Off the Couch and On the Road

It was a fairly relaxing day – I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do when so I started with the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo and just kept walking. With the hoards of tourists (and the sun) still hiding, I was able to wander from the Piazza del Popolo down the main shopping streets while they were still quiet.

It was a who’s who of fashion – Alberta Ferreti, Nicola Fenneti (my favourite. Ever), Escada, Burberry and Armani – I was spending thousands in my mind with my imagined limitless credit cards. The Valentino store was being refurbished and I was amazed to see the entire building was wrapped in red ribbon, Louis Vuitton of course outdid themselves and packed up their soon-to-be-opened store, including metre-long padlocks, exactly like one of it’s monogrammed handbags.

The day was filled with historial sites – the Fontana di Trevi (The Trevi Fountain), The Piazza Spagna (Spanish steps) and the Pantheon, created in 27BC and the best preserved ancient building in Rome. It was amazing to see a modern McDonald’s standing next to a structure so massive and detailed, created over 2000 years ago. Handy though, when I felt like a Big Mac.

After lunch I caught the Metro to the central train station to buy my ticket to Naples. It was easier than expected, with self-service kiosks in english, and I even picked up a Napoli map so I would be orientated on arrival. I gave up trying to find an internet cafe and had to track down the one Lonely Planet provided, before more gelato, coffee and pasta, and then back to the hotel to rest my legs – who thought, mistakenly, that they had it easy as soon as I left Nepal.

-Sarah

I woke up with a head full of curls, and that’s never a good sign. It was raining, bucketing down. But with my hostel not within walking distance of anything, and the rooms closed during the day anyway – it looked as though I was going to have to face the weather.

I found the bus stop, hopped on, realised I didn’t have a ticket and couldn’t buy one from the driver, and managed to hop off somewhere near where I needed to be without paying anything. It seemed the best place to spend a rainy day was in the Vatican Museums (anbd Lord knows I needed some church time after gipping the Italian transport system within 24 hours of being in the country). I bought an unbrella and a map, and found a queue 5 blocks long full of tourists. I’d found the Vatican.

I can tell you, my vision of a summer holiday in Europe did not involve getting soaking wet and cold for two hours while standing on a street corner, but I listened to some happy music on my iPod and thought of the upsides. I was in Rome!! I was on holoidays!! I was at the Vatican!! It helped slightly.

Once inside, the weather was forgotten and I was able to enjoy the Vatican Museums, which cover 5.5 hectares and includes treasures from a gazillion popes over billions of years (it seemed. Don’t quote me on the facts here, people). It took me a good few hours to go through it all, and there was still room for the guilt that I wasn’t able to enjoy it for as long as I would have liked.

There were galleries of floor to ceiling maps, tapestries and statues, as well as several masterpieces by Raphael, all ending with the highlight of the Sistine Chapel – the private chapel built in 1473 for Pope Sixtus IV which showcases Michelangelo’s ‘Creation’ and the ‘Last Judgement’. It was humbling, for sure, and amazing that so much detail went into the art – even some of the tapestries had the subjects’ eyes glistening with tears (ok, so I tagged onto a few American tours along the way).

By the time I stepped out into the daylight, it was sunny with blue skies. Who would have thought. I joined another queue, this time for St Peter’s Basilica, where old Saint Pete himself was buried, with the dome designed by Michelangelo.

I walked up 300 stairs to the dome at the top of the church, spent an hour sitting in between two nuns in the prayer hall without realising, and marvelled at the beauty of the various scultures, painting, and the not-so-beautiful preserved bodies of Popes along the way (what is it with me and seeing dead bodies on this trip? I’m only two months in and I’ve lost count). Michelangelo’s ‘Pieta’ statue was also on display, scultured when he was only 24.

By the time I’d left the Vatican, I was feeling much warmer, drier and happier, and wandered along some back streets until I found the artists’ hotspot of Piazza Navona square, and ATM, a bus ticket outlet, and gelato. Prayers do get answered.

I decided to have an early supper so I could find my way back home before dark, eating at a little cafe off the Piazza. I apparently wasn’t allowed to dine alone, so the waiter sat with me while I explained between mouthfuls that not all Australian men are gay, and that yes, Kangaroos rock. They are very beautiful. Not as beautiful as Rome though, of course not. How silly of me.

-Sarah

There was a taxi, a train, a plane, a bus, and another taxi. And I was in Rome.

It was overcast and slightly cool, and by the time I checked into my very-school-camp hostel, and checked my emails, it was too late to start heading into the city to do anything of value.

So I sat in the very-school-camp cafeteria and did a bit of trip planning, vowed not to eat junk food again (two weeks of eating snickers bars obviously had nothing on two days in London opposite a McDonald’s) and had an early night in my dorm room filled with, wait for it, a bunch of 80 year old women. I am sooo not exaggerating, they could barely walk and kept gasping for air every 10 minutes like they were going to cark it. So very-not-school-camp.

And for the record, I know I seem to be sleeping a lot. But I seem to be losing and gaining time every few days, plus with the early departures and full travel days, and the fact that I’m not going to have a big night out by myself now, am I – and, well, I’m sure it all justifies itself in the end.

It really does. You want a big night out and I’m with you. I really am. Just not with the grannies.

-Sarah