entertained. I learned
Mucking About
Barry, me, Justin and Joel. Notice I am the only one pulling the "original and best pose". Coincidence I think not. that the population of ancient Rome was approximately 5 million compared to the current 4 million. Also after the fall of Rome it wasn't until the industrial revolution that there was another city that could support 5 million people. This really shows how amazing ancient Rome was, she would have been quite a sight in her day.
It was then time to sample the Roman nightlife. We all went with some people from the hostel to a club called Coyote, which was very expensive. Barry was fully amped up and was dancing up a storm on the dance floor. Everyone had a good time and the tequila flowed freely, too freely for one of the crazy, blonde American girls who had to be taken home in a state which I will describe as "worse for wear." We then stupidly decided to walk home so about an hour later I fell into bed. All in all it was a good night out.
The next day was a quiet one. It was roasting hot so we tried to go for a swim, this idea was nipped in the bud when we discovered it was €8. We decided to go to
the beach instead. This beach was busy, it was almost hard to move and there were just thousands of people there. Both the water and the sand were both slightly dirty and we only stayed for about half an hour. Later we found out that the water is actually polluted! This made me realise how ridiculously lucky I am to live in Perth where the beaches are some of the best in the world.
The next day, the 24th, was Joel's 21st birthday which we celebrated that night. Justin, Barry and I had decided to go to the
Vatican Museums so we got up early and didn't have to wait too long in the queue. There are some astonishing pieces of art in here, hundred year old tapestrys, the Vatican map collection and amazing paintings and sculptures that are beyond my descriptive capabilities. All these things however are overshadowed by the iconic
Cistene Chapel. It is hard to put into words how amazing this place is, you walk in, look up and then it takes a while to fully apreciate the scope of the work. There are nine panels on the ceiling depicting the creation of the world and
Justice
The depiction of Justice from the Raphael Rooms Noah's Flood, with the most famous being the picture of a reclining Adam reaching out towards God. On the back wall is the equally impressive "Last Judgement," an incredibly huge and detailed painting with Christ at the centre. The longer I spent in the room the more impressive I found it, definitely a treasured memory. If you are in Rome go to the Cistene Chapel.
That night it was time to celebrate. We took Joel out to dinner and then planned to sneak into the Roman Forums to drink tequila in toga's, unfortunately there was a 2m high fence all the way around so instead we just found a quiet place to sit. We all got some tequila in us, changed into toga's and started mucking around taking photos, needless to say we got some very strange looks and some excellent photos. All in all it was a quality night.
Among some of the other places we visited in Rome was the
Pantheon, a huge dome with a hole in the top which creates an impressive effect with the sunlight shining through. It used to be a Pagan place of worship and was turned into a christian church
Cistene Chapel
The first 6 panels of the ceiling depicting the creation of the Earth, the creation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and is thus one of the best preserved ancient buildings in Rome. We also saw the
Trevi Fountain, which looks amazing when it is lit up at night. It is said that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain then it means that you will come back to Rome, so at some point in the future I will be back.
Next Napoli and the Amalfi Coast
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rome poses
those are some straight out homosexual poses. i think Boss' is the worst