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Published: August 14th 2006
The Colosseum in Rome
Where have all the gladiators gone?Hello Everyone!
No reservations, no itinerary, no idea what we were going to do, and we only had one week to get in as much Italy as possible. We definitely were going to stay in Florence, Rome, and Venice, but also wanted to check out Pisa and Pompeii. Since we were going to be arriving in the area late we decided the first night would be in Pisa and from there we would head to Rome. We caught a direct train from Monte Carlo and were on our way, but we almost didn’t make it!
One stop after the Italian border, the train stopped and the guy in our compartment got off and we looked out the window and didn’t see anyone getting on. We thought it was strange, but according to the schedule this was a direct train. Well, eventually a janitor on the train came by and asked where we were going, we said Pisa, and he said that they changed trains and it was leaving from a different track. We grabbed our bags and ran towards the other track and the train was getting ready to leave. I threw the bags on, but then the doors
started to shut with me in the door! Heather found the open button, which thankfully it worked, and we both were on our way.
Once on the train we realized that our seats were all the way on the other side of the train. Doesn’t sound so bad, but in Italy the hallways turn into places for people without reservations to sit and so after 30 minutes of traversing through the people we found our seats and were on our way. Once we pulled into Pisa, it was around 11:30pm and we decided it would be too hard to find a place to stay there and decided to go to Firenze (Florence) instead…bigger city, more lodging. The joy of having our rail passes has been we can change plans last minute if we need to! Once there we found a place to stay and called it a night around 2am. However, for future reference, lodging is scarce and expensive for Firenze in the summer-time—in fact, for most of Italy—plan well in advance.
Firenze, the European art capital, is a beautiful city (with lots of great gelato) and was easy to walk around by foot. The Duomo, houses the
Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore which was an amazing cathedral with an interesting history. In 1296 the city fathers commissioned Arnolfo di Cambio to create a cathedral so great that it would be “impossible to make it either better or more beautiful with the industry and power of man.” He did just that, but it was domeless due to the large size until the early 1400’s when Brunelleschi came up with his revolutionary double-shelled construction that utilized self supporting interlocking bricks…a little insight for our architect friends.
After touring the Duomo, we found a nice little back alley eatery and then headed towards the Uffizi which houses one of the world’s finest art collections—second to the Louvre. Once there we found the lines to be out of control and decided we would have to pass…maybe next time! We decided to head to Piazzale Michelangelo which is on the hill side and offers amazing panorama views of the city and amazing sunsets. Once up there we found a jumbo screen where they were going to show that night’s soccer match between Italy and USA for the world cup (just the playoffs) and with another screen at the bottom of
the hill. Perfect timing for us to be here! We took in the views and headed to the hotel to freshen up before heading back to watch the match.
USA tied the Italians, even though the US goal was accidentally made by an Italian, but it was fun to watch it with the large crowd. The next day we decided to head towards Rome, but made a quick one hour stop in Pisa since we were told that is all you really need. We didn’t have a map of Pisa with us, but we didn’t think the Leaning Tower could be that far away from the station, so we took our luggage with us and were on our way. Well, the tower was a good distance from the train station and once there, we clicked a few quick pictures and started our run back to catch our train. It seemed as though lately we had been doing a lot of running to catch our trains, but it always makes it more exciting! Once on the train, we met the Haagensons from California, and little did we know it at the time, we would get to know them better as
The ornate hallway leading to the Sistine Chapel
Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures in the Chapel, but this gives you a little taste our trip through Italy continued.
Once in Rome we found a place to stay and a bar showing the soccer match between Brazil vs. Australia. Brazil was victorious and afterwards we chatted the night away with other travelers. Tomorrow was going to be Monday and we decided that it would be a good day to visit Vatican City…or was it a good day?
My logical thinking was that a ton of people go to the Vatican on Sunday because it is a holy place and then Monday would be the less busy day. Well we shortly learned that Monday and Saturdays were the busiest days and after waiting in the line with the hot sun on your head for 2.5 hours we wished we would have gone on Sunday! Once inside we were able to visit the Sistine Chapel with its famous Michelangelo ceiling and also view some other works of religious art. The Sistine Chapel is also where the College of Cardinals hold conclave when it is time to elect a new pope. For those Dan Brown fans who haven’t read Angels and Demons a lot of the story takes place in and around the Vatican City
The Trevi Fountain
Another tourist sight of Rome just covered with tourist and their cameras and Rome—also a good story (except for the tarp part).
Our next stop was at St. Peters Basilica to hike up the 330 steps to the top of the dome for some unbelievable panoramic views. While in line for the tickets, we bumped into the Haagenson family and they too where going up the dome so we joined them. After the dome, we toured the inside of the Basilica where we were able to view Michelangelo’s Pietá which, since 1972, is behind bulletproof glass ever since a psycho with an axe attacked the innocent statue breaking Christ’s nose and Mary’s hand, and we were also able to walk by the tomb of Pope John Paul II and pay our respects.
The rest of the day we decided to walk around Rome and take in more of the sights. We threw some coins in the Trevi Fountain (which is supposed to mean you will return again one day), we toured the 2,000 year old architecturally baffling Pantheon, got lost around the Piazza Navona where they would flood the stadium and have mock naval battles, we skipped the Spanish Steps due to construction, but we walked by the Roman Forum
and ended our walk with a sunset at the Coliseum. We headed back to the hotel, had some dinner, and decided to check out the Coliseum once more at night then head in for some shut eye because we were heading to Pompeii for the following day.
We had a train schedule that said that we didn’t need reservations to get to Pompeii, but once at the train stations we saw they were required and only had about 15 minutes before departure. Once at the lines, we realized there was no way this was going to happen, but then we ran into the Haagenson family again and they were nearly at the front of a line and going to Pompeii as well! So we joined them in line, got all our tickets sorted out and we were on our way.
For those of you who don’t know about Pompeii here is the abridged version for you. In 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupted a deadly cloud of volcanic ash and engulfed the city in a suffocating black cloud of doom catching all the residence by surprise. Houses, works of art, and people were sealed in harden casts of ash
The Bocca della Verità or "The Mouth of Truth"
It is said that if you stick your hand in the mouth and you are a liar it will chomp it off. The doctors were able to sew mine back on. that would remain untouched until excavation began in 1748 - End of History Lesson. For an ancient city, Pompeii was huge and it took us a long time to see what we did which was probably less than 50 percent! We were able to view some molds that were made from the people sealed in the ash, frozen in time, as well as some of the art works that survived the eruption.
We headed back to Rome and got in touch with a friend of mine from high school and college who lives there and met up with him for some drinks and a good time. Around 1am, Heather kept asking if we should head back, and I kept saying no, so we didn’t make it back to our hotel until 4am and had to get up at 9am to check out, I was feeling a little regret. We had about 3 hours till we headed towards Venice, so we made our way once more towards the Coliseum and walked around and check out the Bocca della Verità (check out the photo for the story) as well as more of the Roman Forum. It was a great visit in
Rome and I am sure we could have spent many more days here!
Venice was going to be our last stop in Italy and probably our most interesting since the city has canals instead of streets and roads that curve so much you can easily get lost even with a map. We arrived at the station and paid the ridiculous price of 5€ per person to ride the boat towards the center of the city to our hotel. We had a great location close by San Marco square and after unloading our bags, we headed to the square to enjoy some live music and take in the sights. After the sun went down, we found our way back to the hotel and called it a night.
The next day I awoke to find Heather with a map and a plan. She had researched our guide book and determined what we needed to see and the best way to do it on foot (she is very great at doing this and I love her for it!). Our first stop was at Chiesa di Santa Maria Della Salute Church (Dorsoduro Peninsula) where we had a great view of the city
skyline, then a stop for some gelato (Italian ice cream), then back to San Marco square where you get attacked by the pigeons (picture will explain more), then to Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs…called this because it led to the prison and was the last view the prisoners had of the city), then a stop to the Ponte di Rialto market, more gelato, then to the hotel to get our luggage and head out.
We didn’t want to pay the 10€ for the two of us to take the boats so this time we took our little map and decided we would trek across Venice, over all the bridges and canal ways, and try to find the station which was on the northwest edge to town. We were successful and had an hour until departure, so we sat in front of the station made some dinner and enjoyed a tasty 2005 box o’ red wine then jumped on our train.
We were heading to Munich for the afternoon then on to Tegernsee to meet up with our great friends Casper and Daniel as well as Daniel’s family and girlfriend Elsa—and also to introduce Heather to Germany with
a traditional Bavarian Beer Festival! So look forward to our next blog were we tell you about the beer that even I thought was big, the pinky finger wrestling tournament that almost crippled me, and our reenactment of The Sound of Music. Also thank you everyone for all your comments, it is great to hear from each and every one of you!
Love Ben and Heather
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Erika
non-member comment
Italy...
Hi guys, I am glad to hear that you survived Italy. It was fun to see your pics. We have some fun memories from Venice, Florence, Rome, Pisa, and Pompeii. Jason got pooped on in San Marco's Square and Florence was one of our favorite places of all time. If we ever do venture back to Italy it will be to Florence and maybe a bit of Rome. It's always fun to read your blog! TTYL