Rome!

On October 3rd we took the train from venice to Rome. It stopped a few times, including in Florence (although in the station was in such a sketchy area of town that its hard to believe the city is actually beautiful), where it then reversed out of the station and travelled the second half of the journey backwards. Not great for those of us who get motion sick.

When we arrived at Termini Station in Rome we were prepared for large numbers of people, and we found them. The first thing we did was look for a travel agent to buy a Roma Pass from, a tourist pass that combines 3 days of public transport with free and discounted entry to sites around Rome. Then we picked up a few groceries at the grocery store in the station's basement and made our way down to the subway (a long, confusing, winding journey down). The subway line to the hotel (which was on the far side of the Tiber River, near Vatican City) was nice and new, and not too busy. Way nicer that Toronto's. The other subway line that we'd end up taking to the Colosseum and Forum, on the other hand, was crazy packed. When we emerged from the subway station we went the wrong way and walked a few blocks in the heat and sun before turning around and having to wait outside the office building where the hotel was located.

The hotel, Caesars Rooms, was more like an apartment, but with 3 or 4 separate locked bedrooms. There was no staff on sight except the cleaner in the morning and the owner whenever a guest was due to arrive, and since we'd made it there early we had to wait outside. It was nice to have the use of a kitchen and a computer with internet access, as well as being able to come and go without having to hand your keys in or get them back from the front desk. We'd both stay there again, and highly recommend it.

Our first destination was the Spanish Steps. They were full of people, tourists just like us who wanted the perfect photo, and to say they'd sat on the steps and walked to the top. During a photo op halfway up Derek got pulled into a conversation with a guy wanting to sell him a bracelet. The rather protracted encounter concluded with two very ticked off guys and Derek sticking to his guns. We decided not to get pulled into any more conversations with opportunists. At the top of stairs was a beautiful church, the Trinita dei Monti, which we checked out.

Next on the list was the Trevi Fountain. I was really looking forward to seeing it. It was just so beautiful that it really left an impression on me. It was also very, very packed with people, making it difficult to make it to the water's edge for a photo and a good opportunity to throw a coin in (and therefore ensure a return to Rome). We did make it up to the front, and just as we were posing for a nice photo of the two of us Derek got hit with a coin missile from somewhere up in the crowd. He was hit so hard that it left a pink circle on his upper arm! (which I took a photo of :) ).

We walked to the Pantheon and walked around inside. Despite the numerous signs asking people to be quiet, as it is a religious building, there was a constant drone of loud voices. The domed ceiling was really amazing, and I liked seeing the bronze plaques that depicted scenes from Jesus' life. I've read these about in history texts as a common method of sharing the story of Jesus to largely illiterate populations, and before the Bible was widely read or published in the vernacular. But I digress. We walked to Area Sacra, ruins of a sacred area that archaeologists aren't sure what it was and I believe its also where Julius Caesar was killed. But now its a cat sanctuary, so there's kitties all over the place! In the beautiful, bustling Piazza Navona we sat in the square, saw a number of buskers, looked at the fountains and went into the church (which had very cool marble statues and its relief walls made to look three dimensional, as though the room stretched out the sides when it was really just a wall. A great trick of the eye using fake columns on the walls.

On the walk back to the hotel we walked around Castel Sant' Angelo, past the Vatican City's walls, and up to our room. No luck trying to find any grocery stores on Google maps, we walked to a Spar (a convenience store), but it was closed, so we wandered around a bit a came upon a market. We also took some money out (the hotel owner hadn't told us until we got there that we had to pay cash, so that caused a bit of unnecessary stress and currency exchange costs as we had two use two different ATMs two different days). We went back to the hotel to eat, I had some coconut and banana gelato, and Derek found a grocery store on a map for the next day. We watched BBC news and then a funny Italian game show where the contestant has to guess the professions of a line up of people. To cap off a very busy, fun day we saw an Italian ad for long distance phone calls starring John Travolta.

On our second day in Rome we decided to go see the Colosseum and the Forum. On the subway a woman came on with a microphone and speaker on wheels, sand a song, went around asking for money, then moved down to the next car and sang again. Very odd, and definitely annoyed those with ipods. Waiting for the second subway at Termini was crazy. It was packed, the train was late, and the train platform was longer than the train so we almost didn't get on.

The Colosseum was amazing, even better than I'd hoped. I love stadiums and places for shows, so to see something so massive and so old was really impressive. We walked all around the inside (having gotten in quickly thanks to a fast lane for Roma Pass holders) on two different levels. They're rebuilding the floor, which seems a bit odd. I'm all for restorative work that keeps an ancient building or monument up, but I understand rebuilding part of a structure that covers up other original features. But I'm pretty traditional about things -- I like to see the real thing.

Even though it was lunchtime by the time we left the Colosseum, we decided to go on to the Forum which was just across the street. I didn't realise just how large of a site the Forum is, although if I'd thought about how the site was the centre of Roman life and politics, I probably should have had some sense of the scale. We saw many ruins as we walked around the ancient city centre, saw the circus maximus, the Roman forum, and fought through what felt like a sand storm. I didn't know a lot about the forum, so at a great lookout point we paused and listened into an English tour guide's talk. We were tired and hungry by the time we left around 3, although well hydrated thanks to the many fountains that we'd come across. We hopped on a bus which we'd hoped would get us back towards our place, and it did, so that was fun. A stop at a nearby BILLA grocery store got us set for lunch and dinner: pizza, meat, cheese, wine, apples and pears. We had lunch (at 3:40!), then went to walk around a local mall which turned out to be a large department store -- the BILLA took up the basement. We stayed in for the evening and ate pizza, open-faced sandwiched cooked under the microwave's grill, and wine for dinner.

On our last day in Rome we joined hundreds of people in line to enter the Vatican Museums before they'd even opened. At £15 a head they must take in a fortune every day! Luckily they have a great student discount, so we had money left over for a nice dinner of pasta. Once inside we followed my travel guide's advice and went straight for the Sistine Chapel, which is at the end of the route. What an amazing, impressive, beautiful building that took my breath away. I was studying the ceiling so intently that I almost fell over backwards I was leaning so far back to take in as much as I could. Luckily Derek managed to find the path back to the start of the route, and we spent the next few hours going through wing after wing of the various Popes' collections. Each was unique, focussing on different types of artifacts: Greek pottery, Egyptian sarcophaguses, Roman statues, metal fragments from wooden medieval items like bed frames, helmets and chariots. Plus the halls themselves were each different and beautiful. There was so much stuff there! I found myself feeling bad that its all so closed off and expensive, so that its not accessible to the general public the way the British Museum is. Perhaps its the Vatican's main source of funds.

We went home for lunch, then came back to St. Peter's Square in time to queue halfway around the Square as we waited to go through security and be allowed in St. Peter's Basilica. We did our best trying to hold off those inevitable queue-jumpers (although no one minded the little group of nuns who were in the wrong line going ahead). Inside the Basillica a service was going on, so we could only visit half of the building, but the choir music made it a very nice atmosphere. There were some amazing sculptures everywhere of the different Popes, whose similar outfits really transcended time, but I didn't like seeing the lit clear coffins of a couple Popes. They were different colours. Afterwards we stopped in the Vatican's international bookstore (lots of John Paul II memorabilia!), then went back to BILLA to get dinner. I had my last gelato of the trip: raspberry, chocolate and kiwi. If the chocolate hadn't been in the middle between the two fruity flavours the kiwi would have been a bit more enjoyable :)

That's the basic run-down of our whirlwind, 5 day trip to Italy. I had a great time, can't wait to go back to Venice, and it reassured me that you really don't need to know the language in order to communicate and get along in a new place. A great trip, lots of a good memories, and over 500 photos to make me smile :)