Europe Day 14: Rome

Sleep is overrated?
Today we had a really early morning start – I wanted to die. I missed breakfast trying to clear my camera cards – I don’t remember why, but I forgot to clear them last night.

Rome ahead!
We got a bus lift to the train station to take the train into the city. The rail ride wasn’t too long but we had to switch lines twice – this was a little confusing since the Metro lines in Rome skirt around the city, rather than running through it. This is because of all the ruins that exist in Rome, and how 95% of them are all 50% below the current level of the ground. We got off at Colosseum station (which unbelievably is RIGHT across the street from the actual Colosseum – it looms in your view as you exit the station) to make our way to the entrance of the Forum for our two-hour walking tour of both (the Forum and the Colosseum).

Roman Guide
Our historical guide was quite good and quite funny, and told us a lot about the city’s history – though I fully admit I’ll need to look through the pictures to recall it all. I’m definitely a pictorial memory person – plus – I was certainly paying more attention to my photographs, and only my secondary multitask ear was keeping track of her.


The Colosseum
We made our way though the Forum, which she explained as being the centre of the original city, where citizens gathered and conducted business and affairs, and we learned some interesting facts about the centre of Roman civilization. From the Forum, we then went to see the Colosseum. Our guide referred to it as the Roman Amphitheatre – as most of the outer layer of the Colosseum was demolished (only one side remains) and what you can actually see is what the Romans called the Amphitheatre area. That ring of walls is still mainly intact.

So many facts
Our guide was filled with lots of facts to share with us about how the Colosseum worked, where the word arena came from, and how the Colosseum was used for both water games and dry games due to the access to the Aqueduct. She actually spent quite a lot of time explaining tons of details to us which was a nice change since many times we have been visiting sites without really knowing too much about what we've been seeing, and not really having anywhere to turn to for finding out. One of my "Millionaire Wishes" is that one day I'll get to travel with an actual personal guide to historical sites, because the emotion of the history really comes through when you know the actual stories behind "what's left behind" instead of the random guesses of people who don't really know.

Running free in Rome
Our tour ended in the Colosseum and from there we were free to do other things. Because we only had the day in the city, and had been told about long lines and crazy wait times, we decided to head right away to Vatican city. After hopping the Metro and getting off at the right station, we decided to grab some lunch first. We went to the “suggested” pizza place – but it really wasn’t all that “hot”. However – we were hungry – and couldn’t bother to find anything else – so we sat and ate.

Line-up
From lunch, we then went to find the “line-up” for the Vatican that we were told about – but there wasn’t one! Apparently the Pope was in Australia, and regardless of it being a summer day in the height of travel season, there simply really wasn’t anyone in line to enter Vatican City from the museum entrance. We got right in, right away (sans the mini-wait time when Heather had to re-line-up to get her student discount since they only give the discount from one ticket window… wtf’s with that?).


Vatican City Museum
They’re pretty good about cameras in the museum so we took lots of pictures – especially in all the areas with statues and sculptured art. When we moved into fresco areas – we weren’t allowed to use our flash, but still allowed pictures. I’m not sure how the pictures in these areas came out – they always look in focus on the camera but not necessarily so on a computer when there’s no flash allowed and the shutter speed is so slow – so we’ll have to see how they come out later.

Sistine Chapel
We then got to the part that I had been waiting for forever – the Sistine Chapel. It was so absolutely beautiful and magnificent – I was awestruck. I could have stayed in that room all day. I know people think I’m crazy for the emotion that takes over me for movies, touching stories, seeing history in the flesh, etc. – but I don’t care – I find it much more crazy and depressing to think of the poor people who AREN’T moved by it. How sad their life must be to not be able to expand their minds in order to feel and envelope in appreciation what that room has to offer, or anything that has a story to tell.

While I would have been absolutely content to not go anywhere else in the city, I was also with a bunch of people, and there were other things to see, so we made our way to the secret exit that Leona told us about. Instead of leaving through the museum exits and having to –re-enter the area to get into St. Peter’s Basilica (which had an enormous line-up), our secret exit led us through a small stairway and side door that dropped us right in front of the entrance to St. Peter’s!

Tombs
Before entering the church, we decided to enter the small line-up that would take us down into the tomb area of the Basilica, where all the Popes are buried. All of them have tombs with sculptures of themselves in a lay-down position on top of the “boxes”. The only tomb unlike this was for Pope John Paul II. There wasn’t any reason for it laid out, so we’re either figuring he asked for such a tomb – or perhaps that’s the way the tomb for the last deceased Pope always looks. It was separate in a brightly lit room, flat and made of white marble. There were many people gathered in front, paying their respects and praying. At the end of the tomb walk, you get to see St. Peter’s tomb that is housed under the Basilica altar.

St. Peter’s Basilica
From the tomb walk, the exit actually leads you directly up a set of stairs that have you coming up from the belly of the Basilica into the centre of the church. Inside – the Basilica is absolutely beautiful and exquisite. There’s so much detail in the artwork – and evolution certainly hasn’t stepped inside this Basilica at any time. Perhaps the upkeep of historic artwork is the only time such a concept is a good thing. After getting our fill of the church, we then walked out into the Square to get a look at the whole picture.

Easy day in Rome
After finishing with the Vatican – we then had the rest of our day in Rome to really just relax and hang out. We went shopping and H-Rabbit bought lots, getting her shopping kicks out. We walked along the Tevere (Tiber) River and saw Hadrian’s Mausoleum (Castel Sant Angelo), and came upon a local market area walking towards the north of the city.

From there we then revisited the Trevi Fountain for me since I loved the site so much. After, we just wandered around and had a great pasta dinner in a small restaurant. Afterwards, we made our way home on the multiple trains in time to catch the coach ride back to our hotel.

Saying goodbye
Once at the hotel, we took some time to get rested and showered. We then joined the group in the hotel patio to say goodbye to part of our tour group. In the beginning – our Road to Athens group was combined with the Road to Rome group and this was their last day, and tomorrow morning we would be heading off to Greece without them. Leaving us was Natasha and Belinda, Tatiana, Mic and Ali, as well as a few others, for a total of 15 in all. Joop also joined us for a few glasses, as after he drops us off in Brindisi for the ferry to Greece – he too would be leaving us.

Europe Day 10: Venezia

Train-ing in
Today was a normal day. Yay for not having to get up in time for a bus! We walked for a little bit to the local train station in our area so that we could train-in to the Venice islands. It was actually a pretty far ride – we have GOT to make sure not the miss the last train back or it’s going to cost us a fortune – and several headaches – trying to get back on our.

Raining Ferries
Just as we boarded our Ferry, once again the plague of rain that has been the norm on this trip started again. The Venice ferries really aren’t ferries at all so much as little tour boats that fit about 50 odd people or so – so the rain that was pelting the area definitely gave us an adventurous ride being so close to the surface of the water. Thankfully, upon landing the rain disappeared as quickly as it came, and it looked like maybe we’d be okay for the day (or at least most of it).

Piazza San Marco
From the docks, we walked quite a bit around the edge of the island, past four waterway bridges, to the Piazza San Marco. This is where a lot of the main tourist “attractions” are actually centred in the city, and where we would be seeing the two demonstrations that would begin our day.


Murano Glass
Our first stop was to a Murano Glass maker’s demonstration. To be honest – I actually found this demonstration absolutely amazing. The artisan made a vase and a horse sculpture right in front of our eyes in less than 5 minutes. The glass house does both blown glass pieces as well as shaped. It was wild to see how malleable the glass was – it looked like pulling taffy. Both H-Rabbit and I would have loved to pick out an heirloom or keepsake piece, but the prices were severely out of our reach. The smaller pieces in our price range just weren’t big enough to really represent a unique Venetian piece, and looked like stuff we could even get back home – so while we sighed and lamented, we were really good about not picking anything up that we really just couldn’t afford. (Though even now I am still despairing over passing up the gold inlaid purple shot glass and decanter set I saw – it was to die for!)

Covered in Lace
From the glass demonstration and gallery, we then went to a lace demonstration at the last lace school in Venice that focuses on the local art of handmade lace. The place was covered in beautiful examples of the craft – it’s hardly believable that it was all done by hand. While it is inspiring to think of the time and craftsmanship required to create such pieces – lace isn’t really my thing – however, because the prices weren’t bad – I picked up a tiny keepsake and a present for someone back home who would love it more than me.


Getting Lost in Venice
Leona’s one main piece of advice for Venice was to get lost in it – so that is exactly what H-Rabbit and I did. To be more honest – we really didn’t have a choice. For every city so far through our trip, Leona had been able to give us pretty awesome maps that were clear and easy to follow – however for some reason her Contiki package from head office forgot to include the Venice maps. So here we were trying to follow a very rough photocopied version, and well – we gave up after about 10 minutes. With the rain, the traveling and the putting things in our backpacks and pulling things out constantly (to save them from the rain) – the map was a bit of a disaster. So – simply trying to keep track of north, east, west and south – we decided just to wander enjoy the wondrous views and picturesque alleyways.


The most amazing pizza ever!
Heading into the maze of streets, we realized we hadn’t eaten in forever and found the most amazing pizza place ever. It was a small tucked away place in the middle of God knows where (we were “lost” remember – can’t even give you one iota of where the place was). Instead of selling their pizza by the slice – they sell it by the weight – so basically you can pick and choose however much you want, from whichever pizzas you want (mix and match even), and they then weight it all and you get your price to pay. I absolutely adored what I got – though H-Rabbit wasn’t extremely impressed by hers. There was nowhere to sit to eat so we eventually made our way down a dead-ended alley (dead-ended by water) and took some time to devour the slices, while simultaneously keeping them away from droves of pigeons.

Rialto Bridge
As we wandered, we eventually found ourselves at the Rialto Bridge. We walked through and along the market passageways, which were filled with a ton of artisans. Here was yet another example of flea market wonderfulness that Toronto severely lacks. As you walked further and further away from the bridge, the prices got better and better so eventually I found a large masquerade mask for our wall. I didn’t go all out and get a ceramic version, but the one I got was still fairly delicate. I hope it makes it home all right.


Basilica di San Marco
Magically, we seemed to make our way back to Piazza di San Marco and decided to line up to see the Basilica di San Marco. While the church was very quaint and nice, it actually wasn’t all that impressive. What I did end up being impressed with was a small girls youth choir from Texas that came into the church and sang while we were there. They sounded magnificent, with perfect pitch resonating through the always-amazing acoustics of a cathedral style church.


The Doge’s Palace
After the church, we went to see The Doge’s Palace, and were expecting a line-up from what we heard from other people – however when we got there we almost thought that it was closed – there was no line! This aspect of our day actually turned into a pretty amazing visit. The entire palace is covered in beautiful and intricate carvings, frescos, paintings, woodwork, tapestries… you name it, this place had it. The collections throughout the rooms were breathtaking – not to mention the architecture and structure of the palace itself.

Our goal, of course, for the palace was to get to the “Bridge of Sighs” that was used to move prisoners from the courts built right into the palace to the prison next door. This was the last chance prisoners had to look out onto the outside world before being locked up. We took a few pictures from within to match up to our pictures of the bridge from the outside so we could get a feeling from “both sides of the fence.”

Downpour
As we were finishing up in the palace – we got hit with yet another downpour. Thankfully we were able to wait it out perfectly dry within the palace walls. It was actually neat to see the play of dark, light and water within the palace walls, as the entire inner core of the palace is an open-air courtyard. Without moving we could tell when the rain stopped and we could move on. Just in time to meet the rest of the group too for our collective Gondola ride.

Disappointment
However – we were to miss out on the one and only thing I had ever wanted to do in Venice. Our gondola rides were cancelled at the absolute last minute because the company feared it would start raining again as hard as before – and all the Gondola’s are stopped in such weather. There was nothing to be done and the group dispersed as a bunch of the people was to go to dinner as a group (we skipped out) in about an hour – so even if the Gondola’s became free again – the group as a whole couldn’t go. Some people managed to get a Gondola ride on their own – as other companies were still riding their gondolas out despite the rain – however H-Rabbit and I weren’t that lucky. I was really disappointed and must admit it’s a sore spot on the trip for me.

Hail in Venice
While the company was right – it did rain again – it didn’t happen until a few hours later. We would have been gone and back from our rides before it ever began. However, admittedly, it didn’t just simply rain again – it hailed! Hail in Venice! H-Rabbit and I got caught out in the middle of a small piazza right in the middle of it – it was crazy. The power and size of the hailstorm was truly nerve racking. I don’t think Venice sees too much hail as the nearby cafes didn’t even know what to do with their umbrellas and tables – it was funny to watch, as they stood dumbfounded at the falling umbrellas and such.

Quiet Dinner
In the end – the rain and hail didn’t seem to want to let up, so when it got a bit lighter, we trudged on and found a small restaurant to grab a bite. We had a beautiful (and cheap) dinner of spaghetti, caprese salad and bread. Afterwards, we walked around some more. Heather made a stop to do some Puma shopping and then we took our time making it back to the ferry docks for the boat ride back to the train station.

Ish-time is aggravating
Well, Ish-time worked in reverse this time – instead of leaving later, we almost missed the ferry home because the group left earlier than the time we were even asked to gather together. Thankfully – the first boat filled and they needed to call a second so we weren’t left behind. We had a hilarious ferryboat ride home, as the people who went to the group dinner seemed to be just a little bit “tipsy” from all the free wine they got. It was jokes and laughs all the way home. The “party” continued on the train ride home with tons of antics and even an episode with a disgruntled ticket conductor. Yay for our new Italian friend, who got us all out of a jam by interpreting. We finished the day with a nightcap with the group, but then tucked in at a fairly decent time.