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Published: June 29th 2008
Roho: Sorry Nana, but fucking Rome. Perhaps we ought to start with Venice first.
Rich: We arrived in Venice in 35° heat and were astonished when we got to our room. It was cute and small and absolutely stifling inside. But not to worry, I'm sure the tiny little fan heater they provide you with will cool things down nicely. If only that were true...had trouble sleeping due to the heat throughout the night and the live band that was performing less than 40 metres from our 'room'.
Roho: Don't forget the mozzies...
Rich: Well they didn't really touch me. I swear there's something in your blood.
Roho: Big, fat, mozzies. Daytime, nighttime, room, outside, legs, arms...you could spot the Camping Alba D'Oro guests - they're the ones who look like they have smallpox...
Rich: After showering and then changing rooms to one with airconditioning, we decided to brave the heat and venture into downtown Venice. After a half hour bus ride, we were ready to get lost, as promised by our Busabout guide!
Roho: We did OK to start with - we struck out in the direction of the Grand Canal, thinking to follow
it down to the gallery I wanted to go to. Well we found the gallery relatively easily and pretty much completely by accident. At one point I was actually holding the map the wrong way around. You may laugh, but it's very easy to do in Venice.
Rich: I was laughing. It wouldn't have happened to me, of course.
Roho: No, because you don't need a map to go around in circles.
Rich: What's your point? We came across one surprise on the way to the gallery, which I wasn't going into, by the way. When I left work, I was given a David Gilmour DVD and in the special features David Gilmour comes across a man playing crystal glasses and invites him to play at his gig that night in Venice. And who should we bump into? Not David Gilmour, but the guy who plays the crystal glasses! I thought to myself, there can't be too many of these guys in the world, so I asked him if he was the guy in the DVD and he said, 'David Gilmour! Si!' He was a lovely fulla.
Roho: The gallery was awesome.
Rich: The heat
The Colosseum 3
Not quite what I imagined the inside would look like, but fantastic nonetheless.waiting outside for an hour and a half was not.
Roho: Then it was another traipse across the canals looking for the church which houses a famous Titian painting as well as his tomb. We found it. Several times that day, actually. Anyway the church was lovely and cool and oops, silly me, forgot I ought to have my shoulders covered for churches. Luckily the nice church people anticipate that and have a stack of disposable wraps on hand, the stuff they use to wrap bouquets of flowers. How handy!
Rich: And a very bright red! After we left the church and proceeded to look for a yellow piece of Murano glass for mother, we headed for the bus stop to get back to the camping ground. We followed the arrows and somehow ended up back at the same fricking church. We were literally going around in circles.
Roho: We made it back eventually, about an hour later than anticipated. Yes, we did manage to find some suitable glass, in the last store we went to! Turns out yellow Murano glass is a bit rare as it's hard to work with. But I tell you what, it
The Pantheon
Rohani is amazed..... not yawning. was a helluva lot cheaper in Venice than in New Zealand! We had planned to go to Murano itself but it was just way. too. hot.
Rich: Let's just hope Mum likes it and isn't like when I get socks for Christmas, saying, 'Oh! Lovely!'
Roho: We weren't coping too well with the heat and the getting lost so we spent our second day in Venice at the camp ground just hanging out and looking forward to Rome. Rome....
Rich: Rome started off with a hiss and a roar. Rohani had our four days planned out, our Vatican walking tour prebooked and paid for and the first three days were filled with the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Palatine Hill, Spanish Steps, Forum and all that - action packed! After our rest day on the third day, yesterday, we were geared up for what really was going to be the highlight of our whole trip.
Roho: Now I need to do a bit of explaining. Normally the Vatican is closed on Sundays. But it opens on the last Sunday of every month, with free entrance. Hooray! We were willing to trade heaving masses of people for not
having to fork out for entry on top of our walking tour fee.
Rich: So we got up, Rohani at 6.10 and me at 6.45. We knew the buses weren't as frequent today due to it being a Roman Public Holiday. So we thought we'd rather get to the tour meeting point an hour early than 10 minutes too late.
Roho: We did good. The tour started at 9 and we were at the meeting point before 8.30. The tour normally starts at 10 but on Saturdays and that one Sunday a month it runs it starts at 9.
Rich: So we waited, found out who else of those hanging round were doing the tour and made idle chit chat with them. One girl did it last year and said it was a very cruisy, laid back sort of tour. 9 o'clock rolled around, so did 9.15 and so did 9.30. Three Indian guys had a brochure and we decided to call the company, but to no avail - no answer. The girl who did the tour last year told us she'd called the company yesterday and they said, 'yes, leaving at 9am', from outside the church
we were standing in front of.
Roho: After 9.30 the girls didn't want to wait any more. So they left. We decided to wait until 10, just in case. At 10.02 one of the Indian guys came up with his brochure - he'd discovered some small print saying the Sunday tours actually start at 11. Completely contrary to what our paperwork and what Busabout told us, but we were willing to try one more time. So we went and got some breakfast and came back for a nosy in the church we were waiting in front of while we waited for 11 to come.
Rich: The church was the most amazing church I've seen on the trip so far. There was a service on and the sound that came out of that organ, I would've paid money to see and hear, so I donated €1.30 to the church. Anyway, back to the story.
Roho: 11am. No tour guide. Two very pissed off New Zealanders and three bemused Indians. We all decided to do it off our own bat - we vowed to get a refund from Busabout. So off we traipsed back to the Metro to get
off at the Vatican stop.
Rich: Talk about bad luck. Here I am with Rohani, who doesn't like being 10 minutes late, let alone 2 hours behind schedule, but wait, there's more...
Roho: Meanwhile poor Richard is running around in the ever growing heat in his 'Vatican' outfit - jeans and a collared shirt - boys can't wear shorts to the Pope's place. Girls have to cover their knees and shoulders but that's easy with a pair of three quarter pants and a handy sarong, Kikoy or other drapey thing.
Rich: I sometimes wish I was a girl. So we got off at the Vatican stop and proceeded to walk to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. There were thousands and thousands of like minded tourists off to do the same thing. However, when we arrived at the entrance to the museum and saw the door was shut, we thought, something's not quite right here.
Roho: Like a bus timetable, the Vatican had up signs with open and closed dates. Every last Sunday of the month, the Vatican is open. Except...you guessed it. Today.
Rich: Today, June 29th.
Roho: A religious holiday.
Rich:
Turns out today everything is closed due to some man wearing a funny hat having a speaking engagement, which means the thousands and thousands of tourists, including us, have to miss out.
Roho: Did we mention it's our last day in Rome today?
Rich: I can only imagine what Rohani would be feeling had I planned our four days in Rome and this happened.
Roho: I knew it was a risk. I knew it was a holiday. But I asked the Busabout guide who sold us the walking tour tickets whether the Vatican would be open today and whether the tour would run. And he said yes. And the tour people told those girls on the phone last night the tour would run (obviously forgetting the bloody place would be closed).
Rich: Just to clarify, this was not my cock up!
Roho: It wasn't mine either!
Rich: Yes but the important part is it wasn't mine...
Roho: I did everything I should've to make sure everything would go properly. But the experts with the information had the wrong freaking information or didn't bother doing their damn research properly. This is really pissing me
The Pantheon
I had no idea that this building has a hole in the roof...... Amazing!! off. I did my homework and people who I am paying to do their homework means I've missed the one thing, the ONE thing I wanted to come on this trip for most.
Rich: Oh, and I thought it was to be with me.
Roho: Can you be serious for five seconds?
Rich: Yes dear. So we talked about whether we wanted to walk around the place anyway so we can say we've seen it or skip it altogether and come back to Rome another time. This decision I left up to Rohani.
Roho: Yeah apparently once the Pope finished his spiel at 2pm they were going to open up St Peter's. F£%!" that, is all I can say.
Rich: I know the Pope's an important fellow, but for God's sake it was SO hot outside, I was NOT going to wait nearly 3 hours only to see a quarter of the damn place.
Roho: Along with the entire Catholic population of tourismdom.
Rich: So Rome was good...but it could've been so much better.
Roho: The highlight must remain the Pantheon.
Rich: Agreed. I'd love to be in there when it
Entree
We had the cheapest bottle of Lambrusco (sparkling red wine served chilled), some yummy Taleggio and the most incredible Gorgonzola. It was fab-o!! rains, not that it ever rains here. So tomorrow we head for five nights in Florence. And I really am hoping things go a bit smoother than they have here. Maybe I should plan Florence, hee hee.
Roho: You're not even coming to Florence!
Rich: I can feel it's going to be a long afternoon...let's go find some wine...
Roho: Well you're not, you said you're going to sit in the campground while I art around like a blue arsed fly...
Rich: Art, fart.
Roho: Well that first coin I threw in the Trevi Fountain had better bloody work. When we come back to Rome it won't be in summer and it won't be on a Sunday!
Rich: Would love to get emails from back home. Am missing everybody a lot - half down, half to go!
Roho: Sympathetic messages only will be accepted.
Lots of Love
Rich and Ro
xxxxx
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Tas Evans
non-member comment
Roma
So, it was an adventure in Rome then.