Eurotrip 2011 : Episode 4 - Rome & Florence

Just walking aimlessly through Rome is quite the experience. Having spent some time reading about roman history adds a lot to that the experience. I could see stories in the facades of churches. I could see the dimension of time. For e.g. the ubiquitous obelisks in rome are mostly from Egypt, from where they were plucked by roman emperors before Christ. In many instances they were lost to time, with the fall of Rome, and were serendipitously found almost 1400-1500 years later by popes who then decorated their papal palaces and churches with them. Only in Rome, can you walk past a 3500 year old Egyptian obelisk and then past a 2000 year old bronze door from the forum of Rome, and finally into a Baroque masterpiece of a church.    

Rome: Day 1

The next day we were going to find our way to the Orly . This is the other place where I wish I had not been so frugal. We ended up taking a bus to another bus which then took us to the airport. It was a fairly long wait before we were checked in. We then boarded our flight to Rome's Fiumocino Airport. We had booked extra leg room seats, which although not a lot was, worth it. 

After reaching the airport we then took the dedicated hi-speed train into Roma Termini, which is the heart of the city. Since we already had euros we were quickly out into a cab and were driven through central Rome to our hotel. Two things are very obvious as soon as you land in Rome. You are instantly aware of its historic depth  and you are aware of the fact that it looks more like India than it does like Europe.

I remember going past what looked like a public garden, but was essentially an ancient roman bath, almost 2000 years old. Just incredible! Ancient, medieval and the chaotic modern all thrown into the fray - thats Rome. I love this city. Our hotel room was most certainly a disappointment. The location was great. 10 min walk to the Forum and the Colloseum in one direction. 5 mins to the Trajan column. 10 mins to the Trevi fountain and the winding streets around it. Just amazing location. The room wasnt too bad, except it was reached through a long winding and fairly unorganized corridor. We had a slew of issues with the room as documented by my rant here: Trip advisor review

We settled in and had a quick lunch at the restaurant attached to the hotel. The food wasnt bad, I quite enjoyed my lunch and then we did a small stroll.We first made our way to Chiesa di Santa Maria di Loreto and then  we strolled past the Trajan forum and then to the Vittorio Emmanuel Monument, We then made our way up to Compidoglio, and the famous staircase designed by Michelangelo and then made our way into Santa Maria in Aracoeli before going into the Capitoline museum.

Inside the Capitoline. Ancient sculpture from ancient Rome.

Vittorio Emmanuel Monument

The columns shown here are all different. Taken from different ancient roman structures.

Here's a link to a great set of pics: External Photo Gallery

The capitoline museum more than anything was a tribute to sculpture from all periods of Rome, with a larger emphasis on the ancient. It was just mind blowing, that 2000 years ago people could produce such masterpieces.

A relief taken from one of the triumphal arches of Rome.

I saw more sculptures in those few hours than I have seen in my entire life. By the time we were done, it had been a long day and we made our way back to the hotel around 6-7 PM. We rested a bit before heading down into the lower city for dinner. On the way we saw the presidential palace (used to be a papal palace), the trevi fountain and some other roman wonders. The best thing was, of course , the pizzeria we went to. A small hole in the wall. I undoubtedly had the best pizza I have ever had in my life.

The staple shot in front of the Trevi.

We then headed back to the room and called it a night.

Rome: Day 2

The next day was our busiest in Rome. We first started the day bay going to the Pantheon, and explored the area around before catching another bus to the Vatican. The buses dont go deep into the vatican and we had a pretty long walk to the entrance of the museums. More sculptures followed, two that were noteworthy are shown below. It was the discovery of these sculptures that inspired the Italian masters in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The last stop inside the Vatican tour is the Sistine chapel, whose cieling was indeed very impressive. we used the audio tours, we had from Rick Steve, which were more than satisfactory. We then took a sneaky shortcut out the back by pretending we were part of a tour group. This helped us avoid more than a 2 km trek back to the entrance of the St. Peters. The Sistine chapel is actually very close to St Peters if you can walk on the inside of the Vatican ( only allowed for tour groups). In my experience, St Peters is hands down the most impressive church I have ever seen. It is not the largest, and certainly not the oldest, but it is impressive in size and beauty. Tina and I trekked to the dome and took some customary pictures.

After doing the Vatican, we made our way back to the hotel. On the way there, we stopped off at Piazza Novano, for what turned out to be horrendous dinner. I wish we had researched better. The piazza itself was stunning. The bad dinner was somewhat compensated for by very nice Gelato, we just wandered around the open plaza and wound down for the day.

Bernini's & Borromini's respective masterpieces. Featured in Angels & Demons.

By this time, Tina was pretty tired and wanted to take it easy for the rest of the day.

Rome: Day 3

The third day in Rome, we planned to get out of the city, to do something a little different. So we decided to visit the catacombs outside the city. Before heading out there, we first went to the forum Romano, and walked around with the help of Rick Steve.

Tina in front of the Palatine hills.

Colloseum

After the forum, we headed off to St John at Lateran, the seat of the pope. My primary interest their was to see the oldest obelisk in existence. This obelisk was already more than a thousand year old when Buddha was running around in his underpants.

Easily the oldest sculpture in Rome and its not Roman!

The seat of the pope.

And then we were off to the main event of the day, the catacombs. The Catacombs of St. Callixtus to be precise. To get to the place we had to walk through open Italian country, which was quite pleasant.  At the site, we chose a guided tour and we were really really impressed. Essentially there are miles and miles of underground burial sites. Over the centuries people have been burying their dead in this tiny vaults. It was great to get away from the hustle bustle of Rome for a bit. I think this was Tina's favorite part of the city. She was, in general, not a big fan of Rome. 

We finished the trip with a long walk to the only restaurant in the area, Antica Hostaria L'Archeologia,  and had a pretty nice lunch.

Lunch 

When we got back, Tina was tired and opted to rest, while I did another walk through Rome. I covered Palazzo Quirinale, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Quattro Fontane, Moses Fountain, Fontana de Tritone. The night ended with a quick walk into the old city and grabbing some pizza for dinner. 

Florence
Next morning we had a cab pick us up and drop us to Roma Termini. From there we took another eurostar to Firenze. It was a fairly short trip, on getting there, the train station seemed quite quaint and was not very busy. We bought some tickets at the local tobbacco store and waited for the bus. For some reason there were no eurostar to the better situated central station, and thus we had to make our way into town from the Stazione Campo Di Marte. The bus ride was about 20 minutes long and we got off at Stazione Santa Maria Novella. We then carted our bags and walked to the biggest building in site - The grand hotel Baglioni. This was to be our home for just one night. The hotel was quite nice on the inside and we totally loved our room. It was all about old school charm in a four hundred year old building.

The concierge was super helpful and friendly and checked us in quite quickly. We were also recommended to try out the lunch at Buca Mario. We headed out to check out the piazza del duomo, which is the site of the famous Florence cathredral. I had read a lot about the history of the building, and it was indeed very impressive. We would be coming back the next day to climb the tower. One of the main highlights was the bronze panels on the door of the baptistry made over 23 years by one man.

We wandered around the piazza and made our way to the mercato de San Lorenzo . We then saw the interiors of the Medici Chapel. This was kind of a let down, as there was not much to see in the museum. The San Lorenzo Chapel was pretty nice but was under some sort of restoration. 

We then headed of to Buca Mario, which was a pleasant little restaurant, where we had a pretty nice , albeit expensive, lunch. After finishing lunch, we headed off to see the Piazza della Signoria. This is a famous open air museum dedicated to sculptures.

This was one of my favorite places in our trip. We then strolled onto the Ponte Vecchio on the Arno. It was quite busy, but a pleasant experience. We turned back at this point back to our room. I left Tina there to rest and headed back to the Commune Di Firenze and checked out the museum and walked past the Piazza Della Republica. We then rested a little bit, and headed out a nice romantic dinner at Trattoria Il Porscopino. 

The next morning we rose late and headed to a very nice breakfast on the open air restaurant in our hotel. The view was brilliant. We then finished the day by climbing the tower of Florence Cathedral.