Pisa & Rome

Pisa and Rome!: Tue 29/08/2006 5:43 PM

Hey everyone

Hope everything is going well back home or wherever u are.

This one will b shorter than last time I promise, only a few things to tell u about I think...

Our last day in Florence was nice and relaxed, took a stroll round the gardens of the Pizzi Palace and saw the famous Bacchus fountain. The fountain was pretty disappointing really, a little fat guy riding on the back of a big turtle, nothing compared to the fountains here in Rome but I'll get to that in a minute.

We got a local train from Florence to Pisa where we stayed for one night in a hotel, very nice. Obviously saw the leaning tower on the first day, really amazing but I can't believe the plonkers actually built it 8 stories high when it had started to fall over once they had only built the first 3!

Although it is really very impressive I dunno why its so famous coz I didn't see one upright building in the whole place, they should rename it the leaning town of Pisa. They actually closed the tower and corrected it a bit in 2000 but now it is reopened so we climbed the spiral staircase to the top for an incredible view. The trip will be forever imprinted on my mind especially after some American kid started wondering aloud "imagine if it fell over", not really something I wanted to think about standing at the top. The cathedral there is no less impressive than the tower and is also leaning but only slightly (enough for me). We went in there the next morning because we were wearing vests the first day so weren't allowed. Pisa is a lovely place but it is easy to see why most people only go for a day trip coz there's not really much to see other than the tower and cathedral in the Field of Miracles (i think its called Field of Miracles coz its a miracle that tower has stayed up for so long).

Rome on the other hand has so much we didn't really know where to begin. We got here from Pisa in the afternoon and found our way to the campsite out of town where we have a bungalow (with an ensuite and fridge, much better than the tent in Venice thankfully). By some incredible coincidence Claire Denham from Carly's year at school is in the adjoining bungalow and she saw us in Venice as we checked out of the campsite there, its a small world indeed. We went to check out the bar about half six and ended up dancing til 2 am.

There is a pool at the campsite so we went for a swim yesterday before heading into Rome to see a few things. First up is the Trevi Fountain, a huge fountain with a statue of Neptune and some horses rearing up over a cascading waterfall. It is a truly amazing sight but is unfortunately marred by the hordes of street vendors selling rubbish to gullible tourists: Gucci handbags for £10 anyone?

Of course you can't go anywhere in Europe without seeing a few churches and here in Rome u trip over one on every corner, in London we have Starbucks, here they have the Catholic church. So we went into one or two, can't really remember much about them as the rest of Europe has immunised me. The thing that really strikes me about Rome is that all these enormous landmarks are surrounded by tiny little alleyways so that I cannot actually remember walking between any of them, the little side streets kind of spit u out into huge squares and courtyards.

i was a little disappointed that I couldn't see the famous fountain in Piazza del Popolo, it is currently undergoing repairs and is obscured by scaffolding with great big posters for Superman Returns all over it... and just when the disappointment of that movie was starting to wear off!

i am gettin pretty close to breaking my promise, I have seen a lot over the last few days sorry.

Anyway this brings us to today. We took a trip to St Peter's Basilica which is actually grand enough to impress me after seeing more churches in the past month than I've seen in the rest of my life. It is enormous and contains the tombs of many many popes but most importantly the tomb of St Peter himself is in an underground vault beneath the Papal Altar. Parts of it were designed by Michelangelo and Bernini so its pretty good. Oh yeah and remember I mentioned earlier that most of the marble from the Pantheon is mysteriously missing... my audioguide at St Peters informed me that a lot of it was stolen and used to build parts of the Basilica, including the Papal Altar itself! So every Pope that has ever conducted a service there has been handling stolen property!

Lastly this afternoon we took a look in the Vatican Museum for a glimpse at how rich the church really is. There must be billions of pounds worth of artefacts in there and that's just the ones they show to tourists. We saw a lot of ancient Egyptian bits and bobs and a lot of Greek statues, but most interesting are the Papal chambers, where all the popes used to live back in the day.

Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside, although for some reason they are allowed in all the other rooms as long as u don't use the flash. And there is no talking allowed either as we were informed by the curator who strode around shouting "No camera, no photo, silence!" at the top of his voice. I tried to take a few sneaky pics but they didn't really come out too well. If u are on Carly's email list do not listen to her description of the Sistine chapel, the fact that she said it was "crap" and that she preferred the floor proves that she is a philistine, or maybe some kind of moron. We are talking about the most famous ceiling in the world and for me it definitely lives up to that reputation. It is painted so skillfully that the figures appear to be 3D and jumping out at u as u look up. In my opinion it is well worth getting a stiff neck for.

Ooh and I saw the wall that Tom Cruise climbed over in Mission Impossible 3.

Anyway I'll leave it there for now, tomorrow we are gonna see the Colosseum.

Take it easy

Adam

Rome (Carly): Tue 29/08/2006 6:07 PM

Hello again!

We loved the rest of Florence, it is def up against Hamburg and Berlin for the best place of the trip! In fact it probably wins if you include Pisa - a really fun day out! We renamed it the "leaning town of pisa" as lots of the buildings look pretty dodgy! But it was very sunny and we got to go up the tower! I also purchased a very tacky souvenir of the campo dei miricoli (the square where the tower, cathedral, baptistery are), its pink and glittery and only cost €2!!!! Adam was not nearly as excited by this fact as me!

My best day of the trip so far has to be when we visited the Uffizi Gallery (in Florence)! it was going to cost us triple to book online so in true student style we opted for the queue instead! It took two hours to get in but that just meant that the excitement was building!!! Also unlike most of the queues we've been in we didn't see hundreds of cheeky(/ignorant depending on your viewpoint) Europeans jumping the queue, so didn't get cross! Inside it was def worth the wait as we saw some amazing works of art! I discovered I really like Botticelli, we saw some work by Raphael, Michelangelo and Da Vinci AND there was an exhibition on Da Vinci with lots of his experiments and and videos explaining the paintings e.g. the 12 emotions in the 'last supper' and the way the 'annunciation' should be viewed from the low right - fascinating stuff! We spent over 4 hours inside and I was on a real high when we left, I hadn't even realised I liked art galleries!

We're staying on another campsite in Rome but its easy to get in and out via public transport (which by the way is much cheaper everywhere we've been than in London!). Strange coincidence Clare Denham is in the cabin next to us (a girl I went to school with for those who don't know!). She's travelling with a girl she went to school with and spotted us checking out of Venice when she was checking in! Obviously a very small world! We had a fun first night with them in the "disco-pub" on site!

Rome is pretty nice and there's lots to do! Spent the first day wandering around, saw the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, Marcus Aurelius' Column, the Pantheon etc! All very impressive but far too many annoying street vendors selling fake designer handbags or strange toys, they always set up their bags in narrow streets too so they can be even more inconvenient! Also noted people are very rude here, I nearly got knocked over by a horrible Italian who wasn't looking where he was going, and then had the cheek to look at me angrily as if it was my fault, admittedly if I'd seen him coming I could have jumped out of his way but I hardly think its a crime to be standing still counting change! The queue-jumpers are the worst here and also barge into you if they get half the chance!

This morning we went into St Peter's Basilica and its amazing! We got an audio guide (very good move) and they let you take photos inside which is pretty unusual! All the paintings have been replaced with mosaics, but the pieces are so tiny that they look as if they have been painted!

Saw the Vatican Museum this afternoon. It was quite good but we had seen better Egyptian and Roman collections in Berlin!

The Raphael rooms are very impressive and have information so that you know what the paintings are of but I was disappointed with the Sistine Chapel. I guess we've probably just seen too many amazing artworks and it just didn't seem worth all the raving that people do about it!

In my opinion there are lots of better painted ceilings in the museum, including two long corridors that were much prettier! Adam did not agree, think he thought I'd gone a bit crazy especially when I said I preferred the floor to the ceiling!

To be fair though the floor has a beautiful mosaic pattern and no one ever mentions it! My other complaint about the chapel was that there was no information anywhere telling you what the paintings were of and who had done them! We knew from our guide book that the ceiling and altar wall were Michelangelo and that the altar wall shows the last judgement and some of the artists who contributed to the walls but apart from that we had to guess! The last supper was easy to make out and that one was very impressive, I also spotted one of the baptism of Christ and another of the red sea after it had parted and was washing the army away! Guess that's my fault though for not being up on Christian mythology!

Right guess that will do for now, still got lots more to see and do! Just over a week now until we're home!

love Carly xxxx

ps Scott - thanks for you email, glad you're still managing to fit some going out in with work!

Grandma and Fos - thanks for your email, we're looking forward to seeing you too in a couple of weeks! Hopefully we'll be able to sort out our photos to bring and I'm sure we'll have heaps to tell you! xxx

Rome (Adam): 01/09/2006 2:56 PM

Hey Mum

Everything is cool here in Rome altho since I last wrote the Italian people are beginning to reveal their true colours. On the bus after I wrote the last email a guy stuck his hand in my pocket, nothin was in there coz I kept my wallet in my other pocket with my hand. Another guy did it on the tube yesterday as well, I'll elaborate in my group email.

We wrapped up our sightseeing today with the castle and took a look at the designer shops around here, Prada, Dolce and Gabbana, Salvatore Farragamo, needless to say we didn't go in any of them altho we took a peek in the Ferrari shop where they have a huge Ferrari clothing range and an F1 car.

Tomorrow we r just gonna relax on the campsite by the pool and I will try to finally eradicate my vest mark once and for all.

Love Adam

Ostia (Carly): Fri 01/09/06 3:27

Hi Mum

No need to see it (Sistine Chapel) as I'm clearly right! Hehehe although some of the other stuff in the museum and Rome is worth seeing and if you 're ever here you will inevitably see it!

Will text you when we arrive in Milan Sunday (if I don 't email again) to let you know which flight we're on!

Lots of love Carly xxx

ps please thank Margaret we went to Ostia Antica yesterday and had a brilliant time! In fact we ran out of things to do this afternoon and so her good tip saved us two days sitting by the pool (that's the plan for tomorrow!).

Rome Part II (Adam): Fri 01/09/2006 3:43 PM

Hey again everyone

I'll continue where I left off last time. Left the internet cafe and got the bus from outside where a very rude Italian man jumped in front of me onto the crowded bus. I had a go at him coz he took up the last space then I pushed my way on behind him. Somehow his friend managed to get on as well. It was ridiculously packed so we all had to stand pressed against the doors. After a few minutes I felt something brushing my leg and when I looked down the rude guy's friend had his hand in my pocket! I looked up and he just looked at me blankly so I announced pretty loud to Carly that the guy had stuck his hand in my pocket then I told him "there's only a guidebook in there mate bad luck." As people had warned me about dirty thieves on the buses and tubes here I had my wallet in the other pocket along with my hand. I gave the guy my meanest stare until the next stop where he got off the bus followed by his rude friend. I suppose I probably ruined his businessannouncing it to everyone but if he was any good at thieving I wouldn't have noticed so it serves him right.

Anyway next day we saw the Colosseum which is awesome. Even after kings, emperors and - u guessed it - popes, have been stealing bits of it for centuries it still looks amazing. They have partly reconstructed the wooden floor of the arena but mostly u can just see the underground passages where gladiators and bloodthirsty animals used to pop out of trapdoors.

They used to stage hunts there with animals from all over the Roman empire including lions, tigers, elephants, bears and giraffes. The hunters were only allowed a spear and shield so that some of them were certain to die before the animals were overcome.

Near the Colosseum is the Forum, the centre of ancient Rome. Most of it is just ruins now but a few buildings are recognisable. We then visited the tomb of the unknown soldier, where an unidentified soldier from the first world war is buried to symbolise all the unknown Italian casualties. It is a huge monument with a statue of Italy's first king Victor Emmanuel Ii which
is so big the architect laid a dinner table inside it and entertained the king's son there when he came to check the progress.

Yesterday we took a trip out of the city to the ruins of the ancient port of Ostia. The ruins of the entire town are open to tourists so we saw houses, pubs, temples, government buildings and a theatre. In one of the temples there they used to bury new members under a metal grate in the floor and then kill a bull so that the blood leaked down into the hole supposedly purifying their souls so they could start a new life.

On the way back from there a guy stuck his hand in my back pocket but I'm not sure whether he was trying to steal from me or touch me up. Either way his intrusion was very unwelcome. I saw another young guy stick his hand in an old man's pocket on the same train but luckily he came away empty-handed. Rome is such a great place, shame about the people.

Today we came into Rome to see the last few things before we can spend tomorrow relaxing by the pool. We saw the Castel Sant'Angelo where according to Dan Brown there is a secret passageway straight to the Pope's office. We also took a stroll down some of the posh shopping streets near Spagna but the only shop we went in is the Ferrari one where they have an F1 car.

Anyway as I said we r gonna doss around tomorrow and then its off to Milan on Sunday before we catch a flight back to England.

Hope u r all well

Adam