Sunday, April 24, 2011

Semana Santa Part 1: Rome - Ruins, Statues, Overpriced Gelato and More

This is going to be a long one. The last week has been filled with more ruins, statues, trivia on ancient Rome, pizza and gelato than anyone probably needs in a lifetime. That's why I decided to split it into 2 blogs - one about Rome and one about Sicily. I just got back last night, but I wanted to write it now while it's still all fresh in my mind.

I think it goes without saying that I had been looking forward to this break for a long time. Living the cushy lifestyle of a college student means that going from January to April with no break seems like an eternity. All my friends in Boston had their spring break a month ago, and they're finished with classes in 2-3 weeks, while I still have another 6 weeks here. The break from classes was much needed, but it feels a little surreal now that it's actually over. Fortunately, now I am refreshed and ready to get back to life in Madrid. This break was also kind of strange in that it was certainly not a typical Spring Break. Last year, I spent a week in Florida with my two best friends, and most of my friends this year traveled to some beach-like location to spend a week of doing nothing but sitting in the sand and sleeping until noon everyday. My break was busy, somewhat hectic, and I don't think I slept past 8 more than once. Hm.

Ok so, with that preface, my break started last Friday when I flew to Rome. My friend Kelly had the week before off as well so she was already in Venice and took a train down to meet me. I got into the Rome Fiumicino Airport around 7 and promptly realized that the Rome Fiumicino airport is actually really freaking far from Rome. I begrudgingly paid 8 dollars to take a bus into the city center (the cheapest option) and grumbled about how a city with a metro should ALWAYS have the metro attached to the airport. I had brought a sufficient amount of cash with me and I was DETERMINED to not spend anymore than what I had brought, so this first blow was not very promising. This was the first of many instances which would further solidify my conviction that Rome is one giant tourist trap. So after the hour bus ride to Termini train station, I attempted to get to my hostel. The directions the hostel gave from the train station said that there was some kind of trolley. I found no signage for said trolley, nor did I see a trolley, nor is the train station equipped with any kind of tourist information counter. Kind of a paradox- despite being a tourist trap, Rome is actually HORRIBLE with giving tourists any kind of guidance. I also knew that the hostel was easily accessible by metro, so I headed down, only to be accosted my some gypsies trying to get me to give them money for telling me that the line I needed was closed. Yep. Rome has 2 metro lines, and one of them closes at 9pm. Genius. One of the metro security guards told me that I could take the bus, but said that it didn't matter which direction I took it. WRONG. Neither of the buses he told me were going to the place I needed. Frustrations were mounting by this point. I knew that the hostel was supposed to be within walking distance of the train station, but walking alone, with all my luggage, in the dark, in a strange city where I don't speak the language didn't exactly sound like a genius idea. My desire for frugality is exceeded only by my desire to not be attacked in some creepy dark alleyway. So, I sucked it up and took a cab. I think that the taxi driver sensed my frustrations, so he was nice and didn't charge my all the weird extra fees they tack on to rob the tourists, and I ended up paying only 10 euro, instead of the 20 I was told it would be. That made up for the situation a little. I finally made it to the hostel around 10:30 and Kelly was there waiting for me. She had eaten on the train down from Venice but I was starving, so we were told by the hostel staff that we should be able to find something around the Coliseum. No big deal. Our hostel was in a great location - only about a 10 minute walk from there. So, my first night in Rome, I took a casual stroll by the amazing lit up Coliseum, which was pretty awesome. We shared a Margherita Pizza and each got some gelato (the first of many to come), and headed back to plan the days ahead and get some sleep.

So, for those of you who have been to Rome, you know that it's a behemoth of sites and attractions. Kelly and I both had it as one of our number one destinations to visit, so we had agreed to only do 2 cities over Spring Break so that we could spend 4 days there. Other groups that we knew were going all out and doing 4 or 5 cities in the week off, which I'm really glad we didn't. Having a lot of time in Rome was great, and even with 4 days, planning our time was still an overwhelming task.

The first day, we wanted to hit the Coliseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill. Those are all right next to each other, centered around Constantine's arch, and all pretty time consuming so we thought it would be good to just knock them out all at once. Sadly, when we arrived at the Coliseum, we found a line which would have ended in us losing our entire day. So, we decided to go over to the Forum and Palatine first, where the line was much shorter. Once we reached the front of the line, we realized something amazing. It was culture week, meaning that all the national landmarks, museums, monuments etc. were FREE! YES!!!! It was over on Sunday, so we had 2 days to do as much as possible to save money. We were thrilled to skip the 12 euro fee to enter the Palatine and happy that for once we could get the audioguide, since we hadn't spent any money to get in. We spent 3 hours seeing all the ruins of the Forum and the Palatine and it was very interesting. Kelly is a huge Classics nerd so she was constantly rattling off facts about Roman emperors and society. The Forum also contains the alleged exact spot where Julius Caesar died, which is covered in flowers and postcards. Apparently people are still mourning his death. There also seems to be a current obsession with Nero, despite the fact that all he really did was go crazy and kill a bunch of people, including his own mother. Funny how those are the guys who get remembered.

After leaving the Forum, we went over to the Coliseum again and the line was MUCH shorter, but that was only because it was closing at 2 that day. Whoops. We were a little worried about having to do it another day, but that's the advantage of giving yourself enough time in one place. We scrapped plan A, and decided to move on to some stuff we had planned for the next day to make room for the Coliseum. We stopped for some lunch at a cart and paid an absurd 7 euros for a slice of pizza and a water bottle. Tourist trap. You should never have to pay 7 FREAKING EUROS for lunch from a cart That was the only time I paid for water the whole trip since after that I started carrying around my reusable, despite how ridiculous it makes me look. We walked past the Forum of Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and Nerva. All of these make sense except for Nerva because NOBODY has ever heard of him, including us. This was where our enormous list of things to google when we got back to the hostel began. These are all mostly just ruins, except for Trajan's column, which is very well preserved. Then we came across this enormous, white marble monument and neither of us had any idea what it was. We checked our map and saw that it is Vittorio Emanuelle II's monument. This didn't really help because we had no idea who he was - add it to the google list. We were now on one of the main drags of Rome, Plaza Cavour, and decided to head to the Trevi Fountain. It was a nightmare. I don't know if Rome was just so busy because it was the beginning of Holy Week, or because it was culture week, or just because it's always like that, but we had to fight our way to the front to get our tourist pics and make our wishes. We also then realized that neither of us really knew why the Trevi Fountain was famous - another thing to google. Next, we headed up to the Spanish steps, which you really couldn't' see because they were also covered in people. Check that off the list. Then we continued on the the Piazza de Popolo, which I still don't really know the significance of, but it was quite pretty and there was some kind of Jesus Superstar presentation going on, which was interesting. We sat for a while and contemplated the fountain, statues and obelisk, and then both realized that we were dying for a mid-afternoon coffee. The curse of being accustomed to the Spanish lifestyle. So we went on a hunt for reasonably priced coffee - not an easy task. We managed to find a little shop on a side street and paid only 1.50 - still not cheap, but better than the 4 euro most places were asking for. Ridiculous. After this we headed south again toward the Ara Pacis - yay for culture week and getting in for free. The Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace) was commissioned by the Roman Senate in 13 BC after Augustus' return from conquering Hispania and Gaul (present day Spain and France), as this was the beginning of Pax Augusta. It's covered in various friezes depicting Augustus's family and the power of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. This was a piece that I studied extensively in Art History, so it was really cool to see it in real life. After this, we were wandering and we ran into Kelly's friend from Venice and her boyfriend, who was visiting for break. She and Kelly had ridden the train down together and we were supposed to be meeting them for dinner later that night. We agreed to meet in one hour, so Kelly and I ran over to the Pantheon to squeeze in one more thing for the day. Pantheon actually means "to all Gods" and was commissioned in 126 by Emperor Hadrian as a temple to all the Gods of ancient Rome. It has since been converted into a Catholic Church. It was quite impressive, but I wish we had gone when it was lighter out to get the whole dome effect.

After we were satisfied with our pictures, we headed back to Cavour to find Scholar's, the place we were meeting Emily and Jason. Emily knew of Scholar's because her sister studied in Rome a few years ago and it was her favorite place. That being said, it's an Irish Pub. So very Italian of us. But the food was good and the atmosphere was nice. All the waiter's spoke English, which is usually a plus. After eating, we left to get some gelato near the Pantheon, and Emily and Jason decided to turn in for the night. Kelly and I were torn between our desire to go out, and the knowledge that we had to get up early the next day to beat the lines at the Coliseum. The college students in us won that battle and we headed back to Scholar's, where the Real Madrid and Barcelona game was on, so it was a zoo. It was a lot of fun though and we ended up meeting a bunch of not only Spanish people, but people from all over who had congregated to watch the game. Yay for not paying for a single drink all night. We ended up not going home until around 2, but meeting people from different countries is one of the best parts of traveling, so I'd say the next day's exhaustion was worth it.

The Coliseum opens at 8:30, so our goal was to get up at 7:30 and be there a little before it opened and hopefully avoid an enormous line. Given our decisions the night before, it's not hard to guess that, that didn't actually happen. We woke up at 8:30, which was still pretty impressive, got to the Coliseum a little after 9, only to find another enormous line. Oh the curses of culture week. Fortunately for us, we found a loophole. The tickets we had bought at the Forum the day before, we also valid for entry to the Coliseum. We showed the guards that we already had the tickets and the let us surpass the line and go right in. SCORE! From then on, we told everyone we met to go the Forum first, because it seriously saves your entire day. After getting inside the Coliseum, we got an audioguide and began the tour. It actually took us a lot less time than I had expected. Of course, it is impressive and awe-inspiring, but there's not really much to do other than walk around and get a good look at it. We spent about an hour and half inside before we felt we had had our fill.

After this, we walked over the the National Museum. This is filled with artifacts, mostly from ancient Rome, ranging from Roman coins, to sarcophagi, to some of the most famous ancient Roman statues, including the Seated Boxer, the Via Labicana Statue of Augustus and the Discobolus. Once again, these were a lot of things I had studied in art history, so it was great to seem them. The coin exhibits were also really interesting. The Romans were really into their propaganda. The sarcophagi are always impressive as well. You can only look at statues for so long though. Eventually, we ended up imitating all the statues we saw and taking pictures of said imitations. Go America. We spent about 2 hours here, until we were ready for lunch.

We managed to find a restaurant that didn't charge you for seating, which seemed like a miracle, so we ate and ended up spending around 10 euro each, including dessert. Then, we went on a little excursion to a small church called Santa Maria della Vittora, which I wanted to visit because it houses the famous statue "The Ectasy of Saint Teresa." For those of you who don't know the story behind this, it's sort of awkward to explain, so I'll let you go to google for that one. Just know that it's a High Roman Baroque, done by Bernini, so it's legit and that's why I wanted to see it. After that little excursion, we went to the nearby baths of Diocletian, which are basically just ruins at this point. Back in the day (306 AD), they were the most extravagant public baths ever, with an area of 120,000 square meters and the capacity to hold about 3,000 people. Sounds super hygienic. After Rome collapsed everyone started bulding through them and in 1562, Pope Pius IV decided to build a Basilica right on top of them. Great plan. We still spent a lot of time there, looking at the ruins and reading about the history, plus there's a museum attached which houses a bunch of old artifacts. We also found a coffee machine with 35 cent cappuccino and we stayed long enough just so we could have 2.

By the time we left the Baths, the day was pretty much over and we were losing daylight. We started heading back to the hostel and stopped at a little cheapy looking restaurant for some dinner, which we fortunately only spent 7 euros on. By the time we got back to the hostel, we were wiped so we headed to bed pretty much immediately.

Day 3 (yes, we're only on day 3) was another big one - the Vatican. We decided to let ourselves sleep in and take a little piece of advice from our favorite travel writer Rick Steves, who said that if you go around noon, the lines will have died down. Spoiler alert: he was wrong. We woke up around 9:30, had our free hostel breakfast, and decided to run to the store. After spending way too much money on food, we wanted to go buy some sandwich supplies for our lunches for the next 2 days. 9 euro for everything we needed including fruit and cookies. Win. During breakfast, we had been chatting with an American girl who had just arrived at the hostel. She was studying in Chester, England, but on 3 week break for their reading period. She was in Rome for 3 days and traveling by herself, so we invited her to join us.

Upon arriving at the Vatican, we sadly discovered that Rick Steves was wrong. The line for the Vatican Museum was a monstrosity, so we headed over to St. Peter's first. I'm not sure how to describe St. Peter's to you, other than to say that it was as incredible as it's made out to be. From the outside in St. Peter's Square, you don't recognize it right away because the dome is sort of hidden in the background. They were also preparing for Easter so the plaza was a zoo, with rows of chairs all lined up. The inside is absolutely breathtaking though and the dome is even more massive then you would imagine. I wanted to see the Papal Tombs, but the line was really long and we knew we were going to have a long wait to get into the museum, so we skipped it. I guess that's the drawback of coming to Rome during Holy Week.

The line for the museum was still long, but we really didn't have a choice. We weren't going to come back the next day, and the Vatican was the only thing on the agenda for that day, so we waited. For 2 hours. They need those signs, like at Disneyland. It really wasn't too bad though. Since we had just met Michelle, we spent a lot of time getting to know each other and swapping stories about being a foreigner in Europe. Her impression of England was basically that a lot of the people were very closed off and hard to get to know. She had been to Cinque Terre before coming to Rome, so we talked about that since I was just there. Also, turns out she's going to be in Barcelona the same weekend that Kelly and I are going, so maybe we'll even see her again. Meeting people while traveling is always so interesting. We continued sharing our experiences, ate our sandwiches, and eventually made it to the front of the line.

The Vatican Museum, like the line to get into it, is a monster. I had no idea how much was in there. It houses everything from ancient Roman artifacts, to tapestries from the Middle Ages, to Renaissance masterpieces. Of course, the main reasons everyone goes are for the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Stanze. But the Vatican, in all its wisdom, put these at the very back, so you have to look at everything else before you get to them. It was extremely crowded, and not really that pleasant of an experience, but it was worth it to see some of the world's most prized works of art. Despite the fact that I have no creative or artistic ability, I still appreciate it and I love learning the history behind it all.

The Raphael Stanze was commissioned by Popo Julius II in 1508 for his private library in the Vatican Palace. Julius died in 1513, but the work was continued under the direction of the Medici Pope Leo X. The Stanze is a series of frescoes on the walls of 4 rooms. Many of them are tributes to Constantine, as he was the one who converted the Roman Empire to Christianity. These include the Baptism of Constantine, the Vision of the Cross and the Donation of Constantine. There are also many which depict bible stories. Arguably the most famous of the frescoes is the School of Athens, which is a tribute to the intellectual fervor of the Renaissance, and is supposed to portray the acquisition of truth through reason. It was supposed to go over the philosophy section of the Pope's library. This work includes portraits of Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid and Raphael himself, among other innovative thinkers. Ok, I will stop sounding like a text book now.

Next, we came to the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who haven't been there, pictures don't even do it justice. The sheer size of it, not to mention the detail of all the individual paintings, makes it seem impossible that it took Michelangelo a mere 4 years to complete. It was also commissioned by Julius II, and completed from 1508-1512. We sat for a while, just observing the frescoes, and ended up getting into some interesting conversations about what it all meant. One of the most famous paintings, The Creation of Adam, is thought by many historians to actually portray the human brain. If you look at the shape of the huddle in which God is flying, you can't really deny that it looks like a brain. Studies have shown that the different figures actually represent different parts of the brain as well. Interesting. Also, many historians believe that in another image, which portrays the Pope, a nearby baby is giving him the Medieval equivalent of the finger. Seeing as how Julius II was openly called "Papa Terrible," "the "Warrior Pope" and was generally disliked, maybe Michelangelo was just letting out some frustration. God only knows how many secret images are in there (hehe). It was pretty incredible though. After sitting for a while, we had to leave because the museum was closing.

After the Vatican, we walked across the Tiber River to Piazza Navona and sat for a little while. There are way too many plazas in Rome, Then, we wandered over to see some ruins that Kelly wanted to look at, Area Sacra di Torre Argentina, where 4 Roman temples and a theater used to stand. It is also currently a no-kill shelter for homeless cats. Adorable. By now, we were pretty hungry, so we walked over to Campo de Fiori, and popular bar/restaurant area, and stopped for some dinner. This was the only time we really ate a real restaurant. I had pasta with mushrooms and cream sauce - it was pretty good, but not worth the 11 euros I spent on it. Not really interested in spending another night out in Rome, we headed back to the hostel after dinner, stopping for some gelato along the way.

Ok. Last day in Rome. Since we felt that we had pretty much exhausted all of our Roman sites, we decided to take a little day trip up to Tivoli to see Hadrian's Villa and Michelle joined us again. The bus ride was only about an hour, and finding the Villa was somewhat challenging (once again, poor tourist infrastructure) BUT it was definitely worth it. It may have actually been my favorite part of Rome. It was constructed during Hadrian's reign, in the 2nd century AD as a getaway for the emperor. Although it is mostly ruins now, the unique thing about this site is that you actually get to walk around and interact with the ruins, rather than just seeing them from behind a gate. Many parts of it are still well preserved, like the baths, the theater and the water gardens. The complex is absolutely enormous and has beautiful views of Tivoli and the countryside surrounding the area. Although there was more in Rome that we could've done, I'm really glad we took that trip because the Villa was well worth it. We stopped for some gelato (again) on our way back to the bus, and headed back to the city. After getting back into Rome, we decided to run to the market and buy some pasta to cook - another good money saver. It was actually really delicious. Although our flight didn't leave until 12 the next day, getting to the airport is an ordeal, and you can never be too careful with the budget airlines, so we had to get up pretty early anyway. After an exhausting 4 days, we were looking forward to spending some time in the much less site-intensive Sicily.

So that pretty much concludes the Rome portion of the trip. Sorry it was so long haha. Rome is somewhere that I've always wanted to go, and I'm glad that I was able to have the experience. Now that I've done it though, I'm not sure if I would ever do it again. It's hectic, busy, crowded, expensive and pretty much a giant tourist trap. But there's so many amazing things to see, it's worth it to deal with all of that, but probably just once.

Note - Google Search Results:
Nerva: Nerva was emperor from 96-98, only 15 months, which is probably why nobody has heard of him. He was 65 when he became emperor, after a lifetime of service to Nero. Poor guy.

Vittorio Emmanuelle II: The King of Italy from 1861-1878, during the wars of Italian Unification. He is so important because he is regarded as the person who successfully united Sardinia, Savoy, Piedmont, and other feuding regions into one.

Trevi Fountain: The site of the fountain used to be the terminal point of the city's aqueduct and the actual fountain was constructed beginning in 1730 under the commission of Pope Clement XII. I guess it's just famous because it's awesome. An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day.

Yay for learning!

Here are some pictures, but check out facebook to see everything:

Coliseum


Woohoo!


Constantine's Arch


Chilling on Palatine Hill. Pretty sweet view.


The Forum


Yay tourist pics


Trajan's Forum and Column


Make a wish!


Spanish Steps


And I present...the Pantheon!


We finally made it inside!


:)


Seated Boxer


Museum Delirium is now setting in


Site of the Baths of Diocletian


St. Peter's Square


Sistine Chapel


Tiber River


Hadrian's Villa


Ruins ruins ruins


I'd live there

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