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Published: October 12th 2007
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Colusseum
Awesome in the true sense of the word. I think I may have just become a canditate for the 'Tackiest Play on Words, ever' award.
The bus trip from Venice to Rome took up most of the day, and once again I was staying in a camping grounds a few k's outside the city centre. It was the same company as last time, so again there were a couple bars, a pool, and a supermarket. It's like staying in you're own little village.
I was planning to get up nice and early the next day, because I heard the lines for Vatican City were pretty bad. Unfortunately a night spent at the bar meant I didn't get to the walls of the world's smallest country until 10 o'clock. People warned me, yet I was still shocked when i saw it. The enormous, kilometre long snake-like creature all but took my breath away. It stretched away from me as far as you could see, and then around another corner - it was a monster. Yes, the line for the Vatican museums deserves to be a tourist attraction in itself. We had arrived at the entrance, so we followed the line down, and down, and down. But then, before we had
Raphael Piece
From one of the Raphael rooms in the Vatican museums even made it to the end of the line, I heard something that just didn't seem possible. A lady was going around, asking people - 'Would you like to be inside within 20 minutes?'. Yes. 'Would you like to bypass both the singles line, and the tour groups line?' Yes. 'Would you like to have a two and a half hour tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel?' Yes.
30 minutes and 45 euros later I was inside the Vatican museum, and proud I saved 3-4 hours of my life from that monster eager to snatch the unsuspecting tourist's time up. Yes I did have to fork out a bit, but once you take out the 20 euros everyone else has to pay for entrance, 25 euros is not a bad price for a two and a half hour tour. And our guide certainly knew her stuff. I don't think I would have appreciated the artwork anywhere near as much as I did having understood what everything meant. She gave us the stories behind all these famous pieces everyone recognises, but which I didn't know a thing about. She pointed out all sorts of other little facts (like
Rome from the Dome
Views from St. Peter's cuppola. how a lot of the artists painted miniature self-portraits into these intricate artworks) and by the end of the tour I had an understanding of the history of Vatican City, as well many of the famous paintings and sculptures. The Raphael rooms were amazing, and Michelangelo's 'Last Judgement' blew my mind. I've never appreciated a painting before as much as I did that day.
After we finished in the museums and the Sistine Chapel, it was time to tackle St. Peter's Basilica. St. Peter's is still the largest church in the world (no one has tried to build a bigger one, out of respect) - and it was absolutely enormous. The climb to the top of the dome (over 500 stairs) gave a complete 360 degree view of Rome and everything it had to offer. Looking around inside the basilica was like trying to funnel a river into a drinking bottle. It was just a sensory overload. Frescoes were everywhere, golden mosaics on the roof, and every few metres there would be a master piece hanging on the wall. By the time I got out I was mentally exhausted.
The next day I did get up early. I was at
St. Peter's Basilica
One of the many altars inside the world's biggest church. the bus station by 7, the train sation by 8, and by 8.30 I was on a train to Naples. Maybe it was just the area that I was in, but the 15 minutes I spent in Naples were not an enjoyable experience. Naples is the home to pizza, pickpocketing and petty crime. Trying to cross the road is an extreme sport, and when you're walking around with your hands protecting your pockets, navigating the crowds is a nightmare. What's more is the pizzeria's hadn't started cooking pizza yet, so I had to settle on a 'who knows how many days this has been sitting here' stale chicken sandwhich. So I was glad when I jumped on the connecting train to Pompei.
On arriving to the historical site, I was given a map and a booklet with numbers that gave information on the corresponding numbers on the map. It went from 1 - 72 and in the four and a half hours I was there, I would have only gotten through half of them. Pompei was huge! It literally was an entire town, preserved in time. It was as if someone had clicked their fingers, and the town was snap-frozen
Vatican City
From one edge of the country to the other. in that moment. I don't think I've ever seen something that was 2000 years old with colour on it. It probably sounds corny, but it really was as if you could imagine you were there. You'd be walking down the main street and there were all these shops with counters and deep pots out the front (ancient day take-outs) and you could imagine all the townsfolk stopping by for a snack. I was walking down some of the first roads to be ever built. It wasn't until you got to the plaster-casts of the people buried in ash that you remembered that it was a place of tragedy.
On the way back to Rome, I had to stop in at Naples again. It did improve my opinion of the town though, when I stopped in to get a pizza. The place I stopped in at had two flavours on offer - margaritta and mariana. A little weird I thought, seeing as though this was the town where pizza as we know it was invented. I settled for the margaritta. For something made out of 3 or 4 ingredients, I never imagined it could taste so good. It was cooked in
a big woodfire oven, and it was all sloppy and I loved it. Although maybe my love was also partly because it only set me back 4 euro.
The next two days I spent doing the whole tourist thing. Both days were very long, and exhausting - but everytime you see the next iconical piece of history you get a burst of energy that keeps you going. Rome was definetly one of my favourite places of my trip. There was just so much to see. There was the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the ruins of the Roman forum, piazza after piazza, statues and fountains galore! There was so much to see no map I could find had even half of the sights. Rome has 900 churches!
The highlight of my stay was wandering around a corner and seeing for the first time that old Flavian Amphitheatre that some like to call the Colosseum. You could almost feel the history just pouring out of it. It definetly looked like it had been around the block a few times. The ruined side was big, but the outer walls still standing were huge! I just couldn't believe that something so
Plaster Casts
2000 year old people, frozen in time. old, could be so big, and full of arches and columns. It truly is a 'wonder' of the world. I think I racked up 150 photo's that day, but they'll have to wait until I can find a place to upload them.
In the meantime I'm off to Florence to eat gelati and see David. Should be fun.
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Rick
non-member comment
you're a tool
sounds like you enjoying yourself there. you write so corny/cliche`... it makes you sound like the biggest tool ever. and you got 95 on your enter. loser. anyway me and dad both read your past blogs. I'm glad you have that understanding of art the i have being trying to show you for a couple years now. i really want to see the Sistine chapel. that would be absolutely amazing. dad found many spelling and grammar errors in your blog that he picked up on. he enjoys seeing your mistakes. this is the first time i have wrote to you during the trip so yeah. but anyway hope you get a lot out of it, like it sounds like you're doing. take care and talk to ya later