Italy 2002

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10 days in Italy staying in Rome for 5 nights before moving to Florence for another 3 and ending in Pisa with a visit to Pompeii, a drive through Naples and a quick stop in Sorrento.

Rome

The city founded by the twins Romulus and Remus is full of famous tourist sites and follow the tourist trial we did, seeing all the usual sites: The Roman Forum, The Colosseum, The Vatican City and Sistine Chapel, The Trevi Fountain and The Spanish Steps. For someone from London, the centre of Rome is small and everything is easily reachable by foot. The Roman forum is nice, it doesn't cost to enter the area and visitors are free to wander around the remains. The area is actually quite large and there's a lot to see.

Pompeii

Pompeii was buried in falling ash and lava when nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. As a result, excavations have uncovered well-preserved Roman buildings, streets and everyday objects as they were during Roman times allowing visitors to see a still snapshot of Roman life. The visit to Pompeii was fascinating, walking down the streets as the Romans did really gave a feel for life back then.

The people running away from the eruption were buried by ash which solidified so quickly that archaeologists have been able to create plaster casts from the holes left by the decaying bodies revealing their exact body positions as they met their doom.

The tour we were with then took us onto Sorrento, a nice town with streets lined with lemon trees actually full of lemons!

Florence

After Rome, I was sick of visiting churches, seeing ancient Roman sites, and finding the right exit out of piazzas, luckily, Florence was a nice small town with not too many “must see” places. So, we rented bikes and joined the chaos that is the Italian traffic system. Actually, riding on the “wrong” side of the road and dodging cars on all too narrow cobbled streets proved to be good fun.

Pisa

There's not all that much in Pisa, just the famous leaning tower which is bit smaller than I expected!

Disappointments

Unfortunately, there were more than a couple of things that disappointed me in Italy.

Rome is literally littered with monuments and churches, too many it seems for them to be special. Many of the sites look magnificent in a guide book but it's when you are up close that you see that all covered in graffiti and tags at the bottom, much like many of the "normal" buildings in the area actually. Another disappointment was the sheer number of beggars and pick pockets especially around the train stations (e.g. Rome Termini). Many a time I found the front pocket of my rucksack open after a walk through the station (I had nothing in there anyway and had pad locked the main pocket). Not only that but the pick-pocketing was visibly taking place, I saw a woman stand outside McDonald's watching while her daughter begged and son shuffled among the lines of queueing customers trying lift wallets from unsuspecting tourists. It's a wonder why nothing seems to be done about something so blatant. Italy is supposed to be one of the most industrialised and developed countries on the planet but what I saw didn't match up to expectations.

Words of Advice

So words of advice if you are planning to head out that way, keep your ruck sack padlocked, valuables attached to you and check your change immediately. Well, to end on a higher note, the weather was great (late August, early September), Pompeii is well worth a visit and Florence is a nice pretty town.

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Photos

The Vatican City
The Vatican City and surrounding Rome.

Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius still stands proud.

Mural in Pompeii
A well preserved Roman mural in a house in Pompeii.

Pompeii
A Roman street in Pompeii.

Pompeii
A Roman man cowers from the falling ash. Sadly, most of the artefacts that have been recovered are just stacked in store rooms which visitors are not allowed to enter.