To take a quote from my travel journal on my train ride down to Rome from Munich - "Well hello, Italia. You're looking beautiful this morning. And that she was, with a flog-like mist covering her hills and the sun shining through, intensifying the green shadows in an attempt to break the fog." This, however, was the highlight of the train ride, as the compartment I had been in was somewhat squished, with 3 other kids in their twenty-somethings who decided to take up as much space as physically possible and an older Italian woman who had said a somewhat heartening goodbye to her husband in Munich (granted, I couldn't quite understand, as this was all said in Italian - but it seemed sincere, as they held hands out the window of the train before it departed.). Upon writing in my travel journal, I had since moved carriages into a much more spacious area, with just one other gentleman. But, as you could probably tell, the sun was rising at this point, so there was little time for more sleep. Ah well, that wasn't going to stop me enjoying Rome!
Ah Rome. Many people seem to dislike it's busy and touristy streets, with Gypsy's and pickpockets at any and every historical site, but I really loved it. The atmosphere, the history, the people - All were welcoming to me and the friends that I had since met up with at Rome Termini train station.
After dropping our things off at our hostel, we decided to start our sight seeing immediately. We didn't realize that everything would be so close by and Rome was such a walk-able city! We saw about 16 or so sights that first day alone! These included:
Repubblica y Piazza della Repubblica
St. Paul's Within the Walls
San Carlo Quattro Fontane
Fontana del Tritone
Trinita dei Monti (Spanish Steps)
Villa Medici and the surrounding park area
Fontane di Trevi (Trevi Fountain)
St. Ignazio di Loyola
Pantheon
Area Sacra
Chiesa del Gesu
Palazzo Venezia
Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II
Colonna Traiana y Mercati Traianei
Colosseo (Colosseum)
Arco di Costantino
Unfortunately, I really only have the Italian names of these places, as those are the names that are on the map that we got, but some of them you can figure out (Like the Colosseum). The day itself was gorgeous, and up at the Medici Villa one could look over all of Rome it seemed. Flowers were blooming and it was comfortably in the upper 70's the entire time, with few clouds darting around the sky. Some of the sites, like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain were quite crowded with tourists, but it didn't bother us too much. The only time we really had a bit of a misunderstanding was when a man tried to sell us flowers by putting them in our hands and expecting us to pay for them. When he realized we weren't going to (We told him we had just gotten off the plane and therefore had no money at the time - this was only partly true, but he believed it), he took his flowers back and disappointingly stalked away to bother other tourists that he might have more luck with. At the Medici Villa, we wandered around the park area and got our first taste of Italian Gelato (albeit from a food stand - still delicious), taking in the views and the sunshine, which was a welcome change from the usual cloudy and rainy days of Stirling. But soon we were ready to be off again, and went to search for more 'hot spots.'
The Trevi Fountain, though beautiful, was absolutely packed, and it took quite a bit of maneuvering to get a good seat in the house, if you will. We were finally able to snag a spot from a couple that had moved to get our turn in taking pictures and throwing pennies into the fountain!
On our way from the Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon, we quite literally stumbled upon St. Ignazio di Loyola - a stunning church set far back in a quiet alleyway. It seemed an odd place for such a beautiful church. It was definitely one of the more intense churches that we had seen thus far.
The church apparently holds the relics of Saint John Berchmans. Intense. Moving on. From there we continued to wander about, seeing the Pantheon and Area Sacra. Area Sacra was interesting because not only was it a small ruin area that was only about as bit as a small square as any other in Rome, but it had literally been turned into a cat sanctuary. At the bottom of the ruins, there was another building that was completely devoted to taking care of these stray cats - around the ruins there were about 50 felines roaming about, sleeping, and playing. It was quite the sight to see - I was a bit jealous that they got to play around the ruins like that.
From there, we wandered over to Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II and ate dinner by the Colonna Traiana y Mercati Traianei ruins - you know, just another average day in Rome. I really wish that could be my life every day - eating dinner on ancient ruins. It would be great. Since Europe had finally gone through daylight savings (Europe does it 3 or 4 weeks after the States do - way to change that, too, US....), the days were getting longer, so my friend Dana and I decided it was time to hit up the Colosseum. So we did. And it was amazing. My inner history nerd was going wild at this point, so instead of overwhelming you with my thoughts while walking around the immense, ancient structure that holds so much history, I will just let you look at the classic Colosseum photo that everyone takes on their visit:
There it is! THE Colosseum! Naturally, there were people dressed as ancient Romans walking around. And there were ruins everywhere. It was every history nerds dream in one place. Definitely want to make another visit and take more than two days in Rome to see what it has to offer. Anyway, after the Colosseum, we were all pretty beat (They had had a 6 am flight, so had also been up quite early) and headed for an early nights sleep.
Next Day
It is a Wednesday. So like any good Roman should know, on Wednesdays and Sundays, the Pope holds audience at St. Peters Basilica. So what do we do? We wake ourselves up at 6am and hoof it all the way across Rome to see Pope Benedict XVI. We were 2 hours early. Which, apparently, was a good thing, because when we got there, there weren't nearly as many people as there would be 2 hours later. So we were able to snag seats. About 15 or so rows away from where the Pope sat. It was worth it. Excitement grew as St. Peter's square quickly filled up, so the few hundreds of people that were there when we first arrived turned into thousands. And then he came.
The Pope made his arrival in his Pope Mobile turned convertible hummer and worked the crowd like never before. You'd be surprised at how important it is for a Pope to be able to work the crowd. And everyone loved him. The short service was held in Latin, and, once finished, about 7 or so different Cardinals came up and spoke in their different respective languages, thanking certain groups of people in the crowd for coming and saying that the Pope would give his blessings to them. Then the Pope would speak (in each respective language - we were impressed) and give his blessings to the people and to their families and friends. The crowd at times seemed almost electric, as people cheered when he was done giving his speech - One choir got up and sang for him, and the Pope stood and clapped for them afterward. All in all, a very cool experience.
After the Pope, we were all pumped about Popish and Vatican things, so decided, after a quick lunch, to go and see the Sistine Chapel. We didn't realize that this would require us to see all of the Vatican Museum. So off we went, room after room after room after room. In case you didn't know, it is a HUGE museum. Beautiful, but after a while, when you were only expecting to see the Sistine Chapel, it got long. So near the end, we bypassed a few rooms and beelined it to the chapel. Which was beautiful. I think you might recognize this part of the ceiling?
I think some famous painter named Michelangelo or something painted it. No big deal. Not like it's world renowned or anything.It turned out that the Sistine Chapel was the last stop of the museum, so we wandered around outside for a bit, and then decided it was time for more gelato. The greatest gelato in the world. You may think I am joking, but I am quite serious. This gelato is a main reason for my desire to go back to Rome. The place we got it was a little hole in the wall across from the Vatican called Old Bridge Gelateria. If you ever plan on going to visit the Vatican, or just Rome in general, find this gelateria. It is amazing. It was only 1 euro 50 for three scoops of different flavors. After we had made our way through the crowd of people to get our gelato, we went to find cover under an awning around the corner, as it had started raining. However, it was quite sunny a block away. But then the rain turned to almost hail-like size. But it was still sunny a block away. And then there was lighting. Even though the sun was still shining. It was a very odd storm that lasted a total of 15 or 20 minutes, and then went on it's merry way, leaving Rome bathed in sunshine once more. A funny thing did, indeed, happen on the way to the Forum.
After going to the Colosseum, Dana and I were still in need of some Roman Ruins, so it was off to the Forum (as mentioned above). This is possibly my absolute favorite area of the city. Wandering through the ruins. We were there for almost an hour and a half and I still don't feel like I've even scratched the surface of it.
There were ruins everywhere, yet it still seemed so well laid out, that it was easy to imagine it all built up again in it's glory days. Oh how I wish I could have seen it.
But, once again, it was time to go, as we had to meet two of our other friends that we had separated from for dinner - another reason to come back to Rome. Once again, we had had a very long day of walking, and an early morning ahead of us, so we pretty much just went to bed after that. Not very exciting when it came to the night life.
Thursday-
It's off to Perugia, Italy! For those of you who don't know Perugia (I certainly didn't before this trip), it is all on a giant hill borderline mountain. The train station is at the bottom of the hill and the old city/city centre is at the top. Also, it is by no means whatsoever on a grid system. The streets go every which way and turn on a dime if they so choose, changing names while they're at it. Nor do they like road signs. All of this together made the finding of our hostel somewhat impossible. We finally find a road sign that matches our map and decide to take it. We miss a turn somewhere and end up at the bus station about halfway up. This will come into play later on. We ask a friendly old lady which way to go, and she points us on our way. We finally come to the top and find the city centre and our hostel. Which, it turns, out, doesn't open until 4. So we park it by the Fontana Maggiore and do some sun bathing, as it is, once again, a gorgeous day. After we are able to drop our bags off, we wander around Perugia to be greated by some truly amazing views:
Another thing we learn that, because Perugia is on a giant hill/mountain, it has escalators taking pedestrians from one street to another. Not nearly enough to say it was extensive, however. Still, this would have helped our tired muscles on the way up to the hostel. We also learn that it has some sort of Underground City, which is pretty much used like regular city streets. But it's underground. We were walking along a street after dinner and saw an open door and lo and behold - there was the underground city. Through a random door in a wall. There wasn't too much in it, no shops or anything, just the streets and some old building-less windows. There was another escalator at the end, taking pedestrians farther down the hill. It was getting late after this discovery, so we wound back through the streets of Perugia to our Hostel.
Friday, April 1st:
The day that will be known as Black Friday. The day that the world pulled the most evil of April Fools day pranks on us. Perugia, you were our downfall.
That morning, our train was to leave at around 11 am, and we were to arrive in Bologna at around 2pm, which would give us plenty of time to wander around the city, before our 4 or 5 pm flight the next day back to Edinburgh, Scotland. Since our train left fairly late in the morning, we took our sweet time getting down the hill, grabbing some breakfast along the way. Once arriving at the train station, we beeline it for the ticket machine, as we had purchased our tickets online weeks before, but had yet to print them out. As our tickets were printing, a man who spoke English came up to us to inform us that printing them out was pointless. You see, trenitalia had chosen April Fools Day, of all days, to go on strike. We were stunned. We had a plane to catch the next day, and the trains from Perugia would not get us to Bologna on time to catch our flight. In vain, we stubbornly sat by our platform, in hopes that a train would magically make it's way towards the station. It didn't. Here is where our train should have been:
After finally realizing there would be no way, we called up our program adviser (we were all from IFSA-Butler) to get help on what to do next, and were informed that there should be a 730 AM bus the next day to Florence, in which we could take a train to Bologna, which should leave every half hour (the train strike was to be over at 9pm that night). This sounded perfect to us, as long as we could get another night in the hostel. So back up the hill we went, to the previous mentioned bus station. With everyone else that had been stranded at the train station. Unfortunately (but understandably) for us, no one really spoke english at the bus station. However, we were able to make out that there was not, in fact, a bus at 730 to Florence. Nor was there a bus to Bologna. Or any bus that could get us north that could help us GET to Bologna on time for our plane. We were stranded in Perugia. At this point, we were so done with Perugia, we jumped the next bus to Rome, figuring that at least in Rome we could catch another plane back to the UK (We could not see how we would be able to get to Bologna on time for our flight - we had briefly considered renting a car, but realized quickly that would not work for many reasons). On the way, we found out that the cheapest flight out of Rome was £127 and would only get us into Manchester. We were desperate to get to Bologna. On the bus ride back to Rome, we found out that there were to be night trains (after 9pm - when the strike was over) to Bologna! Perfect! We had it all planned out - we would head back to Rome Termini, where I had originally come in from Munich, get our tickets and be on our way!
The bus that we had taken back to Rome, however, took us to a different train/bus station called Rome Tibertini. We didn't think this a problem, although, apparently it was, as there were no buses from Rome Tibertini to Rome Termini, where we needed to be. I have been told that the buses may have also been on strike at this point, but I don't know if that was completely right. There may just not have been a city bus going there. We did find, however, that there was a metro that would easily take us between the two stations.
So we arrived at Rome Termini train station, found help, and found a cheap overnight train ticket (only about £27 versus £87) which would leave at about 1030 that night. However, it would be leaving out of Rome Tibertini, the train station that we had just come from. It was only 4 or 5 at the time, thought, and we knew the area around Rome Termini better than Rome Tibertini, and knew we would be able to take the metro back, so we wandered around and found some dinner.
After dinner and a quick gelato dessert, it was back down to the metro to head to Rome Tibertini. It was about 8 or 830 at this time, so we had roughly 2 hours to get to our train. On our way down the stairs to the metro, a surge of people come up against us. When we reached the bottom of the metro, we were quickly turned away as, go figure, metro had just gone on strike. Just our luck. And there were no buses to Rome Tibertini still. So, no metro and no bus. And we had no idea how or if we could walk there, and we had about 2 hours to figure this out. Our only choice was to stand in the long line outside of the train station for the taxis. We finally got a taxi about a half hour later, and we zoomed off, arrive at Rome Tibertini with an hour plus till our train. We were comforted in seeing our train up on the schedule board, though it had no platform yet. So we all took turns in taking a bathroom break. Normally, this wouldn't be anything worth noting. However, on my return from the bathroom, I arrive to a group of gloomy looking faces and a "Hey Kristy, you know what would be funny? If our train was canceled. But really...." On the board, where our train number and information had comfortably sat, there was the dreaded CANCELED word staring back at us. At this point, we had lost all hope of ever getting out of Italy. It was clear Italy did not want us to leave, and it was going to do everything in it's power to keep us there. It did not, however, take into account Francesco.
Francesco. An angel from heaven. An Italian man who had taken only about 2 years of English, who could communicate with us just enough to get his points across, but could, more importantly, translate for us. Clearly seeing us in distress, he realized that we were trying to get to Bologna, where he also happened to be going. We quickly latched onto him. It appeared there were other trains to Bologna, but we would have to buy another ticket. At this point, we were ready to do anything to get home. But there was no way we were buying our ticket until 1o minutes before the train was coming, to be absolutely positive that it was, in fact, coming and we were not just throwing more money down the train. Luckily, though, we didn't need to, as a half hour later, a woman came up, speaking excitedly in Italian, to say that the train to Bologna was not canceled!! It was only 2 hours delayed! Thank goodness! So during our wait, we taught Francesco how to play Go Fish, and then, once the familiar and very welcome clickity clack of the train came down the platform, went our separate ways. I shall forever be grateful for Francesco.
We finally arrived in Bologna at 4 or 430 am - roughly 13 hours after we were originally supposed to arrive. Some of our group instantly took a bus to the airport, as we were so done with public transportation at this point, and so tired, that there was little desire to see Bologna. However, myself and two others decided to walk around a bit. Not much was open, and there wasn't a whole lot to see around the train station, and we were afraid to walk much farther, so we left for the airport around 10 am, and sat around the airport for a few hours, taking nap shifts. Thankfully, our plane went off without a hitch (not including the few babies that were on board and not enjoying the plane ride), and we arrived in Edinburgh as previously planned, ready to kiss the ground once we had landed.
Although the last two days of spring break were incredibly stressful, I would still like to think that my very first adventures to mainland Europe were a success. Even though all of the transportation issues occurred, we were able to successfully make our way back safe and sound, and I do still want to see much more of Italy. I just never plan on changing cities while I'm there, unless I have a car of my own to do it. If I've learned anything - Never trust Italian Public Transportation.
No comments:
Post a Comment