Christmas in Rome, taste of Tuscany

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Our Rome adventure started out as a true adventure! Mary, been the prepared planner that she is, made sure she got directions from the airport to the hotel. The hotel staff nicely gave her instructions on how to catch the train, what stop to get off on, etc. So the four of us set out from the Rome airport, caught the train into town, and waited for our stop….only when our stop came, we could not get the train doors to open! We tried everything from pushing the buttons to trying to pry the doors open, but nothing worked. So then we decided it would be better to just get off at the next stop and try to catch a train going back the other direction. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG! Turns out, that particular train stop doesn’t operate after 8pm, so the train doors lock and don’t permit anyone to get off. So then we’re trying to figure out how to get a cab, normally a cinch at a train station. Apparently not in small stops in Rome, and in Rome you can’t just hail a cab, you have to call. There were NO cabs at the station, it was late at night, and there wasn’t a main street in sight. All of a sudden, Bobbi’s eagle eyes spot a cab and she pounces on the guy and low and behold (and 40 Euros or $60 later), we’ve been saved! It would have been nice of the hotel to let us know that small detail about the train stop being closed when we arrived! Fortunately, there was a fabulous restaurant right across the street from our hotel, and we dragged ourselves to dinner at 11pm! But it was delicious food, lots of seafood and pasta dishes...and yummy tiramisu.

Rome is an enormous city in its own right, and when you add to that all the history and monuments it has to offer, it is impossible to see everything the city has to offer in a few months, let alone 3 days. But we sure did try! The first day, we took a bus that drops you off at the major sites. It was a cold and cloudy day, not ideal weather by any stretch, but we made the best of it. We saw so much, that it would take a terribly long description to describe each of them. We went to Capitoline Hill, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum and Trevi Fountain. All of these monuments were massive, and the detail in the carvings was incredibly extensive. The Roman Forum was almost entirely in ruins, but you can tell that the buildings were impressive pieces of work in their heyday. What we found quite ironic was that part of the reason the Coliseum is in such a state of ruin is that people used the building material for the Coliseum to construct other buildings and monuments around the city! In fact, St. Peter’s Basilica carted off some 2,000 cart loads of material when the new Basilica was built in the 1500’s! We also discovered that as a group we had a collective weakness for pizza, pastries and gelato. Wow, that stuff is good! It was a rule to have gelato every day, and breakfast pretty much assured that some kind of pastry would be served, so lunch generally took care of pizza!

We spent Christmas Eve exploring the Vatican. It is very hard to put into words what it is like to be there. There is so much wealth and so many works of art amassed in one place. St. Peter’s Basilica is enormous, filled with detailed sculptures, fine marble, gold filigree, soaring ceilings, colorful paintings...it’s beautiful, but also overwhelming. While you realize that it is intended to be God’s home on earth, and it is offering the best that man can offer to his God, it still just seems so hard to justify so much wealth going toward a building while so many people over the centuries have suffered. Then we went to the Vatican Museums. We didn’t have very much time, but we wouldn’t have another chance since the whole Vatican would be closed for Christmas. While we didn’t get to see the entire museum, we did get to see some of the Papal apartments, various collections of art held by the Church, including some works by Dali and Picasso, pieces of art painted by Raphael and of course, the Sistine Chapel. We don’t know how Michelangelo conjured up all of the various images and characters he painted on that ceiling, but it is quite the sight to behold. But it is overwhelming because it is so big, that you don’t even see the famous images you’ve seen so many times. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at a restaurant we stumbled across while looking for an atm and called it a day.

On Christmas Day, Santa Claus managed to drop off stockings for everyone, and after breakfast we headed out to see some of the monuments that weren’t closed. We were actually surprised at the number of businesses and restaurants that were open on Christmas day. We went to the Pantheon, a massive structure that to this day the experts aren’t sure what it was used for, but it’s one of the best preserved examples of Roman architecture. On the way there, we came across a cat sanctuary, right smack on top of four ancient temples! Mary and Bobbi loved that, being the cat lovers they are. These were some of the sleekest, well fed cats we have ever seen, lounging about in the grass, under big trees right next to ancient Roman pillars. After the Pantheon, we went back by Trevi Fountain and then to the Spanish Steps. There was some nutty guy there, that starting preaching from the steps and saying “Americano” a lot, and he had a very nervous looking German Shepherd pacing around him, so we got a little uncomfortable hanging around the guy. We didn’t find the Steps all that impressive, but we did find the world’s best pistachio gelato there! However, Madrid is still the overall winner for best gelato, according to Jason’s tally. After the Spanish Steps, we split up. We backtracked to the Coliseum to get better pictures since the sun was out for once, and Mary and Bobbi were heading back to the hotel. Well, an hour and a half later, Jason and Tracey arrived at the hotel to find that Mary and Bobbi weren’t there. So we got worried, and as time ticked past, we got even more worried. Jason was waiting at the bus stops trying to see if they just didn’t recognize the right bus stop, and I was trying to track down Bobbi’s cell phone number, when they finally arrived, exhausted but all in one piece. Apparently the buses shut down during the middle of the day for Christmas and didn’t start back until much later and with limited service. Jason and I were just lucky to catch a bus to the hotel right away. After contemplating not eating dinner that night because we were so tired, we finally found a pizza and pasta restaurant and had Christmas dinner served by a smelly waiter.

The next day, we all went to visit Pompeii, something Jason and Tracey had really been looking forward to. While it was still very impressive to see such well-preserved ruins from the Mt. Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79, it was hard to get around to see everything because it rained all day long, making it sopping wet and cold. Mary and Bobbi braved the rain for a while then retreated to the warmth of the café…only to be kicked out when it closed, unknown to Jason and Tracey. We reunited after some searching later on, but not after some wet frustration. Nonetheless, the rain did give us a chance to see just how well made their drainage systems worked! 2000 years later, and the water just runs down the banks of the sidewalk and away from the middle of the stone road, working far more efficiently than many drainage systems you see in the U.S. today. You know how you’re told that we live in a time full of so many luxuries? Well, seeing a place like Pompeii makes you wonder how much of that is true. They had elaborate bath houses with hot and cold water, full bakery facilities, amphitheaters, training facilities for athletes, and large homes with beautiful courtyards, fountains and mosaics. They moved the original bodies, but they did leave the casts of some of the bodies they found when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Not everyone evacuated in time, and their bodies were preserved as they died. It was quite sad to see, especially when you think about what must have been going through their minds knowing they were going to die as the ash descended on their town. There was also the cast of a dog on display as well. We would have liked to see more, but the rain slowed us down quite a bit, but we’re glad we got to go. When you get to see something in person that you’ve heard so much about, it really does bring the history to life, in a way that no book, documentary or movie can do.

The next day, we headed off to Lucca in the heart of Tuscany. On the way there, we stopped in Pisa for the afternoon, and went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It definitely does lean! It was pretty funny to watch the tourists trying to get pictures, because right next to the tower is the finely manicured lawn of the cathedral, and it clearly says that no one is to stand on the lawn to get pictures. Try telling that to the 2 dozen or so people snapping away on their cameras! We also did some souvenir shopping, and some more taste testing of local pastries, before we headed off to Lucca.

Lucca itself is an adorable town. It’s quite small, surrounded by a tall wall that was built a long time ago when they were at war with the city of Florence. There isn’t a singular site that makes the town noteworthy, but the people were really pleasant, the food was tasty, and it really did just have a pleasant charm about the place. We weren’t able to enjoy all that it had to offer unfortunately, because everyone but Mary was sick, and we also ran into quite a bit of trouble trying to get to Paris, so we had to cut our Lucca visit short. In warmer weather, this town would be just beautiful.

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