Day 21 - Rome Gets Wet

Hello! Yes, it's been a while. I've been busy. I could spend a lot of time expounding on exactly how busy I've been and what exactly I've been doing since I left off on this blog months ago...or I could get with the posting of pretty pictures. Which would you prefer?

I'm waiting...

That's what I thought.

When we last left off with our narrative, the Handlers and I were in Rome and bemoaning numerous public transportation woes. Alas, our luck in that area was not about to improve.

We left the hotel early to make certain to be on time for our 10am tour appointment at the Vatican. We headed to the nearest subway station to pick up a train...only to find that the subway had closed down. Why? The rain. Yes, it was raining. I would go so far as to say it was raining "hard". The Handlers got fairly soaked on their hike to the station, and even more soaked on the way back. However, this rain is not something that would be considered "out of the ordinary" for Michigan weather, and that is why the Handlers could not understand why it would affect the subway? Garibaldi explained that the subway tunnels (apparently built by barely functional idiots) flooded after heavy rains, and then directed us to the bus station.

This is where the badness really began.

Since there were no subways running, there was a huge crush of people trying to get on the buses. And when I say "crush", I mean it literally. Handler 1 managed to get us all on the first bus to the Vatican that showed up, but once we were on the already full bus, people continued to push on. Handler 2 had a much worse time of it than Handler 1 (who was more concerned for the young kids in the Dutch family she was standing next to than for herself). Handler 2 was having trouble breathing in the crowd, and yet people weere still pusing their way on. It was, to say the least, a very uncomfortable ride And a slow ride. And we were late for our tour time.

Luckily, most people were running late that morning because of the transportation issues, so the Vatican folks were accomodating. Handler 1 had decided to get a tour of the museums because they're big...and famous...and don't have many explanatory labelsnext to the artworks. Our tourguide was...fine...but not much better than the free audioguides we'd been working with on our ipods since the beginning of the trip. Waste of money? Perhaps. But at least we're off the stupid bus and out of the rain.

As I said, there's a lot of famous art at the Vatican.


Including the famous "School of Athens" motif painted by Raphel.

We have now seen the artwork of all four ninja turtles. Our mission is complete.

Then it was time for the crowning glory of the Vatican museums...the Sistine Chapel.

As you can see from the posted images above, the docents in charge of the Vatican museum didn't have a problem with people taking photos of the priceless artworks. Nor for that matter, was there any sign particularly telling you not to take photos in the Sistine Chapel. Combine this with the fact that Handler 1 remembered taking photos inside the chapel when she had visited it back some 15 years previously, and you'll understand why she was so surprised to be aggressively accosted by a guard telling her not to take photos. It's not so much the fact that she was asked to put away her precious camera, but the rather mean way in which the request was presented, that pissed both the Handlers off mightily.

Handler 2 decided to practice some more dissidence. He held his little point and shoot by his waist and tried to get some shots of the ceiling. For the cruddy means he had to use to take them, they didn't come out all that bad.

Although our tour had ended we still had St. Peter's Basilica to visit. We headed over to the church next door and found, to our surprise, that large portions both inside and out of the basilica were roped off for a special event. Apparently, the pope made some sort of annoucement about some folks who were being beatified later that day. That meant that we couldn't visit the entire church, but it did mean that we could get a bunch of pictures with comparatively few tourists marring them.

Although it had been the Handler's intent to climb to the top of St. Peter's dome (yet another Michaelangelo creation) they decided to skip it after seeing the line...and thinking about the number of steps they'd have to climb even after riding the elevator part-way.

And thus concluded our whilrwind tour of the smallest state in the world.

Since the Handlers couldn't come to a consensus about what they wanted to do next, they determined to start walking in the general direction of the hotel and see what came up. They crossed the Tiber at the Castel d'San Angelo.

At this point we really needed some food, so we started checking out the menus at every little bistro we passed. While doing so we were accosted by a woman we knew...well, sort of. She and her husband had shared a gondola with us in Venice and we had taken their picture for them. They were nice and talkative and said, "Maybe we'll see you in Rome!" when we told them where we were eventually headed. At the time, we didn't actually believe them.

However, we were not impressed with the offerings of the cafe they were eating at and so continued on. We ended up (late) lunching at an Irish pub. What was an Irish pub doing in the middle of Rome? Good question, the answer is serving up real beer and catering to international tourists' particular sports-watching tastes with multiple tv's.

It was about this time that the Handlers determined that they liked rugby, although they could not for the life of them figure out the rules. They were commenting on what a strange sport it was, when they overheard a bunch of Irish tourists at another table commenting on how lame American football seemed to be based on their observations of an NFL game playing on another television.

To each their own.

Once fed and watered, we continued to tour the city...on foot...because we didn't want to chance the busses. At one point we did try to get on the 'B' line of the subway, only to find that both subway lines had been closed down. That's right, one entire mode of public transportation in Rome was completely out that day. And you wonder why we've been complaining?

I don't know what Handler 2 was saying here about the Imperial Fora, but I'm willing to take caption suggestions...

There was an absolutely spectacular sunset that evening, so Handler 1 was able to get a bunch of lovely photos around the Forum area.

Not wanting to miss anything on his tour of classic Rome, Handler 2 suggested we take a final side trip to the "nearby" Circus Maximus. Already exhausted from the day of touring the city on foot, Handler 1 consented to yet more walking.

Not as impressive as Ben-Hur would make it appear.

We then walked over to the Diocletion baths which were (surprise) closed for the evening. It was too bad, really, because they looked to behuge and fascinating. Afterwards, since we weren't too far from the hotel and did NOT want to have to bother with the bus system again, we finished our aimless wander through the city. Handler 1 was very tired at this point, and not entirely happy with being dragged all over hell's half acre by Handler 2. Also, it was a little too late to be going out looking for food, so we skipped dinner and packed up, yet again, for our departure on the following morning.

Tomorrow, we would leave the city again, first for more visits to the countryside around the city, and then for good. We'll be utilizing public transport again...let's see how well that one works out for us.

Quote of the Day:

"NO PHOTO!!!" - Overbearing Vatican docent/guard.

Day 20 - Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa

The first order today was to get ourselves to the hill town of Tivoli about 20 miles outside of Rome. Unfortunately, there were no direct trains to Tivoli, which meant we had to rely upon the inter-city bus system. Even with directions from Garibaldi, we had trouble getting on the right bus, and then there were the other riders to worry about. There were a bunch of kids who were loud and pushy and made the Handlers wonder, "Why aren't they in school?"

However, uncomfortable bus ride aside, we made it to Tivoli without too much trouble.

Idyllic medieval hill towns are just everywhere in Italy.

Although there were interesting things to see in the town, we didn't really want to be there. We wanted to be a little bit outside of town at the ruins of the villa built as a country get-away by the emperor Hadrian. After getting a little lost looking for the correct bus stop, we finally made it to the villa. It's a very large complex full of fairly well preserved buildings. Hadrian was something of an architect, and an enthusiastic world traveler. He loved taking things he had seen in far off places and recreating them in his own little personal Xanadu. If there had been a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous back in Hadrian's day, you can be certain this property would have been profiled.

This is the view from one of the towers at the edge of the villa property. It overlooks a large olive orchard with the town of Tivoli perched in the background.

The ginormous bathhouses.

Look, karytadids!

This next spot is the Aqua Theatre, which was really sort of a 'pleasure garden' for swimming and viewing naked bathers.

Handler 1 still wanted to try to see the Villa d'Este (a palace famous for its extensive gardens) in Tivoli, so we asked for directions to the closest bus stop and waited. And waited. And finally a bus came by....and passed us. And then another bus passed us. And then the Handlers, completely fed up with Italian transportation, decided to just walk out to the main road and try to catch a bus back to Rome.

At the main road there were other people trying to catch the bus (the little stop we'd been at before was deserted except for us) and this is where the Handlers noticed that folks were flagging down buses as they passed. Well, that explains why buses had been ignoring us before, but still...if you are a bus driver, and you come up on a stop where two people (and a gnome) are sitting, and they stand up and head to the curb when they see you approach, and they make eye contact with you, and they are obviously tourists with big cameras (who are likely unfamiliar with your local busing system), can you really say you were completely unaware of their desire to get on your bus?

No, not really. Bitchy bus drivers.

On the way back to Rome Handler 1, who had no real plans for the evening (Tivoli now being off the table), asked Handler 2 if there was anything in particular in Rome he would like to see. He indicated the Arca Pacis...a somewhat obscure site that Handler 1 had not considered at all in her previous plans. It took her a while to find it on the map, but once she did, and noted its location relative to other notable sightseeing areas, she decided that the order of the evening would be a brisk walking tour of the more minor sites of Rome.

And so, once back at the bus station, we immediately hopped on a subway to.....the Spanish Steps!

It's a bunch of steps....color me unimpressed

We continued on foot towards the Arca Pacis. It's a small temple originally contructed by Augustus in honor of Peace, and intended as a direct counterpoint to the temple he erected honoring War. It was lost under river mud for centuries, found beneath the foundations of a historic building, then painstakingly excavated from beneath the building (in a manner intended to preserve both historical artifacts as much as possible). Having spent so much time, money and effort on retrieving the Arca Pacis from obscurity, the Italian government thought it would be a good idea to build an entire museum building around it.

After that, we continued on to the Disney Store...no really, there was this awesome ancient Rome themed Disney store we passed along the way. Handler 2 was pleased to see two of his great loves combined into one capitalistic establishment.

Next was the column of Marcus Aurelius (which we originally mis-identified as Trajan's Column)...

The beautiful Trevi Fountain...

And finally, the Piazza Navona, which is also famous for its fountains.

Then it was time for dinner. There were a number of lovely cafes surrounding the Piazza Navona, but they were expensive even for Italy (the Handlers were becoming used to the fact that meals in Itlay were designed to chew up their pocketbooks and spit them out in shreds). So we headed off to find something less in the main tourist district and, hopefully, priced accordingly. We passed by one restaurnt and were flagged by a group of Americans seated there who had seen us perusing the menu. They gave the place rave reviews, and so we decided to take their advice.

We learned that most American tourists (read: not the Handlers) are easily satisfied.

It was late by the time we finished dinner and so all we were looking for was a quick way back to the hotel. We headed in the direction of the Pantheon, passed by it, and ended up at the Area Sacra...again. Having learned the trick of busses the night before, Handler 1 suggested we just catch a bus to Termini. Handler 2, however, had spotted a tram stop close by. He had previously noted that trams made a stop near the Colleseum (and thus near our hotel). As it was raining slightly, and no one wanted to stand out in the rain waiting for transportation to come, Handler 2 suggested we jump on the next tram. Handler 1 was not certain about this, but she trusted Handler 2's instincts.

You can see where this is headed already, can't you?

Well, needless to say, our difficulties with Italian mass transit continued. The tram took us over the river which, as Handler 1 had noted the night before, was the completely wrong direction. After the tram continued in this manner for some time, Handler 2 admitted that he did not think it would be making a turn for the direction of the Colleseum. A little guesswork with the map told us that we were probably traveling through the "colorful" Trastavere neighborhood. This meant nothing to Handler 2, but Handler 1 had researched our destination cities for months prior to the trip, and knew we were headed into one of the less desireable areas of town.

When we could finally get a look at a street sign while passing, we determined that we were no longer on Handler 1's nifty map. Joy. We knew the best move at this point was to get off the tram and head in the other direction, and we were encouraged to do this when the tram stopped at the end of the line. Getting onto a north(ish)bound tram (and dodging the weird homeless guy who tried to talk to Handler 2 in Italian), we then traveled all the way back to the Area Sacra...yet again, and picked up a bus.

Determined stay within the city tomorrow and thereby not have transportation issues like we had today, we crashed.

Quote of the Day:

"Well, all I'm saying is if you're seeing deities, it's probably not a good thing."

".......I didn't say Horus!"

- Discussion about our adventuers in the "colorful" Trastavere neighborhood.

Day 19- The Roman Forum

We got up early the next morning and dragged our bags through the dark, cold morning streets of Florence, to the train station. The ride to Rome was uneventful, but the arrival at the station was not. Handler 2 had left the large bag at one of the the train cars ends, and so he told Handler 1 to get off the train with the smaller bags and "meet him in the station". Handler 1 exited and went to wait by the exit that Handler 2 was to emerge from. When he didn't come out, Handler 1 figured he must have meant meet "in" the station, possibly near the information desk (where the Handlers were to pick up our Roma Pass card). So, she went down the stairs and followed the long hallways into the station, finally getting to the information desk and not finding Handler 2.

Meanwhile, Handler 2 had realized he placed the suitcase at the other end of the train, got it, left from the same door that Handler 1 had, and immediately walked up the platform into the station (bypassing the stairs option). Some twenty minutes later, everyone was reunited when Handler 1 found Handler 2 standing at the end of the platform and looking around blankly.

The next step was getting the pass cards that would give us entrance to some sites, and free transport on all public transportation in Rome. It turned out the information desk Handler 1 found, was not the right information desk. So the Handlers continued dragging their suitcases about the station following signs.

"Look," said Handler 2, "Only 400 more meters!"

Handler 1 ignored him, because she didn't find that funny...only to find out that Handler 2 wasn't trying to be his normal witty self, but had rather been reading a sign. The information desk was literally a quarter mile and more away from the main entrance of the station!

By now the Handlers were a bit tired, a bit hungry, and Handler 1 wasn't feeling all that well. This is when they entered the Rome subway. Rome has only 2 subway lines, and they cross at the main (Termini) rail station. That means the subway stop at Termini, being the only cross point, being a train station, and being a bus station on top of that, is CRAZY! It was crowded. It had a lot of random and seemingly pointless staircases, and it was not fun to navigate with suitcases.

Finally, we made it onto a train...for all of one stop. We got off and went in search of our hotel. And we searched. And Handler 1 pulled out the google maps picture which said it should be right where we were standing. And we asked some local tobacconists with little English ability. And then we asked another shopkeeper. And finally located the hotel.

The Handlers were very tired and frustrated by this point. Luckily, the hotel manager Garibaldi, made everything better. Okay, his name wasn't Garibaldi, but for some reason we could never remember what our very gregarious hotelier had said his name was, so we just started calling him Garibaldi amongst ourselves. Garibaldi suggested that Handler 1's plan to go to Tivoli would not work that day as it was already past noon, and the Handlers took his suggestion. Instead, they walked out of the hotel, past the Trajan baths (which they couldn't find the entrance to) and arrived at...

The Colleseum! There was a huge line out front but, once again, the magic passes Handler 1 had acquired for us got us to the front of the line.

Seeing the Collesuem was pretty impressive to Handler 2, who spent most of the time there correcting the information we got from the Rick Steve's audiotours we'd downloaded to the Handlers' magic phone/music devices (Hey, they were free! What do you expect?!).

Having had enough of the Colleseum, we made something of a pilgamige (for Handler 2 anyways) across the street to the Roman Forum.

Here's Handler 2 admiring the 2000 year old original broze doors.

Someone told me I could find some lovely virginal women around here, but all I saw were ruins.

Ah, there they are.

Sorry girls, I'm a happily married gnome.

We finished out our tour with a view of the Arch of Septimus Severus (no relation to any characters from popular children's fiction).

After seeing all that there remained to be seen in the Forum, Handler 2 decided we had to go explore the Palatine hill, where all the rich and powerful ancient Romans used to keep their mansions. This is where the Handlers realized they probably should have done the hill area first, because now they had to back track up the hill, and they were already a bit tired from navigating the ankle twisting cobblestone streets of the Via Sacra (not to mention everything else from that day).

Huffing and puffing (and with a little complaining from Handler 1) we made it to the top, for a great overview of the Forum.

After tooling the high ground, we hiked back down into the forum, then back up the Capitoline hill to see the Capitoline Museum.

The folks at the Capitoline Museum let you take photos, so we were able to get shots like this of the beautiful fresco. We really appreciate that.!

This is all that remains of a giant statue of Constantine. According to Handler 2, Constatine was something of an overbearing douchebag. However, he was the first Christian emperor, so a lot of his works were left untouched by future Romans who were so into stealing marble and metal from ancient facades.

His dad owns a dealership.

This statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius managed to survive as long as it has because people thought it was a statue of Constantine.

Here's the famous Capitoline wolf. The wolf is Etruscan, and significantly older than Rome. The rather disturbing babies were added later.

In a room full of cemetery 'stele', Handler 1 found this awesome inscribed slab.

It's a 2000 year old space lease agreement. Basically, this was attached to a warehouse owned by the emperor Augustus to tell people who wanted to rent space that they had to give 15 days notice of non-renewal, that they had no right to assign or sublease, and that if they didn't pay their rent that their personal property would be confiscated. Handler 1 is totally putting a picture of this up in her office.

Although Handler 1 was tired, and was all for calling it a day, Handler 2 wanted to push on. Although it wasn't really close by (or close to any mass transit) we headed over to the famous Pantheon.

Which, according to Handler 2, was not actually built by Marcus Agrippa. It is a lying Pantheon who lies.

Handler 1 is quite pleased with this photo, which she basically had to crouch on the floor to get.

Afterwads we wandered for a bit looking for a bus to take us back to t he hotel. We ended up in an area known as the 'Area Sacra', which would come back to haunt us again and again over the next few days. Remembering Garibaldi's words, we hopped on the first bus we saw saying "Termini". As we drove, we went over a pretty bridge on the river and past the giant facade of St. Peters. Handler 2 was very interedted to watch all this go by. Handler 1, who was more familiar with the map, was wondering why we were going in the opposite direction from our hotel. Finally, the bus stopped...at the end of the line...nowhere near Termini station. This is when the Handlers discovered that Roman buses listed where they were going on the front, and where they had come from on the side. So, we all hopped on the next bus heading back the way we came and took it to the other end of the. Returning to the room, we found that the internet was not what had been promised and the night clerk nowhere near as friendly or helpful as Garibaldi. We decided to call it a (very long and tiring) day.

The next day, we had plans to leave the big city for some of the quaint surrounding hill town "suburbs".

A Rather Serious Update

For those of you who have been following along, and who may have enjoyed my last post on our visit to the Cinque Terre (which, confusingly enough, is somehow posted below our trip to Florence), I have some disturbing news. Last Tuesday, the Cinque Terre area was hit by a tremendous rainstorm and resulting mudslides, which have destroyed much of the quaint little towns we visited. Vernazza, where we had lunch, was especially badly hit, with mud and rocks now filling the streets up to the second story windows. Although there have been a few fatalities reported, it seems much of the populace was able to be evacuated. However, the question still remains as to whether they will be able to dig out and rebuild.

Here's some news stories on the disaster:

http://culturalcomments.blogspot.com/2011/10/disaster-strikes-vernazza.html

http://www.ricksteves.com/news/travelnews/cinque-terre-floods.htm

Days 16 and 17 - Florence, No Photos Allowed!

Day 16 - Venice - Florence - Pisa

Alas, our time in Venice was at an end, so we jumped on an early morning vaporetto to the train station, and then a fast train south to Florence. The ride was long, but the Handlers listened to a book on iPod and had a nice conversation with the American couple across from them, who travel in Italy all the time and had some good advice to impart.

We arrived in Florence, caught a quick taxi to our hotel, dropped off the bags, and then immediately left to get some gourmet Florentine food.

The reason the Handlers stooped to Americanized fast food was that they had yet another train to catch. This time to Pisa. What's in Pisa? I think you know.

And...well....that's pretty much all there is to see in Pisa, so we walked back to the train station and caught the next ride back to Florence.

Upon returning to Florence, Handler 1 had no real plans for the rest of the evening, so we took to wandering the old city. There's much to see in Florence, like the magnificent Duomo (cathedral).

And the equally spectacular Campanile!

As the grandhandlers had been so specific in mentioning it (repeatedly), Handler 1 wanted to make sure they know we did find the water dispenser.

We continued wandering the city, and eventually found ourselves crossing the Arno via the famous Ponte Vecchio. Being now quite far from the hotel, but near to the place where the nice couple from Palo Alto that we met on the train from Venice said their favorite Florence restaurant was, we decided to try to find it. We did locate it down an alley and had quite a lovely dinner.

Day 17 - Florence

Today we got an early start by heading straight to the Accademia museum. For those not in the know, Florence is big on art, and the two main museums (the Accademia and Uffizi) are famous for long lines full of pickpockets. Luckily, the Handlers had purchased tickets that got us in immediately on our arrival. The Accademia's claim to fame is the statue of the David. It's lovely. It's amazing. It's not appearing in this blog because you're not allowed to take photos in the museum and there are eagle eyed docents hanging in every doorway.

Oh well, on to the Uffizi. This is a much larger gallery, filled with many famous works of art including The Birth of Venus. Once again, no photos, so you're just going to have to imagine the picture is in here (you know it, it's the one with the mostly naked chick on the clam shell) and Handler 1's itchy photo finger.

As a point of pride, Handler 1 would like me to note that we coasted through the Accademia and the Uffizi before noon. That, my friends, is planning.

Florence: Look how beautiful it is on the outside!

Handler 1 really wanted to see the Michaelangelo sculptures at the Medici Chapels, so we headed there next. This was probably the least impressiver place that we visited in Florence, as there really wasn't much there. Handler 1 would love to show you the statutes of Night and Day, but photos weren't allowed inside the chapel.

Sensing a pattern.

We grabbed a quick lunch near the Duomo, then headed through some less nice parts of Florence, to get to the church of Santa Croce which, miracle of miracles, lets you take non-flash photos inside!

Santa Croce is sort of the Westminster Cathedral of Italy. If you're Italian and famous, you're buried there (or at least memorilized there, and is in the case of Dante, who was banished from the city of Florence and died in Ravenna...). Anyways, here's Galileo's tomb!

Having been now inspired by the famous dead,we decided to check out the fruits of their labor. We headed to the National Science Museum, which in Italy is more of a "The History of Scientific Effort" museum. The highlight of the museum are itemsowned and used by Galileo during his experiements. Sadly, this museum also prohibited photography, so we couldn't get a photo of Galileo's telescope.

The Handlers practice social dissidence.

There was one morething Handler 1 wanted to check off her Florence list, and it required hopping a bus to the top of a nearby hill. Unfortunately, the Handlers were about to have their bad luck with Italian mass transit continue. They were completely unable to find the correct bus stop, and ended up trudging the entire way up the hill. Handler 2 did notfind the view quite spectacular enough to justify the effort.

Although we're staying in Florence, tomorrow will be spent hiking in the Cinque Terre (which consists of five small villages clinging to the western coast.

Quote of the Day: "I never realized how much Michaelangelo did. Painting...sculpting...fighting Shredder..."