Italian Postcards #4 - Arrivederci!! 6/5/2003

Rome

Paul and I finally made it back! And, we have learned a few things about Italian travel along the way: #1) pay a little bit more for the reserved train seats on a long ride – the train ride from Genoa to Rome is 5 hours and was almost a VERRY LONG trip. Most “savvy” train riders book a reserved seat so they are not caught standing in aisle since the rides tend to be full. Paul and I spent the first hour looking for seats and a place to put our suitcases, and were very happy once we finally located a pair of seats in the 2nd to last room of the last car of the train. Whew! Lesson #2) don’t take the early 7am flight from Rome as the train doesn’t start the morning service to the airport until 6am – not enough time to catch the flight. – We instead had to take the train in the night before and attempt to get comfortable in the hard plastic airport chairs with metal armrests that don’t allow any sort of relined position. The consolation was that many people make this same “mistake”, and the company there made for good people watching! The highlight: a young, boastful US Navy soldier attempting to get a group of teenaged Irish kids there on a school field trip loaded off of beer and grappa shots.

Rome

What about Rome….? Rome is for historians and engineers – lucky for us, we are one of each. Our first night there, we proceeded to get lost – Romans are famous, in our book, for creating labyrinths of roads that are all slightly angled and ensured to get you completely turned around. In our frustration in trying to figure out where we were (street names also change every block or so, increasing the confusion and making maps more or less useless), we turned the corner and stumbled upon the oldest piece of history still standing complete, a truly awesome sight (not the typical “California-awesome”, but the stop dead in your tracks and catch your breath “awesome”) – the Pantheon. Being nighttime, the building and the obelisk in front of it were lit up with dramatic floodlights that made the 2,000+-year-old building seem tall and commanding. Hundreds years ago, they re-christened the building to be used as a Christian church, which is another reason it still stands so well, the pagan temples getting much abuse during the religious wars. We returned the next day to view the interior and just stood inside staring at the even more impressive walls and huge oculus with the light beams streaming through. We stood there, practically wordless, for nearly an hour. I can see how it would make a great church, except, perhaps, on a rainy day!!

Another major highlight of Rome was the Trevi Fountain. It’s much larger and grander than I guessed, taking the entire back façade of a large building. The work and detail was amazing, and I couldn’t help but take many photos that detail the King Neptune, Tritons and horses that make up the fountain. Easy to understand how it became such an icon and backdrop for the "La Dolce Vita” movie. We spend an hour or two during the trip sitting by the fountain enjoying huge amounts of gelato.

We were on our feet often, taking walking tours that usually covered about 18-20 miles/day: The Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Emmanuel Memorial, the Forum, Coliseum, Palentine (home for the historical “rich and famous”), and the Vatican. We left the hotel about 10 am daily and usually didn’t return until 11 or so, after dinner.

We ended out trip with a visit to the Vatican and a tour of St. Peter’s. So much to admire there – Michelangelo, Bernini, Raphael, papal crypts, and the remains of martyred St. Peter himself, etc. We climbed the 650 or so steps to reach first the top of the interior dome which gave us a grand look at the floor below and the Michelangelo frescos on the ceiling of the dome, then to the top of the dome outside to get a fantastic view of the City of Rome and the Vatican grounds. The drawback: there is much graffiti all along the stairs and along the outside of the dome as the Italians (didn’t see any writing in any other language) have found it charming to place their name and comments in pen onto the 500-year old “sacred grounds”. While at the top of the church, a mother and son team broker out their pen and started writing. I flicked the back of the teenaged boy’s head (which didn’t even get his attention!) and together with a British couple and another set of Americans, told him off. Strangely enough to us, after first being confused about the complaint, his mother backed him up saying that if the Pope wanted the church to remain clean, they would have cleaned it rather than allowing the graffiti to mount. This tack is common, and even some of Paul’s family in Milan don’t see the problem with people writing graffiti on walls or churches for that matter, which makes Paul’s vocally ashamed of his “countrymen”.

Besides the incredible architecture and historical value of the statues and buildings, Rome is just another big, polluted, bustling city. The most charming and quaint part of the trip was, by far, the Cinque Terre. A close second, Florence. I have planned to drop off my film (all 9 rolls!) tonight and will share them with those interested. Hope you’ve enjoyed the “virtual” vacation and look forward to chatting more personally later on.

Ciao and Arrivederci!