No really.
WOW.
I met up with Seema and Krishna who Id met in Florence early in the afternoon, arriving to the crazy heatwave in Italy that is making the news everywhere. Yes, it really is over 40 degrees during the day. However, as insanely hot as that is, there is NO humidity compared to say, Vietnam or Borneo, so Im not letting it slow me down too much. We had a delightful surprise upon arrival... the hostel had overbooked the dorms so we were upgraded to a private room with ensuite and AC for the same price for our three nights in Rome together. Wicked!
Krishna and Seema do not mess around. They have been travelling Europe for five weeks and have been to almost every country already... almost a different city every day! They slowed their pace a little for me and Rome, taking a whole three days to check out the Eternal City, where the saying A Lifetime Isnt Enough is all too true. The great thing about this city is despite the wide streets, you literally turn a corner and a massive fantastic monument is right there and you didn't even see it coming!
Our very first night was no small feat. We circumnavigated the Colosseum, which was actually a bit smaller than I imagined it would be, but was still terribly impressive. We watched the sunset behind the Arches of Constantine and Tito and Palatine Hill. As we ambled over to Travestere, the uber trendy night market area for dinner, we took in the Opera House, the Jewish Museum, the old chariot racing track and Ponte something or other. After dinner we climbed Capitoline Hill and saw the monument for Vittorio Emmanuel II up close.
Our second day we hit up St Peters Basilica and Piazza in Vatican City in the morning. Bernini's work inside the Basilica was astonishing. I was truly overwhelmed by the detail and the clever placement of the windows to cast beams of light in just the right places to give the church a really heavenly overtone. We then wandered over to Piazza del Popolo with a huge Egyptian obelisk with hieroglyphs inscribed everywhere (I believe Caligula the Emperor hijacked it from Heliopolis) and climbed the very worthwhile Pincio Hill for sweeping vistas of the city. The views from Castel SantAngelo back towards the Vatican were nothing to sneeze at either! After our refreshing siesta, we checked out the definitely overrated Spanish steps, which are great for people watching but really are just a big staircase leading to mediocre views of Rome. We capped off the night with gelato and gazing in wonder at the Trevi fountain, possibly my favourite sight in Rome. We did the obligatory tossing of a coin with our right hands over our left shoulders to ensure our return to Rome, though we missed out on drinking from the side fountain that is said to have the power to revirginize. So many random superstitions in this town! On our somewhat lost way back to the train station, we passed by Piazza Barberini where Bernini's Triton and Slut Fountain are on display. Not a typo. The tiny shell and bumblebee fountain was sculpted to imitate a lady's netherparts to stick it to the Pope and is nicknamed the Slut Fountain.
We also did a day trip to Napoli and Pompeii in the middle (separate post for that) and to make sure we got it all in, on our last day together we went to the Vatican Museums and the Pantheon (which I liked way better on the outside than the inside) before the girls had to get on their night train with a side stop at the greatest gelato shops in the city of course. We made it our mission to sample as many flavours as possible: banana, coconut, pineapple, lemon, field berry, strawberry, malaga, grandma, bubblegum, chocolate, nutella, hazelnut, stracciatella, tiramisu, caramel, coffee, and even one called Viagra (bright blue of course!). Seema had to sweet talk the scooper guy into selling her that one, since apparently Viagra flavour is only for men. But since he wanted to exit with her (direct quote... he meant 'go out'), it didn't take much convincing.
And the museum is when the history geek in me burst out. The Vatican Museums were phenomenal. As I put it to the girls, walking around the Egyptian and Ancient Greek wings were like the Hollywood Walk of Fame for me. My dorky knowledge of ancient civilizations worked to their benefit though since I could tell them anecdotes about all the artwork and statues we were seeing, like the story of Perseus and Medusa, of Remus and Romulus being raised by a wolf, of Hercules and the Greek gods, the Odyssey and the Trojan war, of mummification in ancient Egypt, etc. Not to mention the philosophers and poets in the paintings in the Raphael rooms like the School of Athens and Rodin's Thinker.
And Michaelangelo's ceiling in the Sistine Chapel wasn't half bad either! ;)
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