Roma - Part Four (End Scene)

Let's dive in directly, shall we?

After the whole Vatican experience, I was wiped. I met up with Jennifurball, and we had a glorious salad for lunch. Italian food is good, as is expected, but kind of lacking in the vegetable department. At least cheaper Italian is anyway. Afterward, we were kind-of at a loss for what to do. We looked through J's guidebook and I hit upon the Protestant Cemetery.

I understand this would not be a draw for many folks, but there was a certain someone buried in the cemetery that I have had and will always have a crush on. As a warning, this next bit is going to get a bit word-nerdy. I have a rather embarrassing declaration to make: I LOVE the romantic poets. For those that are not English folk, this is akin to an art person declaring they love Monet or Renoir. In other words, "duh, they are decidedly unoffensive - who doesn't like them" and/or "wow, you are super unoriginal and kinda...lame". Whatever, it is what it is. So, now that you know my slightly shameful secret, you will appreciate how excited I was when I remembered a certain Mr. John Keats had died in Rome. Here is a little history of John Keats (from our good friend Wiki):

Was born on Halloween (oooo!!) 1795 in England. He was the last born of the Romantics, and the first to die. Though he enrolled in medical school and apparently did quite well, he was determined to be a poet. His was first published at the age of 19; and was an author by 20. He befriended the Romantic set, and wrote some more poetry - basically all of it panned by the critics. He contracted tuberculosis from his brother, and was told to relocate to a warmer climate. He died in Rome in Feb 1821 at the age of 25.

The Protestant Cemetery also houses the grave of Mr. Percy Bysshe Shelley, the big kahuna of the Romantics. Also lots of other important people - anyone who died in Rome that wasn't Catholic. They put all those crazy followers of Luther way outside the city center where they would not pollute the holy catholic community. Jennie was not super into the idea of going to this cemetery, she isn't a fan of cemeteries in general, but even she admitted that this place had an air to it after we arrived. The entrance is marked by a giant pyramid which was built in 30 BC as a tomb, and then later incorporated into the Cemetery walls. The cemetery itself is decorated in a Mediterranean fashion, with palm and Cyprus trees everywhere. It was all very peaceful -- that is until they started playing some obnoxious classical music in order to drive us out. Unfortunately we didn't arrive at the graveyard until 4 and it closed at 5. So, we raced around trying to see everything we wanted and then scooted out.

Highlights (in pictures):

After the Cemetery, we headed back to our B&B to get ready for dinner. The cousin of a friend of Jennie's was very kindly taking us out to dinner! Her name is Fabiana and she is darling; she is from a village outside Naples and took us to her friend's pizzaria. Now, as everyone knows, the best pizza in Italy comes from Naples, so we were excited! And I can say now that both the food and company were delicious. The restaurant is called PepeNero, if anyone is ever in Rome and wants good pizza!!

The next day we stayed just long enough to do a good turn for an elderly lady staying in our B&B, (well Jennie really did it, I just accompanied) and then picked up Caroline! Our third roomie, finally arrived! We are now complete!

And thus the trip to the south was over, as is this post. Arrivederci!

Roma - Part Tre (the Vatican)

Hiya Friends!

So, where did we leave things?! Oh yes, right before I took my tour of the Vatican! Well, Jenn and I rose early, took in some nutrients, and headed towards the Nike store in front of the Vatican area. (Yes, this is for real where we were told to meet). Jennie accompanied me through the subway, for which I am grateful because even though there are only two lines, finding the station and the train in the correct direction is tricky. Having already done the whole Vatican thing and with her "museum allergy", Jenn had chosen not to accompany me through the tour. However she did want to see the Pope's Wednesday blessing, so we headed over to the predetermined tour meet-up.

And there on the corner was Fe, looking bubbly and energetic per usual. We had gotten there about a half-hour early and consequently it was suggested that we go find a place to get a cappuccino and chill -- which is exactly what we did. We ended up waiting for around 45 mins to an hour because the metro was nutso and had caused quite a few folks to be late, but finally we were off (no crazy British families appeared - score!). We picked up our ultra stealth earphones (the holy Romans do not like you to be all loud in the Pope's house), received our free tickets for the Pope's blessing, and headed towards the walls of Vatican City. Actually getting into St. Peter's Square was kind-of a cluster eff because there is only one entrance. Well, there are two but the one we went through was built...sometime recently to accommodate larger crowds; it still took about 15 mins though. When we finally busted through (just me with the group at this point, Jenn had moved on), we walked out on to the near vacant piazza. Which allowed us to get bomb spots near the "road" the Pope would ride by later in the day. We could have sat in the seats, but Fe advocated standing near the partition that blocked off path for the popemobile in order to get a better view. While waiting for the Pope to appear, I passed the time trying to take pictures of the Swiss Gaurd in their original uniforms -- here is one now:

The story behind the Swiss Guard is that the Pope commissioned the Swiss Guard in the 15th century, due to their reputation for being highly disciplined and loyal.

And then finally the Pope came out in his little vehicle and the blessing began! Here is a short video I took of the procession:




Honestly, I was expecting crazy cheering crowds and Italian mothers weeping and Nuns praying on hands and knees...but it was decidedly less exciting. Though there was a commotion when the Pope first appeared, after that audience participation was lackluster. We listened for about 20 minutes, and then left to tour the Vatican museums while everyone was still at the blessing (it goes on for hours).

Let me tell you, the Museums at the Vatican are HUGE. I was in the museum for around 5 hours and I only saw the main portion, the "Classical Antiquities" -- I did not even touch the Egyptian collection, or the library. But the part I saw was enough (my feet rrreeaaalllyyy hurt by the end). If I haven't said it before, I will say it again - my guide was the BEST. She was so informative and positive and perfect. And the things I learned....I want this blog to be informative but I am afraid most of you would fall asleep if I prattled on about everything I was told at the Vatican museums. So I will give you a few highlights (with pics):

- Frescos are mad hard to make. They involve plaster, cartoons (ancient roman word for sketch), pigments and a hella lot of patience. Before being commissioned to create the roof of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo (translated into Spanish as Miguel Angel) (this made me laugh) (I like parentheses) (is this distracting?) (anyway...) had never done one before. In fact, he turned the project down and wasn't going to do it, until the Pope threatened him with excommunication!







- This is the most anatomically correct sculpture ever made.








- The ancient Romans were crazy genius. This purple marble is the most rare marble eva (there is actually none naturally occurring in the world currently), and is so hard it takes modern scientists hours to make a 3 cm long cut in it using diamond tipped saws. How the h-e-double hockey sticks did they carve this?!?







- Classical sculptures had EYES. Creepy no?














- Miguel Angel was a sexist, temperamental crabby pants. But still....so talented, so dreamy. Sigh.






The above sculpture is actually from St. Peter's Basilica. It was one of the first things Michelangelo ever did, and the only work he ever signed. And he only signed it because there had been a rumor floating around that someone else had sculpted the work - so he sneaked into the basilica and wrote his name on Mary's sash! Michelangelo's female sculptures usually lack...femininity (Michelangelo really like the menfolk), but this Mary is beautiful. I think it might be my favorite thing I've seen by his hand.

After the museum, we were spit out into the Sistine Chapel. Reviews of the chapel fall into two camps: 1) OMG, IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL and 2) omg, it is so overrated. I think I fell in between (per usual). I am very very glad I saw it, if nothing else but to pay tribute to a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. Was I impressed? Definitely. Was I moved? Not particularly. I actually liked the fresco Michelangelo did on the wall better than the ceiling. It was more dynamic.
One interesting tidbit - you are not allowed to do take any pictures of the ceiling. I thought that this was due to the effect of thousands upon thousands of camera flashes on the pigmentation. I was wrong. Apparently, a television company funded the restoration of the ceiling back in the 80s/90s, and offered to do so as long as they were given full rights to any and all images taken of the chapel. So, there you go.

By the time I wandered into St. Peter's Basilica I was in a state of extreme over-stimulation. The immensity and sheer gaudiness of the basilica did not help matters. Frankly, I do not remember much beyond gold, marble, and the press of humanity. The sculpture discussed above was a high point, but otherwise I wandered around the cavernous space in a daze; it was completely beyond my ability to take in any more illustriousness. I was sponge who could take on no more water; after doing justice to the Holy See and his holy seat, I was very happy to go and sit in piazza and wait for Jenn.

I hope you enjoyed this installation of "Courtney sees lots of stuff and tries to word vomit it all over the page". Next time we will explore the protestant cemetery! More exciting than it sounds...???

xxOx

Rome: Part Duex, er Due

Hi hi, I'm back! Did you miss me? I hope not because its been less than 24 hours and the last thing I need is a bunch of clingy hangers-on. Oh wait, did I say last thing? I'm sorry, I meant first thing - I momentarily forgot its my life ambition to have groupies.

Anywho, I last left you before we met the wonderous Fe, who saved our trip to Rome! Or something way less dramatic...she was just a really good tour guide. But a good tour guide can make all the difference, don't you think?

So Jennie and I marched outside the Colosseum and were immediately greeted by a thin, blonde, incredibly bouncy middle-aged British woman (Fe!). She led us up the stairs to Palentine hill, where the Roman nobles had lived. She showed us where Nero's infamously grandiose palace had once stood, along with various other palatial ruins. The hill afforded an awesome view of Rome and the Circus Maximus. Guess who also decided to build his palace up there?!? Good ole Mussolini. Just in case anyone wasn't catching on to his whole "we were the greatest once and will be again" campaign.

Making our way to the Roman Forum, we walked through citrus and olive groves. A group of really weird folks on our tour (more on them later) tried the olives and spit them out immediately. They were apparently "not ripe yet" (or soaked in brine...duh). Fe told us an interesting tidbit - apparently citrus is a natural mosquito repellent. So besides being attractive and nummy, ancient Romans planted citrus groves to deter pests. (This information had me applying orange peel to my skin for days.) Of course, thanks to the Americans and DDT, mosquitoes have been almost eradicated in Rome.

The Forum itself is crazy. I mean, based on looks alone without a guide its not that impressive. But once its explained, the Forum is amazing. Buildings around 1500 years old still stand, despite being buried for hundreds of years. That's right - buried. Before excavation, the Forum was a cow field, occasionally broken up by the upper halves of buildings and monuments. Remains of temples from the earliest days of Rome mix with medieval churches, while plots of land indicated as granaries and markets vie for space with the skeletons of giant palaces. The Forum was the center of Roman life for centuries; consequently it's mind boggling to think that the Italian archeologists had no clue what they were unearthing in the late 19th and 2oth centuries.


Throughout the tour, Jenn and I had both noticed a very strange family touring around with us. At first it was not readily apparent they were a family, instead it looked like 3 couples traveling together. But as time went on, we came to realize that it was a set of parents with two adult children, one boy and a girl, and their significant others. The didn't seem weird in the beginning, just overly physically affectionate. Then we began to notice the kids and parents sharing cigarettes (hand-rolled at that, though that is pretty popular over here in general) and later a couple of giant beers. But the kicker was when we watched them take large swigs out of what appeared to be large juice boxes. Closer inspection revealed, however, that it was actually wine from a box. These people had been drinking and smoking and canoodling for 3 hours in the middle of the afternoon on a tour. To top it off, the Dad used my head to steady his camera for a picture. I know I'm short but seriously??!! You should at least ask someone before using their head as a tripod.

Luckily, after the Roman Forum, the tour was over. Weird British families aside, it had been very informative and fun. Fe thanked us for our attention and then told us that she would be giving a tour of the Vatican the next morning. Well, I jumped on the opportunity -- we already knew she was great, and Jenn had previously let me know she was not really interested in doing the whole Vatican thing and I was reluctant to go alone...here was the perfect solution! Excited about my future Vatican adventures, Jenn and I bid Fe adieu and headed out to complete Jenn's ambitious Roma checklist.

Next stop on the Rome train?! The Pantheon. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I seriously think it was my favorite thing we saw. I hadn't known much about it previously, but inside I was enchanted. It was so BIG, and SPARKLY, and...ROUND. AND the oculus...I don't know why it made such an impression, but it did. I could have stayed there forever looking at that giant marble eye, but there was more to see so we left, albeit grudgingly.

The next few hours were a blur of sights: the Trevi Fountain (yes I did throw a coin in), the "Wedding Cake", Piazza Popolo, countless designer stores. By the time we were done, it was very dark outside and our feet were very, very sore. We decided to call it quits, feeling quite proud of ourselves. As a reward we treated ourselves to a Chinese dinner. Sounds strange but hey, four weeks of any food, even good food, can get really monotonous. We also, inadvertently, were staying in the Asian section of town. When in Rome, do as the Chinese...??

Next up - Courtney meets the Pope! I am totes serious...if by "meets" you mean "watches on a street with thousands of other people". Whatever, same difference.

Buona Sera!

Roma, Part I

Hey kids - so AGAIN I've been slacking in the blog department.. I am so sorry lovers. Today is a down-time day, so I will (fingers crossed!) use it to catch up!! I may post multiple blogs in one day - please ignore. I could write everything in one post, but I think it is more "edible" in bite-size portions.

Ooootay! so, day 3 of our trip - Rome day! We arose, ate one last delightful breakfast, and skedaddled. We hopped back on the Circumvesuviana, rode it to its zenith in Naples, then hopped on our locomotive to Roma. Upon arrival, we started our search for our bed and breakfast. After winding through various sketchy parts of town, making Jenn grit her teeth, we arrived at our destination...only to discover we were about 5 minutes from our starting-point at the station. Damn you google maps.

Now, on the way to Rome, Jenn had been sketching an itinerary of sorts. According to her calculations, we would need our full two days to see everything deemed necessary. Well friends, I tell you now, we did almost all of it (minus the Vatican) in one day. Not even one whole day, like half a day. Item one on the list - see the Colosseum. So off we went. We grabbed some (delicious) pizza and ate it on a low wall outside the huge monolith. It looks just like it does in pictures, just as imposing and overwhelming. (Sidenote - I think it is even cooler at night. Please see the pictures below and make your own decision)
















The important thing was the giant building in front of us of course, but I bring up the pizza for 3 reasons: 1) people told me that Roman pizza is crap, but I found it very yummy, 2) it confirmed that Florentine pizza is, in fact, crap, and 3) zucchini is a really good ingredient on pizza and an Italian word we "incorporated" into American English. But back to the Colosseum; we headed towards the entry way, and were almost immediately accosted by a million tour companies. We initially brushed off most of the offers, but somehow allowed ourselves to be talked into one. I can't remember why we stopped for this particular group, but I think someone may have complimented me on my sunglasses (a sure way to this girl's heart). In any case, it proved to be one of the best decisions we made on or trip.

Though at first it didn't seem that way. We joined a human cattle train/our tour group and streamed into the Roman ruin. Our guide was a peculiar fellow, dressed in a linen suit with tennis shoes and dirty jacket cuffs. He had a potbelly and a very unusual accent, which we later decided was an Italian/Australian mix. I think I fixated on his appearance and/or accent because it was more interesting than what he was saying...he wasn't the best tour guide I've ever had. He was particularly obsessed with the ancient Roman physique, using multiple adjectives to describe the extreme beefiness of the gladiator. Otherwise I didn't learn much, besides that Romans invented/perfected cement and probably wouldn't have been able to make half the wonders they did without it. But luckily I'd seen enough Hollywood movies featuring the Colosseum to get the general gist of the layout and purpose for the building without further instruction.

After the guide was done dispelling his few wisdoms, he turned us loose to roam for an hour before the next part of our tour. Jennie and I circled the arena, pretending that the squalid hordes of touristas below us were squalid hordes of Roman spectators (not much of a stretch really), before heading to the gladiator exhibit. The exhibit outlined the various types of gladiators and the people who were conscripted/enslaved/volunteered for such a dangerous career choice (the proportions of the three groups changed over time depending on the status conferred with the position). It also included full costume recreations...which basically means they had me at "embossed metal shield complete with gilded stallions". An hour was not enough time to see it all, but we had no choice but to move on. So we left to explore Palentine Hill and meet our new guide, Fe, the best tour guide EVER. But, I think I have exceeded your short Gen Y attention span at this point, so I will introduce you to Fe tomorrow. You will love her, I promise.

As a parting multimedia experience, please take a gander at this mushroom lasagna we made for dinner:



Lovelove!