Sunday, 17 September 2006

Rome – September 14, 15, 16 2006.

We were looking forward to getting to Rome and we had a room booked near the Vatican City. The train journey was reasonably lengthy but coming from Australia, it wasn’t as bad as travelling from Sydney to Melbourne on the train, I can assure you. In fact, the trains are far more comfortable, and despite the fact that the announcements are made in Italian, the communication was still better than on Australian trains!

So, we arrived by train in the evening and we had been warned on various travel websites to be wary of pickpockets at the main rail station, as well as the bus we were travelling on to our room. In fact, the bus we were travelling on to the room we had booked has been dubbed ‘The Wallet-Eater’, such is its reputation.

We managed to get away with no such problem but the bus was absolutely jam-packed, which made it interesting with our packs, but we just pushed people away as required and all was fine. When it came time to get off the bus, it was absolutely tipping down with rain. We had a bit of a walk to the room we had booked, which incidentally, was a room in a flat, however we rarely saw the people who lived there….so that was fine. Anyways, we got to our room ok, wet and hot but fine. We decided to shower and change clothes and as we headed out for a meal, the rain had eased slightly. The meal was a simple pizza for me and a pasta for Samantha, ok but nothing special. After the meal we headed across the road to the Vatican and we walked around St Peters Square for a while. The rain had stopped, although it was still humid.


St Peters Square looks larger on TV when it is filled with people but it is quite large, with a massive obelisk in the centre and various fountains around the square. At the top end is St Peters Basilica and to the right is the Pope’s apartment where he pops his head out from time to time. There are also loads of statues of various Saints adorning the top of covered walkways. The Catholics certainly don’t muck around when it comes to spending cash on themselves and it was very interesting to be in the Vatican.

We wandered back to our room to rest and we wondered if we were going to get a decent day to wander around, or if it was going to rain every day we were in Rome.

Fortunately, the next day revealed blue skies, so off we trundled to see the sights of Rome and experience the much lauded crazy Roman drivers. First stop was the Pantheon. The Pantheon is an ancient columned church with a domed roof that features a hole in the ceiling. I’m no architect, but it was extremely impressive and as I understand, the hole in the ceiling strengthens the dome. Either way, it was bloody good and as it is still standing, in brilliant condition, one must take one’s hat off to the Romans as they were truly outstanding in their forward thinking, architecture, roads, sewers, etc etc. We still shake our heads and wonder what went wrong with the Romans….why are they a complete rabble now? Who knows.


Rome is a brilliant city with loads of beautiful piazzas (squares)…many featuring stylish and wonderful fountains designed by great artists. It also has loads of columned buildings as you’d expect and it’s a city where you can walk and walk and walk and see things appear from nowhere that are brilliant. In fact, there are so many amazing ancient sites here in Rome that some are completely ignored. This may sound trivial but imagine if Australia had a single roman column…it would be an incredible tourist site…guarded no doubt and roped off from the public….here in Rome, nope, just out in the open, cars parked right next to them often, ancient columns about 2000 plus years old. Incredible for me anyway! I was impressed.

We walked around for two days (the second day being wet again), visiting various sites, the Spanish steps, named because the steps are near the Spanish Embassy…..a massive building that impressed me that I don’t even know the name of…how ignorant of me!.....but that sorta describes Rome…so many sites to see…..we saw the Colosseum twice…once at night and again the next day ….didn’t go inside as it was raining again when we walked by….the Roman Forum was amazing…again, ancient buildings and columns…incredible that they still stand, many of which are remarkably intact….you do need some imagination but just amazing….various churches….the Trevi Fountain…we visited twice…once during the day and again in the evening. We had heard it was busy and crowded and this was true the first time during the day. However, we pushed to the front easily enough and took some photos…in the evening though, we could hear the throng of the crowd as we approached and we were amazed at how many people there were. Maybe two or three times as many as during the day….it was ridiculous….fortunately we had taken many photos during the day so a couple of swift snaps and we were on our way. One thing, it’s apparently a tradition to throw some coins in to the fountain to guarantee a return journey to Rome….what a ridiculous thought….not throwing money away!!!! My mother brought me up to believe that if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves….well, Mum is basically Scottish!!!! Anyways, no money was thrown in, let me assure you….not even five aussie cents! Besides which, they don’t want coins thrown in as it stains the marble and again, the gypsies fish the coins out of the fountain, so no point throwing in coins to start with, I say!!!!




I’ve saved the best till last I believe….the Vatican Museum incorporating the St Peters Basilica and Sistine Chapel. How to describe these attractions? Amazing and impressive are the best two words I’d say.

As I mentioned, the second day was sunny, so we headed to the Vatican (we had read that after 12 midday is a good time as most of the people get there early or later on…people are always busy stuffing their faces at midday, thus as good time) and found it to have a reasonable length queue but not so bad. We had also intended to get a tour of the Vatican Museum from a group that we had read about on the net but we couldn’t find them….so, we walked forward in the queue to get into the St Peters Basilica and as we were in the queue we heard a woman say that a guide was doing a free tour of the St Peters, so we joined that group……was very good and informative. Of course, we knew they would use this tour as a tempter for the Vatican Museum tour and whilst not cheap, was very worthwhile…more on that….

Back to St Peters Basilica….this place is great. It is just amazingly HUGE!!!! Inside is amazing, with mosaics on the wall that look like paintings they are that good. Plus, there are some bodies of past popes who have been canonised and for some reason, they deem it appropriate to display their mummified bodies inside a glass casket. Interesting. There is loads of marble on the floor and elsewhere, it truly is a great church.

From there, we headed around several corners, away from St Peters Square, to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. The amount of paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display is amazing, which just goes to show how many things the Catholic Church has managed to steal, I mean, acquire, over the years from various places around the world. The museum is huge and it took a good while to go through the place….having a look at selected sculptures, famous (and massive) paintings, ancient baths, tapestries, ceiling works, etc etc. Finally, the end of the tour and the museum, we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. Everyone has heard of the Sistine chapel and seen the paintings that are on the ceiling. The ceiling is very high, so hard to see the paintings in clear detail, but incredible to think Michelangelo and his team, some of whom he sacked because they weren’t up to the job, finished the MANY paintings, on the ceiling no less, in about three years. Wouldn’t happen now, that’s for sure! One other point to note on this room, this is where the chimney is used to burn stuff when they elect a new pope, so that was interesting.

Overall, Rome was a great place with loads of good trattoria’s and places to eat…not expensively either, incidentally….there are loads of sights….loads of crazy drivers and motorbike riders….the Vatican is great and generally, well worth visiting.