|
Friday
25th. May 2012 - Rome
Some initial thoughts about Rome. It is very noisy, with police cars and
ambulances continually rushing past with their sirens blaring. There are
crowds of people everywhere, but unlike Athens and the Greek Islands the
crowds don't diminish when the cruise ships leave. It just remains busy.
The buildings are magnificent and leave one in awe. It is easy to miss
some of the significant buildings and squares as the streets are narrow
and numerous and give no indication that around the next corner you are
about to encounter another architectural wonder!
Our guide on last night's walking tour said, as we looked out over the
old Roman Forum site, "Look how modern Rome stands many metres above the
old archeological levels of ancient Rome." The Romans have built on top
of many of their old churches and buildings, continually renewing the
buildings and sites. Modern Rome is 6-7 metres above the level of
ancient Rome. Compared with Greece where the old ruins still remain
marginally below the surface. Only rarely have buildings been built were
old ones used to be. It appears as though the renaissance just bypassed
Greece.
Our room at the Hotel Prati is small, maybe 3.5 x 3.5 metres square,
with King sized bed in the middle. There is a small ensuite
bathroom off it containing a shower, toilet and bidet. It is air
conditioned and finally I have a WiFi connection, after the manager
"reset the antenna" for me.
As we were still suffering the effects of yesterday's transfer from
Athens to Rome and the walking tour (2 miles) with the walk back from
the Colosseum, today was a slow day. After breakfast we hit the streets
and retraced some of last night's tour, this time taking photos in the
brightness of day. The temperature was about 25˚C
but very humid. We walked to St Peter's Square, took photos of the
Basilica, then made our way through Piazza Navona to The Pantheon, then
onto Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We had a quick lunch and then
rested up like the natives do with a siesta.
Saturday
26th. May 2012 - Rome
Today was an early start, having to join a tour of the Sistene Chapel at
8:00am. Naively, I had thought when I booked the tour and selected one
that started early in the day with a maximum group size of no more that
10 people, that the Chapel may have been nearly deserted. I soon realised that there may have been anything up to 200, 10 person groups
lining up to go in at 8:00am. The crowd was enormous but most people,
including ourselves had headphones which picked up the guide's dialogue
as we walked along. I took plenty of photos, but there were no photos to
be taken in the Sistine Chapel itself. As the guide took us through room
after room of antiquities and paintings we were allowed to take photos.
I was amazed at the highly coloured ceilings in all the rooms. The skill of Michelangelo and
Raphael etc has to be seen to be believed. It has to be noted that
Michelangelo was a known as a sculpture when the Pope
commissioned him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He
was a very versatile fellow indeed. I managed to sneak one photo of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Part of our tour was to visit
St Peter's Basilica, however there was a service on and entry was
delayed until after 1:00pm. Our guide, Paulo, suggested that we come
back at about 4:00pm as that is when the crowds are diminished. We came
back to St Peter's Square at 4:15pm only to find a line of people, 2-3
deep stretching three quarters of the way around the square. We decided
that we would come back another time. On the way back from the Sistine
Chapel tour we joined the line at The Old Bridge Gelateria, which we
passed last night and were amazed by the length of the queue which
stretched 30-40 metres down the footpath. Our ice creams were huge and
only cost
€2.50
each. We wandered down to the Piazza del Popolo, then back to Piazza Navona for dinner. There was a bit of rain
about, but nothing more than on or two light showers.
We have noticed how the
Romans have embraced the Smart car, as there are hundreds around the
city, not all in the best of condition though.
The photos above were shot last night and
we decided to take some more this evening, which are below
Sunday
27th. May 2012 - Rome
The nearest underground train station to our hotel is Ottavianno, down
the Battistini end of line A (The Red Line). It is also the closest
underground station to St Peter's Basilica. So when we decided to take
the underground to visit the Colosseum, we were confronted with literally
tens of thousands of people walking towards us down both footpaths and
spilling out into the street as they made their way to St. Peter's
Square. Rome is packed with people and this isn't even the height of the
holidays season yet!
We bought our train tickets (2 x
€1.50)
which took us to the Colosseum underground station. We had to change
trains onto the blue line at the Termini. We bought two "skip the line"
vouchers at a booth not far from the colosseum (2 x
€16.00) and battled the crowds to
get to the ticket booth to convert the vouchers into proper tickets. It is a
very strange system. We, along with thousands of other people,
eventually got into the Colosseum. It was pretty impressive, and must
have been an unbelievable sight back in the Roman days when it was all
clad with marble. We took about an hour to look around before heading
off to the Palatine Hill, which was also included in the price of our
ticket. It was quite picturesque and there were ruins everywhere. At
about 2:00pm we headed back to the underground station and took the
train back to Ottavianno. We found a small restaurant just near the
station (Adami Restaurant, Via Giulio Cesare, 195, Roma). I was given a
huge pizza for €7.00 + 400mL draught beer for €4.00 which is the best
value for money we have found so far in Rome. At 3:00pm we headed back
to the hotel for a siesta.
We walked back into
Piazza Navona in the evening and I bought a nice acrylic painting by an
old fellow, Claudio Meli for €100. I took a few more night time photos
of little side streets on the way back to the hotel.
Monday
28th. May 2012 - Rome
Our day began early. We left the hotel just after 6:30am as we were
determined to beat the queue lining up to visit St. Peter's Basilica.
There was hardly anyone there and we
waited only a few seconds to go through the metal detectors. As we
entered the Basilica we were impressed by the size of the building.
There were transepts going off to the sides everywhere many with small
services underway. At any one time there must be up to 20 services
taking place at various alters around the Basilica. We took photos of
Michelangelo's statue of the Madonna and child as we entered. The other
day we had only seen a plaster copy of it in the Vatican Libraries. The
whole building is ornately decorated with statues and alters at every
turn. It was most impressive. At about 8:00am the first bus loads of
tourists (mostly Asian) began to arrive and we left. There were a few
spots of rain as we left and walked back to the hotel for breakfast.
Today is the day we check out of our hotel, cross Rome and join the
Intrepid tour group for the final leg of our trip. As we left the Hotel
Prati to walk to the underground train station it began to rain. By the
time we emerged at The Termini it was raining quite heavily. We had
parkas and umbrellas but out suitcases and back packs got wet in the
steady rain. We eventually found the Bolognese Hotel which is about 400
metres from the Termini but by the time we found it was probably closer
to 800 metres. The Bolognese is a two star hotel. One rings the bell at
the austere front door and waits for the caretaker to release the latch.
There is no lift and so the luggage has to be lugged up to the second
floor where we are. On the landing one is confronted with another door,
this time requiring a key code. Once through this door there is a small
vestibule with 4 rooms leading off it. Once in this area the room key
card can be used to access the room. We were in the "Rotonda Room." The
room is spacious and comfortable. The ensuite is large and comes
complete with shower, toilet and bidet. The huge piece of plaster
missing from near the window is a little disconcerting, but this hotel
is apparently known as an "art" hotel and this is supposed to add to the
ambiance. The Hotel extends another two floors, at least above this
level.
We had lunch at a little restaurant around the corner. There is a
distinct shortage of places to eat on this side of town. Also not many
people here speak English. We now appreciate how convenient the Hotel
Prati was to the middle of the restaurant area where most waiters and
staff spoke good English.
The rain stopped at about 1:30pm and the temperature dropped suddenly,
making it quite cold and requiring warmer clothes. At 6:00pm we met the
other 7 members of the group (with possibly another person to join us
tomorrow) and went out for a most enjoyable dinner at a local restaurant
(antipasto smorgasbord + 500ml red wine
€26.00
for 2 people)
Tuesday
29th. May 2012 - (Rome - Florence)
At 9:30am we joined our tour leader, Davide on a walking tour of Rome.
He first led us to the Spanish Steps and then down to the Trevi Fountain
and to the Pantheon. At this time of day the Pantheon was not too
crowded. We saw the austere front of Chiesa del Gesu, but upon entering
we were astounded at the beauty of the ceiling and the frescos.
We then passed the Old Forum
area and down to the Colosseum. Davide left us there and Rhianne joined
us as we made our way by the underground back to
Ottavianno station. We had lunch at
Adami's Restaurant and then walked down to St Peter's Square where
Rhianne bought some rosaries and posted her postcards at the Vatican
Post office. We then walked down to Castel Sant' Angelo.
It was about here
that we began to get lost while trying to find Lepanto Station. By the
time we finally arrived at the Termini and our hotel the Intrepid group
had left although we were only 10 minutes late. We arrived too late to
catch our train from the Termini to Florence and had to catch the next
one. It cost us 2 x €45:00. But luckily it was an express train going to
Venice and left the Termini an hour after our designated train. We
phoned Davide who said he would pick us up at the Florence Station at
7:15pm.
|
