Last Day in Rome

We had our last day in Rome...

We tried to get up and going early, which really didn't happen, but we tried. That's worth something, right?

Anyway, after breakfast we hopped the metro to the Coliseum and from there slowly walked our way to the Pantheon. Although not nearly as grandiose as some of the other sites I still think the Pantheon was one of the most amazing. Its an engineering marvel built almost 2000 years ago and certainly is the best preserved of all the ancient Roman buildings. It has a massive, unsupported Dome with a giant opening in the center (the Occulus). The dome is made entirely of concrete. As the ancient Romans began building it they realized that the dome would be too heavy and collapse on itself, so they started etched out boxes on the inside of the dome to remove material and make the dome lighter. As they continued upward to the unsupported center they realized the dome was still too heavy, so that started adding small hollow pottery pieces to the mix to make the concrete even lighter.

After the Pantheon we just sort-of wandered the city for the rest of the day. We had good information on the best cappuccino in Rome and the best Gellato, so we decided to try both. The Cappuccino was amazing, but the Gellato was so good that I got two cones - I know, my poor pancreas. The dark chocolate Gellato has bits of really good dark chocolate in it, and the blackberry was to die-for. 

After the Gellato we walked up to a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that had working models of many of his inventions. I wish that the exhibit had been larger and slightly more interactive, but in all it was a very nice "last event" for our trip.

That's pretty much the end of the exciting part of the trip. From there we headed to the airport and endured the 36 hours of travel to get home. Sleeping in my own bed last night was the best thing ever!

The Sistine Chapel (Day 2 part 2)

I woke up this morning and realized that I didn't even mention the Sistine Chapel in the post yesterday. Originally, we went to the Vatican assuming that we would just do a self-guided tour, but there as a very long line to get in and we got a pretty good deal on a tour, so we decided to take the tour. The tour really culminated in the Sistine Chapel.

The Chapel itself is much smaller than I had imagined. Also, I didn't realize that all the walls were painted about 30 years before the ceiling - the masters that trained Michelangelo and Rafael were responsible for the walls, I actually liked the walls better than the ceiling. The colors in the entire room are amazing. One of the things that impressed and surprised me the most was how vivid the colors still are after 500 years. That being said, I was less impressed with the ceiling than I had hoped to be. Because the colors are so bright, the images so large, and the characters so muscular I felt like I was looking at a 500 year old comic book rather than a masterpiece. I didn't take any pictures, mostly because it is strictly forbidden to do so. Search the web, I'm sure can find pictures of it and you can see what I am talking about. That being said, it was pretty amazing to see something that I have heard about and imagined all my life.

Day 2 in Rome

9am came way too early this morning. Whereas I have been the first one up each morning, today I was the last one up. Lisa actually had to wake me up this morning. After another late start, we were off to the Vatican. We spent the entire day wandering through the museums and chapels - which was a good thing since it tried to rain a little bit today. It is very surprising to see how many pagan works of art the Popes have collected over the centuries. Hall after hall was just stuffed full of ancient Roman, Egyptian, Etruscan, Babylonian, and Assyrian artwork and artifacts. I found this statue of a dog from ancient Rome and decided to give its ears a scratch. Even a 2000 year old dog likes a little attention every once in a while.

After we worked our way through a tour of the Vatican that included the Sistine Chapel, we were left to wander the halls and eventually ended up in Saint Peter's Bascilica. Now, you all know that I am not Catholic, and I particulerly have a had time with the veneration of people - I don't even like "hero worship" so you can imagine that I was less-than-thrilled to find the center of the Catholic/Christian world centered around the tomb of Peter. Saint Peter's Bascilica is really a giant shrine to the Popes and has little more than a passing ascension to Christ. Anyway, the architecture and artwork are amazing. The photo below of the altar in St. Peter's doesn't even begin to do justice to the grandeur of the place.



So again, we were on our feet all day and I am really tired. I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again sometime very soon.

The end of day one in Rome:

Today we woke up early, and by early I mean 8 am, and then proceeded to take our time getting ready for the day and getting going. We have a great little breakfast at the bar attached to our hostel. I have a bacon and egg sandwich - very American. After breakfast we started walking...

We walked from our hostel past the Forum ruins to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The monument dominates the surrounding landscape. From the Tomb we walked over to the Colosseum. We spent a lot more time here than we needed to, but it was interesting none the less. It is a little sobering to realize that we were standing in a building devoted to the worship of death (basically). From the Colosseum we walked back through the ruins of the Forum and then up to a church that looked huge on the tourist map. Unfortunately, the church was closed and our walking was in vain. From the church we back-tracked to the Trevi Fountain.

The group consensus is that the Trevi Fountain is pretty amazing, yet the sheer volume of tourists was a little overwhelming. It was a sea of people surrounding a wall with a fountain. I can't even imagine what the place would look like in the middle of July! From the fountain we walked to the Spanish Steps to catch a breath-taking sunset.

We walked from the steps to dinner, and had yet one more amazing meal in Italy. After which we walked back to the hostel where Lisa and I proceeded to get a Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick to the Face (it's a drink)... I'm not a big drinker, but the name says it all - I can now say that I survived a Chuck Norris roundhouse-kick to the face (Jagger, Vodka, Sambuca, Tabasco - YUK!!!) With that, I will leave you with the fact that I am headed to my room to pass-out. Not from the alcohol - one drink shouldn't do that - but from the fact that I walked back and forth across Rome for the better part of 12 hours.

Finally in Rome

Good morning from Rome!

We finally made it to Rome after an amazing tour of the country-side. So far we have been to Napoli (Naples), Pompei, Sorento, Florence, Venice, Pisa, and now Rome. It has been quite an adventure.

So, yesterday morning we drove to Pisa, which has to be the world's biggest tourist trap. There is nothing to do in the town except see the church and the leaning tower. Everyone takes stupid pictures trying to make it look like they are propping up the tower, I thought it would be funny to take pictures of them. And since we were there, I decided to try and push the tower over - I guess I'm stronger than I thought.

Anyway, we had fun driving around and finally made it to Rome. Our hostel is nice and has free wireless internet, so now I can post a little more frequently. Now, I need to go do something in Rome so that I can have something to tell you all about.

Venice

OK, this is going to be quick because I have 15 minutes of internet time left and I have to get back and make dinner - yes, we are in an apartment here in Venice and we decided to cook dinner tonight. So, in the tradition of the area, wild game is on the menu. We will be having Prosciutto-wrapped quail with fresh Cheese Ravioli in a nice Roasted-Red Pepper Tomato sauce. I mean, really, how many people can say that they not only ate a gourmet meal in Venice, but that they cooked one?

Since last time I posted we have been to Florence - which was absolutely amazing. The Duomo is incredibly huge - just awe-inspiring. Then, the David is in Florence so we stopped to see that too. There are no pictures to do it justice. Really, it is amazing.



After Florence we drove onward to Venice. We arrived late Sunday evening and then proceeded to hump on the wrong water bus. An hour later we were kicked off the boat and told to get on a different one to reach our destination. What should have been a 5 minute ride or 15 minute walk turned into an hour and a half. We were all very hungry and tired and starting to get a little edgy, but we made it, and it was worth the wait. The city is amazingly beautiful (even if there isn't that much to do) and we have really enjoyed walking around the last two days.

Ciao for now...

Days 1 & 2

Buona Sera (Good evening) everyone,

I'll get pictures up tomorrow (if we have internet tomorrow night). We flew into Amsterdam yesterday and had an 8 hour lay-over before flying to Rome. After spending about an hour trying to buy a train ticket (first, we couldn't get the ticket machines to take a Credit Card, then we couldn't them to take cash, it was a mess) we made it to the central station and walked over to the Anne Frank House. The museum was pretty amazing - very touching. We walked back to the city center and had dinner then rode the train back to Schiphol (the airport).

The flight to Rome was uneventful but trying to rent a car was not - long story short, we got one but ended up paying about $100 more than our reservation confirmed - we'll try to get that corrected tomorrow. The rental agency called a Bed & Breakfast for us to stay out, which was very nice. Everything seemed to be going great until I realized that my "international phone" has to be unlocked from the States first - a lot of good that does me. Oh well, I brought the wrong charger anyway. Then, I went to put on my shorts to go to bed, oops, I grabbed a pair of khaki pants, not shorts. Then, as if that wasn't enough, I plugged in my laptop to the power converter and laid down for about 15 minutes, until I was startled by a loud "POP" and a terrible smell - the power inverter had blown-up. Actually, something melted...

Putting all that behind us we drove to Napoli (Naples) this morning. All I can say is that I thought LA Traffic was bad - bah, it is NOTHING! the Italians are psychotic. There are no laws on the road: Slow truck in front of you? No worries, just pull into oncoming traffic and zoom around, they'll move! Can't find a parking place? No worries, just park in the middle of the road. Don't want to stop for that pesky red light? you don't have to! Really, there are no words to describe driving in Italy. We finally ended up in Pompei at a nice little hotel. I for one am glad to have a nice safe place to rest my head. Speaking of which...