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Published: December 20th 2008
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Friday 5th - Tuesday 8th December 2008 Our motto for this trip has been ‘When in Rome’, so our journey really wouldn’t feel complete without a visit to this ancient, historical city. With our travels rapidly coming to an end, we squeezed in a quick long weekend between visits to Northern Ireland and England.
The scene was set with an overnight train journey from Vienna to Rome. We had the top bunks in a little cabin that we shared with three other people and it felt like we were on a school camp (the other cabins were filled with children on a school camp, so this was probably why). The journey was fine, although the beds were deceptively hard and only about three quarters of Sean fit into his. I woke every time the train stopped, but because we were in our bunks from about 9pm til 8am managed to get quite a bit of sleep all up. We were brought breakfast in the morning (tea and a fruit roll with jam) and the whole experience was much more refined than the overnight trains I remember from China.
We arrived at Termini train station, which is located close
Best View of Rome
Taken from the top of St Peter's enough to all of the major sites and is a little city in itself. Our guest house (more like a pension really) was nice and close to the train station. The original place we booked wasn’t available so they moved us to one just up the road. Sean and I thought it was great: friendly staff, cosy, sunny room, nice breakfast etc. Unfortunately, it turned out we shared the bed with some other little critters and so came back to Vienna covered in unbelievably itchy bed bug bites.... I should’ve realised the mattress was just a bit too comfortable.
Our little Rome guidebook said the Vatican closed at 1.45pm and the girl that checked us in said the queues would be way too long by this time of day, but we decided to chance it and so made our way to the world’s smallest country. (The Vatican is closed Sundays and was closed on Monday the 8th because of the religious holiday.) Lucky we did because at 11.30am we managed to walk straight into the Vatican Museums with only the tiniest queue for security. Sean liked the octagonal courtyard of the Belvedere, which was home to a bunch of
statues and sculptures with interesting stories (and really big bathtubs) and I liked the Egyptian museum complete with a spooky mummy in a sarcophagus. The Gallery of Maps has 120m long painted walls covered with detailed maps of known areas and sea ports from the end of the 16th Century, many of which were built during the Roman Empire. And of course the detail and grandeur of the Raphael Rooms and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel were spectacular. We spent about four hours in the Vatican Museums (it didn’t close at 1.45pm) before heading to St Peter’s Square (stopping for gelato along the way of course).
There was a queue to enter St Peter’s Basilica, however, the 30 minute wait allowed us to soak up the sun and watch the cranes move the Christmas tree into place beside the obelisk in the middle of the square. Our first stop once inside the Basilica was to the top of the dome (designed by Michelangelo). We had fantastic views looking down into the interior of the Basilica before climbing right to the top of the exterior of the dome where we could look out across St. Peter’s Square to the whole of Rome.
Vatican Museum Garden
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... We were there as the sun was setting and the pink sky made the place look amazing.
On the Sunday we took a train out of the city (fully endorsed by Sean of course) and visited the ancient port of the Roman Empire called Ostia Antica. We’d had grand plans to do a day trip to Pompeii, but decided to stay closer to Rome and cover more ground. Ostia Antica is a whole city of bricked ruins and visitors are able to wander in, out and in some cases over, the ruins. We spent ages at the necropolis (cemetery) before realising that we hadn’t even made our way inside the city gates. The best preserved statues have been moved into an onsite museum for protection, but the extent of the ruins is remarkable. We wandered through so many old bath houses, temples, warehouses, living quarters and taverns. The best part was that we were outdoors for quite a few hours and the sun was so warm that we had to take our coats off for a while (balmy fifteen degrees).
On return to Rome we decided to spend the afternoon at the Colosseum. Even for December the crowds
around the Colosseum were plentiful. We spent a while watching the men dressed up as not-so-tough-looking-Gladiators trying to convince people to have their photos taken with them and were approached by about 10 people within 20m asking if we wanted a guided tour of the Colosseum. As it turned out, we had bought a Rome Pass, which was valid for three days and allowed free public transport and access into two museums for free. We used it at the Colosseum and sailed straight pass the long queue. Once inside we did a lap of the second level, peering up at the intact north-eastern wall and down into the basements below the main stage; the whole time imagining 50 000 bloodthirsty, cheering spectators, tough gladiators, scared, wild animals and Russell Crowe.
First up Monday morning we headed for the Roman Forum, the centre of the Roman Empire for over five centuries. The main and oldest street was called Sacra Via and we walked up and down here reading the description in our guidebook about the most important ruins, such as the Temple of Julius Caesar, which is where Caesar was taken after his assassination.
We spent the rest of
the day wandering around the streets of Rome, which were packed thanks to the public holiday. We ate lunch on the Spanish Steps (a 137 step outdoor staircase built to connect the main piazza with the French church on the hill), threw coins into the Trevi Fountain (we will return), checked out the Christmas markets at Piazza Navona, wandered into the Pantheon (a shrine dedicated to the planetary gods), watched children playing on the lion statues spurting water at the Piazza del Popolo and viewed the sun melting into the city at the end of the day from the park of Villa Borghese.
Worn out, but happy, we made our way to the airport at Tuesday lunchtime for the flight to Bratislava and the following trek home to Vienna. The long, sunny days (it’s all relative), crazy traffic (lights are indicators only), friendly and patient people and outstanding gelato, margherita pizzas and cappuccinos (strictly a breakfast only item) made for the perfect Summer-like holiday. The only question left now is: when will we see the rest of Italy?
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michael
non-member comment
gelato
Sean - I have never seen anyone look soooo sad at fininishing a gelato - I hope that you enjoyed it, it may be a long time before you get back to Rome to have another one