Advertisement
Leaving Sorrento
A big sailing ship was in the harbour We were up bright and early the Monday morning. Excited to be going to Rome, I suppose.
We got as far as Naples and our trusty GPS decided to send us through the back streets and laneways again. I suppose it gives us an insight into the parts of cities that aren’t usually seen. But at peak hour, Hmmmm!!!
Just north of Naples is Pompeii, the city still being excavated after the eruption of 79AD. As you can see from the pics, it’s a full roman city just as it was 100 years or so after Julius Caesar. There had been an earthquake a few years before the eruption and a lot of the city was being reconstructed. It was amazing to walk down the very same streets. Most of the statues are replicas with the originals plus many other artifacts being kept in the museums in Naples. I was amazed at the size of the city. We read that over 2000 inhabitants didn’t make it out. A close-by city was untouched.
We didn’t stay overly long as it was bloody hot that day. Two full days would have done it justice. We left just after lunchtime and
GiPS got us safely to our hotel in Roma. The hotel, Melia Roma Aurelelia Antica, is about half an hour from the city centre and they put on a shuttle coach into the city which we caught after freshening up. From the drop off point, a 10 minute walk to the Vatican and St Peters Square. You could have knocked me down with a feather at the sight of this (round) square. The circle of columns is enormous with what seemed like hundreds of statues atop. We headed for the River Tiber past St Angelo’s’ Castle towards the Campo di Fiore, a square where a philosopher named Bruno was burnt alive for suggesting that the Earth may actually go around the sun rather than vica versa which we all know is the case! His statue, I absolutely loved. (See pic) We had a couple of pints and a bowl of olives at the Drunken Ship Wine house overlooking the Square. I recommend that establishment. Nice friendly people working there.
Pizza Navona (sorry, Piazza Navona) was not far and our travel book recommended a little ristorante called the Cul de Sac. Apparently, the oldest wine bar in Rome with a
great wine list. I was not impressed with the wine list at all - only 4 pages . I noticed that it only had “by the glass” prices and asked if they had a bottle list. The waiter gave me the phonebook, no, it was the wine list!!! I kid you not! It would have taken a good couple of hours to go through it. I just headed for the loved Tuscan section and picked out a nice Intorini IGT Estate red. They keep the wines in row after row of shelves above your heads and every now and then a waiter comes along with a hook like device on an extension pole and hooks down a bottle that has been ordered. Other more expensive wines are kept in locked cabinets behind the booths. The food wasn’t as good as the wine list unfortunately but the visit was a great experience.
The next day, Tuesday, we managed to locate a shopping centre. It was well away from the tourist sector. Fran was ecstatic. The supermarket section was perhaps 5 times bigger than our largest. We went into Rome and found a Tourist Info Centre and bought a Rome Pass, giving
us entry into 2 museums, discounts on a lot of other things and a free Metro Transport pass.
Wednesday was Vatican day. We drove the car and found a 15 minute spot near an underground metro and parked there for the day. The organised tour we went on did all the main spots. Needless to say, it was immense and glorious. Hall after hall of tapestries, paintings and religious paraphernalia. The Sistine Chapel brought tears to the eyes. I, personally, am not religious, but the artistry, magnitude and sheer beauty of Michelangelo’s’ work and the others, Bottecelli etc, was beyond my imagination. No photos allowed in the Sistine Chapel. One tourist did and the guards came from everywhere and frog marched him out. (The idiot used a flash) We didn’t get to see St Peters cos some catholic guy was holding a Mass in the Square. Fran said we could see it later as she was happy to see this priest in white. Yes, the Pope was holding a special Mass. Fran got blessed by him. (Along with 20,000 others 😊 Me too I s’pose)
The morning had been an early start and the tour a very tiring
one, so we decided to go back to the hotel for a siesta before our return for the evening stint. On our return to our parking spot, we couldn’t find the bloody car! Each train station has about 5 different exits on 5 different streets and we’d exited out the wrong one. It was a worry. Lol
Fran had always raved about the Trevi Fountain and we took the Metro to find it. It was much larger than I imagined. I took a video as pictures do not do it justice. You just can’t get it all in a single picture. I threw a coin. (It worked for Fran ) A short trip down some alleyways brought us to the Pantheon. It was closed by this time but from the outside, I was astounded by its’ obvious age and enormity. We had dinner in the Piazza there.
Seeing the small part that we’ve seen so far, makes me desperately hope that there will never be a war that, besides the intolerable loss of life involved, may destroy these irreplaceable relics of our human past. A past that us, in Australia, have little comprehension. War is mindless!
Lib
just msg’d to say she’d got us tickets to Andrea Bocelli in Perth (Thank you, Lib xxx) It’s funny that we’re nearly a month in Italy but will have to go back to Perth to see him. We tried so hard to be in the same place as him here but to no avail.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.034s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Alicia
non-member comment
Blessed by the Pope!
Hi Dad and Fran, Great to read about your latest adventures. All the photos look amazing. Glad to hear you are enjoying the food and wine (and the history). Love Ali