|
Quick link:Italy Pics
December 11, 2003 - 5:00 pm - Rome, Italy - 14 C and Overcast
(Tony) We have yet to get to the UK travelogue, or even to finish the Egypt travelogue, but we will get to those eventually. For now, I want to talk about where we are right now, and that is Rome. We arrived here on the 7th, and have been busily trying to see as many sites as possible (there is an endless number of things to see in Rome). Our first day (December 8), we headed down to the Colesseum, but it closes early in the winter, so we walked around for awhile, and settled on doing a walking tour that is outlined in the Rome Lonely Planet guide. It was a nice stroll along narrow, twisting streets that stopped at several churches and ruins. Rome is amazing in that ruins are around every corner! It sometimes seems like there was an endless supply of marble and sculptures back then! The next day (December 9), we headed straight for the Vatican. After seeing St. Paul's cathedral in London, I was very interested in seeing not only St. Peter's, but the Vatican City as well. I did not know much about the Vatican prior to coming to Rome, so it was very impressive to see the immense circular open area surrounded by colonades on two sides, and St. Peter's on another side! Some postcards are of an aerial view of this area filled with people, and I can't imagine how many thousands of people it would take to fill that area! One interesting thing is that when we were in Egypt, we had heard about an obelisk that was taken to Rome, and we found it in the middle of this open area at the Vatican. I'm still not exactly sure why a huge pagan symbol like an obelisk is located in the heart of the Christian faith. However, we were told by a guide that pagan symbols (scenes from Greek mythology) on the doors to St. Peter's are a type of instruction to 'leave any pagan worship at the door.' I assume that the obelisk is along the same line... The portion of the Vatican that the public can enter is the open area I discussed above, as well as St. Peter's cathedral and the Vatican Museums. The Vatican Museums do require a lot of time, so we opted to go through St. Peter's this day, and take in the Museum another day. Upon entering the cathedral, we fell in with a free tour, which was extremely helpful, as many of the features of the cathedral would have been lost on me. For instance, the building is extremely tall, and there are various levels on which sculptures are displayed. In order to make things more consistent for people, the designers called for statues to be larger on the higher levels. This means that a sculpture of a person at ground level may be 2 m tall, but at the top level, it is much taller (even though they appear to be the same height!). The main dome in the cathedral is the largest in the world, and it is easy to see that, as it is huge! After the tour, we were able to take a lift and some 320 stairs to the top of the dome for some spectacular views of Rome. A person is also able to look down on the areas of the Vatican that are not open to the public, and it is beautiful. There is a pleasing mix of green space with Roman architecture, all surrounded by an imposingly tall wall. The dome and some sculptures aren't the only amazing things at St. Peters, mind you. There are numerous Popes that have been buried there (some are on display), and the monuments to them are massive works of art. There is also the largest bronze sculpture in the world (something like 30 tonnes of bronze), which stands above the point where St. Peters remains are located. Another amazing fact is that all paintings have been removed from St. Peters to avoid damage from humidity and insence smoke. Instead, replicas made of mosaic were constructed of each painting, including some very famous ones (Raphael's 'Transfiguration of Christ'). Mosaics are very popular in Rome, and are small, coloured ceramic tiles which are mounted to make a picture (like painting, but with tile placement, not a brush and paint). This means that flash photography is allowed in St. Peters. With a tired neck (from all the gawking upwards at St. Peter's), we headed down to the Colesseum. The area around the Colesseum is littered with large scale ruins. There, in the middle of the city, the Colesseum stands marble arches, the Roman Forum, and the ruins on Palintine Hill, all swallowed by surrounding buildings. It is quite a site! The Colesseum itself has gone through a number of restorations over the years, which allows a person to visualize it at various stages of life. Some of the restoration work is relatively recent, and I could visualize the whole building still being used, with 50,000 people moving quickly through the 80 arches at the base level to see gladiators fight. There are also areas which are not restored, and although they are still standing, they very worn by time. I imagine that this is how the Colesseum appeared after it fell into disuse, and it's stone was pilfered to use in new buildings. Inside, the Colesseum reveals the innerworkings of the gladiators battles. There was a wooden floor in the fighting area, held up with a series of arches underneath. These arches form passageways that can now be seen, as the floor is gone. The seating areas can also be envisioned (no seats remain), and it seems that nose-bleed seats are not a thing of new stadiums! On the top level, a person would be quite far away from the action below. The next day (December 10), we had the privilege to attend an audience of Pope John Paul II, which was great! The Pope gives an audience on Wednesdays, and you can obtain tickets on Tuesday from the Vatican guards. The Vatican guards are very interesting themselves, as their outfit is unlike any other guards we have seen. They wear a vertically striped outfit that looks like it's from medieval times (the stripes are orange and black), and they are armed with a pike (a long spear with an axe on the end). The guidebook tells us that they form a highly trained army that guards the Pope and the Vatican. They also are required to be born in Switzerland, be devout Christians (of course), and speak at least 4 languages. Wow! The audience lasted about an hour, and the Pope had chosen a portion of the bible to discuss, but it was in Latin. He did welcome visitors in several languages, including English, Spanish, and German (amoung others). I was very impressed by the number of languages that he can speak. Although he is getting on in years and his voice is getting weak, I could still hear the power of his voice. It sounds as if his body is failing him, but his mind is still strong. The audience was much more interactive than I had expected. When the Pope was welcoming people in various languages, he was also mentioning specific places that groups were from. These groups would stand up and cheer, sing, or even play instruments for a moment. At the end, the Pope would bless anyone or any item that people wished to have blessed. I had expected him to give a mass blessing, but people lined up to kiss his hand and be personally blessed by him. This was quite an undertaking, as there were thousands of people at the audience! December 13, 2003 - 11:30 pm - Rome, Italy - 11 C and Sunny
(Tony - this is a continuation of the above travelogue) After the Pope's audience, I headed for the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill (Krista has already these). Palatine Hill was an upper class area back in Roman times, and the structures there are massive, even though there are in a very ruinous state. The higher area of the hill was even extended by the addition of large arches up to the same level. Although this was impressive, there is not much left of this area, and I moved on to the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum takes up an area roughly the size of two city blocks, and was the centre of many important activities in ancient Rome (justice and money to name a few). There are many spectacular ruins standing, even though the bulk of the area has deteriorated over time. December 16, 2003 - 19:25 - London - 5 C and Mostly Cloudy
(Tony - this is, again, a continuation of the above travelogue) After spending a few hours gawking at the ruins of the Roman Forum, I decided to go for a walking tour in the Rome Lonely Planet guide. This walk took me not so far off the beaten path, but far enough. The small sidestreets throughout Rome are filled with beautiful buildings as well as some interesting ruins. It is amazed me that every turn (and there are many) led to a new perspective of the city. A small distance can make all the difference, one block can be filled with noisy traffic, while another is a peaceful road, with ancient walls on both sides, with trees spilling out over them. Out of all the cities we have been to, Rome has had the most appealing 'feel' - it's like I've lived there before. I think that a walk off the main tourist path only strengthened that feel. The next day (Decemeber 11), Krista and I went with a fellow Canadian on the last walking tour in the LP guidebook. The fellow Canadian we went with was a remarkable girl who had biked into Rome from Lisbon, Portugal (that's 3500 km) on her own! This walking tour took us to the Catacombs, which is a few kilometres South of the dowtown area of Rome. There are several different Catacombs, but we toured the largest one, which consisted of 4 levels, has tunnels covering 40 km, and once contained the bodies of 500,000 Christians (including many matyrs). These Catacombs were used by the Christians both before, during and after the time of Christian persecution. The tour guide's stories of the persecution were very suiting to the creepy feel of the Catacombs, and gave me more detail on subject that I did not know much about. These tales seemed so far from the Christian religion that we have seen so far on our trip. Typically, Christianity is presented as the largest Cathedral in any town or city. In this case, Christianity was a religion that went underground (literally), as mass was illegal and was held in the Catacombs and out of police eyes. It was an interesting perspective. The rest of the day was filled with eating and checking out the Trevi fountain. The fountain is amazing, and is actually built right into the facade of a building! It is spectacular, and the number of tourists there was proof! On the day before we left Rome, I managed to squeeze in a lot - the Vatican Museums, the Pantheon, and the Capitoline Museums. Even with seeing all that, Krista and I still managed to spend a hour or two eating pizza, drinking wine and watching the world go by (we are getting quite efficient at this tourist thing!). The Vatican Museums were mind-boggling! As there is so much there to see, I focused my time on the Egyptian section, all the marble statues, and the Sistine Chapel. The highlight was, without a doubt, the Sistine Chapel! It is an amazing piece of work, and getting the audio guide only helped to understand how much went in to creating all the works of art. For example, Michelangelo spent four years of his life painting the ceiling on his own! A pretty decent website touring the Sistine Chapel is here. I did not know that religous painting could be so captivating! The Capitoline Museums were amazing in their own right. These museums (there are 2) house the biggest and most impressive collection of marble sculptures that I have seen ( that includes the Vatican Museums collections, which is very impressive). My interest in going here came from the fact that whenever we have seen marble sculptures previously, they are typically damaged (a nose or arm or finger missing or general aging). These were still beautiful works, mind you, and it is remarkable that some survived at all considering their age. However, I still wanted to see one in its full glory. Well, I definitely had my fill at these Museums! It was unreal! There were statues of many names that I know - Homer, Hercules, Apollo, Constantine, and many more that are not as well known! Wow! That pretty much sums up the bulk of the sites that I saw in Rome. However, it is not just the sites that are memorable. I will definitely remember walking the streets, hearing Italian everywhere (I think that it is the best sounding language so far), slipping into the narrow back lanes and finding a church facade dominating a small courtyard, or a piece of ancient city wall built into a building that is still being used. What I mean is that the feel of the city was just as impressive as the many amazing sites were. I will definitely have to go back there (perhaps with my family, as my Dad was born in Italy...). December 23, 2003 - 9:22pm - Kathmandu, Nepal - 12 C and clear (!)
(Krista) Apparently I haven't done any updates to the Rome travelogue...oops. Excuses, excuses, but it is so hard getting to a reasonable priced internet cafe in Europe. Pubs and nightlife further exacerbates this issue, making our website updates few and far between. Now that we are back in the third world, this will be easier, as nightlife is nil, and it is sooo cheap. Right now we are paying $0.50 US an hour on the computer, whereas in Europe prices range from $2.00 to $6.00 an hour (US). So how did I like Rome, on my second time around? I absolutely loved it. I must admit, my first time in the city did not give me a good feeling of safety, nor much enthusiasm for the people or culinary choices (being gluten intolerant and all). However, this time my expectations were exceeded. I think this change in attitude had alot to do with the hotel where we were crashing, and its location. My first time, in 2000, Nadine and I crashed in this hotel that was situated very close to the train station. This area isn't necessarily the nicest, as we had drug dealers out frotn during the day, and prostitutes in the night (the hotel was nice though). This time, Tony and I chose a hostel that was as far as one could get from the train station - way out near the Vatican. Our first hostel, Hostel Casanova, was a very quiet place to be, although a little expensive (20 euros / night/ person). The guy, Jacob (pronounced Yacub), working the desk there was totally amazingly nice, and if the place hadn't have been so much of a dive, we would have stuck around for the length of our stay. Actually, it wasn't so much of a dive, its just it was more like a messy apartment with 20 roomates than a hostel, and this has very little appeal to us. The kitchen was small, and the two staff members (who also lived there) left their dirty dishes in the very small sink. Further, there were 20 beds and only one decent toilet. Luckily, our second and last night there Tony and I had the six-bed dorm room to ourselves! In fact, there were only three guests in the entire flat! After two nights at the Casanova, we moved on to a classier, cleaner and, to our surprise, more private hostel: The Colors Hostel, also near the Vatican, turned out to be one of our most favourite places to stay during the entire journey RTW. We ended up paying 18 Euros a night each for two beds in a "dorm" room, which was actually a double room converted into a dorm room because of the lack of shared washroom facilities (two of the three were undergoing renovations). in this room, there were three single beds, and get this, a spotlessly clean sink and shower! The best part was, the hoteliers left the third bed in the room empty for us. Thus, we had an entire double room, basically with our own private facilities to ourselves for only 36euros a night! Score. Another great benefit with this hostel was the kitchen: so clean and large. Tony and I ended up making dinner most nights since it was so comfortable. The staff at the hostel were very nice, very informed, and spoke excellent english (one of the staff members, Lisa, is actually from Saskatoon!). The only real downfall, besides a single toilet for 12 people, was the noise from the street down below. I slept with my earplugs every night to compensate. During our stay at the Colors hostel, we met some terrific people, one being Claudine Labelle (Ross) a French-Canadian from Toronto (originally from Quebec). The reason why I put Ross in brackets, is that she was only a few days away from marrying Ian Ross when we met here. This 21-year old is a treat to meet. Listen to her story: by-herself (she's 21 remember), she quits her job in Toronto, flys to Lisbon, Portugal with her bike to begin the 3700km SOLO cycling journey to Rome, Italy. We met her as she was finishing up this leg of her trip. Now this isn't the end. Here in Rome she was meeting her fiance, Ian, who flew in a few days after she arrived. He also brought his bike so that they could bike down to Sicily to get married! Can you believe it? Now for all you who don't like traditional weddings, this is for you: Because she had been biking for so long, she had no clothes, no flowers, no shoes, nothing. Further, they had no idea where they were getting, or by whom. The only thing she was certain on was that she marrying Ian, and in a church. Wow. Besides meeting this terrific woman, we were lucky enough to spend a few nights socializing over wine with her. Further we managed to coerce her into joining us on one of the Lonely Planet Guide's Rome walking tours through Via Appica to the famous Catacombs. Now, this was a total highlight of Rome for me. Last I was in Rome, I had heard briefly of the Catacombs, but never considered them as a destination. Luckily we had enough time to visit these awe-inspiring and emotion stirring, Christian burial places. For years, I have been travelling to Christian dominated countries, and thus have toured my fair share of cathedrals and churches, and seen a good amount of crypts and scenes of martyrdom and symbols depicting death. Through all of this, nothing has made me feel this much for the Christians and their struggle early on in their history as this place. For those who don't know, catacombs were once used for a place of burial during ancient Roman times. Thus, the catacombs we visited aren't unique. What are catacombs? They are underground labrinthine tunnels and levels where the dead were sealed in distinct holes in walls three to four high along the length of the tunnels. Before sealing the body using stone, or marble (for the rich) they would wrap the body in a shroud. As you could imagine, our half-hour journey into these mazes of tunnels were very austere and creepy. Our tour guide, a priest, took us only to the third of four levels within the catacombs, and we saw only a minute proportion of the unsealed holes where 2000-year-old bodies used to lay. There are many catacombs remaining in the Via Appica region of Rome (which looks and feels just like rural Ontario believe it or not), and only four are open to the public. We decided to hit only one of the sites, the San Callisto Catacombs, as they were deemed the most popular. All of the catacombs open to the public are the Christian catacombs from the days of persecution in Europe, and thus all have a large story to tell with tons of sadness and history. Buried within the San Callisto Catacombs are some of the first Popes, all martyrs in themselves. In fact, one of them (and many followers), was killed while secretly delivering a mass within the catacombs when he was stormed by Romans who entered through a found entrance. At this time, Christianity was illegal, and thus all masses were done secretly within the catacombs, and usually all entrances were hidden. This time Roman soldiers found their way in and broke up the mass. Armed with this story, and others the priest told, I emerged from the depths full of sadness and a new compassion toward Christians and their ancient persecution; something that is easily overlooked when touring opulent cathedrals and their large presence in Western society. December 27, 2003 - 8:18pm - Kathmandu, Nepal - 9 C and raining
(Krista) As I mentioned, the walking tour from Rome's Circo Massimo metro station towards Via Appica and the catacombs with Claudine and Tony were a definite highlight to Rome. Besides the catacombs, the entire trip towards the road named Via Appica, and down it were very impressive. I'm not too sure why this street and area exist, but there must be a reason, as this entirely rural area is only a few metres from the flurry and chaos of downtown Rome. Down the narrow cobblestone streets exist lived-in houses dating from the 11th to 13th century, as well as ancient churches and monasteries that still bear witness to the Greek Orthodox church in Rome (the Greek cross was found in many of the churches). Also, along the walk we encountered one of the first walls built around Ancient Rome. I cannot tell you how amazing it was to walk down these ancient roads, with very little traffic, and to read about the history along the tree-lined road burying ruins of ancient tombs. Via Appica was impressive too; old buildings and the odd cafe along its length. It felt like we were walking through rural Italy, whilst buried within urban Rome. Cool. Besides this incredible walking tour, the Lonely Planet guide to Rome turned out two other exploratory walks through otherwise-unexplored neighbourhoods. Rome is full of narrow streets lined with buildings, cathedrals and monuments that are over 2000 years old. Without having purchased this guide, Tony and I would likely never have made our way off of the main, no less historial, streets into these wonderful neighbourhoods. The other two walking tours though led us from these busy streets into the trafficless neighbourhoods of the Jewish Quarter and Trastevere, respectively. The Jewish Quarter tour took us past the only kosher pizza restaurant in the city, and through narrow narrow streets filled with cathedrals, squares, and Roman ruins of buildings and a theatre that bears a striking resemblence to the Colliseum. I love old Rome's ubiquitous squares, which may be used as a parking lot, but often is centred by a fountain, bordered by a cathedral, and lined with street-level cafes allowing their guests to watch the world go by. My favourite square is the one fronting the Pantheon (I can't wait to get this photo uploaded). The third and last walking tour took me up one of Rome's seven hills, Aventine Hill, and down through the old streets of Trastevere, where I saw some magnificent cathedrals and some more cool squares (many functioning both as a parking lot and as cafe hosts). After I finished the walking tour up on the Palantine Hill, I was pulled to eat at Augusto restaurant, where Tony and I enjoyed a very Italian meal with plenty of white wine (which we did not finish and thus took with us to a "seat" within the busy Torre Argentina to finish while Tony downed some cheese-free pizza). This walking tour took me to some really cool sites, including this "keyhole" of a gate to an aristocratic garden whereby you look through it and see only St Peter's dome staring right back at you (you have to see the photo to understand what I mean). Further, the walk started up on the Aventine Hill, which features a terrific panorama of Rome and features many busts of Roman generals and dignitaries, and a large sculpture of a Roman general who symbolically faces downtown Rome and has his back to the Vatican City (read into that one!). All in all, if any one is considering a trip to Rome - pick up Lonely Planet's Rome guide and do all three walking tours. A trip to Rome in winter is not a warm one, as many would expect. For three of the six days we wandered the city's streets, we experienced temperatures that dropped below anything London threw at us, AND there was more rain. Rain is the funny thing in Rome, as it seems the entire city, man or woman, throws up an umbrella at the first drop, no matter how small it may be. They must really want to protect their hair. This would be no problem if it didn't make walking down the sidewalk a full out attack by unpredictable moving weapons threatening to take our eyes out! Okay, while I'm on a roll about highlights (with a slight diversion there), I must talk about our encounters with the Pope, which Tony touched on above. Tony mentioned our very fortunate opportunity to partake as audience members during his weekly talks in the Vatican auditorium. The second encounter with the pope, which deserves mentioning, occurred on the first evening in Rome. Here we were standing waiting for bus 492 along a narrow street that spurs from the heart of Roman traffic, the Piazza Venezia. Suddenly the ubiquitous Roman police sirens shrilled and a few slow moving police cars passed by us. At this point, Romans started moving in droves to the road's curb where we were standing. TOny and I looked toward the street where the people were staring, and who of all people drove by in uptop a car in a throne-like position? The pope. There he was going by about 15 feet in front us, waving like just like he does on TV. Cool. Another highlight for me was actually getting to see St Peter's Cathedral this time around. The first time I visited the Vatican City in 2000, hordes of tourists and pilgrims were onsite to celebrate the Jubilee Year of 2000. You would not believe the masses of people streaming into the cathedral while Nadine and I were trying to sneak a peak. The only way one could actually move in the cathedral was by being pushed by the hordes of people like a water molecule rushing down a waterfall. After about ten minutes, and about ten feet into the cathedral, a man decides he is going to reach around in front of me and start rubbing my thigh - right in the cathedral! At this point, I had had enough of crowds and was worrying about my personal security, so we turned around and left. Thus the only thing I saw of St Peter's was the high alter hundreds and hundreds of metres in front of me over the hundreds and hundreds of visitors heads. Thus, this time to the Cathedral was a real treat, as there weren't many visitors, and we were given the opportunity to wander at our own pace (although we hitched on to a "free" tour being given by a very fast-talking Irishwoman who took us around at record pace, but left us full of information of the cathedral, its art and history - she got 8euros from us). Michaelangelo's Pietra is definitely a must-see. A totally amazing feature of this cathedral is that all art is done in mosaics. Even the painting masterpieces that once existed on the walls have now been replaced by mosaics for protection. Michaelangelo's entire dome is covered in mosaics too. A must-do at the cathedral is the climb to the top of the dome to look down onto the cathedral's floor, and to walk outside and catch the amazing 360° panorama of Rome. It was a little chilly that day, so we spent only about fifteen minutes up there, but I took many photos to capture our memories. Of all the ancient structures in Rome (including the Colliseum), my absolute favourite of both times in Rome is the Pantheon. This gigantic Roman structure, built in 118 to 126 AD, still remains intact for visitors to wander for free. I can't quite figure out what I love so much about it, but I think it has something to do with the hole in the top of the domed roof that allows sunlight to shine down onto the precious marble floor, and around to each chapel that lines the walls of the circular cathedral. I also love the marble within. It seems that St Peter's and the Pantheon could very well contain the world's entire inventory of precious marble. In fact, the Pantheon's dome was once covered in precious marble, which was pillaged by Barberini to make some art and sculpture for St Peter's Cathedral. The dome is now only concrete, but I imagine it was beautiful before Barberini got his hands on it. This time around in Rome, I actually had the chance to visit the inside of the Colliseum (I was too cheap in 2000, and seeing that it is now 10euros to get in, I probably should have gone in then). I must say, the outside is much more impressive, and in less ruinous state. This is one thing I likely could have skipped, although it is kind of cool imagining what the place would have looked like 2000 years ago. One of my most favourite buildings in Rome is the Palazzo Venezia, a building dubbed by Romans as the "typewriter" for its shape. This huge white building fronting Piazza Venezia, dominates Rome's skyline huge, especially at night when floodlights light up the entire structure and its massive sculptures lining the roof. This time around, Tony and I stumbled upon the museum housed within the building, and thus I was able to catch a glimpse of the renaissance and baroque sculpture within. It seems that most of the museum is devoted mainly to national tourists, and not foreigners as all explanations are in Italian. The main draw for foreigners is the views from the structure's doric column-lined "deck" over the Roman forum and old Rome. So what was food like in Rome? Well, we really don't know since we ate in the hostel most meals. This was an effort done to both save money and to save us from the frustration of finding foods that were both dairy and wheat free. Don't get me wrong, we did hit some restaurants, and Tony did have his share of cheese free pizza (a large share), but eating it was the way to go. We find that supermarket shopping is a great way to see the way locals interact with each other, and to see what they actually eat! In one of our frequented supermarkets (Standa, near the Colors Hostel), it seems that the Italians were sucking up Christmas cake. Tony and I, on the other hand were sucking up this amazing dessert called Torrone; a nougat bar, with hazelnuts and cocoa. Yumm. One phenomenon we experienced on our night of arrival into Rome was the Roman "drug store". While searching for a 24-hour supermarket, we stumbled upon a drugstore, dismissed it as a possible food market, and kept on following the directions given to us. We subsequently got lost on the desserted streets (it was late), and turned around, only to become drawn into this busy drug store. Here we found what we were looking, and learned an important lesson - apparently Romans call 24-hour supermarkets "drug stores". There are four or five of these things within Rome, and are all labelled as such. One last thing I should mention about Rome is the age of the majority of its population! It seems that most people were over the age of 50, and there were not many kids. This observation was confirmed by our guidebook mentioning that Italy has one of the fastest declining populations in the world! This is a vast difference from London, where most people were our age, and even more different from Nepal where kids are the definite majority (more on this in the Nepal journal). I personally think that it would be beneficial for people our age to move to Italy to cover for their aging population and potentially growing job market. I have a million more things to say about Rome, but I feel I covered a vast majority of it. I will likely have the photos up in the next few weeks to recount our stories, altough with our bad luck on finding acceptably fast internet connections on the Indian Subcontinent, we may not. |
Have a look at our Italy Pictures
|