Final Thoughts on Italy

Our time in Italy has been amazing.  It's hard to believe that we've been out of Australia for 11 weeks.  The time has gone so quickly. The best decision we made was to spend 2 months in Spoleto.  The town has so much to offer and the people are friendly and helpful.  Laurie and Norma helped make our stay there so memorable.  We saw the seasons change from the coolness of spring with fields red with poppies, through to the heat of summer. The most important words we learned were "uno per due" which let us sample many culinary delights on our travels without overeating. 

We've seen enough marble statues and Renaissance art to last a lifetime.

Italy really does have GREAT coffee.

 

And most importantly we saw and did everything on our "list".

We arrived back in Australia onThursday 19th July, having left Rome at 10pm on Tuesday 17th.
We took the scenic route - Rome -> Dubai ->Bangkok -> Sydney and Emirates provided excellent service.  We're adjusting to the cold winter weather in Canberra for a few days and will make our way to Sydney via the NSW South Coast over the next week.  After a few days in Sydney (doing stuff) we'll head north to sunny Queensland where we will take delivery of our new caravan in mid-August.

Watch this space for our next post, probably in a few weeks.

P.S.  We think the Italian economic situation could be solved by enforcing the apparently optional road rules.

A few Last Thoughts on Rome

Our last day in Rome was spent finding the things still on our list. As well as the Sistene Chapel we wanted to see the Parthenon and Temple to Diana.  These are both close to the Trevi Fountain so we got off the bus at stop #8 and walked the 10 minutes to the Parthenon.  As well as the ancient Roman building there is also a Basilica to Santa Maria and The Martyrs on the site.  Both buildings complement each other although they are totally different.

 

Rome is a vibrant city and deserves it's title of The Eternal City.  The traffic is a nightmare, although I expect it's really just a matter of knowing where you're going. The food is great and there's plenty to do and see.

The Vatican

Another morning bus trip, this time to The Vatican. The Vatican City is an independent state wholly located within Rome.  It's not very big - only a few square kilometres.  Once we have crossed over the River Tiber it's only a few minutes before the imposing structure of St Peter's Basilica is in view. 

The area in front of St Peter's is enormous and would easily hold several hundred thousand people.  There are a lot of visitors and tourists around, and the square looks empty.  As we get off the bus there are many people trying to sell tickets to "Beat the Line". There's a longish queue to get into the Basilica and we queued for about 20 minutes before we got to the security point and then another 10 minutes before we got into the building.

The Basilica is huge too, about the size of 2 football fields, although it doesn't seem that big when we look at it.  This is due mainly to the optical illusion created by the size of the statues, surrounding it.  When we look at it in comparison to the size of people in the area it's true size becomes apparent.

Once inside the Basilica we are struck by the painted ceiling, cupola and walls.  There are many small chapels, each with marble statues and paintings.  The floor and altars are inlaid with many different colours of marble.  Although there are a lot of people inside this magnificent church there's also a sense of reverence. It's cool and it's not too noisy. People are busy looking at the many artworks and ornate decorations.

From the Basilica we moved on to the Vatican Treasury Museum. Here we saw many of the treasures collected over the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the items have been gifts to the Church.  The Basilica is built over the Tomb of St Peter and we saw the key to the Tomb.  This museum is a collection of religious items - crosses, vestments, books dating to the 11th century, and other items used for worship.  There were plenty of gold, silver and jewels in evidence.

We spent about 2 1/2 hours at St Peter's.  We walked around to the entrance to the Vatican Museum and the Sistene Chapel, but the queue was too long and it was very hot so we decided to come back tomorrow.

Tuesday morning and it's our last few hours in Rome so we've caught the bus back to the Vatican to see the Sistene Chapel and the Vatican Museum.  This time we queue for about half an hour before we get to buy our tickets for 15 euros each.  We could "Beat the Line" and do a tour for 30 euros each but we're happy to queue, especially since it's in the shade.  There are plenty of touts selling hats, umbrellas and scarves along the queue.

The Vatican Museum is a museum and art gallery with a huge array of exhibits.  There's everything from Roman statues to mosaics to tapestries finely stitched with gold, silver and copper and silk threads. The rooms are arranged in themes so there's a room of animalia (animal statues), another room with huge maps painted on the walls and long rooms lined with painted cupboards. 


All of the rooms have ornately painted walls and ceilings. We saw rooms painted by Raphael and another room full of statues by Raphaello.  As well as Renaiassance artworks, there's also a series of galleries devoted to contemporary, 20th century art with works by Matisse.

There is a special exhibit dedicated to Oceania and the  indigenous Australians.

The centerpiece of this part of the Vatican is the Sistene Chapel and all corridors seem to lead there eventually. The walls and ceiling are  breathtakingly beautiful and we just sat and drank in Michelangelo's magnificent paintings.  The guards were kept busy keeping the noise to a quiet background hum.

As well as the indoor galleries, the are also a number of pleasant courtyards with colonades and cloisters, lush lawns and sculptures.  As we walked along some of the corridors we saw fantastic views of Rome.

This was a morning well spent. We probably spent about 5 hours in total at The Vatican and we did it at our own pace.

Back in Rome

We've been taking it easy in Rome for the past few days while we've been getting our strength back.  We haven't used our Roma Passes, but we've had great value from Hop on/Hop off bus tickets.

The Hotel Corona is in a good location, close to the station, all transport and shopping.  It's in an area where we can walk around and just look at the buildings and piazzas.  We're only a block or so from the Opera Theatre and some museums.  The nearby Piazza Viminale has a fountain with a carving of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, and the She-Wolf who raised them.  We have a good restaurant next door and plenty of others nearby for variety.  The weather has been hot - mid to high 30sC, so we tend to venture out in the morning, then hole up in the hotel for the afternoon, and venture out again in the evening.

This morning we boarded the green Archeobus for an excursion out of the city to the Via Appia Antica (The Appian Way).  It was lovely to get out of the city and into the trees and parkland.  We passed through the gate and along the narrow, cobbled road with a stone wall on each side.  We passed by the Mausoleum of Romulus and into the Catacombs area where over 75,000 people are buried in over 12kms of catacombs.  No burials were permitted within the city walls of ancient Rome.  Undertakers, who wore red hats, were only allowed to enter the city at night.

















Recycling is alive and well.  This shed on the Via Appia Antica is built of "pre-loved" materials, including broken marble statues.

We got off the bus near the Circus Maximus, where the Romans staged horse races, and walked to the Aventino, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, which has some lovely gardens and parkland.  Then we walked until we found a bus stop near the Palazzo Venezzia which is an impressive white marble building.  Built as a palace,  it later became the Venetian Embassy, then the Austrian Embassy and now is a museum.  All bus routes seem to lead to this majestic building and we can see the statues on top of it from everywhere.

Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain - another WOW!! moment.  It's huge - and there were plenty of people around taking photos and just enjoying its grandeur.  From there we walked back to our hotel - hot and sweaty work again.

In the evening we boarded the red 110bus again just to do the route in the cool of the afternoon and in different light before dinner.  Rome is a very picturesque city with plenty of tree lined streets.  Some streets had rows of white, pink and red oleander trees all out in flower.  Other streets were tree lined avenues with the branches touching overhead.  Of course, being a densely populated city, many streets were rows of buildings too.

We often think of Roman history as dating from about 400BC, but Rome was settled well before then, with some archaeological finds dating back to 1,400BC.