Europe Winter Trip (Part 6 - Rome and the Vatican) (end)

Day 12

Coat of Arms of Vatican City I suppose

The Vatican Museum was first on our list, coz it was the last Sunday of the month, so the entrance was free! Guess we arrived quite late (around 9.30am)... there was already a long long queue. Took us freakin' 2 hours 15 minutes to get in.

Then it was a few hours inside... there were many interesting stuff/sculptures etc. to see but we didn't have a lot of time actually, coz it was going to close at 1:45pm. The whole museum is filled with artefacts: statues, paitings, maps, Egyptian, Greek, Roman... totally amazing. Particularly liked the ancient maps, coz I'm into maps. Wanted to buy some of the copies on sale, but they were too expensive...

Gallery of Maps

The whole decor of the museum was lavish. More like a palace I guess. There was kinda like a fixed route (esp. if you wanted to go to Sistine Chapel). Along the way we saw lots of amazing paintings on the walls on ceilings by the likes of Raphael and Michelangelo (which started me thinking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Great.)

The designs on the pillar is reproduced in the painting as well. Found it interesting.

The right portion of Raphael's "The School of Athens", (possibly) depicting Euclid or Archimedes, Zoroaster amongst others, and Raphael himself (the one with black hair near to the edge of the drawing... sorry for the poor quality)

The highlight for many tourists is of course, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, with the famous "The Creation of Adam" (the one where a guy is stretching out his arm to God and God almost touches his finger). It reminded me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster... nevermind that. I personally liked "The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their Expulsion from the Garden of Eden". No photos here, you can google/wiki them. Visitors aren't supposed to take photos but many people took photos anyway. As we came out we saw the Vatican Post Office and decided to send a postcard (to ourselves). We were just in time; they closed shortly after.

"Poste Vaticane". It's been 2 weeks and I still haven't received my postcard =(

After that we walked around Saint Peter's Square. It is surrounded by the largest amount of pillars I have ever seen. Then tried to find a (cheap) place to eat. I ended up eating Kebab (which is like, one of the most popular fast food in Europe nowadays). We then walked to Castel Sant'Angelo and crossed the Tiber river (Fiume Tevere) on Ponte Sant'Angelo.

Wikipedia says there are 248 columns and 88 pilasters circling St. Peter's Basilica.

View of Castel Sant'Angelo from the bridge. The bridge reminds me of Prague's Karluv Most, with statues on both sides.

Barely 2pm and it was getting dark. We hurried and made our way to the Pantheon, passing by Piazza Navona (which was like a huge carnival ground at the time with carousels and cotton candy). There was an obelisk topped with a cross (Christianity prevails over Paganism?) in front of the Pantheon. The sarcophagus of Raphael the artist lies here.

We then went to the Coffee shop recommended by Seungwon, La Casa del Caffe Tazza D'oro. Seungwon let us try some of the chocolate wrapped coffee beans (Chicchi) she bought from her visit there and we all really liked it. We also had a cup of coffee each there.

Logo of the shop/company.

Then it was on to Fonatana di Trevi. Passed by Tempio Adriano but it was under maintenance repair. Along the way we also saw this fantastic street musician who was playing songs (mostly Christmas songs) by wiping his fingers around the rim of glasses of different sizes and shapes filled to different levels of water. Fontana di Trevi looks really grand at night with the lights and stuff. According to legend I heard, you're supposed to throw a coin over your shoulder to ensure you return to Rome and another to make a wish. Checked on wikipedia... apparently there are different versions, and approximately €3,000 (S$6,377.38; RM14,514.18) are thrown in every day! Crazy. Anyway, we helped to take a photo of a Singaporean guy and his girlfriend there and we chatted a bit afterwards.

The famous Fontana di Trevi. The centre statue is Neptune, riding on his chariot.

After going to the Hard Rock Cafe shop we then went to walk down Via dei Fori Imperiali from the Colosseum (Colosseo). There are lots of open archaeological sites around this region. We didn't spend much time as we had to go to Roma Termini to pick up Enrique. We bought take-away for dinner and we went back to Camping Fabulous. Enrique told us about his amazing time in Finland and we told him what happened the last few days. Slept.

Colosseo by night

Day 13

We moved out from Camping Fabulous and went to another hostel that was nearer to Termini. It was an awesome sunny day. Enrique left to visit the Vatican, and the rest of us went to San Giovanni Laterano, which is (according to Wikipedia) the cathedral church of Rome and official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope. Couldn't tell it was a church from the outside though. There were many confession boxes along one corridor (well I'm sure there are special terms for the parts in the church but I certainly have no idea), and differing from most other churches that I've been to, these were all operational at the time (i.e. there were priests inside). Some of the priests speak English, and it is indicated on the outside of the box.

San Giovanni Laterano. It's days like this that I feel Europe would be much nicer to visit during summer.

The "papal cathedra", located in the apse

We then went to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, but there wasn't much to see there. We met up with Enrique again and passed by some of the places we went to yesterday. Had some ice-cream at this place called San Crispino. I had some kind of chocolate ice cream but the rest tried the Honey sorbet (which is highly recommended). Theirs were better... haha...

Ice cream in winter is nice coz it doesn't melt as quickly.

Italians don't have water bottles on their bikes, they've got freakin' wine bottles!

Anyway by the time we reached Colosseo it was already closed. So all we did is walk one round around it and attempt to take some photos.

The Colosseo seems to have 2 different colour tones... I wonder why.

Fatigue really settled in. The whole trip has been so rushed... We went back to the hostel to sleep. Sure there were many other places in Rome to visit; maybe next time. Anyway after some time we took the metro to Cavour, which was one stop before Colosseo, because there were sure to be many many people there. And there were. Squeezed our way through until we were rather near the stage at the end of Via dei Fori Imperiali. There were some open areas along the road where people were lighting up their own fireworks and the most annoying of all, firecrackers.

Seems more like a scene of a riot that a new year's party

Of course we had no idea who the people on the stage were, nor what they were singing. But we tried to join in the fun nonetheless. As 2008 approached we were waiting for a countdown but apparently they don't do it there. No "...three, two, one!", not even "...tres, dos, uno!" That was a bit disappointing. There were the usual fireworks in the sky, but there was also champagne squirting. Tried to hide from it but couldn't. Someone nearby held up an umbrella (well prepared!) so we were saved from becoming totally drenched.

Back to hostel and sleep. Zzzz...

Day 14 (01.01.2008)

We made our way to the train station and took our 10-hour ride home (to Munich)

When we stopped at Verona, a woman and her daughter came in and sat in the same compartment as us. She could speak English fairly well; she said that she was now teaching English, and she taught German previously. She was going to Munich to visit a friend she got to know under some programmes organised between Munich and Verona (which are "twin cities"). We chatted a lot on the train... She said she was from a traditional type of school where you had to learn Latin and Greek (!).

She told us about an old lady she met when she was in the UK, whose family had to travel frequently around the world as her father was posted to the different British colonies, so she was rather "worldly" in that sense. This old lady, probably 80 at the time, was learning Chinese. This Verona lady was curious so she asked her:"Why are you still learning languages at this old age?" to which her response was "If you don't know 10 languages by the time your my age you must be an idiot!".

Bologna - just a station we passed by. Would have loved to stop for Bolognese sauce though!

She was also interested in sociology: she asked us what were our parents' and grandparents' occupation. She then commented that it was interesting to see the change in social status/class, and mentioned that her father was also a farmer before (my grandfather was a farmer). And then told us to count our blessings (well, my dad says that all the time. Lol).

Anyway we also talked about many other things... She didn't know where was Malaysia and Singapore, but she had a world map in her sociology-related book, so we could point them out. Asked us about our countries, its people, language, culture, religion...

Passed by the Alps... they are simply breathtaking. (Reminder to self: climb Kilimanjaro before the ice is gone!)

Back in Munich I went straight back to my room, my bed and a long pleasant sleep. The End.

**** **** **** ****

Other points:

Well after this very very rushed trip (4 countries, 9 places in 14 weeks? you gotta be kidding me) I told myself next time I will take it slow and easy instead.

Well sadly I'll probably not travel in Europe anymore before I go back to Singapore. It depends on the exams and when I'll get the results. Therefore I can't book any tickets or make reservations because I won't know if I'll be able to go. Still, I'm setting my eyes on Poland, within Germany of someplace really nearby (Salzburg or something).

Bernard had a good suggestion of the next trip (which will definitely be after the exams, i.e. 1 month from now), which is a cycling trip around Munich. That'll be great coz I haven't even talked much about Munich yet even though I've been here for 4+ months!