"Tombs, temples & time travel" - Days 7, 8 & 9: Rome - Edinburgh
A retrospective of our last few days in Rome before we head home.
So this post won't take the form of the previous ones, as it's going to be a retrospective on our holiday. As I mentioned in the previous post, I just didn't have the time to keep up with the journal when I had to cook in the evenings. So I stopped writing after describing the Colosseum at night. It was unfortunate that it wasn't fully lit up, but I guess there wasn't much we could have done about it.
Day 7 had a very busy itinerary, including visits to...
The Trevi Fountain The Pantheon The Palatine Hill & Forum Complex The Crypt of The Capuchin Monks
We managed them all, though. I am glad we did, but by this point the incessant heat and the 8 til late days with a diminished food intake was really starting to weary us both. I was also missing my beloved CPAP machine, as it really helps me to get a good night's sleep. The first stop we wanted to make was the Palatine Hill & Forum as the ticket for the Colosseum included them as well. We wanted to make sure we got in before the ticket expired.
The first mistake we made was by going via Circus Maximus. When we visited Rome, this area was under some serious renovation by the looks of things. From the street beside it, all we could see was a dusty field. What this route also did was put us on the wrong side of the Palatine Hill. After a little bit of confusion with the city map, we'd been out in the baking sun for well over an hour before we were back on the right track to get in. It wasn't a great start to the day, but it got a bit nicer when we found ourselves at the top of the Altare Della Patria, which we had seen from lower down the night before. It was quite ostentatious, but I was just happy to find a water fountain to fill our water bottle from and cool off slightly. From up here, we were able to navigate to the entrance to the Palatine Hill.
There is very little cover on the hill, and it's well...a hill. This made it quite hard going for Kara who darted between the shade like some kind of diurnal ninja. While it was nice to be amongst some of the ancient Roman parts of the city, it was difficult to relax with the heat and the endless throng of tourists that was busy taking pictures of themselves next to things. I'm not one for picture taking, if I'm being honest. Kara is the one who took all of the photos you'll see in this blog (except the ones of her, I would have taken those) as she is much more of a "visual" person, while I enjoy writing down my thoughts. I subscribe to the notion that if I'm busy taking a picture, I'm not really there enjoying the view. As ironic as it sounds, coming from someone who assumes that his thoughts will be read, it annoys me to see people taking selfies with beautiful landmarks before moving on, not bothering to really appreciate what they've taken a picture of. It just seems a little conceited, is all. Anyway, the peddlers were all selling selfie sticks, so I guess that should tell me something about what tourists get up to on holiday. Each unto their own, I suppose!
The Forum was quite impressive, with some old temples and tombs, including one for Julius Caesar. It's a strange notion as a history nerd, to be standing close to something that was built to commemorate a character from thousands of years ago that you've been reading about since you were a child. The only other time I've felt like that, I was in Dunfermline Abbey at my best friend's wedding. I was the best man so we were milling around, waiting on the guests to arrive, so I was lucky enough to get into some of the areas that most of the public do not. Underneath the pulpit, lies the tomb of Robert The Bruce; one of Scotland's most famous historical figures. Gave me shivers just thinking about it, and it was already a nervous day for me! (Truth be told, I was more nervous than the groom seemed to be on the day!)
So our morning had been a bit of a bust, but we had been able to do what we'd wanted to do. From here, we jumped aboard the metro and headed up to the Spanish Steps, which was not only close to our next site, but we also had some business to attend to in this part of town, printing our boarding cards for the trip home on Wednesday! It was here that we spotted some amazing graffiti of the Pope, that we didn't snap a picture of, but I found an image of it online.
Once that was done, and with Kara running purely on gluten-free cereal bars and a couple of kinder chocolate bars that I was force-feeding her, we entered the Crypt of the Capuchin Monks. Now, the museum itself is quite interesting. It shows the origins and some of the distinctions of this particular branch of Catholicism, which extols many of the virtues that many priests don't seem to stick to as much these days; such as poverty and humility. My understanding was that their sect spends a great deal of their time and resources helping the poor and needy, following the footsteps of Saint Francis Of Assisi. As a real bonus for Kara, there was a Caravaggio painting in here, although there are conflicting reports on whether the one in there is his original or not. I will stick some pictures from google in to show you all what the crypt looked like, as we were not allowed to take pictures.
It's a morbid place, as you'd expect. I've never been anywhere quite like it, but my obsession with ancient cultures prepared me for coming (almost) face to face with real mummified remains. Kara is obsessed with skeletons and skulls in particular. She is a tattoo artist and we have a definite "dead stuff" motif in parts of our house, which is quite funny when you consider that the other parts are Star Wars and comic book prints. Part of me wonders if it would be funny to invite Jehova's witnesses into the house just to see their faces when they see all of the semi-satanic imagery that adorns our walls; snakes, skulls, goat's heads etc... Anyway, the upshot was that Kara was fascinated with the display on offer here. I was just trying to picture the kind of psychopath that would literally nail vertebrae into the roof and walls to make the patterns that we witnessed. Kara and I did two passes on here, while Kara soaked it all in. It somewhat kills the ambience when you reach the end as there's a gift-shop, selling notepads and the like.
As we stepped out into the sunlight, I was glad to be back in the modern age. Skulls and skellingtons don't bother me, but the message of the crypt is to emphasise that time is fleeting. They have a tombstone in one of their rooms that reads...
"What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..."
So, feeling a tad drained, both spiritually (yeuch, I hate to use that term but it feel right in this context) and physically, we headed off to get lunch. We found a place called Pizza Ciro and found the food to be ok, but the service wasn't great, and it was quite pricey. Still, it wasn't too bad, and it was nice to not have to worry about food until we got home.
From lunch, we wandered on towards the Trevi Fountain. This was even more disappointing than Ponte Vecchio, but not because it looked boring. The whole fountain is under renovation. Quite considerable renovation, judging from the scaffolding and dust sheeting that was in place. There were bits of Oceanus that could still be seen, but other than that there wasn't much. There is a small replacement "fountain" that is just a pool of standing water, where people who want to throw a coin into the fountain can do so. The superstition is that those who throw a coin into the fountain will return to Rome. Kara and I threw a coin into the little pool, but it was a real disappointment. The Pantheon was next on the list, and fortunately it isn't too far from the Trevi Fountain. It's also free to enter, which is nice.
As with all of Rome, the piazza where the Pantheon sits is packed with people all the time. The Pantheon is a beautiful old building, and I was very excited to see inside. The exterior is gorgeous, with all of the massive pillars and traditionally Roman architecture that one would expect. The interior is quite nice too, but I was disappointed to find that the Pantheon, like many other ancient Roman buildings, has been converted into a space for Catholic prayer and all of the ancient Roman iconography has been replaced with christian imagery. I just wanted to go outside to see some more of the exterior, as it represented the ancient Roman past that is harder to find in Rome than one might think. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but I was happy to have visited.
From here, we headed back home to have dinner and figure out what to do the next day.
Day 8
We had toyed with the idea of visiting the Vatican. If you've read the previous blogs, it's easy to see why this might have stuck in my craw. We were really having to watch our finances and it didn't look like The Vatican would be cheap. We decided to take my Aunt and Uncle's advice and take a day trip to Ostia Antica. Knowing it was our last day before leaving for home, we knew we wanted to at least see the outside of St. Peter's Basilica, so we took a little metro ride to the Vatican, before fist bumping as we saw the massive queues and considered the high price of entry. We were harassed by admittedly, a mixed bag of tour guides, ranging from dodgy as hell to quite charming, as we approached the square where the Pope normally addresses the public. It's a lovely open space, but not when it's filled with a winding snake of tourists, waiting to get in. Kara took a few pictures and we set off for an afternoon in Ostia Antica.
After a 20 minute train ride, we were right outside of the city and it was a nice feeling. Kara is from a very small hamlet in rural Perthshire and Edinburgh is the biggest city I've ever lived in. We are not "city people" really. We don't overly enjoy many of the benefits that living in the city offers, and Rome is humongous. It was refreshing to be back out in the middle of nowhere, which looking back; is something that I appreciated about Maranello. People do say that when visiting Italy, it's important to see the little towns as well as the big cities. They're absolutely right, and Ostia Antica turned out to be a real treat for both of us.
By day 8, I had acclimatized to the heat somewhat, while Kara was still having a really hard time with the heat. Ostia Antica has many old ruins and intact walls, but it's largely open streets and little cover. We had a bit of a hard time while we were there, but there were lots of water fountains and we were able to find the on site cafe, where we ordered Kara some potato wedges. At this point, I was making sure we had sufficient bus-fare to get to the airport the next day, so Kara got food and I tried not to stare at the plate and lick my lips. I wasn't sure how long it would be before I was seeing passers by as giant walking turkey legs, like in Tom & Jerry cartoons. I was saved by one of Kara's more interesting food habits, which anyone who has eaten in her company will be familiar with. The infamous "potato cull" where even the slightest discolouration or "defect" will lead to a "rejected pile" which I hungrily gobbled up.
I really don't have words to describe how incredible the location is. Ostia Antica is an ancient harbour town that used to supply Rome. It has a naval history, plus the site contains remnants of many of the buildings that most Roman towns had back in the period the town is meant to have been at its peak. (400BC - 200AD) There are some incredible building remains that have been uncovered by archaeologists on the site, including bakeries, temples, tombs, houses, baths and I'm guessing the gigantic amphitheater didn't take a lot of digging to discover. This place was everything I wanted from a visit to Rome; a reflection of an ancient culture, with no doubt that what you were seeing was a genuine version and not something that was assembled in the 17th century. There was no graffiti and the sheer scale of the town really shows the layout and function of the place. There are mosaics that I'm guessing operated as advertisements for different shipping companies, while other depicted sea animals and elephants, presumably to emphasize the exotic nature of their expeditions. I think Kara could tell how much I was enjoying the place, as she persevered despite feeling really bad out there in the sun. We didn't quite finish seeing the whole place, but we were there for hours. There really is so much to see, and if you are a history nerd like I am, it's definitely what you're coming to Rome to see. It's cheap to get out there and visit, so do it.
We took the train back home and I did some cooking, before we did some provisional suitcase packing and got an early night. The train to Ciampino got us there on time, and despite a fairly significant setback, we arrived at the tiny airport terminal on time and in one piece. From here, the only other point to mention is that if you get a window seat on the right side of the plane and you're flying back to the UK from Ciampino, you get an amazing view of Rome from the sky. We were able to pick out so many of the sights that had seemed to huge from the ground, including the Colosseum and parts of the Vatican City.
So that was our trip. We arrived back in grey, chilly Scotland a few hours later and I was so glad to feel that cold breeze. We faced issues that were predictable to a point, especially feeding someone who has real trouble with finding food even in their home environment. I don't think gluten-free dining on its own would be particularly tricky in Italy, although it definitely pays to be prepared. It's also very expensive to feed yourself in Italy, even if the quality and quantity of food seemed to be better than in the UK. Just research the gluten-free options and you shouldn't have too difficult a time, although be prepared to have a regular meal that just happens to not include pizza or pasta, just in case you can't find a place. (For all we know, Milan has no places that do gluten-free pasta or pizza!)
I hope you have enjoyed reading this travel blog as much as I have enjoyed recounting our adventures. It's largely a personal project for me, but it's also nice to be able to passively describe our trip to family and friends! From here, it's likely that this blog will take a left-turn into nerdy territory, but I hope some of you might stick around for that.
Arrivederci!
-Ross
"Murder, mayhem and mozzarella" - Day 6: Rome
We tour the Colosseum and Kara finds her dream pizza.
Journal Entry 11.00 pm
Apartment in Roma
As we've been going at full-speed to do as much as possible this holiday, we decided to slow down this morning to plan our day and take advantage of the laundry facilities. At the moment, our flat is strewn with (clean) underpants and socks while our less personal items hang in the courtyard outside. The neighbours seem nice enough, even if my snoring probably keeps them awake, worrying about what animal sacrifice I am making to some dark power. I am sans-CPAP for the trip and I can feel myself becoming more tired as my quality of sleep deteriorates.
I took a walk to the local corner shop today, as Kara had only eaten junk food since Florence and I was beginning to worry. Despite a fair bit of confusion and feeling bad about my "Italiano", I was able to buy some bananas (green - the way Kara prefers them) and some potatoes. If there's one kind of food I know will be appreciated, it's potatoes. I snagged myself some bread and salami, as well as what seems to be Parmesan dairylea. After an approximation on a "continental breakfast" I hunt out the washing while Kara wrestled her hair into place. After discovering how to work the air-con, I was quite happy with the morning.
We stepped out and into the hot sunlight and I could've sworn I heard Kara hiss her disapproval. We wandered up and down via Casilina, looking for bus tickets. Our expreience today has taught us that people just get on and don't care for actually buying tickets. This bus had air-con! Never before have I been so comfortable on a packed bus. There is a couple that we saw at a restaurant last night, as well as on the bus into town today and on the far side of Rome at the end of the day. It's kinda creepy.
From the bus, we went shopping at Termini. Not the best idea as it's hella expensive, yo. We did find some snacks for Kara as well as the basis of some gluten-free dinners, so that's a weight off my mind. Sun-tan lotion was €20 so we resolved to find it cheaper, somewhere else. I hope they do factor 1,000,000 for Kara. She hates the idea of tanning.
After a short stint aboard the Roman metro, we arrived at Colosseo! The Colosseum was one of the biggest factors in me wanting to come to Rome and it's an impressive building that demands your attention as soon as you climb out of the metro station. A quick check online before we left the apartment meant that we had reserved our tickets. I was very glad of this, as the line to buy a ticket looked hellish. We went the wrong way round the Colosseum at first, just trying to glimpse parts of the building that were truly ancient or perhaps catching a minute of an English-speaking tour guide as they described what they were looking at. Many of them seemed to be obsessed with the ancient Roman toilets.
After a little while, we got going in the right direction. The Colosseum hosts some fantastic museums, showing finds from the excavations nearby, as well as descriptions that help to bring the place to life. The place was understandably mobbed, though. It was sad to see such a beautiful old place covered in graffiti. Much like at Giotto's bell-tower, I found myself getting pissed off at other people's ignorance and lack of respect. During the visit, I discovered that the Colosseum was consecrated as a mark of respect for all of the Christians "martyred" there.
As we entered the predictably tacky gift shop, Kara started to feel overcome by the heat and a lack of food. We decided to take a trip to the other side of the Tiber to look for "Mamaeat"; a gluten-free pizzeria. On the way, we passed a great and impressive monument called the "Vittoriano" which is the largest monument in Italy. It is enormous. We found it just as the sun was starting to dip, and the white marble that covers the entire area shone beautifully. We crossed the Tiber on the Ponte Palatino and found ourselves in narrow but busy streets that reminded me of Firenze.
Mamaeat is not particularly easy to find, but if you're a coeliac in Rome, it's a place you have to visit! Kara exclaimed "It's like eating real pizza!" I don't think she'll forget it soon. With the sun setting, we decided to find a spot to see the Colosseo lit up at night. Sadly, it didn't happen. We spent most of our time telling the string and selfie-stick peddlers to go away. It's breast cancer awareness month so a section of the Colosseum was lit in pink, with a large pink ribbon displayed on the side.
The somewhat abrupt end to this journal entry is due in no small part to my transition to becoming the chef for our trip. Our apartment kitchen was tiny, but I was able to prepare a few meals for our later days in Rome. Sadly, this meant that the journal was forgotten as it was late by the time I'd eaten. So from this post onwards, I suppose it'll mostly just be a retrospective as I try to remember the rest of our trip!
Our apartment was quite nice. On our first night, someone had let off fireworks for a full five minutes and it sounded a bit like gunfire. Kara and I were a tad nervous, but the area didn't seem too bad. Rome is covered in graffiti, and our street was no exception, but I don't think it strictly means a rough neighbourhood. Our little apartment complex had three small houses next to each other, sharing a courtyard with a lovely tree in it. The opportunity to do some washing was definitely appreciated. The heat and humidity on our trip had really meant that we were quite gross and had to quarantine some of our clothes in the suitcase. (I say we, but it's mostly me, let's be honest.) It was also refreshing to not be getting up at 8am to rush out of the accommodation, as we had been on the move during the whole trip. Finding out how to work the air-con was like figuring out how to turn the lights on in terms of morale and significance. I suddenly felt so much more comfortable.
Public transport in Italy is very different to over here. The buses in particular were some of the worst experiences of the whole trip. If there's a minimum capacity for a bus, we definitely overstepped it by quite a margin in Italy. It's literally elbow to elbow on there. If you can fit in there, go for it. I saw people trying to navigate towards the exit, only to be blocked by people who wanted to help but couldn't move themselves. Quite a stressful scenario to be involved in! The metro is quite similar, but I guess the London tube is similar. It's not nice to be the sweaty tourist in that scenario, though.
The Colosseum deserves its place in the list of the world's most recognizable buildings. It's an imposing sight, even amongst the many incredible examples of ancient architecture around the city. The only thing that makes me less enthusiastic about looking at it, is knowing that it's been renovated and put back together on numerous occasions over the years. It was very exciting to see little notice boards that told you to look at certain features so you could see that a
particular area was indeed ancient Roman. This included parts of frescos and yes, the toilets. The tour-guides were very enthusiastic to describe how Rome's old sewerage system worked and this made the ancient Roman toilets very popular. This led me to believe that perhaps they were one of very few sections that were relatively untouched since ancient times. The place is wonderful, though. Despite the massive number of tourists and the graffiti all over the place, I still had a great time looking at what the Colosseum had to offer a history nerd like me!
"Mamaeat" is a "must" for coeliacs in Rome. The pizza looked and smelled incredible, with the gluten-free pizza looking the way you'd expect any regular pizza to look. I just had a regular one, but I would never have guessed that Kara's was gluten-free too. Kara tells me that Mamaeat's margherita pizza (she doesn't really do pizza topping either) was the best she had on the entire trip, which makes it the best pizza she's ever had. This is high praise from a very discerning customer.
I will cover the rest of the trip as a retrospective, but don't worry; there's only two days left.
"Ciao Roma" - Day 5: Florence to Rome
We take a break from art to visit a couple of science museums. Then it's on to Roma!
Journal Entry 11.00 am on day 6.
Apartment in Roma
Our last day in Florence was nearly a disaster. We thought that the station had a luggage deposit area, but it turned out that the travel site had lied! We were able to keep our stuff at the hotel, fortunately. We started off by heading to "Star Bene" once again, where Kara stocked up on cake. We didn't even make it to the end of the block this time, before Kara was tucking in. She made some quite distressing animal noises, but she looked very happy to be enjoying some breakfast cake. We then made a bee-line for Accademia, but the queue was the worst that we've seen so far on this trip. Sadly, we knew at that point that we weren't going to see David on this holiday.
Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we headed on to a museum that housed models made from study of Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks. It was a bit stuffy, but it was cool to see all of the models to scale, including his tank and gliders. He also liked to build robotic suits of armour. After the Leonardo museum, we headed for the Galileo museum, along the bank of the Arno river. While fascinating and educational, there was a lot of repetition in some of the later sections. The astronomy areas were great, though.
Ponte Vecchio was rubbish. It's packed with tourists, but lined with jewelers. We had hoped for kitsch, tacky souvenirs but it was all just necklaces and earrings. We got a gelato on the other side and walked to the front of the Pitti Palace. It was enormous, with lots of tourists out front, but we weren't too fussed about going in.
On the way back through town, we stopped for a late lunch at "Hostaria Il Desco", just a few minutes away from Ponte Vecchio. Kara was delighted with her gluten-free pasta, while I got left with the "backup" in case she didn't want to eat what she'd chosen! They brought out an all gluten-free bread basket for Kara, which included the nicest breadsticks I think I've ever had.
After lunch, we picked up our luggage and chilled at the train station, waiting for our train to Roma. Upon leaving Florence, we only had one real regret and that was that we didn't see the statue of David.
Our first night in Roma was...not great. Met off the bus by our apartment's owner, we were informed that everything was closed and because it was a Sunday the next day, we were likely to struggle to feed Kara at all. Much to my eternal shame, our first meal in Roma was from a knock-off KFC establishment called "Chicken Hut". Their motto is...
"We know how to deal with chicken."
...which sounds a bit menacing to me. I immediately pictured a chicken who hadn't paid his protection money, being thrown into the fryer with a breezeblock tied round his ankles. Coupled with the heat and language barriers we encountered, day 5 ended on a bit of a downer.
A mercifully short journal entry for you guys, there. The plan was to cut our food costs in Rome by cooking everything for ourselves. It meant that we had really not planned well for eating out in Rome as I had somewhat naively expected to be able to eat much as we do at home. This turned out to not be the case, but on the first night in Rome, we really did struggle. We went to one place that was still open and turned out to be a restaurant/Karaoke bar. I understand if some readers think that sounds like fun, but as a former bartender, the word "karaoke" still gives me horrific flashbacks. We both wanted somewhere to chill out and eat, and that wasn't it. We also went to one place that our apartment owner had suggested, but it was definitely a place for locals, as everything was in Italian and there were no prices. We tried to pick up a bit of Italian on the trip, but with Kara's food issues and a lot of uncertainty, it ended up being a no-go. It was quite depressing for me too, as so far I had been able to get by on my barely passable Italiano. We also discovered that Italian chefs do NOT do substitutions. If someone says it comes with a side, it comes with that side, nothing else. "Patati" is the Italian word for potato, I believe. (If it wasn't, I was just spouting gibberish) I said it quite a lot on the trip. Kara often refers to me as her "second love, after potatoes". In almost 5 years with her, I've never seen any evidence to contradict that.
"Chicken Hut" actually didn't taste too bad. Kara just had fries that I'm fairly sure would have had some form of gluten-based coating on them, but it wasn't enough to cripple her. We were a bit overzealous in our order, which left us with a lot of fries. It was well after midnight, so it was time for bed.
Not seeing Michaelangelo's statue of David was a disappointment, certainly. It was also the only thing that we'd planned to see that we ended up missing during our trip. It was unfortunate, but we'd have wasted at least half a day waiting in the queue. The two science-themed museums that we went to were fantastic, though. Being a bit of a total nerd does extend backwards as well as forwards, and finding out more about Italy's contribution to the modern world was an exciting prospect. Florence was at the center of the Renaissance, so there were many fascinating things to see in the Galileo museum. Leonardo Da Vinci epitomizes the word "genius" for me, as he was not only a visionary and a scholar, but he was able to take these concepts and follow through to the point where he had an apparatus that was fit for experimentation. The Da Vinci museum contained many different contraptions of his that looking back now, it's easy to see the flaws, while the foundations of concepts such as the helicopter, the glider, the tank and the automaton are present. The museum was mostly filled with recently made wooden models that allowed visitors to see right into the design, often stripping away panels to show how things worked. I think if you had a smart kid, you could probably explain how something worked to them using the models here. The Galileo museum isn't really focused on Galileo himself, but Italy's contribution to science over the years. It displays some of Galileo's telescopes and measuring equipment, as well as a few of his partially
preserved fingers. (I have no idea why, and I have no idea why Kara didn't get any pictures of them for me to show you here.) The exhibition shows equipment from all facets of scientific experimentation; from astronomy to electricity. It's an inspiring and ridiculously peaceful place to visit amid the hustle and bustle of central Florence.
Ponte Vecchio really was quite disappointing. It's a bridge. That's it. It happens to be lined with jewelers. I have no idea
why it's a tourist spot. Still, it certainly seemed quite busy. Maybe the jewelers are really reasonably priced or something. The Pitti Palace and the "Boboli Gardens" behind it were on our list of places to visit but we were really worried about missing our train and these sites are on the opposite side of the Arno and the city from where we were departing from. It was certainly very warm, so the ice cream was pleasant! It was around this time that we really started to tighten our belts, as it was becoming abundantly clear that if we wanted to keep our spending in check, we were going to have to just go an have the look at the front of things for free, instead of paying €15 to go inside.
Kara really enjoyed her lunch at Il Desco. The surroundings were really nice too, with a cozy feel. The waitress that seated us seemed to be referring to one of the women who worked the till as her mother, so it was most likely a family business. It's always nice to see that you're not just supporting a massive chain restaurant. To be fair, there weren't many places in Italy other than Mcdonalds and Burger King that seemed like big chains. Funnily enough, I don't recall seeing another "Chicken Hut". That motto still makes me wonder if it was some mafia front!
