I - Rome

17

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Day 17. 1st July. Rome

This morning we set off at a not too disgustingly early time; Raina would refer to this as a sleep in however, I with the normal and sane standards of a university student would not agree. 

We jumped on yet another HoHo bus (Hop on Hop off) to tour around Rome. Rome was amazing, unsurprisingly. However the tour was not. The commentary was barely audible, out of sync and quite sparse. Pretty bizarre that Rome, one of the places with the richest and greatest amount of history , was the one with the poor commentary with lots of silence. The bus also ran on a timetable, unlike all others we have been on, so if we were ahead of the schedule we had to sit at the stop for up to 20min. 

Luckily though – this is Rome. And Rome has enough to offer to get away with sub standard ways of seeing it.

The first look at Colosseum was awe-inspiring. We rounded the corner and there it was, huge and looming. We got off the bus and walked around the outside and looked at the outer rim and Constantine’s Arch. We also got photos with the dorky guys dressed up as Gladiators. They are actually pretty fun, big personalities and the costumes are really good.

We left there (going back to do the full tour tomorrow) and headed down to Pompeii. We caught two trains here. We in fact, had our third experience of missing the train, of the many we have caught. The first miss was in Milan as our connecting train was late. The next was from Venice - it spontaneously changed the time and left early making us miss it by 2 seconds. We were running down the platform, got three paces from the door and the guy would not let us on. And the third was from Rome to Naples because the board listed the destination under a different name that was not on our ticked and the board did not display a number. As you may have guessed, catching trains in Europe is stressful, once you are on it is a great way to travel.

We used this time to go across the street to get a coffee and a prosciutto roll. The coffee here is so amazing, the best coffee I have ever ever had. 

This train took us down the Amalfi Coast which is (supposedly) some of Europe’s best scenery. However 5 ks inland it is a slum. A dirty, shabby area of hundreds of graffiti riddled government apartment blocks and run down houses. It is not at all what I expected.

Pompeii was amazing, so interesting and really picturesque. A much larger city then I was expecting. One of the best parts was the brilliantly well preserved Brothel. On the walls were paintings and mosaics which appeared to be a sort of menu. Choose your type of girl, position, etc. Lol.

If you know me, you may know I have a mortal fear of volcanoes. Ever since I learnt about them when I was 7, I have been terrified. Pompeii upsets me a little having to go so close to a volcano and have to look at the damage it did but I was supported and assured the whole way by Raina that it is fine because Vesuvius is a long extinct volcano. To which I countered “yeah, the ancient Pomiians though that too.”

Anyway, as we made our way through the city listening to our downloaded audio tours I nearly died when I heard the sentence. “Vesuvius is today an active volcano.”

Raina swears she truly thought it was extinct. I am still not happy. In the past we have theorized that I had a past life cut short by the eruption that sealed Pompeii.

A long train trip back and we had late dinner at a charming and extreme delicious family pasta place.

Then slept.

18

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Day 18. 2nd July. Rome.

Yet another early start for our pre booked Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel tickets. If you ever want to go to the Sistine Chapel PRE BOOK YOUR TICKETS ONLINE. DO NOT queue up for your tickets on site. By pre-booking you get to skip the queue. The queue is one of the more disgusting things I have ever seen. It very nearly loops the museum side of the Vatican.  In 30 plus degrees (at 9am), on the side busy roads, with many people selling – tours, scarves, trinkets.

We planned to have a quick look and only really look at the Sistine Chapel but got somewhat caught up in the museum. It is the biggest collection of Greek and Roman marble carvings. These are incredible. I am particularly fond of Greek and Roman history so this was very interesting. I also liked trying to pick who was who of the gods and goddesses. I did quite well I think. J

The Sistine Chapel itself was phenomenal. You could easily sit for hours and just look - though your neck would get a bit sore. Some parts are actually pretty disturbing though. Like in the judgment day piece on one of the walls, there is a man holding up a skin. A human skin of which you can see the face. Ewwwww

As you walk the streets of Rome there is a fairly unceasing barrage of people from all kinds of nationalities and ethnicities spruking and selling tickets for various attractions, souvenirs and things like sunglasses and hats. One group we walked past on our way to the Vatican started to talk to us, we replied “Sorry, got tickets.” And then he said (a Aussie) “All I wanted was a hug.” Best comeback ever. As we walked away I thought I heard an Italian voice ask my name, but though it may not be addressed at me so ignored it. As we were heading back from the Vatican four hours later a guy stopped me and said, he had seen me before. He – after asking my name again and chatting a bit- proceeded to propose to me. Lol. He kept looking to Raina and saying things like what do you say? "Mamma knows best". I think I ended up agreeing. :P Guess I am engaged then. 

More coffee. Sooooooo good! Love. Will stay here forever, just drinking coffee. As was pre arranged Raina was made to sit at a café in Rome and drink an espresso shot. Raina is not a coffee drinker. She cannot even dip a tongue without her face going into spasms of rejection. This experience was most entertaining to me.

As a side effect I who normally drinks café lattes realised that Italian standard espresso shots are divine. So have now switched to espressos and machiatoes. Yum.

Then we went for our Colosseum tour. We did the newly opened underground tour, which takes you to the lower level where the slaves, animals and Gladiators were kept back in the day. You get to see the passageways, the plumbing into the Colosseum and the winch and pulley systems that they used to lift animals, fighters and scenery onto the main stage with. We also got to go to the very top level. These two levels are places the normally, guests can not go. Only the tour of about 15 people go there. If you go to Rome, ever. Do this tour. Raina was particularly moved and appreciated the honor of being admitted to these areas that no one has been allowed to go until a few weeks ago.

The atmosphere of the colosseum was epic. Though literally millions of people and animals were killed here in brutal and hideous ways it does not have an atmosphere like that. For example, Ground Zero in New York and Culloden Field in Scotland were the Jacobites were so brutally slain in Scotland, these places have an atmosphere of sorrow and tragedy. But the Coliseum does not, and I don’t think this comes down to the tourist infestation. I think it was something of cultural relativism. The circus games were a totally accepted (perhaps not by the slaves) activity of the time. And this is where I think the strange atmosphere lies. It is not for us to judge something so long ago maybe. Also it had many positive connotations for the pride of the Romans. 

It took only eight years to build, is astoundingly well build and was built by the Flavians after the depressing and disturbingly corrupted reign of the Augustine Caesars. That is, Tiberius, Claudius, Caligula and Nero all passionately hated by the Roman people. The Colosseum became something of a beacon of hope and community pride after this terrible period. And so I think a lot of this may do something to outweigh the horror of it. Not to excuse it, but to create this atmosphere that is not sad.  In the day, the stadium seated 100,000 people and people had assigned seating  It took only 15 minutes to empty after the festivities. Modern stadiums could lean from this. 

We went for a big walk then down to the Circus Maximus. We didn't see it for a while because it was so obviously right there. An exhausting walk in this heat but worth it.

Then we went to go and buy a new suitcase because our damaged ones just aren't coping very well. Through the subway stations on the way home there were these ridiculously long escalators. I came up with the genius idea of sitting down on them to spare my feet. Seriously. Genius. 

We finally, finally got to do some washing. This is only the second time we have been able to do any. Yay, clothes. I was running very short.