A trip to Rome: 2nd Jan – 4th Jan 2010

They say “Rome was not built in a day” … but then.. which city was… So when we boarded our RyanAir flight from Venice Treviso to continue our Italy adventure towards this historic city of Rome, I had no idea what this age old saying meant…

The flight left at around 9pm (couple of hours later than scheduled!!) and reached Rome Ciampino airport at around 10. From there, we took the bus to take us to the city center and then a metro to take us to our hotel.. We saw a number of beautiful sights on our way and thought we have already seen enough of the city’s monuments at least from outside.. later did we realize those were just normal buildings like bank offices etc.. The real was yet to be seen.. :)

At around midnight we stepped out to find something to eat and thankfully did find a small pizzeria open to our rescue.. On reaching back, I did some frantic searching through the maps and metro routes to finalize the plan for the next day. The Rome metro is not extensive, but takes you to most places you would like to visit on a short trip like ours… and the cost of a day pass was not huge either.. Unfortunately they do not advertise the day pass much and is available almost at the end of their list of options in the ticket machines (they want tourists to buy the much more expensive Tourist Card).

It was friday night (1st Jan 2010) and we had to go to Vatican first thing in the morning since it is closed for Sundays.

Visit to The Vatican

 
Left to right: Vatican entry game, A sculpture inside, Artistic roof, Sistine chappel, St Pieter’s Basilica, Piaza San Pietro.

Vatican City is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state, ruled by the bishop of Rome—the Pope. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergymen of various nationalities. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See (Sancta Sedes) and the location of the Pope's residence, referred to as the Apostolic Palace. Or, in common terms, Vatican is the home of the Pope. Its a separate walled city within the confines of Rome and is said to have its own governance. For mortals like me, Vatican shot to limelight only after the Dan Brown’s novels and movies based upon them (Da Vinci Code and Angels and Daemons).

We reached Vatican pretty early in the morning hoping to finish it by afternoon… but fate had other plans.. We bumped into a bunch of touts who promised us a reserved entry into the Vatican but we realized later that they were frauds and tried to get us in by crossing the normal queue only to be caught by Vatican guards.. That resulted in us losing precious 2-3 hours of the morning). Finally we went to another tour operator (after obviously getting our money back) who did have reservations and our Vatican tour started… These tour operators were hi-tech, and each of us was given a small microphone to listen to guide’s explanations/instructions. That way, a single guide could manage a big group…

I would not be able to detail all that i saw inside the Vatican… but it was overwhelming to say the least… The amount of artwork, and the mystic stories behind them… images/statues depicting start of human life (as per Christianity of-course), works of the greatest artists mankind has seen (Michelangelo, Raphael , Leonardo da Vinci to name a few)… Optical illusions such as 2D pictures that just look like carved out of walls, image of Christ that seems to be moving along with you… and a lot lot .. lot more…

Sistine chapel (where the selection of Pope takes place), St. Peter’s Basilica, Piazza San Pietro, Vatican Museums … some of the attractions inside the Vatican… In hindsight, I would have enjoyed even more (as if there was some scope left) had I known a little bit of the history of Christianity….

That evening was a bit of a helter-skelter… lost a few more hours to events i would not like to recall!!…

Piazza Navona

Left to Right: Christmas tree on a crossing, fountains at Piazza Navona

We decided to pamper ourselves with some lavish dinner at one of the Rome’s hotspots : Piazza Navona (I realized the next day that Pantheon would have been a better choice.. more on this later).. It was a big square (Piazza stands for square…) with three beautiful fountains and colorful street shops all around… The place was buzzing with people and had a very nice feel to it.. After scanning the menu cards of a couple of restaurants, we finalized one which agreed to make vegetarian dishes out of any item on menu.. Had dinner and spent some time on the streets before heading back to our hotel..

This was the last night when all of us were together as rest of the group was heading back the next morning…

Colosseum, Palatine hills and Roman forums

 
Left to right: Colosseum, Palatine hills and Roman forums

Our first destination the next day was Colosseum, an ancient stadium/amphitheatre now pretty much in ruins. It was supposedly one of the first stadiums in the world and is considered one of the greatest works of Roman Architecture and engineering. We took a guided tour here too and this time we did get a reserved entry without getting in the queue… But this time our guide was not very good… Rather than explaining the architecture, he kept telling us stories not related…. Still,  we could very well appreciate the architectural marvel..

Next we moved towards Palatine hills and roman forums.. Palatine hills are the place from where Rome originated. It was a big walled green area with museums, sculptures, gardens and a story around each of these (which guides kept telling us). It was also the place from where rules had ruled for centuries… Roman forums were the excavated remains from ancient Rome and included churches, houses etc… It was amazing to see soo much history concentrated at one place…

Vittorio Emanuele monument

The Vittorio Emanuele monument

On exiting the Roman Forums, we saw a huge white monument which, upon asking a tourist guide, we found out was Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. It was huge and beautiful and we climbed to top of it..

Pantheon

Left to right: Pantheon from outside, Pantheon from inside

Our walking excursion continued towards Pantheon next. It is one of the oldest churches and our Vatican guide had said that if you come to Rome and not visit Pantheon, you are a jack ass… We took an audio guide inside the monument, but probably because our expectations were too high, we didn’t find it worth its fame… The area around it was awesome though with hoards of restaurants and buzzing with tourists…

We were dead tired by now so went back to the hotel to take some rest.

Spanish steps(Piazza di Spagna) and Trevi fountain(Fontana di Trevi)

Left to right: Spanish steps, Fontana di Trevi

At around 6pm, we again left our hotel to finish our list of must see spots. First we went to Spanish steps which as name suggests, are a set of steps between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti. It is considered as the longest and widest starecase of Europe (I doubt though). The church at the top was beautiful and the huge christmas tree put up on the steps made the place even more beautiful than what it was…

After a while, we continued towards our last stop, Fontana de Trevi, possibly the most beautiful and romantic fountains in the whole world… Its believed that if you throw a coin in the fountain, Rome calls you again… obviously we did that and are waiting to see if does the magic…

That brought an end to a day which had left us mesmerized and with memories to cherish for life… Now we knew why they say “Rome was not built in a day”…

The next morning we took a flight from Rome Ciampino back to Stockholm…