All roads lead to Rome

"If you think about it, every experience is worth having." - Henry Ford

Wow - what a week! I can't believe it's our last day here.

Roma is quite literally a city of experiences: good, bad, amazing!

Our flat has been wonderful, great location and fantastic flat mates. I definitely recommend the Beehive hostel and apartments to those traveling to Rome. While we've been here, we've had 3 sets of flat mates. Kerry and Pat (a couple on honeymoon from the US) have been here the entire time and are also leaving for Florence today, Diane and Jana (mother and daughter) from Canada stayed for two nights and then two fellow Aussies, Paul and Michelle from Adelaide. We've hung out a lot with Kerry and Pat and went on a long walk with them on Friday night and had a blast!

Rome is so easy to walk in - so our feet are pretty happy that we're spending the morning on the train to Florence

16 May 2007
Woke up in Rome - had to pinch myself!
We were very tired and jet lagged from our trip over and I was feeling pretty lousy, so we had a very quiet day. Found a little Trattoria and ate overly priced pizza, then found a supermarket and picked up some basics as we have a kitchen here at the Millefiori apartment. Got back to the flat, met Kerry and Pat (who looked as flat as we did), and Diane and Jana. Cooked our own dinner and went to bed very early.

17 May 2007
First official day of sightseeing,
Today we visited the Mt Palatine and Colosseum ruins, which to our great delight we found was an easy 15 minutes walk from our flat. Also to our great delight we discovered it's culture week here in Italy and entrance to most of the main attractions is FREE! So we saved 20 Euros on the tickets and had a delicious pasta lunch.

Mt Palatine is amazing, although poorly sign posted, so unless you have a tour guide, book, etc... it's a little confusing. I definitely recommend a guide book as you can move at your own pace and it's cheaper! The gardens are beautiful and nice to sit under the trees and view the ruins. I couldn't believe the amount of marble columns just lying around and the amount of structures still standing. We wandered into the museum and had a look at some of the relics found on the site including statues, pottery, etc... Was interesting to see how the portraiture styles (sculptures) changed with the different emperors. The view over Rome is also spectacular and you can look over other monuments and ruins.

The Colosseum is very impressive. When we arrived there were two queuing points, one had a massive line, curling around the exterior of the Colosseum, the other was empty! Couldn't believe our luck (or that everyone was queuing in only 1 line) and so ran in. half expecting to be pounced on by some security guard, but waltzed through unhindered.

Everyone knows the history of the place so I wont prattle on much about the building. Upstairs we found an exhibition on the Greek god Eros, which I thought was more interesting than the building (not all that taken by the Colosseum). Showing his various incarnations and the stories about him and how he was represented. I guess we know him best as a cupid - but in Greek Mythology he was more complex and influenced not only romance and attraction, but also education, etc...

Dodged the peddlers selling cheap sunnies, etc... and wondered back to the flat. Had dinner at the vegie restaurant at the Beehive hostel building. The chef is Australian and cooks fantastic, healthy food. Bought a bottle of wine and sat there and chatted with a group of Americans for a while, before heading back to the flat and to bed.

18 May 2007

Got up early and went to the M.Esquilino markets just down the road from the flat to pick up some fresh fruit and veg for our stay. This was a true Italian experience! Not much English spoken, so we had to get by with hand gestures and our dodgy Italian. The fresh produce is fantastic and cheap! There are also butchers, delis and fish mongers there, so you can practically do your entire shopping. We go everything, including some lamb chops (well we hope it was lamb) for about 10 Euros! The strawberries are the best at the moment - got half a kilo for 1.50 Euros! I could have stayed all morning but Jay was dragging his feet and we had bigger monuments to fry!

After the markets we headed out on the no.64 bus to the Pantheon. Very easy to find and by far the best thing I have seen in Rome. I really recommend the audio tour as once again there aren't many sign posts and if you don't understand the history and design you wont get much out of the trip, the price is by donation and you need to leave ID with them (but it's very secure and you get it back). The building is a feat of brilliant engineering and the history is fascinating, originally on the site of a pagan temple (hence the name Pantheon - meaning the pantheon of pagan gods) it became one of the original Christian temples in Rome and is still used as a church. The dome is HUGE and lets in a brilliant shaft of light through the hole. The floor is slightly concave and there are draining points around the exterior of the floor (which is a huge circle). Possibly the most amazing thing is it's mapping to the summer and winter solstices and that each year on the same day, the light coming through the dome will hit the same point in the church. So you can tell the day, time, month, etc...



Took time out to stand in front of Raphael's tomb. He was only 37 when he died! If you take a look at St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museums, you realise he had a busy and prolific 37 years!

Found a little deli and bought panini for lunch, priced by weight! They were huge and yummy - perfect with an Italian soda.

Walking back to the bus stop - we found a little elephant statue, which Kerry believes was made by Bernini. He was very cute, so we took a photo...



After lunch we jumped back on the no.64 bus and headed towards St Peters, missing the stop and had to walk back down the hill. The queue wasn't too bad and moved very quickly, so we soon found ourselves inside the Basilica. and like everything else in Rome - you look up! The ceiling is amazing and the domes are beautiful. A lot is closed off to tourists, but the majority is open and you can just wander around. We found Michaelangelo's pieta - which is breathtaking. I am not big fan of his paintings (everyone looks like body builders), but the sculpture is beautiful and the detail and emotion in the faces and fabric is astounding, you forget you're looking at marble.



We found a tomb for a pope Leo - apparently there have been about half a dozen - so we took a photo for you Leo - will post it soon.

As we were walking we could hear opera and naturally thought it must be a CD on for the tourists, only to find an orchestra and opera singer mid rehearsal - so it added to the experience - and we stopped and watched/listened for a little while.

Muscled through the crowd to peer at St Peter's tomb and gazed through the grates in the floor and down the little stair cases to see if we could see secret pope business, but saw nothing... Couldn't find a Santa Lucia either! Most disappointed, but she has fairly obscure iconography, so I'll have to keep looking.

That evening after a huge lamb and vegie dinner, we went with Pat and Kerry on a walk through Roma. They have these guidebooks by a guy called Rick Steve (every American we meet has one) who designs little walking tours through cities, etc... so we followed one of these to Campo De Fiora, Piazza Novana, the Pantheon and finally gelati at the Trevi fountain.

Back to the flat and straight to bed!!!!

19 May 2007

Feet were still sore from the previous evenings trek around Rome, but we got up early and went back to the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel and the various galleries. We arrived at 9am (15 minutes after is opened) and found a queue stretching around the corner wall to the entrance, it took us 2 hours!!! Apparently it gets worse during the day, so if you ever go, arrive at 7am! Went straight to the cafe for a drink and a rest - to recharge before the Chapel.





The queue was worth it as the galleries were amazing and I found half of the items we studied during my Renaissance art course. This time we thought ahead and as we passed a book stand we bought a little Vatican guide book for 12 Euro - one of our best buys yet - so we could read about what we were looking at. Found the Lacoon - which I was thinking would be massive - still impressive and so old!!! The maps gallery is one of the best along the way to the Sistine Chapel as is Raphael's studio, where the fresco of the School of Athens is located. The flow of people through to the Sistine Chapel is so thick, it's like salmon swimming upstream - heaven forbid you move out of the flow to look at something!

The Chapel itself is overwhelming and you get yelled at by security guards the moment you enter the door and gaze up: "no photos, keep moving, don't talk!" The place was packed - everyone ignoring the no photo rule and chatting away to their hearts content. As I mentioned I'm not taken by Michaelangelo's ceiling, but the frescoes on the walls by Botticelli and Purogino (sorry about spelling I can never get his name right) are breathtaking and I spent a while reading the guide book and gazing at the walls.

Back to the cafe for another drink - as it had taken us a further 2 hours to get through the galleries and the chapel - then onto the Picture Gallery. Here we saw beautiful medieval pietas and frescoes glittering with gold leaf, including the famous pieta by Giotto, which is better in flesh than any reproduction. Paintings by Titian, Raphael, Fra Angelica, Lippi and even a Leonardo Da Vinci! Felt exhausted but satisfied by the end of the day and we caught the bus back to Termini.

Organised our train tix for Florence, cooked dinner and settled down with a 2 Euro bottle of vino before bed.

Ciao!
Lucy and Jay