Roma! I'm in Rome! Haha freaking Rome!
It's hard to put into words the history that is around. Thousands of years of history. Of course all places in the world have millions of years of history. But this is in your face, this is living history. Ruins or as Stewie Griffin would say, rueeeens. They are everywhere and it's interesting to see how much real estate is taken up by preserving so much history. It's really great to see a city that has preserved so much of history. I guess here big stuff in history actually happened.
My first day here was a day to get lost, i do this pretty much everywhere and i do a great job of getting lost. I managed to get lost and find such places like the Trevi Fountain, Museum Of Art & Culture, Trajan Column, Santa Maria Basillica, Piazza Della Republica and literally stumbled across the Colosseum. The only problem I have with Rome is the city layout. Most cities you can look at a map, or pretty much guess your way around. Most layouts are squares, rectangles, triangles even. Not Rome, it's just a big mess. That is great that it's not the norm, you don't want everything the same. I hate planned living and exact housing estates with no personality and everything is just the same. But it so hard to get your bearings on a map. I'm gunna blame the map for this one. Oh, and streets change name halfway down itself? Hmm yeah that took hours out of my life. Let me indulge the story of how i got home last night!
It was about 3:30, pouring down with rain, i think i was asked by about 48 gypsies if i wanted to buy an umbrella. I am soaked to the core and yeah now i want an umbrella, dick head! They didn't follow or pander you about it, they could somehow tell that it was a no sale. Some did actually realize that the sales pitch was a bit lost on the tourist who's hat is dripping in front of his eyes! Wet and seen as much as i can see for one day of getting lost i headed back tot he hotel. On my way back to the hotel, i took the general direction towards the hotel. It would be easy to switch data roaming on my phone and check out the direction from google maps but my phone bill was excessive at the moment (texts are fine in Italy since they have "3" here and the same with the UK). I had a map that the hotel distributes to the guests, but the problem was that advertising covers up some of the street names, and funnily enough these are the street names i was looking for. The problem being also on the map is the monuments are facing in the wrong direction (for printing purposes only). So I'm at the arts and culture museum looking out at the balcony i spot the colosseum, wait that's not the colusseum.... Just some ruins. Look around a tiny bit more, ahh there it is, big difference! Ok ill head there next. Check the map, back right hand corner of the museum goes straight to the colusseum....... It doesn't. It's actually the opposite direction. That's when the penny drops that the pictures are for landmark purposes only! Ok, where's a bathroom. I never thought i could hold on for so long. I thought I'd have to get a peg to stop any possible flow. I envy that women can seem to hold it a long time! I ended up going down some streets that basically went in a circle, four lefts and you're back where you started! I found a police station, must be the main one, cause it was massive. I went in hope that a) they could understand what i was saying and, b) they knew where one was. A) didn't turn out so good. I heard the officer speaking english to a Japanese couple so i thought great, asked him if he spoke english, out of courtesy, yes. Do you know where a toilet is? No, no, police station. He than starts to push me towards the door. Toilet, i had seen signs and toilet seemed the same word in both languages (or all signs were accommodating to English speaking people). No police station. He points to his badge. Yes, yes i understand. Then he asks me why? Why? Why? I tilt my head, why? I need to use the bathroom (and i press down on my bladder) ahh yes, just down on the right!! Grazie, grazie mille! Best pee ever!
When you are really lost you don't even know where you are near, so you have street names and you are looking through a map from the Vatican to near my hotel and all the streets in between. Just to put that in perspective it took me an hour to walk to the Vatican, and i wasn't dawdling. So heaps of little streets, back alleys and of course advertising hiding the street names i was looking for made getting lost really easy. But i found the colusseum, just as the heavy rain had started. No issue since i organized to do a tour of the Vatican and Colosseum while I'm here. I just really wanted to catch a glimpse of it first.
As you can tell I've gone off on another tangent, don't worry i will get back to why it took 3hours to get home, and you've wad so much I'll try and explain it in less that how long it took! So it had been about 45 minutes, then 1 hour then 2 hours of walking and i should be close. The rain and this incessant pain in my right leg wasn't helping (dunno what is causing the pain but it's in the same area as shin splints but it's muscular, the muscle that helps you lift our toes). My map was drenched, it was dark and i couldn't make anything out anymore. My spirits weren't dampened at all, i had good weather all morning and this was Rome telling me it's time to relex, and get back to the hotel. When i get back to the hotel! I tried to find anything in the area that was familiar. Had a feeling i was close, just because of the housing, street layout was a bit more suburbany i suppose. And today i found out how close i was. I was literally 5 minutes from my hotel. That night, yes night by now, i managed to spot a map at a bus stop that actually has a you are here spot and my intersecting street was just around the two right corners. I double checked the direction of the map with the intersection, just to make sure i was going to take the proper two rights. I did check, and at this point I'm glad I'm alone, a woman would have killed me by now! But i laughed because i was actually close. Off i headed in the maps direction, two rights...... Hmm this is certainly not familiar, WTF Rome! I even checked the direction with the streets intersections..... So after a half an hour the scenery changed and i wasn't in Kansas anymore. I gave up, came across a taxi rank and hopped in! Best €6.30 I've ever spent!
After having a nice hot shower i went to explore the local restaurants.... And after 30 mins of searching, there isn't any. The hotel has some food at their bar, so that will do. Lasagne alla bolognese por favor. The barman is great, doesn't speak english that well, well not to me, seems good when he speaks to other people, but i think he wants me to use more Italian since i know a few more phrases. I sit down he gives me the remote, of course i find football, so I'm even better in his books! The lasagne was pretty good, not as good as mine of course ;-) it was funny as i sat down i heard the freezer open and the microwave turn on...... Ahhh authentic Italian cuisine! But it was better than the lasagne i had tonight in a restaurant and the lasagne i had at Lake Garda. Had a great phone call from Trina, making sure i was okay, i should have said something about my leg! But it was great to here someones voice. Thanks Treen! Early start tomorrow, Vatican City, the smallest country/principality in the world! Not Monte Carlo!
I woke up feeling fresh, 5 hours and I'm fine to function, though a nap is probably going to be imminent around 5ish. And funnily enough, it did at 5! I had plotted my route to the Vatican city and the meeting point of the tour. The tour included the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel! I'm glad i had a tour, one to skip the line but also to learn a whole lot more than i ever would have! I learned a heap about the start of christianity and the first pope. The few popes afterwards and their influence on the area and the landscape. Very interesting. I'm not a religious person, i will not hide that. My heart believes in a higher power, not that it controls us, or our fate, we control that. But it's a belief, like all religion is. My head doesn't agree will beliefs, it deals with facts and understanding. I do believe and practice just being a good decent person, respecting each person of their different beliefs, cultures and backgrounds. And i expect the same. I understand why the vast majority of populations around the world have a belief in one way shape or form, but it's all the same message in the end. It's like saying thank you, it is said in so many different ways but means the same thing. Grazie, merci, danke, thank you, takk, obrigado, gracias.
Now into the museum you go through security, remember you are actually going into another country, though going into Vatican city on the other side is free of metal detectors. But the museum also asked for me to check my bag, was too big, ha how many time have a heard that..... Sorry backpack! I guess they don't want people spinning around and knocking thousands of years of history on the ground. The museum is beautiful, a lot of little bits of artifacts that are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Some of the highlights are some of the sculptures, amazing detail and human form, women aren't done too well, they are as muscular as the men but they have boobs and longer hair. We all know most women have a bit more waist than men, not all but some. The baths, especially Nero's big ass bath! When we are standing in the courtyard we go through what we will see in the Sistine chapel. You are not allowed to talk or take photos inside so we go through the layout in detail before we get inside. Normally i'm a little annoyed that a lot of people come so far to see this and they cant have a photo to show anyone who may never see it, but this time I'm okay with that. My photos wouldn't be able to do it justice with tourists around and I'm not going to put some lovely photo of Michelangelo's work shoved in my backpack! Some japanese company bought the rights a few years back for 100million so they have every right to want to make sure that their investment is secure. It's stunning, amazing piece of work, it took longer to restore it than it did to paint it, and more people did the restoration! Just some small background on the roof of the Sistine chapel, was painted by Michelangelo who was actually a sculpture. Raphael a famous painter at the time, wanted to get rid of Michelangelo so he would be the only famous artist getting all of the work. So he told the pope i think it was Julius II to get Michelangelo to do it. He said no, i'm a sculpture not a painter. Nero said if i ask you, you have to do it. He then threatened Michelangelo with war on his home of Florence. He agreed to paint it, not really knowing the (fresco) technique of how to paint on plaster. He tried and pieces of the roof started to fall off, so he bailed back to Florence. Julius was pissed and sent letters and ended up getting the Swiss guards to bring him back. After a small meeting Michelangelo agreed to do it (apparently with the imprint of the pope's fist on his face). So he hired someone to teach him the fresco technique. After the first three panels he fired them and did the rest on his own. He was a bit of a dark character who had a humorous side painting enemies as demons (in the last judgement paining also in the Sistine) and also painting god mooning aimed at Julius for making him do it! And he did it standing up on scaffolding looking straight up, not on his back like it has been depicted in the movies. What was really impressive as was the last judgement, it really tells a story! The pope at the time asked him to paint it, but he knew the pope was old and not well and soon to die, so he said he'd do some sketches (because he was working on another project) and then he would never have to do it. That Pope died, but he didn't destroy the sketches, the new pope found them and got Michelangelo to do it anyway. The detail is phenomenal as is everything in there, but its just so wow, the whole room, well more of a wooooooooooooow! My English isn't good enough to explain how good this place is. And in one of the paintings that Raphael did (the one with great minds like Aristotle, Pythagorus, Plato etc) he even put Michelangelo in it after seeing the Sistine chapel. Which would have been a big thing since he tried to ruin his reputation by advising the pope to hire him to do something he wasn't trained to do. In all the place was magical, i wonder if the pope just walks around and just marvels at all that surrounds him. And just in general around the halls of the museum, the roofs that have been painted look like they have been carved, but they are flat. One of the drapes/massive cloth/tapestry i don't know exactly what it was but, Jesus' eyes follow you and so does the tablet that he is standing on.
From there i headed to St Paul's Basillica. Probably doesn't have the external detail say as the Duomo in Florence but inside it's massive, gorgeous, awe inspiring and even some minstrels were practicing on the balcony so it gave a real buzz to the place. Not like the minstrels that were in Monty Python's Holy Grail. I even managed to walk up the 600 stared to the top area of the dome. Sorry Pete, if you wanna go to the top you'll have to walk sideways, your shoulders aren't going to fit in those corridors, and tiny stairwells! If you're really badly claustrophobic forget this part of the Vatican! Take the lift half way up, and be happy. If you wanna conquer it have a crack! Or go caving beforehand! A long day, my leg is still very sore but a good massage certainly helps! Colosseum tomorrow, then Naples for a Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius tour.
Hope everyone back home is happy and healthy!
No comments:
Post a Comment