Roma!
The first day in Rome, we let ourselves sleep in a bit. We got up at 9 something and moseyed over the footbridge to the grocery store to get some food. We got Muesli, which is a granola type cereal, bananas, digestive cookies, apples, yogurt, ham, nutella, and other stuff. It was cheap and nutritious and I was really excited not to be eating another cream filled croissant. We ate and planned our day a bit, deciding to check out the Vatican, since my book said it could be done in a morning, we figured we’d have time. You can’t wear shorts to the Vatican, so we put on our skirts and grabbed our scarves (no bare shoulders) and took a quick bus from our Camp. We started with the Vatican Museum. It was really huge and overwhelming. We started with the Egyptian section, although it was very hard to find the start. They have a real uncovered mummy and lots of interesting artifacts. Then we went through Greek and Roman statues, seeing the Laocoon Group and the Apollo Belvedere and the Belvedere torso, which had a great impact on Renaissance sculptors like Michelangelo. These pieces were 2,000 years old. The museum continues for literally miles through hallways of tapestries and maps and art and we were exhausted by the time we got to the frescoed rooms of Raphael. We saw the School of Athens, where he depicts artists of the time as the philosophers of old. Then it was time for the trek to the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museum is hot and crowded and grandiose. The scale is pretty ridiculous and I couldn’t help but think about how much money the Catholic church would have if they toned it down just a hair. The Sistine Chapel is the culmination of the Vatican Museum. It is the collection tank for all the pilgrims that journeyed the four mile museum just to see it. It is hot and packed with people and very loud, even though guards periodically SHHHH everyone. The walls are frescoed by other painters. The main attraction is the ceiling, obviously, and the Last Judgement fresco on the wall behind the alter (also by Michelangelo). I listened to my audioguide for both of those and learned as much as I could handle. The ceiling of the Chapel took four years to complete and shows the creation story and the story of original sin as well as the fall of Noah. It is all about man in the image of God, but saddled with sin. The Last Judgement, which is pretty self explanatory, was in some ways more impressive to me, perhaps because of all the hype surrounding the ceiling. In any case, it was an absolute zoo in there and felt more like an over done function all than the most important holy space in the Catholic church (its where the cardinals meet and pick a new pope). The flow of the attractions at the Vatican brings you right to St. Peter’s at this point. We had opted for audio guides, and so had to return to the start, through what seemed like miles more of art and stuff. By the time we were back and done it was almost five and we were wiped out and St. Peter’s dome was closing within the hour. We decided to head back to the camp, since we didn’t really have a feel of the city to wander in, and cool off at the pool.
The pool was very refreshing, and we needed to eat. I have been feeling like I needed protein, but there really isn’t much in the way of groceries here. We were too lazy to leave camp and get better food or cheaper (its how they get you) so we went to the restaurant here again and splurged for the buffet, which looked good. It was, and we could go back for more meatballs and whatever was good. Lots of veggies too. I ate a ton. It was pretty late by the time we were done and we just camped out in the bathroom journaling and charging our appliances. The one downside to this place is there are no plugs. Jane went to bed early and I stayed up talked to Alex on a shitty payphone.
The next day, we got up at 8 or so and went to the Colosseum. We were approached for a tour and decided to try it. We put a lot of sunscreen on several times that day, because it is unbelievably strong here. It was SO hot. We learned a lot about Nero and how hated he was and the big fire that tore through Rome that allowed him to take most of the land for himself. The place where the Colosseum stands was once his personal Lake. Its called the Colosseum because there was a 35m (the Colosseum is 50 m) gold statue of Nero in front of that place called the Colossus. They erased is face and made it into other gods and stuff and replaced his head multiple times after they decided the memory of Nero was to be erased entirely for Rome. The Colosseum was an effort to bring the people back to the city center after Nero’s rule was over. Obviously it was used as a stadium for Gladiators and Animal battles, which is pretty messed up. It made me want to watch Gladiator with Russell Crowe again, even though Jane boycotts it. It was hard for me to really get how truly old this place is and the crazy engineering that they did to figure out how to make something so big and tall and even resistant to earthquakes. The next tour was in an hour and was of the Forum and Palatine hill. This was almost more interesting than the Colosseum, and we had an American guide named Mary. The Palatine hill was where Rome was founded. It is the home of Romulus and Remus, if they existed, and houses the ruins of the Palace (a word derived from Palatine) that the rulers of Rome built after Nero went so overboard with his that took up all of downtown Rome. We saw lots of ruins and heard stories of how Rome was in the early early days. We also saw the Circus Maximus, where the chariot races were, and all sorts of temples and the “Et tu, Brute” place. The tour was really long and very hot and covered a lot of area. Some boys tried to befriend us in the Colosseum and then joined our tour for the hill, but we couldn’t really be friends with them and listen to the tour at the same time. Oh well. After we found a ladies room, we wandered up to the street (the ground level of Rome has risen a tremendous amount and temples that used to be raised up are now dug out) and oriented ourselves to find food.
We decided to head over to the Pantheon, where my book said there were some cheap eats. We walked by this CRAZY monumnet to the Vicor Emmanuel and the unification of Italy, and various other Ruins and stuff. We got to the Pantheon and were approached by a nice American woman who said there was a free twenty minute tour of the Pantheon starting in a few minutes. We decided it was worth it (we love free) and Jane ate a power bar so she could make it. The tour was to promote the other tours the company does, and was given by Steve, a red headed American who apparently dated our tour guide Mary five years ago before she moved back to the states (she obviously came back). It was a great tour and we learned about the dome (still the biggest in the world) and the hole in it (shower drain in the bottom from the old days still works) and saw Raphaels tomb (When Raphael was alive, mother nature was afraid he would out do her, now that he is dead, mother nature fears she will die also) inscription. We learned about Margherita pizza, named for the queen who chose it in a contest to find the most national dish (red white and green if you’ve never noticed) and about how the marble and bronze was removed for rennaissance stuff like Raphael’s arch in St. Peter’s. The obelisk on the fountain in front of the Pantheon is crazy old, was 5000 years old when they brought it over from Egypt, so old, in fact, that Moses might have looked at it too. There is a plaque in the square about how they cleaned up the place of indistinguished eateries, and that it is deemed fit for the Pantheon (in latin, of course) right over the McDonalds. HA.
We found this place Miscellanous that was in my book and got Tuna and artichoke sandwhiches for an early dinner, with free strawberry homemade wine because of my Rick Steve’s book. We hung out there and decided to stay in town, and did the “Night walk across Rome” from my book. We started at the Campo de’ Fiori and wound up at the Spanish steps. We hit the Piazza Navona, which is full of street venders and artists, musicians and people. It has the Four Rivers fountain by Bernini, which was amazing, but somewhat tarnished by a seagull disembowling a pigeon. We went to a recommended restaurant to get take away Tarfuto, a “death by chocolate” ice cream sundae of sorts. Then back to the Pantheon to sit at the fountain and listen to the band sarnade people having a romantic dinner or dancing in the Piazza. We went through other squares, finding more obelisks, and big fancy looking buildings. We followed the book’s directions and wound up at the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is absolutely HUGE. Its beautiful and roaring and not directly approached by any streets. Again, extremely romantic (great…) There was a couple who were getting married or just taking pictures in the outfits, and everyone cheered when they kissed. We took pictures and moved onto the Spanish steps, another very busy night scene (most of the places on the walk were) and climbed them. We went into the church on the top and saw a little known Michelangelo statue of Christ and a cross. We wandered around there a little bit before deciding it was time to head back to the hostel and rest our poor feet. It was a really long day by the end of it all, by this time it was 10:30 or something. We took the subway to our bus stop and waited forever. Just when I was sure the bus wasn’t coming and we would have to walk, it came, and we did end up getting back to the camp till 1130 or later. We were FILTHY from walking all day in flip flops and through ruins and dirty city, so we had to shower before falling into bed.
We couldnt bare the thought of getting up early and going hard again, so after much deliberation, we decided to sleep in and go to the pool today and do St Peter’s and maybe something else if we had time in the afternoon. The city is too big and hot to try to master, and we want to take advantage of the pool while we have it. We also needed the time to blog/journal and make some up coming plans. We leave Rome tomorrow, and while we havent seen it all, we have done the best we could. I am sitting at an internet cafe near the bus stop (it has better rates than the one at the campground) and going to eat my lunch while we book a hostel in Sorrento, so we can see Pompeii. We think. We are really having a hard time deciding things, but the plan as of now is to go up the coast to the riviera (italian and french) and then to Paris. We will be there for a few days and then hit Berlin on the way to Prague and Vienna and then maybe Croatia and Greece. We have had both HIGHLY recommended to us, and they are cheapish. But the plan is always changing.
Rome is fun, but hot and big and hard to navigate. Because our campground requires the use of public transport to get home, we cant really enjoy the night life, because buses and trains stop running at midnight. But thats ok, we made some Aussie friends at the pool today and they by .99 cent wine bottles and party at the camp, so theres that option. We are pretty low key and want to sleep alot, so we arent missing much. Plus, I dont think we are up for going out and meeting Roman men. Scary. Anyway, we need to get going to the Basillica, but hopefully more later.
We love and miss you all!
Jane and Graham
