Rome, Italy

Take a moment to think about the history of Rome. This city is over 5 times as old as our entire country! I was telling Si Yue how jealous I was that there were no incredible fountains or memorials in Montreal like there were in Rome, but you know what? There’s just no comparing cities in Europe and North America. They’re Apples and Oranges. North America is really just an adolescent going through puberty. The amount of disposable income available to the emperors, kings and churches of Europe will never be accumulated here and spent the way they were back in the days of the Roman empire, so there shouldn’t be any envying them – we were also spared much of the cruelty and poverty that is associated with it.

This post will be a special one, for it will have a guest writer [commentator more like it], Si Yue, who will be appending her comments to my post in [blue square brackets]. I won’t edit her comments before I publish them, so I’m hoping she won’t abuse my trust. [fool! :P just kidding]

Rome is the home (see what I did there?) of many of the most iconic and ancient sites in Europe. They are all surprisingly accessible (though not always too affordable). I warn you – this is kind of a long post, as there’s just so much to see in Rome. We’ll get to all of them, eventually.

An interesting consequence of Rome’s contradictory status as a modern city as well as one of the oldest are scenes like this:

Roman columns next to a McDonald’s. If I remember correctly, this shot was taken not too far from the Coliseum [sp. Colosseum? Colosseo?]! Fine! I’ll correct it! This gives the city an interesting identity crisis. One one hand, it’s one of the most touristy cities in the world. On the other, it’s Italy’s capital as well as the largest city around! It makes for an interesting cocktail.

Our first stop in Italy was the Piazza del Popolo:

From there, a short climb up a hill nearby brought us to the Villa Borghese gardens, where we got a good view of the piazza: 

We then headed for the Piazza di Spagna, that is, the “Spanish Steps”: This is the view we were greeted with as we walked down a side street and the alleys were being splashed with red light from the sunset. Why Italy needs a set of Spanish steps, I’ll never know. This area was the one with the most tourist salesman, selling toys, flowers, roasted chestnuts… etc. It gets to be a bit much, when all you want to do is sit down and watch the people walk by. [Beware ladies, if you’re traveling with a guy, people will come up to you and force you to take a rose, and then make the guys pay for it.]

The Trevi fountain, which depicts Neptune and his sea horses, is an awesome sight at night:

According to the guidebook, “The custom is to throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, ensuring your return to Rome. On an average day about 3000 Euros are chucked away.” Well, at least now nobody can say that I hadn’t given my contribution to the catholic church (who I assume collect the money every day, anyhow): [That’s quite a nice shot, if I may say so myself… I wonder who the photographer was!]

The next day, we went to the Vatican, starting with Saint Peter’s Square: In the photo above, you get a sense for how long the line extended around the square to get into (“Italy’s biggest, richest and most spectacular”) church. You can also see the new shirt that my lovely Stef bought me, sent to me via Si Yue post. 

Guarding Saint Peter’s basilica are the Swiss guards:Wearing outfits slightly more ridiculous than the guards in front of Buckingham palace, it’s really hard to take them seriously.

I wish they’d protect us tourists, though – from the moment we stepped out of the metro station by the Vatican, we were constantly harassed (in English) about joining tours. This actually never let up, even when Si Yue and I started resorting to constantly speaking in French. I told her that we should try speaking Mandarin next time. [Perhaps not, they know that tons of Chinese tourists visit every year! Best would be to speak Italian super fluently and act like locals.]

It’s quite stunning inside the church, though – and they let you in completely for free! [It feels so wrong to have to pay admission to enter a church. Plus it would be counterproductive to charge people to enter a place of worship, especially a major pilgrimage destination.] I’d like to point out, Si Yue, that I had to pay to enter the synagogue in Florence! Stupid cheap jews…

Again, like most other cities, Rome is divided by a river. A cool bridge that crosses it is called Ponte Sant’Angelo:There are statues lining both sides of the bridge, and on the end is a nice building (a church?) with a statue of Jesus being hanged or something on top. I can’t be bothered to remember the details of everything I take a picture of, just read up on it on wikipedia. :p

Another bridge leads to a mini-island, like the ones in Paris, which is not a bad place to lie down and enjoy the sun in the afternoon: I’ve read that this island is near the Jewish quarter, though I didn’t feel too Jewish while strolling down it.

Finally, we’re getting to the epic ancient Roman sights! First is the Pantheon, which was built as a shrine to all of the Roman gods:Yea, it sucks that it’s under construction, but anyhow… Today the inside has a whole bunch of Christian statues and paintings. [This is one of my favorite sites in Rome! Orad, I can’t believe you didn’t post the picture I took of the dome from inside. Simply heavenly! I should add that it was transformed into a Christian church and now houses some of Italy’s heroes, and of course Raphael the painter.]

Next is the Colosseum, where gladiators fought and Cesar would give them the thumbs-up: [The Bell Center of the Antiquities, but much greater capacity.]

By the Colosseum you can pay to enter a tour of the ‘newly’ recovered ancient Roman ruins – the Palatino and Roman Forum:

One cool thing in the ruins is Augustus Cesar’s house:Oh, how ominous those clouds look. A preview of things to come later that day! 

Another cool artefact is the Arch of Titus:

This was built to celebrate the triumph over the Israelites (see the menorah?) in the 1st century. I believe it’s the inspiration for Napoleon’s Arche de Triomphe in Paris! [I thought that was the Arch of Constantine…] It might have been both.

And then there’s the huuuuge monument built to commemorate Emanuelle Vitorio II, the father of the nation of Italy. He’s credited with uniting Italy:

The statue in the middle is flanked by about a dozen women, each representing one of the Italian cities (Florence, Milan… etc.) by some symbol that relates to them. This is not unlike the Plaza de Espanya in Sevilla!

The very last thing we did in Rome (right after throwing the coin into the Trevi fountain, and just before leaving for the train station) was go to the ‘best gelato place’ in the city: [San Crispino]It had a line leading up to it, à la Schwartz’s, but I think it was worth it. I got two flavours – banana and honey and Si Yue got pink grapefruit. All of the flavours really were amazing. You know what? North American ice cream really has nothing on European Gelato. [Orad, you forgot to mention the Borghese Galleries, the Bernini’s, eating out in Trestavere and missing the metro, which ends at like 10-11pm (!!!!) and having to walk-bus-walk home in the pouring rain, and the awesome gift we left our host, Andrea – a shattered bottle of red wine! Oh well, this post is already long enough.]

Oh wait – you know what? I think I will mention eating out in Trestavere! We found this funky little restaurant and ate like real italiens – got a “Primi Piati” and a “Secundo Piati” (main course and second course). The food was pretty good, but overall not as phenomenal as I was expecting from Italy:

Romisms

-Brilliant sink:How do you turn it on to wash your hands, you ask? Why, by using your feet! Why the hell aren’t all the sinks in the world like this?

-In Europe, around tourists sights, people often dress up in costumes and expect you to pay them to take pictures of / with them. (Think Jack Sparrow in London) Often you run into the same ones over and over, say an invisible / headless man, the statue or the mummy. This one was really original though: I doubt you’ll be able to see it clearly in a photo, but he was basically frozen in time mid-step. His tie, his hair, even his posture – his attention to detail was excellent. And if you tossed a coin into his bucket, he merely raised his eyebrows. Very entertaining.

-Buggy:

-Oh, the streetlights in certain parts of Rome are weiiird. Instead of the usual Red / Yellow / Green, they have yellow line, yellow triangle, and… yellow something else. This is the best shot I could get of the yellow line:

-Tall cans of coke: I don’t think the scale will look right, but the cans in Italy are thinner and taller, though they still hold the same 330 ml of liquid as North America and Elsewhere in Europe.

-Graffiti in the Colosseum;I mean, one of the oldest and most incredible structures in the world… This was inside the Colosseum already, where you waited in line to pay to get in, say.

After Rome, Si Yue and I are hitting up Vienna and Budapest. I’ll try not to be too behind on those posts. Maybe Si Yue will keep me on track. [Arrivederci Roma et a presto mi amici!]

Cinque Terre, Italy

Wow, Cinque Terre. Si Yue (who you will be properly introduced to in the next post, if you don’t know her already) told me about this place about a year ago, when she went backpacking through Italy. She told me of it’s beautiful waterfront and mountains and quant town-ness and nice hiking trails. She did not, however, tell me about this:I had to walk up all of those steps to get to my hostel!! In the rain! How many steps were there, Orad? Well, let’s count:

It’s no wonder I was sick my whole time in Cinque Terre. Well, that’s the sad truth. I didn’t get to explore it as much as I wanted to. I did go for a short walk, though (in the daylight) so I can share these, at least:

Apparently, views like this go on for hours and hours as you walk around the trails and beaten paths, but I didn’t get to see them myself.

I did manage to get an authentic Italian meal, there:

The owner of the restaurant even brewed the wine we were served at the table:Look at the label on the bottle. Classic.

Finally, (kind of uselessly) check out the toilets they had there:

Si Yue in Rome! (ha.)

Florence, Italy

The train ride from Monaco to Florence had many stops and connections. My friend Jake and I decided to stick around in each city for an hour or so to stretch our legs, and in doing so we got a pretty good look at Italy!

Ventimiglia

The first stop after Monaco was Ventimiglia. Apparently, the city is in Italy, not France, evidenced by the illegible signs everywhere and the warm smell of pizza rising from the restaurant in the train station. Walking straight out of the train station, you come across a beautiful little park, and then a bridge crossing a river:

Jake and I got our first taste of Italian Gelato:

Genova

The next stop was at Genova. I was hungry and it was raining, so I stuck around in the train station and ate a sandwich while Jake walked around and explored what he could of the city. Sorry, no pictures.

Pisa

Jake and I weren’t even planning on stopping in Pisa, but once we were told we’d have to go there, we couldn’t resist taking an extra hour to walk around the town. One of the first things I saw was this dedication:

Italians are big on graffiti, apparently. There are curse words and blessings all over (Pisa, Florence, Rome).

Of course, we made a stop at the leaning tower. Oddly, not everyone knew how to give us directions to it. (???)

Florence

Finally, we arrived at Florence. What a beautiful city:From what I’ve read, Florence gets polluted with tourists and travellers to the point of being unbearable during the Summer, so I guess I was pretty lucky to come during the Springtime. The truth is that the lines to get in everywhere were pretty long, but not the hell they were supposed to be. It did have the trappings of a tourist town, though – people walking around trying to sell you flowers, hats and sunglasses everywhere, harassing you until you’re practically yelling at them to leave. That said, I wouldn’t let it bother me. Read on.

-Florence has a wicked market:
On this trip, I’ve learned that I’m pretty crazy about little flea markets and the like. This one was really cheap, though. Competition at its finest. It’s right next to the Duomo, which is also phenomenal:

The Duomo is the most impressive structure that I’ve never heard about. It’s one of the most impressive buildings I’ve seen period anyway! It’s one of the world’s largest cathedrals, and its exterior is adorned in white, green and red marble. They began working on it in the 90s (that is, the 1290s) and its absolutely phenomenal. Jake and I spent a solid hour walking around it and just looking around. It’s decorated with paintings and stained glass designed by Donatello (one of the ninja turtles).

Inside, everyone’s looking upwards for some reason:

Here’s why:
This cupola is extremely famous and beautiful. It costs extra to go up near it, but I didn’t bother.

Perhaps most interestingly, (but only perhaps) Jake and I got to see Michelangelo's David:

We didn’t want to imitate the statue beside it, though:

Oh, and for the ladies, here’s a close-up:
Jokes aside, the detail on this thing is amazing. Look at the veins on his hands, for instance:
Okay, I kind of lied. This isn’t the original David. But people are really obsessed with the David around here. (It reminds me of the Manneqin Pis in Brussels.) For example, we walk to the top of a park on a mountain, and we get another fake David, this one made of Bronze:

It seems like all of the souvenirs, keychains and calendars they sell in Florence are based on David. It makes me wonder what it’s like to grow up in a tourist town like Florence. What do the locals think of tourists? What do they think about their tourist attractions?

Florence (having a river crossing it, like every other European city) has a whole bunch of bridges connecting its two halves. The most famous of these is the 14th century Ponte Vecchio:

It’s an odd bridge in that it’s lined with shops. Even odder because they’re all jewellery shops:This is due to a royal decree, apparently. An odd thing to want, I think.

One of the last things I did in Florence was go to visit a synagogue. This is one of the first Jewish things I’ve done on this trip, after the Passover Seder. 

This synagogue is sort of still in use, with services held on Saturdays and used for weddings. People come from all over the world to have their weddings here. I was told that it’s not Ashkenazi or Sephardi synagogue but an Italian one. I’ve never heard of this, but they differ in many things, including that they write some of their prayers in Italian wording but Hebrew letters. They also use a pipe organ during their services, though they traditionally have a non-Jew playing it.

During the war, the synagogue was used as a garage. The torah books were hidden from the Nazis in order to protect them, and they weren’t harmed! Ironically, 90 of them were destroyed during one of the horrible floods in the 60s, so only 13 are left.

Italisms

-I do not understand a bit of Italian. I mean, I didn’t expect to, but in a way I did. I understand a fair bit of Spanish, apparently, but Italian's completely above me. I really thought my French and my little Spanish would be useful, but it isn’t. For the record.

-Food:

Left: chocolate filled pastry thing. Right: rice ball (arancini), filled with mozzarella, tomatoes and beef. 

-Only in a place like Italy can you find yourself standing in wine:

-Cute little bus:
Sorry for the crappy view, but I didn’t see another one when I was there, so this is the only shot of one that I have.

-David’s junk:

-Another strange statue

-Ugly car:

All in all, in a single day we managed to be in 6 cities: Nice, Monaco, Ventimiglia, Genova, Pisa and Florence. Afterward such a wonderful introduction to Italy, I got to enjoy much of Florence’s art and food. I’m extremely impressed with Italy, so far.