Europe Bus Tour-2010 - Italy - Rome

---

Roma, Vatican and Pisa

6:30 wake up call, 7:30 breakfast and 8:30 departure. We had a good breakfast. Coffee served was as thick as Indian here. Now we are headed to Vatican and Roma sight seeing. We would see world’s history in this small area.
Vatican : It is a small area inside Rome city. Main attractions here are St. Peter’s Bassilica and Vatican museum. The place is a museum by itself. We were lucky. It was Sunday, day of prayers. Vatican city is walled and sovereign state eparate from Rome and Italy.
Big obleisk, huge central courtyard and huge domes greet as one steps into Vatican. It is not easy to describe this place. From outside it looks like a huge structure, but inside it is a wonder! We went through security checkpoints. We also saw swiss guards guarding the front entrance. We had our own guide. Each member in the tour group got ear pieces to listen in. Incidentally, we noticed that the tour guides are Korean(?). They have a network going?
After viewing the closed golden gate (opens once in 25 years), we went into the main alter of the basillica. On the right, we have Michelangelo’s Peitr and on the right we have sculptures of scenes from bible. Sculpture was completed by Michelangleo when he was 24 years. The stained glass windows with art work on it were exceptional. Now comes the highlight. It is the DUOMO!! The dome was completed 100 years afterwards. We had an hour in that place. If you are seriously looking at the sculptures and paintings on walls, even 2-3 hours is not enough. While we were there, the cardinals walked in for morning mass. Pope was not in town. Reluctantly, we had come out the basillica. I have never seen anything like this before!!
After restroom stop, we began our tour of old Rome. Our tour bus had some problems. It would not start. We were delayed by 20 minutes because of that. Next, we went to the Trevi fountain. It is a huge fountain commemorating the Roman period. We bought few gift items. We proceeded to old rome area. Even now, one can see the aquaduct, broken city walls etc. here. The whole city is a museum. It would be best to walk around this area. One feels very insignificant compared to the achievements of romans 2200 years ago. We only saw probably 20% of what Rome can offer and we were overwhelmed. Last stop before lunch break was Coliseum. After visiting Coliseum, we headed for our lunch. It was in an Indian restaurant “GourmIndia”. Apart from Indian food, they also prepared pasta and pizza. Our bus broke down again when it was coming to get us from Coliseum. Alex figured out the issue and needed an hour to fix it. Ritesh used public transportation (bus), to take us to the restaurant.
After lunch, we headed toward Pisa. This is very near Florence. This way we can sleep overnight there and cover 3 hours before heading to Switzerland. I had a good cappuccino (small cup) for 80 cents here. We reached Pisa around 7:15 PM. There was lot of light and less crowded compared to other attractions. Leaning tower of Pisa is a bell tower for a church that was contructed during 12 century. The tower was initially constructed with marbles and was four stories high. Later four more were added and the tower started leaning south. It was beautiful site. We spent about an hour there. Dinner was at a Italain/Bangladesi place. There is a Bangladesi cook who is the chef there. Incidentally, all the vendors, shopkeepers and workers are Bangladesis here. By now, we were tired of Indian restaurant food. We reduced our intake preferring curd rice.
We headed to a hotel in Pisa. Two tour groups were staying here including us. The rooms were small, but looked neat. We slept around 12PM. Wake-up call at & AM.

---