Pasta, Gladiators and Religion

5/4/09

Today was a travel day..  Spent an hour at McDonalds using their free internet service to catch up on emails.  Then drove from Petersfield  to Heathrow to see if Hertz had found our converters.  Daph had tried to call them several times but they simply do not an answer their phones - a real hassel and very surprising for Hertz.  Unfortunately they hadn’t found it.

We could spend weeks here

We then headed off to Stansted airport to catch our cheap Ryanair flight to Rome.  Stansted is a nice enough airport.  Smaller then Heathrow and a very practical layout that makes returning cars and catching planes very straight forward.  Since we didn’t want to have to carry all our wedding and work clothes around Italy with us we checked a small bag full of clothes at the long term luggage check at the airport for about $10/day.

Ryanair provides very inexpensive flights from London to a variety of locations.  In addition to liking inexpensive flights I had been very curious to see what it was like to fly on Ryanair.  Our flight from London to Italy was about 12 GBP each plus taxes and baggage fees.  You are allowed one carry on that weighs up to 10 kg.  Unlike the States purses, computer bags etc count as a bag.  Checked luggage must weigh less than 15kg and costs $10 GBP per bag.  Daph and I each had a little camera/computer bag that we carried on and checked one bag.  They also save money in other ways - you have to use the kiosks to check in.  All up it costs us about $100 each to fly from London to Rome.  No seat reservations and if you want to board first it will cost you an additional 4 euros.  The flight itself was also a very different experience.  Its reminded me of riding on a yellow school bus.  The inside of the plane is bright yellow.  The emergency safety leaflet is attached to the front of the seat and there are ads for 2 for 1 drinks on the over head luggage compartments.  If you want anything you have to pay for it.  There are no movies.  It is a big yellow school bus and gets you were you want to go - both Daph and I thought it was just fine.  Can see cheap airlines in the stattes adopting many of Ryanair’s business ideas.

Arrived in Italy close to 10 pm.  We took a cab to the airport - typical how much conversation.  How much 50 euro - response its supposed to be 30 - how about 40.  Taxi driver scoffs and walks away - when we don’t jump he comes back and says ok - the cab behind for 40.

Our hotel is located at the top of the Spanish steps - literally - in the historical part of Rome.  Walk down the steps and you are in the prime shopping spot.  Really great location.  The hotel itself is supposed to be a 5 star but it feels a little dated.

Had dinner at the top of the Spanish Steps across the street from the hotel.  Pizza for me and Lasagna for Daph.  The lasagna was out of this world.  Light fresh pasta that melted in your mouth.  Very different from American lasagna.

5/5/09

Today was our day to see ancient Rome.  I woke up very early so I walked down the street to a small café and got a café latte and some croisants for us for breakfast.

The first stop our ancient tour of rome was  Trevi Fountain.  Trevi was an easy walk from our hotel - down the Spanish Steps and through some of the nicest shopping areas of Rome.  We took our time and checked out a bunch of clothing and shoe shops on the way.  We also tried to get some a sim card but to no avail.  We eventually arrived at Trevi..   It is the largest fountain in Rome and is fed by an underground acquaduct from 19 BC.  The fountain itself is of Neptune on a chariot being pulled by sea horses - it is absolutely beautiful.  It is supposed to be good luck to through a coin in the fountain.  A lot of people must believe this since they collect nearly 4,000 euro’s a day in coins for charity.

After lunch in a nice little street side pizzaria one one of the major streets we headed over the Forum.  We had read that it was better to start at the Palatino and the Forum since the line is short and the ticket is also good for the Colosseum..  We made our way over to the forum first.  It was  a little disappointing to be honest.  The ruins are almost non-existant in places and signs describing what you are looking at will say their used to be a huge bronze statue where you can now see the foundation rock stone at ground level.   Without question it is worth visiting to be where the centre of the Roman empire used to be but it does require a lot of imagination and isn’t nearly as impressive as some of the other sites that we saw while in Rome.   From there we walked up to the top of the Palatino hill to see the ruins of the Palace but then the sky was starting to darken (it had been nice and sunny at the beginning of the day) so we decided that it would be best to cut our exploring of the Palatino short and head over to the Colessum before it rained.

Wind was starting to pick up as we walked over the Colosseum and a storm was clearly on the way.  We got through the lineup quickly with our prepaid tickets.  As we were walking in through the gates a bunch of young American’s went by us saying that they were going to try and do all of the outside sections first and leave the inside sections for the rain.  This sounded like very good logic to us so we headed to the top - outside section of the Colosseum first.   The Colosseum used to hold 50,000 spectators which despite its impressive size was not actually the biggest stadium in its day (the stadium for chariot racing held a staggering 250,000 people)   From the top floor you can see the remains of the floor.  Apparently it used to be covered in wood (and sand to absorb the blood of gladiators) and could be flooded to re-inact sea battles.  The remains of the floor looks like a laberinth of walls and hallways.  Within these walls would be  pully systems that would allow them to raise and lower wooden platforms with animals and such.   As we were looking at the ruins I kept thinking of the movie gladiator and how it must have been in Roman times.  As we were taking our pictures a lite rain started and Daph pointed out the fact that all the people  on the other side of the Colosseum were running for the exits.  A  few seconds later we found out why as the heavy rain rolled across the Colosseum towards us -- like everyone around us we ran for the exits.  After a while the heavy rain started to subside and we inched back out into the drizzle to take a few more pictures.  One of the funniest moments of the day happened when I was watching Daph take a picture.  She had her camera pointed at the top wall of the Colosseum.  I couldn’t tell what she was doing but she suddenly froze and started going -- oh, oh, oh and came running over to show me the photo she had just taken.  Apparently just as she snapped her picture lightening flashed across the sky and she got a great shot of lightening over the Colosseum.  We then wandered around the inside.  The huge corridors provided us with protection from the rain and we saw a decent muesum of artifacts from that time showing things like the small dice like games that the audience used to play in the stands.

Since it had been such a nice day when we first started out neither Daph nor I had an umbrella or jacket.  To avoid the rain we decided it would be best to take the subway back. There is a subway stop right across the street from the Colosseum so it was very easy.  We were definitely not the only ones that had this idea and everyone was packed into the subway like sardines.  We took the train to the central station -- the subway is designed like a big hub and spoke wheel with trains meeting at the center.  We then transferred to the line that took us to the bottom of the Spanish Steps just a few minutes from our hotel.  A very convenient way to get around.

After a little nap we walked back down to the area at the base of the Spanish Steps and went to a little side street that we had heard was good.  We had dinner in a little ally like restaurant called Otella Alla Concordia.  Although we don’t usually drink wine we figured we were in Rome and got a bottle of house wine which was very good.  A nice end to a very busy day.

5/6/09

Today was Vatican City day. When I had gone for breakfast the previous morning I had seen what looked like a very active local café at the main intersection just down the street from the hotel.  Daph and I decided that this would be a fun place to have breakfast and made our way down there.  Great place to people watch and see all the activity of daily life in Rome.  As Daph observed, people in Rome seem to have a quick a coffee/espresso and croissant for breakfast.  The counter was crowded with people standing drinking their latte’s, capacionos and espressos and eating a croissant.  People don’t bother to sit and unlike the states there are no sitting counters - but it all works well.

Energized by our lattes we headed for the Vatican.  We crossed the Tiber river and then followed it towards the Vatican.  We knew we were getting close when the bridges crossing the Tiber started to have stone angels on them.  We actually saw the imposing   Castle Saint Angelo first.  It is a big round fort that looks a drum on a wide pedistal.  It dates back to the first century AD and several hundred years ago Popes held up here for protection while Rome was being attacked.  Since we didn’t have enough time to see everything (this is a recurring theme in Rome because there is so much to see) we decided not to go in to the castle and carried on to the Vatican.

Past the castle we turned away from the river and headed towards the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica which we could clearly see at this point.  We walked down the wide avenue towards the Basilica and soon found ourselves in the middle of Plazza San Pietro.  San Pietro is a large (really large) ¾ circle opening to the approaching avenue.  St. Peter’s Basilica is at the top of the circle.  There are two large identical fountains on either side of the plaza and statues look down on people in the circle from the front of St Peters and from the walls of the plaza.  At the center is a huge oblisc.  Have seen it many times on tv but still doesn’t do it justice.  There were lots of chairs laid out at the front of the plaza, a stage and a large throne like chair on it.  Daph and I were trying to figure out why all of this was set up when Daph suddenly said - “Oh my God it’s the Pope”   Sure enough the pope in his small white car was desending the stage and waving at admires waving flags.  Daph and I moved as close as we could and tried to get some photos.  After our brush with greatness  or should that be holiness - we made our way to the entrance to St Peters.   Kind of felt like a herd of cows being coralad through a series of wooden divider/baracades.

Having successfully navigated the que - we soon found ourselves at the base of St Peter’s looking at the tombs of past popes.  Pretty amazing how far back these tombs go - this was to be our first taste of the history that Vatican City holds.

As we we entered St Peters basilica we were both blown away by how big and beautiful it is.  Daph and I have been in many churches, mosces and temples throughout the world and we agreed that nothing is as incredible as St Peter’s.  Every inch is beautiful.  The floors have beautiful tile/mosaics.  The ceilings have mosaic/paintings and the walls have states, paintings and stone work that is breath taking.  Words just don’t do it justice.  You could easily spend all day just wandering around St Peters looking at all of the incredible art work but after a couple of hours we decided to go to the top and see the dome.

There is an elevator that takes you up several floors to help save some walking but even then it is an additional 320 steps to the dome.  The stairs up wind around the dome so some of the hallways and walls are actually curved to follow the contour of the  dome.  there are also narrow sections as you spiral your way to the top.  It is definitely worth the climb though.  The images that we thought were paintings from the ground are actually beautiful mosaics on the ceiling that you are literally standing beside.  If this wasn’t enough you can then go out on the roof and look down over the plaza and Rome.  It was a beautiful clear day and we got some amazing views from the top.

By the time we finished touring St Peter’s it was around 4pm and we were feeling pretty worn out.  We had skipped lunch so we decided to grab a bite to eat near where we had eaten the previous night (since we had seen lots of cute little places there)   A bite turned into an early dinner.

Around 11 we decided to go for a gelato.  Since it was late not too many places were open but we did manage to find one in the expensive shopping area at the base of the Spanish Steps.  Daph got a single scoop cone and I got a triple scoop which ended up costing us about $10.  It was very good and although it was expensive gelato we didn’t mind and figured it was the price of coming out so late.  As we sat eating our gelato we watched others come and go.  One group of girls got a ‘Special” cone with all sorts of little cones and tassles on it.  They were giggling about the special cone and having a good time till the girl went to pay for the cone and discovered that the price was $15 euro or about $20!!   She sort of laughed it off and told her friends it was ok and they left.  I guess one of her girl friends decided it wasn’t ok and came charging back into the store a couple of minutes later with the ice cream cone in hand.  She tried arguing the price to no avail.  As she stormed out the staff to had a little laugh about it.  The girl  must have heard their laughter because that is when the swearing began.   Not very much fun for them but pretty entertaining for Daph and I -- we definitely got our moneys worth .

5/7/09

There really is too much to see  in Rome in three days. In fact, I think you could probably spend three weeks in Rome and never get bored.  Today was our day to see things we missed  the first two days.

Although the Pantheon is very close to Trevi Fountain we had not managed to see it yet.  We headed over to the historical center of Rome - where the Pantheon is for breakfast.  We got a great little table right in the Plazza of the Pantheon.  A charming little plazza with a few outdoor restaurants around the outside a fountain in the middlle and the Pantheon at one end.  Really very pretty.  As if this wasn’t enough a couple of stores over from us were  two cute little ShiTsu’s.  Of course Daph stopped by to say hi to the little dogs.

After breakfast we headed into the Pantheon.  It is the largest Massonry dome in the world and dates almost 2000 years.  As you walk into the Pantheon you are struck by the size of the roof and the light beam that shines in through the domed roof -- there is a large hole at the very top.  Apparently there are small drainage holes in the floors to allow the water to escape when rain comes in through the opening in the roof.  The other striking thing about the pantheon is the fact that it is circular with statues all around.

The historic center all around the Pantheon is a place you could get lost in for a day or more.   Lots of beautiful winding alleys and side streets.  Lots of  sidewalk cafes and hidden little shops.  If we ever did come back to Rome I would definitely spend more time in the historic area.  As it was we spent about a couple of hours wandering the side streets and shared a pizza and beer at a cute little sidewalk café with a jazz band playing in the street.

After our lunch we headed back over the river to Vatican city.  Having seen St Peters our objective this time was to see the Sisten Chapel.  The chapel itself is within the Vatican Museum so you enter via the Museum.  The Vatican has been collecting priceless artifacts for thousands of years.  We had heard that the meseums were some of the best in the world but were still surprised to find Eygptian artifacts along with Roman artifacts.  Again with more time we would have dedicated more to the museums.  However, we wanted to make sure we saw the Sisten Chapel so we pressed on only visiting the exhibits that were on the route to the chapel with a brief detour to see eygptian artifacts.  Won’t bore you with the details of the chapel since they are well known but it is quite a bit more stunning than I was expecting.  Every inch of a fairly basic chapel are covered with beautiful paintings.  Unfortunately no pictures are allowed so we  don’t have any pictures to share.

Afterwards we made our way back to the Pantheon Plaza for diner.  This involved a little bit of wandering since the coblestoned streets of the central area wind a fair bit. At the Pantheon plaza we found a great little outdoor patio to eat that offered a 20 euro dinner.  The dinner included wine, 2 courses, desert and coffee.  A very good deal.  Since Daph and I would normally have just one course and no desert we were quite full after diner and glad to do a little bit of walk.