Greasy hands at the Vatican

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Rome wasn't built in a day, but we almost saw it in one. I don't recommend doing it like that, but if you're curious, here's how we ruined Rome for ourselves.

We arrived after a pretty long "high speed" train ride. It was also somewhat uncomfortable train ride because the tables in our high speed train that separate the rows of seats which face each other were built for people without any knees. I don't know why, but the bottom of the table is about level with the top of the seat, so I'm not sure how one would contort themselves into a good seating position, but none of myself, nor Neil, nor Amy ever really figured it out. Amy came the closest by taking off her shoes and sitting sideways curled up in the seat.

Also "high speed" doesn't mean "on time", although little does in Italy, which is part of its character. So we arrived in Rome a little later than planned, but nothing serious. We just had to orient ourselves as usual and make our way to our hostel. And our hostel was very different from any other hostel we've stayed at before. It was in an apartment building, except that it wasn't the whole apartment building. There are still other tenants in other apartments in the building, and its just one of the apartments that's been converted into a hostel. So it's pretty much a three bedroom apartment with 45 beds in it. It even has a normal sized kitchen and living room for a common area. So it's small, but you really meet everyone inside and it ended up being a lot of fun. Maybe the most fun hostel experience so far.

That evening we did something that pretty much defines any Italian holiday: We ate pasta and gelatto.

So far so good.

Our errors began on our first sightseeing day when we decided to visit the two busiest things possible. It began with an hour and a half long line-up to get into the Vatican museum, and we lined up as soon as the Vatican was set to open. So that gives you an idea of its popularity. It should also give you (and should have given us) an idea of the crowds we could expect once we got inside. Actually, the crowd is really spread out in most of the museum, it's just when you start making the slow and steady procession down an endless corridor towards the Sistine Chapel that people bunch up.... big time. The procession moves only as fast as people are willing to leave the Sistine Chapel, which is not that fast since they've just spent the previous half an hour walking at an incredible slow pace while shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other people doing the same thing. And don't think you can go to the Sistine Chapel first to try and beat the crowd, because you can't. There's only one way in and one way out of the chapel and there is no re-entry into the museum once you've left the chapel.

The Sistine Chapel itself: not nearly as huge as I thought it would be, but when you consider that one man painted all of the art (which covers the entire room) it is very very impressive. Your not allowed to take pictures or talk loud in the chapel (posted clearly in 1000 languages), but as soon as you walk inside you hear people talking loud and see the odd camera flash. If you are going to sneak a picture, maybe turn the flash off?

The most interesting story I can tell you about our Vatican experience is that despite all of us being the same age, we all paid different prices for admission. How could this have happened? Regular admission is 14 euro, and student admission is 8 euro but you need a valid international student identification card. I happened to get an ISIC card before leaving Canada (and before I was no longer a student) so I got the discount. Neil didn't get one, so he didn't get the discount and had to pay the full regular admission. Amy paid... something in between. Knowing that she couldn't get the student discount without an ISIC card, she assumed she would have to pay the full adult, and even asked for a ticket for "one adult". The guy selling her the ticket winked at her and said "10 euros please", which she quietly paid and then came and told us the story of what happened.

Our reaction: creepy. Also, since her ticket said "8 euro" on it, it seems as though the guy rang up a student ticket (because she obviously looks like a student) and then just charged her 10 euros.... So what happened to the 2 euro difference? We suspect he pocketed it. Not that we cared, since Amy was happy to get the discount, but still, this is an employee of the Vatican! THE Vatican! But it's also in Italy so we shouldn't be surprised by anything, I guess. It amused us for a couple of days.

And I'm pretty sure I set off the metal detector on the way in but none of the security guards were paying attention, and it's not like I was up to anything, so I just ignored it too. That Vatican is a tight ship.

Overall, the museum was pretty cool, but I think the crowds plus the fact that we'd been to the Louvre (which has similar exhibits plus more, and is much much larger) took some of the luster off of the experience.

When we left the Vatican, we were a little burnt out and sick of crowds. So where did we go? We went straight to the Coliseum. I'm sure the crowds there die down mid afternoon, and that's not the peak time to go anywhere or do anything now is it?

In case you didn't detect the sarcasm there, I should tell you that there was a line to get into the Coliseum, and the sight of it made us unhappy. However, the line moved pretty quick and we were inside ready to pay a bunch more money to see something big and old that hasn't quite fallen apart yet.

It was impressive, but I think that having already seen a roman arena in Nimes that was smaller but better preserved probably took away from the impact of going inside. Palatine Hill and the Forum, which are part of the Coliseum ticket, were interesting. It's amazing how many ruins there are in Rome.

I guess our first day in Rome didn't blow us away because we'd already had a taste of the things that we saw somewhere else on our trip. Our second day didn't blow us away because we'd done most of the things we wanted to do already. We had to work hard to think of things to do to fill the day. We went back to the Vatican to see St. Pete's and the square since we had skipped it the day before. Then we checked out the Trevi Fountain which is definitely the best of all of the 30,000 fountains we have seen on the trip.

We closed out our list of things we wanted to do in Rome by going to the Pantheon. It was really cool. The dome is open at the top, and it's naturally lit. Engineers today still don't know how they did it. It was my favourite thing in Rome.

After that we had two hours to kill before our hostel opened again for the evening, so we went on a random walk. First we checked out the "Time Elevator" which was advertised all over our tourist map. And when I say "checked out" I mean that we went to where it was marked on the map to see what it was all about. We definitely didn't go inside because it looked like no one else had in the last 5 years. Plus it was expensive, and definitely a tourist trap, and we couldn't be sure enough that the humor value of it potentially being awful was worth the price, so we kept walking.

We came across the tomb of the unknown soldier, which is absolutely enormous and bigger than most buildings in Rome. It was nice to hang around there, but since you're not allowed to sit on the steps out of respect (and there are about 200 steps which are about as wide as a football field, making them otherwise ideal for sitting) we hopped across the road (not literally, of course) and sat down in a park and just relaxed for a bit.

So Rome, in our minds, was a bit of a bust. Not that I would discourage anyone from going, but don't do the Coliseum and the Vatican in the same day, and don't go and do all of the same stuff somewhere else first.

Our hostel experience there was Rome's salvation for us. I already talked about the size of the hostel and how easy it was to meet people because of how many people were jammed into a small space..... so we met a bunch of people and had a lot of fun. Our first night there we were introduced to a card/drinking game called Circle of Death. I think it's pretty much the Australian version of Sociables (or Kings Cup) because you take turns drawing cards that have certain rules assigned to them that tell you what to do. The only real difference other than some of the rules is that the cards are laid out face down in a circle, and if you draw a card and break the circle, you have to take a drink. I liked the variation, but I think our rules are better...

So I guess it doesn't matter where you go or what you do, as long as your with good people you're guaranteed to have a good time.

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Photos

The Sun Sets Over Rome
Just gorgeous.

More stuff from Egypt
The caption underneath it reads "We stole this from Egypt. What are you gonna do about it?".... I think that's what it said, anyway.

Fellow Travelers
Taking in the Rome skyline from high on a hill

Young Love
Awwwww!

Welcome to Rome
The street outside our hostel

Crazy Ceilings
Nobody anywhere would ever think to do anything like this today. So intricate.

The long procession to the Sistene Chapel
Sick of crowds at this point...

The Coliseum
She's a big one.