Roma - the end of the road!

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Roma – the end of the Road (well for Billy anyway!)



The Road Trip – by Michelle

Well the road trip comes to an end, where we also began, in Roma. So my job is to reflect on the road trip and our time with the RV and Billy-boy! Well let’s start at the end. We manage to negotiate ourselves around the Ring Road this time so don’t end up in the middle of Rome but safely down to the campervan place. Now we had a few mishaps (to put it nicely) with the RV so are expecting our $1500 Euro deposit will never be seen again. Additionally, we are expecting to be caned for millage as we are way over our limit. To re-cap:

- Millage allowance based on what ‘sane’ people would travel over 15 days is 1500kms. We travel 3800 km’s so know we’re in for a biggy. Extra 600 euro – well it could be worse!

- Next, ticket we got in Monaco – €22.50. Nice man says don’t worry they’ll send a reminder which I’ll post to you – sweet!

- Ticket we’re expecting for going into the TLZ when we first encountered Roma minus Billy (ok Billy-boy you’re a helpful dude at times!) isn’t there so hopefully that’s a dodged bullet!

- Munted kitchen set from earlier mentioned episode. Expecting the worst in terms of milking our money for 2x cheap plates, 2 x cheap mugs and 1x cheap plastic box being busted. Nice man laughs and says don’t worry about it – sweet!

- Now I haven’t mentioned the next ‘incident’. Will the nice man laugh and say don’t worry about it when I show him the wee collision I had with a petrol station pillar? Unfortunately no but only pings us 200 euro. Expecting way worse so – sweet!

- Nice man then drives us to the train station and sorts out which tickets we need to buy to get to our next hotel!

So life in a motor home – well it’s certainly had moments both positive and negative. We can’t understand how our friends Shaun, Trudi and their kids managed it for 3 months – well done guys! Jacob misses his space, I’m being the tidy police and Mike’s missing late night alone time. In that respect a large RV is the way to go. To a degree you have a bit of space and a 6 berth means we’ve always had our dining table without needing it to be a bed. Also as far as these things go we’ve had good space for cooking, showering etc. On the other side they are nail biting to drive through small streets which, many European roads are. As infuriating as Billy-boy has been I begrudgingly have to admit he was right “without me you would have been hopelessly lost”. Chur bro – with you we sometimes still were!!!

European campsites are unlike anything we know at home. They are so well equipped with pools, restaurants etc and it is fair to say we really didn’t use the facilities as well as we could have given we spent most of our days out sightseeing. A week at a European campsite would be like a weeks resort holiday back home.

Now the biggest reason I wanted to do the road trip was to have the opportunity to see the countryside and move amongst the people outside of big cities (yes romantic notions I know!). Was this achieved? YES!!! We weren’t able to negotiate many smaller places in the RV granted but still we got a great feel of life outside the city centres and that was the goal. Special memories of being in local markets/supermarkets and having to find a way to verbally or non-verbally get what we wanted or needed. Another fond memory is being able to connect the dots in each country between the cities by seeing what lay in between.

Personally I have loved this part of our adventure and I’m just as excited about the next part.

Ciao!



The Colosseum and the Pantheon by Jacob

So we really wanted to see the Colosseum so we decided to get a taxi to there and buy the tickets. After we arrived in the Colosseum we were waiting in line and then a man came and said “All people wanting to go on the English tour please move forward.” I was like ‘Yeah we get to skip the line!’ After arriving in the Colosseum we got into another line and we bought our tickets. We then waited for the tour to begin.

First off we were introduced to our tour guide who was an archaeologist. She showed us around the whole thing giving us in depth info about the games and the common misconceptions people have around the games. How the ‘Gladiators’ only fought against other ‘Gladiators’ and not animals. It was an overall fun experience that I shall remember for decades to come.

Later on in Roma we decided to visit the Pantheon. It was such a grand building. Just the scale of the building is awesome. As we entered the Pantheon all you see is this large empty building. The dome was so huge. Then there was the large hole at the top where the rain and other stuff can fall down into the Pantheon. All the statues and holy items around it just sold it as the grand building it is.

Ps. Roman’s like it big



The Fountain and the Vatican by Mike

One of our cabby’s said to us you can go to some cities in Italy but Rome is like a museum… a great description of this wonderful city.

The Trevis Fountain just down a couple of side streets (you do seem to stumble on so many wonders without notice…) we were looking for it though as it had been recommended by a few. So you typically are in the tall narrow streets and then open up into a wide space and a gathering of people. Then you see this most exquisite piece of sculpture. So many things going on…ever walked into a party for that quick scan of the room? The feeling was similar although it was like scanning a room full of supermodels – you don’t want to take your eyes off what you’re looking at although you know the next thing you focus on will be just as pleasing on the eye. The interplay between the sculpture and water is hypnotic…you could spend half a day watching the fountain dance in the sunlight and shade but we didn’t….

The Vatican was a must do for us (me) and we had booked a tour before leaving NZ. What we didn’t realise is that every Wednesday the Pope is meeting people and sometimes takes mass so St Peter’s is not open until that’s over whenever that may be…bummer we didn’t know before going but you can only see what you can see. We were taken into the Vatican Museum and our art historian/ guide gave us some great history into the City, it’s people, the Popes and the art. We were taken through the sections of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, their meaning and relevance. I chuckled at some of the stories we were told that proved these iconic figures were just people and restricted by the resources at their disposable. There is a panel depicting the story of Jonah from the bible but without any reference to what a whale might look like and never having seen one, he went to the local fishmonger and bought the biggest fish he could find and painted it. Hence the more appropriate description of this panel could be Jonah and the Trout. A sad story is that after four years of painting the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo could no longer read in a normal position, his eyes back and neck having to be vertical or aligned.

The art, sculpture and artefacts are amazing. The galleries of Raphael, the portraits or inclusion of historic figures into the art, intriguing. The gallery of maps. Just too many things to recall in this blog. The Sistine Chapel was awesome. I wish the crowds would have been more respectful in a place of worship but there you go. We were absolutely stuffed after three plus hours and with St Peters showing no sign of opening we trudged off weary. I was emotionally drained as well. My days as an altar boy must have left me with an appetite now satiated. One more tick on the bucket list.



Postscript by Michelle

So none of us have mentioned a very special memory that we all have of Roma (of course we have so many great memories and moments from everywhere we have been that haven’t had a mention). Our second hotel in Roma recommended a restaurant (Ristorante Leonetti) close by that we HAD to go to. They suggested it was the best restaurant in Roma and we were given a business card from our hotel with the restaurant owners name on it and told to ask for him personally. Up we rocked on our last night and tentatively mentioned via the business card that the restaurant was recommended and could we have a table. We were very warmly welcomed, seated at the table and next minute the owner Carmine was out shaking our hands and introducing himself! What a lovely warm welcome! Well in the scheme of things it actually wasn’t that expensive but the food – OMG – delicious! This was the best meal we had in Italy! I started with the ricotta and spinach ravioli with burnt butter and sage sauce then had scampi risotto. Mike had tortellini then ossco bucco, Jacob had lasagne then roast chicken. At the end of the evening Jacob says with great manners “please give my compliments to the chef”. No way! Jacob gets escorted into the kitchen to meet the chef and pass on his compliments in person! The chef in great humour says to the owner “don’t bring me compliments bring me a share of the profits!”

Romantic Roma the pleasure has been all ours! Ka kite ano x

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Comments

[Dion Johansson]

End of The Road...
Would u 3 mind please.... going around again! Enjoyed your word-paintings. cheers, D