Let’s see if this blog can make sense
Okay – I’m going to do my best to update everything about Italy in an orderly manner.
First off – Ross and I got to the Gatwick airport at 6:00am, go me, and met the least helpful desk agent ever. He refused to let me check my “rucksack” even with the straps in and insisted it go in oversized luggage. At 6:00am. Really – we can move you to a less-people oriented position. And I forgot to mention that while Ross and I were in Leiscter square trying to get discount theater tickets, this GINORMOUS Swiss clock went off at 6pm with 100s of bells and little shepherdess and cow processions. AND Ross and I did market research for tv trailers for Sunshine in London, and made 10£. I love movies, I want to see sunshine, and I got to comment on trailers! AND THEY PAID ME! I need that as a job.
Rome, Day 1:
Got into Rome, found there was no one at our hotel. Went to eat at a nice little Sardinian restaurant around the corner. Got back and found that the “hostel” was Walter’s apartment, with the extra bedrooms made into guest rooms. And the shower was the kind you sit down in, except some Japanese girls there refused to sit down and flooded the bathroom every night and morning they were there. And there were 5 of them and they tag teamed the bathroom so we couldn’t get in. We were happy when they left. We went out on a walk around the city that evening and saw the exterior of the colloseum and some ruins in a park and the Santa Maria Maggiore (which counts as part of the vatican) but we couldn’t go around it as there was mass going on. And we got good coffee (and a caffee frappe) on the piazza.
Rome, Day 2:
Headed straight to the Colloseum. I thought it looked larger on the outside than in, but it had some great views. It was never really something high on my list of things to see in life, but I found myself very impressed. We managed to skip the line with our Rome cards, and wandered around both levels. They had part of the stage set up, so you could tll what it would have looked like, but mostly you could see down where the animals and cages and riggings were. It was pretty well preserved overall. There were also modern day lions, in the form of several feral cats (there are tons all around the city). The also had an art exhibition on the changing definition of Eros, with lots of statues and pornographic pottery. Oh, and outside there were people dressed up like Roman gladiators, and lots of knock off prada and gucci bags. And this tiny little nana who was very wrinkly and walked with a serious limp, like her left foot was 2 inches shorter, and I saw her again in the evening as we passed the colloseum and she was walking normally. She was some actress.
Next we went to the Roman forum, where we saw lots of ruins. Its pretty much a big pathway lined on all sides with stuff. Some of the stuff included; the arch of Septimus Severus and the arch of Titus, the basilica of Maxentius and Constantine (which were super giant archways), the temple of Romulus, the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the Curia (which was the senate, and not particularly impressive – it was a big room with few windows), the temple of Saturn, the temple of Castor and Pollux, the temple of Vesta and the Vestal virgin lodging chambers, the Rostra (which is where people used to make speeches – Friends! Romans! Countrymen!). It was a very sunny day and the whole place was thronged with toursits.
Next we headed up to the Palatine hill, which had the Emperor’s palace, gardens, stadium, Romulus’ hut area, a tunnel with frescoes, some pretty tilework, oranges!, and Severus’ palace. Then we walked by the Circus maximus, which is now a big grassy area for people to picnic in and flop around like eels with each other (seriously – PDA overload. There was one couple having sex on a hill). Then we went to the mouth man from Roman Holiday, but you aren’t allowed to put your hand in his mouth anymore. Someone had left a glove underneath him. (bad dum dum). We had good pizza for dinner.
Rome, Day 3
We waited to get into the Vatican for 2 HOURS. Partly because mom got the subway car after ours (we were packed in like sardines whenever we took it), and proceeded to pass by our station as we knocked on her window. So then I took the next car to the next station and back again, as she had turned around and come back. And partly because we hadn’t realized it was daylight savings, and were an hour off all day.
The first thing you see in the Vatican is the holy Roman pinecone. I’m not making that up. Its a giant pinecone out in the first piazza. Then you go through a million galleries with art, lots of it by Raphael and get a serious crick in your neck from staring at ceiling art. Then they had a super-neat modern art section, which had some works by Dali and Rodin (and was off the super-highway to the sistine chapel, so it was less crowded). We finally arrived at the Sistine chapel, and it was every bit as gorgeous as I had hoped, and a lot bigger as well. Finally we saw a picture gallery, which had an unfinished work by daVinci. And a really yummy lunch of cold veggies in oil and cheese. And we mailed postcards from Vatican city – there’s a stamp you don’t see every day. Outside there were lots of swiss guards in various costumes, and we walked over to St. Peter’s Basilica, which is on a lovely large piazza ringed with statues. The actual church is ginormous and super-ornate. Luckily the main stained glass is not; its a very lovely, simple dove with golden rays emitting from it. It’s also where St. Peter and a lot of popes are buried (there were people praying and crying in front of JP2). And they had multi-lingual confessionals. And tons of nuns and priests and monks from all over the world. Oh, and Bonnie Prince Charlie is buried there too.
Next we went to the Trevi Fountain (Ross and I liked the demonic seahorses, which are actual horses with fish tails), and ate some of the best gelato in Rome. The weather in Rome was very sunny and lovely, with intermittent summer thunderstorms.
Rome, Day 4:
Took a bus out to the Appia Antica, which is lovely Roman countryside, just a mile outside the walls of Rome. We had lunch in a lovely roadside garden, which turned out to be not only internationally famous, but over 2000 years old. Ross had fabulous gnocchi (he gets it everywhere and is comparing). We stopped by a chapel that had “Jesus’ footprints”. He had big feet (you know what they say…). They personally reminded me of the scary story about the wendigo and the elongated footprints. Then we went to the catacombs of San Callisto, which was a lovely walk up through fields. Inside were 22km of winding passages of dead bodies and up to 7 people buried in a wall on top of each other, including: 16 popes, 7 bishops, 4 levels, St. Cecilia, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Then we went back to Rome and saw the pantheon, which was lovely and round, and had Raphael’s grave. And Ross and I signed the guest book for the last monarchs of Rome. Then we tried to see St. Teresa. Then we had Chinese near the Piazza dante, which was all dark wood and red cloth, and all the waitresses didn’t speak english and wore chinese-style dresses. The food was super good, and we had fried ice cream for dessert- delicious, improbable, and I could feel my arteries clogging.
Interesting note about the Italian language: unlike French or Spanish, in which the capital city’s language was incorporated into the rest of the countryside, because Italy stayed city-states for so long, the language never gelled into a cohesive whole. So some scholars thought that was ridiculous (that a northerner and southerner couldn’t understand each other) so they decided to come up with An Official Language for the whole country. And given this opportunity, they decided to pick the most beautiful dialect they could find. Which was Dante’s Florentine. This is a couple of centuries after dante. It would be like Tony Blair decreeing that all English had to now speak Shakespeare. But it worked! Which is why the language is so lovely.
Venice, Day 1:
After our long and lovely train ride (I so kick ass in rummy), we pulled into the Venitian station next to the most gorgeous, opulent dining car ever. Turns out: it was the orient express. I want to ride it some day. And there was a guy in a tux greeting passengers. Coooool. Our hotel was a “bus” ride (a vaporetto – water bus), several bridges, and a couple of winding alleys away. Our room was huge and lovely, and marred by the most god-awful mural (of Sharan traders?) you may ever see. We went to a lovely restaurant that evening, where we tried angler fish (not great), spider crab (yummy), and Ross’ usual gnocchi. I had cheese cake for dessert, and I may never eat cheese cake again. It was the absolute best cheescake I’ve ever had in my life. Mom’s too. Of course, it was 6 bites, with 2 going to Ross and mom, but it was fabulous. Then we wandered around at night and saw pretty canals and moorish-looking buildings. And found a lush store, so I could agonize over whether or not to get the perfume I like (karma).
Venice, Day 2:
We spent the day doing the clock tower, which is on Piazza San Marco, that has digital and hourly time, and an astrological clock and naked giants hitting a bell on top. Then we saw the San Marco museums, incuding an exhibit on J. S. Sargeant, who did some nice paintings of Venician women I really liked, the S. M. Basilica (some Venitian merchants stole St. Mark’s body from Alexandria and smuggled him to Venice in Pork Meat. Seriously.) The Basilica is very gold, which is nice if you’re into that kind of thing. It had lots of mosaics, some very old horse sculptures, and old columns and textiles and such. And there was a mosaic of guy who looked really sad, but turned out to be dead. I think it was St. Peter. And then we sat on the piazza having alcoholic coffee concoctions, and watched tourists playing with the pigeons. Finally, we went to the Rialto bridge, and window shopped, and looked around at more piazzas, and canals, and bridges, and such.
Venice, Day 3:
We saw the Doge’s palace, including the secret itineraries tour, where you got to see some prison cells, the structure holding up one of the largest rooms in europe (and without columns), the torture chamber, some offices, where they kept the secret documents, and… Giacomo Casanova’s cells! I hadn’t known he was kept there. But we got to hear all about his escape from prison (16 mos into a 5yr sentence). (Our tour guide was very nasal, and rude, and could easily be moved to a less people-oriented position). The rest of the palace was lovely, but I was about to overdose on ceiling art. There were some nice ones though, and the longest canvas painting in the world (doesn’t make it particularly great, imho, but whatever). We also saw the golden staircase and the bridge of sighs (over-hyped). And we went up into the Campanile to look down on Venice. It was very windy and cold though, so we didn’t stay long.
Then we took a nap that afternoon, because I was exhausted from all this running around.That evening we went to a Vivaldi (like strauss in Vienna) and Opera concert. (okay singers, good musicians, good songs; one from Rigolletto, one from Carmen, one from Boheme…)
Venice, Day 4:
We took a gondola ride in the morning. (The gondolier kept yodeling around corners,and it was relaxing and was a lovely perspective on the city). We wandered around lots of mask shops trying to find a black death doctor mask for Ross. We also saw lots of people in masks (mom got scammed by 2), and the accademia (full of religious art and the Tempest by Giorgionne, which Ross wanted to see). Next we went to the guggenheim, which was awesome modern art, all collected by Peggy, who knew the artists. Out front was a great offensive statue of a guy excited by the canals of venice on horseback, and inside, lots of great ernst, picasso, kandinski, calder, duchamp, etc. Got crepes at a roadside creperie (mine was chestnut).
Florence, Day 1:
Took the train to Firenze. Dropped our bags and went to pisa. Climbed the leaning tower. Kodak-like, but lovely. Ross was thirlled. It had great views, particularly of the appinines (mountains), and wasn’t a difficult climb. Then we ate at an outdoor cafe in a park, saw BATS!!! And finally caught the late train back and got back to Florence at 12am.
Florence, Day 2:
Wandered around florence. Learned about frescos, saw the palazzo vecchio. Painted a fresco (mine’s a turtle with a sail – from the de medici saying of hurry up slowly) Saw the brancacci chapel, where the renaisannce started with the reintroduciton of perspective in paintings. It also had cool Trompe L’oiel on the ceilings, to make it look like there were balconies above. Saw the duomo (Ross and Mom climbed the 463 steps to the top, while I got a capuccino and wrote postcards and window shopped). The duomo had a very pretty green marble facade, and plain interior (such a nice change of pace). Ate lunch at a GREAT local place called casalingua (salad and fruit and bread that I am in love with). Mom got glass firenze earrings. Ate dinner at a cafe near the palazzo pitti, and had a waiter who looked bizarrely like Kenton, but with an Italian complexion.
Florence, Day 3:
Slept in, went to the Accademy. David is awesome and huge, and sort of makes you believe in giants, he is so life-like (not much else in the museum). Went to the ristorante accademia and had the best salad EVER. Seriously, I’m in love (lamb, greens, radiccio, eggplant, sundried tomatoes, artichokes, and herbs). Next we went to the DeMedici Chapel which included some Michaelangelo works, lots of ornate marble, “saints” relics and bones preserved in gold and glass cases, and ceiling paintings (including a rabid dog and skeleton of DEATH!!). Finally we went to the Boboli gardens at the Pitti Palace, which were huge, and had spectacular views of the countryside from the top.
Also: Eating lots of good Italian cheese, not a big Italian wine fan. Firenze is slightly less crowded than Rome, but not quite as cool as Venice (we should’ve saved that for last). In other news: Ross got a summer job. There’s an amusing interview with Will Arnett up at EW.com.
Photos from Rome up through the first day in Venice are up at webshots.
Tags: Travel
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