European Escapade 3: When in Rome......

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Rome, Italy: August 2nd - August 5th

Our arrival in Rome was good - we got a map as soon as we arrived & headed off to our hotel. The room was tiny but it was much nicer than some of the places we had been staying, plus breakfast was provided in the reception area every morning. We had to walk a little way but it wasn’t too bad. Rome was also very hot - about 37°C - & after a bit of a rest, it was getting dark (much better for walking as it’s cooler) & we decided to go & have a look at a famous place called Trevi Fountain. The walk was nice - we noticed heaps of statues all over the place, as well as a few ruins fenced off in various areas. The fountain was much further away than we had anticipated from the map, but it looked awesome in the dark - all this water kind of rushing out from the side of a building, lit up in the dark, with all kinds of statues around the outside. It also seemed to be a large tourist stomping ground, & I was completely astounded at the number of tour groups who were there, taking up all the space. It was difficult to take a photo or even walk around. We had a good look though, as it was very pretty, but then left to have dinner at a restaurant we had admired on the walk there - of course, all kinds of pizza & pastas, in an outdoor setting - I cannot rave about this place enough. It was quite late by the time we left there & we just headed back to the hotel.


Day 8 - We jumped up this morning to try & see as much as we could today. We headed down to the main train station where we bought tickets for a special bus tour - kind of a hop-on, hop-off thing, that takes you all around the city. We jumped on board the first departure & got to see all kinds of things, with a little commentary on headphones. We went past Vittorio Palace & Palatine Hill (Government Hill - full of awesome ruins), before getting off at the Colloseum, where we went in for a look after a bit of a line up (you have to expect these kinds of lines in Europe in Summer - it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be). It was really hot though, but nice looking around the huge stadium & imagining what it had been like for the people watching the Gladiators fighting in the ring, for entertainment. They were also made to fight a lot of wild animals, & the long-term survival rate of the Gladiators was only about 2%. Most of the top stage (fighting) area had fallen away & you could see all the wee rooms & tunnels underneath where all the animals & Gladiators had been kept before & after their fights. The sides of the Colloseum were quite high on one side, but lower on the other where it had also fallen away. There were heaps of cats there just wandering around & lying in the sun, which was really cool - they made a good photo (sorry I can’t show you). After we had a good look around we went across the road to look at Palatine Hill, with all it’s ruins & buildings from early Roman times. Some of the structures had been maintained though, & they just seemed so grand - the Romans were certainly ahead of their time! The grounds for the ruins on Palatine Hill were quite large & I think you could have spent all day there if it was your kind of thing.

Eventually we jumped back on the next tour bus that came along & headed over to Piazza Navona, one of the main squares in Rome. We had been going to grab some quick lunch, but the square was filled with heaps of nice cafes, which offered a bit more food than we were after at the time. The middle of the square had a huge fountain in it, known as the Four Rivers Fountain, which was quite impressive. The square is also surrounded by old baroque palaces behind the cafes, but many of these were under restoration & covered in scaffolding while we were there. We got some ice cream for lunch instead (ahhh - that’s the life!) - Italians have an amazing range of ice creams & gelatos - it was fantastic! It was quite hot sitting in the sun & we could feel ourselves burning, so we jumped on the bus again & headed to the Vatican City, home of the Pope.

The Vatican City was much smaller than I had expected. You kind of arrive in the Square (St Peter’s Square), where around 10,000 people gather every Sunday to hear the Pope’s sermon. I somehow couldn’t imagine that many people gathered there, but apparently it can fit up to 75,000 people in total. St Peter’s Basilica (the cathedral at the Vatican) was quite impressive, & we spent a while taking photos of each other in front of it in the sun (of course, you can’t see these as they were on the digital camera!). After venturing through the metal detectors, & being screened to ensure we were wearing appropriate clothing (no short-shorts or tank top kind of stuff), we made it up to the entrance of the cathedral. The inside was amazing - everything was so ornate & colourful. All the ceilings were covered in paintings known to be from the renaissance period, & they were fascinating. There were many tombs, statues & plaques dedicated to all the past popes, as well as the actual front of the church with the altar & stained glass windows, which were also impressive. We poked around in there for quite some time, as there were quite a few different wee sections, as well as a multitude of pope-related stuff to look at. Vaughan was quite impressed too - the Italians really know how to make things look so grand. After about an hour we decided to head back for the day, as we wanted to go around on the tour bus for a full circuit, without getting off (so we could listen to all the commentary). As we left the Basilica we saw some of the Vatican Guards, who were dressed in funny uniforms that looked like a court jester!

We ventured back to the Hotel for a break & then went back out to catch the last bus tour for the day - it had been so hot & we were a bit sunburnt, so we wanted to stock up on some more water & get changed. After the tour we went back to our favourite place for dinner - that’s right, more pizza & pasta! There’s no need for excuses when it comes to good Italian food. It had been such an incredibly busy day but we saw so much & really enjoyed it!


Day 9 - Today we had planned to get on a train to Naples, as recommended by our friend Ben (hi Ben!). Unfortunately we hadn’t realised how long it actually takes to get there - we could have taken a high-speed train, but this wasn’t included on our passes & would have cost us a fortune. We could have taken a slower regional train, but it would have been almost 4 hours there & then 4 hours back - that’s quite far for a day trip! In the end we decided it was just too far/expensive for us, since we didn’t really have much time in Rome (sorry Ben!), but will keep it in mind for next time - maybe in Winter when it’s not boiling hot! So, we had to decide what to do for the day, & in the end we settled on visiting the Vatican Museums, as you really have to see them if you go to Rome - when in Rome, & all that! So we caught the metro over to the Vatican City & finally found the entrance - it was so incredibly busy & you could hardly walk down the street! We made it inside & found it to be quite weird - all the museums (there are about 12 of them) are all kind of in one building, & you don’t really get to go outside as such. Most of the museums are all joined together so if you see one, you see them all, so it was a very long journey! We started off going down quite a few narrow hallways into an area called the Map Room. The walls were covered in huge paintings of various parts of the world, in the way they were first mapped out (how explorers used to think they looked), & the ceiling was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen - it was absolutely covered in hundreds of pictures depicting pretty much everything, but generally religious themes. They were all so bright & the detail was fantastic. It was certainly one of the things I most enjoyed seeing while I was there. We got to see some other ‘museums’ on the way through, some with religious art, some with sculptures & artefacts, & some just with general paintings. There were quite a few statues of Roman Gods as well, which was nice for a bit of culture. We took a short cut out the back of one room & down some stairs, which brought us out near the Sistine Chapel, which was right at the end, & the place we were waiting to see the most.

After being herded like sheep for about 2 hours, we were ready for a bit of space. Sadly, the Sistine Chapel was absolutely crammed to the brim with tourists - it was so incredibly hot. However, this did not detract from being in the place where new popes are elected, standing inside a piece of history. The ceiling was a huge collage of different bright images, & the walls were painted to look like there were curtains hanging down (this worked quite effectively). The guards had to keep on asking people to be quiet, but unfortunately, I don’t think the general tourist population visiting the Sistine Chapel really cared that much about anyone other than themselves. They just kept on talking the whole time, & taking photos constantly when there were signs about every 5 metres asking you not to. For once I was glad I was making an effort to show a bit of respect, & Vaughan also seemed to find the stupid tourists to be a bit much in such a special place. We stayed in there for quite a few minutes but it was just too crowded & eventually we just wanted to see the outside world again! We left through the museum of Christianity, & then headed over to the ethno-cultural museum for Vaughan, but it was closed. In fact, about 4 of the 12 museums were closed - at least it was one ticket for all the museums, so it was easy to get around.

We headed back to the hotel, hoping to make it in time to head out again so that we could visit the Catacombs, an area in the ground where the Italian dead are preserved for people to see. We didn’t think it would be creepy - just interesting, as it is something that we don’t do in our own culture. Unfortunately, with the catacombs being a small distance outside the city, & only being open for a few hours each day, we didn’t think we could make it there in time to actually have a look around. So we had to give that one a miss which was a shame & instead headed out for a drink in the park before venturing back to our favourite restaurant of course. Alcohol is very cheap in Italy, especially from the wee corner stores - Vaughan even managed to find himself 1 litre cans of beer - now that’s more his size! I fund some nice cold sangria to drink, which I had never tried before. It was quite enjoyable to have something cold when the weather was so hot! Our last meal at our favourite restaurant was excellent - Vaughan even volunteered to have something other than pizza! Really, really enjoyable over all!

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