ROMAN HOLIDAY

  Rome, Lazio, Italy
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

"All roads lead to Rome - it just some roads take an awfully long time to get there."

Buongiorno a tutti,

See, we promised you wouldn't have to wait too long until our next update. Thank god for down time.

Be warned, it's a biggie.

As you know, we left Croatia on June 19, bound for Italy on the Love "Jesus" Boat. Having survived sleeping on a couch in the bar, we arrived in Ancona on the east coast of Italy early the next morning and made our way by train to Florence, via Bologna (home of Bolognaise sauce).

THE DUOMO IN FLORENCE

After 27 hours of travel, we were obviously thrilled to discover our pre-booked accommodation had fallen through, so, in the scorching heat, we pounded the Florentine streets in search of a room at the inn. Any inn. After much sweating and haggling, we managed to secure a bed for the night until we could move into our hostel the next morning. We spent three nights in sweltering Florence, cramming in the major sights in between healthy doses of pasta and gelato.

MICHELANGELO'S DAVID

We visited the Galleria D'ell Academia  and gazed skywards at Michelangelo's famous sculpture "David", carved from a single block of marble. We circled the magnificent Gothic Duomo, with it's stained glass windows by Donatello and we ambled through the bustling Piazza Della Signora, where "David" once stood, but was replaced by a copy in 1873 in order to preserve the original.  

THE "FAKE" DAVID IN THE PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORA

We took a stroll over the Ponte Vecchio (Florence's most famous bridge, the only bridge not destroyed by bombs in WWII) and we checked out the Piazza Capponi, the home of fictional character Dr Hannibal Lector (Chris was reading Thomas Harris' novel "Hannibal" at the time).

ITALIAN FOOD: CARBO-LICIOUS

And for the entire three days we sweltered in the unrelenting heat until June 23 when, unable to take it any longer, we picked up a hire car, blasted the air-conditioning and headed south to Siena in the heart of Tuscany.

THE PIAZZA DEL CAMPO

According to legend, Siena was founded by the sons of Remus (brother of Romulus who supposedly founded Rome), and today is an enchanting town, centred on the Piazza del Campo, a sloping, shell-shaped square where everyone gathers to socialise, sunbake and sink beer. Twice a year the outer edge of the piazza is covered in to host a famous horse race.

TUSCAN PICNIC: BEFORE

Having taken a freeway from Florence to Siena, we spent one day roadtripping in search of the "typical Tuscan countryside". Heading in the vague direction on San Gimignano (dubbed the "Medieval Manhattan" because of it's resemblance to the New York skyline), we stumbled upon the perfect picnic spot, overlooking rolling green hills, lined with olive groves and grape vines and spent the afternoon devouring olives, salami, cheese, and cask red wine. Hey, no one said were classy.

TUSCAN PICNIC: AFTER

After two nights, we packed up again and made the long journey north-west to Cinque Terre, stopping along the way to check out Italy's most famous architectural stuff up, the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

JUST TO PROVE IT LEANS

Like many structural celebrities, the Leaning Tower is much smaller in real life than you imagine, yet it defiance of gravity doesn't fail to impress. Construction began in 1173 but ceased almost immediately due to a layer of shifting soil. Only three of seven tiers had been completed when the Tower began slanting, continuing at a rate of 1mm a year. In 1990 it reached critical point and in 1998, it was stabilised. Today it remains at a tilt of 4.1m off the perpendicular.

"THESE TOURIST PHOTOS ARE, LIKE, SO WHATEVER"

Deciding against climbing a building that is so obviously flaunting the laws of physics, we opted instead to flaunt the laws of Pisa City Council and sneak onto the perfectly manicured grass of the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) to take the traditional tourists snaps of us holding up the Tower, pushing over the Tower  and pretending the Tower was Chris' giant cannelloni.

It was here we received our first parking ticket of the trip - boy, were we pisa-ed off!

CLASSIC CINQUE TERRE COASTLINE

The journey into Cinque Terre was somewhat treacherous, navigating narrow roads curving round precarious cliff faces. It didn't help that our eyes were only sometimes on the road, unable to divert our attention away from the spectacular views of the great expense of the Mediterranean, stretching out to the horizon as far as we could see.

THE BEACH TERRE OF MONTEROSSO

Cinque Terre or "five towns" consists of, predictably, five towns clinging to aforementioned cliff face. We were staying in Levanto, one town out of the Cinque Terre but spent our four days there visiting the five towns. There is a 12km track weaving around the cliff that links all the towns and takes around six hours to walk all up. But with the incredible heat and the sun bearing down we decided to walk just between the first two, Monterosso and Vernazza, though in our defence, it is the longest section of the track.

WHAT A VIEW!

It was an incredible, sweaty climb through near vertical hills lined with lemon and olive groves. The farmers who tend to the groves have to use inclinators to harvest the fruit as it's just too steep to walk. But bloody hell, what a view.

WALKING INTO VERNAZZA

After three hours, the glorious classic scene of Vernazza came into sight. Cute, four and five storey, concrete houses in hues of red, pink and yellow bunched together around a piazza and a sparking aqua-blue bay filled with little row-boats. Chris had been banging on about how magical this place was for the past couple of years and now Caroline could see why. It was breathtaking.



We made our way down through the final section of olive and lemon groves in the town where we sat under one of the colourful umbrellas and toasted our hard work with a cold beer before taking a well deserved dip in the warm waters of the Med.

MANAROLA: ARE WE IN A KYLIE MINOGUE VIDEOCLIP?

Other days we visited the remaining towns by train. Riomaggiore, the furthest of the "terres" from where we were staying, where we stopped for a picnic lunch and watched fisherman fix their nets. Manarola, our second favourite town after Vernazza, featuring the same colourful houses around a beautiful bay at the centre of which stood a gigantic rock that brave (read: stupid) souls used as a launch pad for backflips, front flips and belly flops into the water below.

CORNIGLIA: FAMOUS FOR ITS DICTATOR BEER

And Corniglia, the least impressive of the five towns but where we had some of the best gelato (peach) in Italy and where a shop sold beer in bottles sporting the images of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini.







It was also here we decided to establish the Italian Food Fund (IFF). In our budget planning last year, we set up a "contingency account" - money put aside for emergencies like unexpected transport, accommodation or medical costs. After some consideration, we voted that enjoying all Italy's fine cuisine has to offer with out the restrictions of our usual, limited daily budget was most certainly eligible for a dip into the contingency account.

So, at night we ate pasta and pizza and drank beer and watched the Euro Cup. On our last night we treated ourselves to a nice dinner in Vernazza where Chris ordered his favourite Spaghetti Bolognaise and Caroline had the best pasta of her life - pesto trofie (a small twisted pasta that is a speciality of the region), afterwards, taking a final twilight dip in the bay.

All too soon it was time to leave and on June 29 we made set out for the long drive south to Sorrento, though exactly how long we were yet to discover. The online driving directions we had used with such confidence in France, Spain and Portugal failed us big time in Italy, greatly helped along by the country's shocking road signage - or lack of it. Directions to major towns just doesn't exist or, if you are lucky enough to spot a sign pointing, say, "this way to Naples", you won't see another one, leaving you constantly wondering whether you should have turned left back at the last intersection. We left Cinque Terre at 9am, estimating we would have be onto our 6th beer at a pub in Sorrento by the time the Euro Cup final kicked off at 8.45pm. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.

That day, traversing almost the entire country from north to south, we took many, many...many wrong turns. We followed directions that lead us in circles and found ourselves in seedy towns where wild dogs pawed at piles of rubbish stacked on the side of the road and we felt the need to lock our doors whenever we paused at a stop sign. We received - and gave - the finger to endless Italian drivers (the worst and rudest drivers we have encountered so far) and resisted the urge to sideswipe the army of scooters that patrol the streets, thinking they can weave through traffic jams just because they're small and cute. Pfft!

After finally pointing ourselves in the right direction, having alternated between freeways and backstreets (torn between wanting to get there as fast as we could and wanting to avoid the €30, or $50, a pop tolls), we finally arrived at the road leading into Sorrento. The one road leading in, and out, of Sorrento. On a Sunday evening at peak hour. The final stretch of road, roughly 10kms through mountain tunnels and along coastal roads, took us two hours to drive. We were sitting in traffic as Germany and Spain kicked of in the final, Scooters weaving between our stalled cars, giving as a toot, a final bleeping kick in the guts as they zoomed off.

Tempers less frayed and more completely ripped in half, we shuffled along, making the spur-of-moment decision to pull into the first bar we found and watch the last half of the final. Spain won. There is a God.

CHILLAXING ON THE ROOF OF SEVEN HOSTEL SORRENTO

Fortunately, our hostel was just around the corner from where we had randomly pulled over. We parked and lugged our bags inside. We had been driving for 14 hours. There is an upside to this story. The hostel we were booked into, Seven Hostel in San Agnello in Sorrento, had only opened its doors 10 days earlier and the place was like heaven to us weary travellers.

Ultra modern fittings, super clean rooms, ice-cold air con, amazing rooftop terraces and a bar that would have looked at home in the middle of Sydney.  While slightly disappointed in busy, touristy Sorrento after all the hype we'd heard, Seven Hostel was our saving grace.

PICNICKING...AMALFI COAST STYLE

We were there for four nights all up, making day trips to nearby Pompeii and lesser-known volcano site Herculaneum as well as a lovely drive down the picturesque Amalfi Coast.

POMPEII WAS COVERED BY SIX METRES OF ASH

The subject of many a school project, it was awesome to finally see Pompeii in real life. Once a resort town for the wealthy, it was perfectly preserved under six metres of volcanic ash when, on August 24 in AD79, nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted.

POMPEII STREET, MT VESUVIUS IN THE BACKGROUND

The actual site is much bigger than either of us expected, literally an entire city with homes, businesses and cobblestone roads still bearing the groove marks from chariots.

CHRIS GETTING IDEAS IN AN ANCIENT BROTHEL

We sat in ancient pubs and strolled through an ancient brothel, complete with preserved erotic art and rather uncomfortable looking stone beds.

CAST OF ONE OF POMPEII'S FORMER RESIDENTS

We also checked out the warehouse of items that have been retrieved from the site like pots and tools - and the creepy plasters casts made of cowering Pompeians who were buried alive under the ash.

AN ANCIENT HERCULANEUM PUB

Again, it was a scorching hot day and after a few hours of walking around we had to take respite from the heat, jumping in the car and heading 30 minutes away to Herculaneum. Though lesser known, it's perhaps the more fascinating of the two unearthed cities we saw that day. The buildings much better preserved, many still with their roofs and amazing colourful floor mosaics and wall frescoes.

HERCULANEUM AND MT VESUVIUS IN THE BACKGROUND

As we arrived a huge thunderstorm brewed overhead, turning the sky black. Walking around the near deserted site, through ancient hallways, public bathing houses and homes of long dead people, with thunder rumbling through the valley, it felt as if Vesuvius looming within sight, was erupting again.

GRANITA PIT STOP

On our final day, we drove the 50km of spectacular coastline that is the Amalfi Coast, stopping along the way for icy-cold, sour lemon granitas. Here we passed more towns, swathed in fuchsia-coloured flowers, perched on dramatic cliffs overlooking turquoise water.

POSITANO: GREAT BEER, AWESOME VIEW

We stopped at Positano, the most famous of Amalfi's towns, for cold beer, a nip of Sorrento's trademark Limoncello liqueur and some of the most incredible views we've seen on this trip.

THE SPECTACULAR AMALFI COASTLINE

On July 3 we packed up again and headed northbound for Rome - where we spent six nights, giving ourselves enough time to see the sights without having to rush in the overwhelming heat. Fortunately, the hostel we stayed at offered free breakfast and dinner (salad, mounds of great pasta and wine), which ensured there were enough funds in our rapidly depleting IFF to secure our last fill of pizza, pasta and gelato.

THE TREVI FOUNTIAN

First stop on the heavily worn tourist trail was the beautiful Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) built in 1732. Tradition says you should throw one coin over your shoulder into the fountain to ensure you return to Rome, two to have your wish granted. The poor backpackers we are, we decided to share our coins, throwing them together over out shoulders and making a wish. However, while basking in the romance of it all, Chris pointed out that his hand wasn't really on the coins when they were thrown and perhaps his wish might not come true. We threw a third, with Chris holding most of it, just to be sure.

THE SPAINISH STEPS

Afterwards we walked to the Spanish Steps built in 1725 and once a gathering place for crowds of beautiful Italians hoping to be chosen as artists' models. These days the steps are just crowded with overweight tourists, sipping Coke as they take a quick snap on their digital camera before moving to the next stop on their pre-packaged tour.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME: THE VIA APPIA ANTICA

Another day we took a bus to Via Appia Antica  (Appian Way), the most important of all the roads that have ever led to Rome. Construction began in 312 BC for miliary purposes and in 71 BC, after Spartacus' revolt, the road was lined with 6000 crucified slaves, serving as a grisly warning to anyone who travelled it's path.





These days it looks like any old road, though it has been preserved to retain the original uneven cobblestone pavings, complete with chariot grooves, and there are ruins of various buildings and monuments along the way. We must admit, it was pretty cool to be walking a road that Romans have been walking on for 2300 years. Cool as it was, however, the sun was burning hot and with no shade to protect our sensitive skin, we walked for just an hour before turning around and going back the way we came.

Our last three days in Rome were our busiest, packing in the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and the Vatican City with St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum containing it's gorgeous Sistine Chapel.

ABOUT TO ENTER THE VATICAN CITY

Entering the Vatican City is a less-than-holy experience. After catching a stuffy, packed bus with hundreds of other tourists, you pile off and make a 100m dash toward the site. You pause briefly for the classic photo in front of the Piazza di San Pietro, with its two semicircular colonnades topped with massive statues of saints and St Peter's Basilica in the background. And as you step into the Piazza, you spare a moment to contemplate how you leaving Italy and entering the world's smallest sovereign nation (just 1 sqkm, though it has it's own currency, postal service, radio station, newspaper and army), before you join a queue and wait. And wait.

CAZ COMMITS FASHION CRIMES IN FRONT OF GOD

St Peter's Basilica is famous for being the spot where St Peter, the first pope, is buried. For us it will also be remembered as the place where, after waiting in line for ages in the sun, we nearly got into fisty cuffs with a Swiss guard who was adamant Caroline was inappropriately dressed to enter the church (despite the fact she specifically wore a long skirt and a top covering her shoulders predicting this very situation). After trying unsuccessfully to sneak in, we gave up, headed to a nearby tourist shop and purchased an oversized t-shirt to satisfy the modesty police. Unfortunately, she was now in danger of committing a serious fashion crime but theorised that in God's eyes, we are all stylistically equal.

MICHELANGELO'S PIETA

St Peter's was well worth the wardrobe issues, with it's magnificent grand dome, designed by Michelangelo, soaring 120m above the alter. Everywhere you looked, every wall, pillar, and patch of floor or ceiling was decorated in elaborate frescoes. There were intricately designed tombs of popes past and gorgeous sculptures including Michelangelo's famous Pieta, completed when he was just 24 years old. No photo could ever capture it all.

THE VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE DOME

Caroline, feeling particularly energetic, made the sweaty climb 551 steps to the very top of the dome to take in the sprawling views of Rome. Chris, who had already made the effort on a previous trip to Rome, remained at the bottom.

Our final two days in Rome were crammed with seeing the biggies - the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and the Sistine Chapel.




First stop, the Vatican Museum, which was founded 500 years ago when a single marble sculpture of a priest who, according to Greek mythology, tried to convince to people of ancient Troy not to accept the Greek's gift of a suspiciously large hollow horse, was found in a vineyard. The pope at the time dispatched Michelangelo to check it out and, on the artists advice, the pope bought it and put it on display, thus starting one of the most important art collections in the world.

Arriving early to avoid the queues we dedicated a few hours to the museum, wandering through halls filled with ornate sculptures, beautiful frescoes, 500-year old tapestries and ancient Egyptian mummies and relics (preserved and presented better than anything we saw in Egypt, we noted).

We were in awe of the beautiful Stanze de Raffaello (Raphael's Rooms), actually the apartment of Pope Julius II (1503-1513) who didn't want to occupy the same rooms as his predecessor. Raph's master, Perugine, had already worked on decorating the new rooms for the fussy pope, but in the end Raph, just 25-years-old, was given complete licence and all of Perugine's work was erased. Way harsh.

PHOTO INSIDE THE SISTINE CHAPEL...NAUGHTY

But it was the Sistine Chapel we had come to see. Named after the pope who commissioned it, Pope Sixtus IV, it is breathtaking, the great chapel is still used for important ceremonies including the Conclave - the election of a new pope). Michelangelo was on his back for four years, working on the ceiling (which includes the famous "Creation of Man" - God reaching out his finger to Adam) between 1508-1512, not beginning the famous "Last Judgement" (which takes up the entire wall behind the altar and portrays the lucky souls who have been granted access to Heaven and the bad guys destined for  hell), until 24 years later. A million words and thousand illegally taken pictures could never do it justice.

THE PANTHEON

On the way home, we called into the Pantheon, the best-preserved building of Ancient Rome. Marcus Agrippa, the son of the first Emperor, Augustus, built the original temple to honour the planetary gods in 27 BC. Later used by the Catholic Church, it houses the body of many Italian kings as well as Raphael.




Our final day in Italy, July 9, was reserved for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

VIEW OVER THE ROMAN FORUM

The Roman Forum, once the political, religious and social centre of the Ancient Roman world, is today an awesome site of well-preserved ruins, including the Casa della Vestali (home of the Vestal Virgins whose job it was to keep the eternal flame, the symbol of the life of Rome, burning) and the Tempio di Ciulio Cesare (the site where Julius Caesar's body was burned after his death -  a stone mound which was covered in flowers).

FORUM RUINS

We also hiked up Palatine Hill, basically "Rome Heights" where the wealthy lived and where, legend says, Romulus founded the city.

EMPEROR DOMITION'S ANCIENT VERSION OF Wii

We checked out the ruins of the villas of Emperor Domition who built his very own indoor sports stadium (for war-inspired, but less barbaric than the Colosseum sports, like wrestling, discus and shotput - basically Olympic sports). Apparently the Emperor would invite all his mates over, get drunk and watch sport - seems nothing has changed with men in 2000 years!

THE SITE WHERE JULIUS CEASAR WAS CREMATED

We also checked out the home of Emperor Augustus, an extremely well preserved site that has only been open to the public for two months. Before leaving, we popped our heads over the back fence to look at Circus Maximus, once a great sporting track, now an overgrown patch of dry grass.

PICNICKING...COLOSEUM STYLE

With tummies rumbling, we headed to the Colosseum and chose a comfy patch of grass to have our pre-packed picnic. Initially more of a budget decision, our picnics have become our trademark, spreading out on grass across the globe in the shadows of great monuments and against backdrops of incredible scenery.

THE INTERIOR OF THE COLLOSEUM

When it was time to enter the arena (incidentally "arena" means sand in Latin and the Colosseum, otherwise known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, had a floor of sand where gladiators - usually specially trained slaves - would battle wild beasts, though sometimes it would also be flooded with water to host mock sea battles). Built over eight years from 72AD, the Colosseum had all the trimmings of a modern stadium - food stands, toilets and box seats - as well as a giant retractable shade sail to protect a crowd of up to 50,000 from the sun. Underneath the floor, which has now been removed, there is a complex cavern of corridors and holding cells where the animals were kept, as well as storage for props and the remains of mechanical lifts which would be used to lift the gladiators and animals up through the floor.

A GLADIATOR PONDERS HIS NAVEL

It was incredible walking around the Colosseum, imagining what it would have been like in its heyday covered in white marble and rumbling with the chants of 50,000 screaming Romans. Walking up though the entrance into the stands felt much like walking into the SCG, so much so that we began craving a beer and a meat pie with sauce,

OUR FINAL LOOK AT ROME

And on that note, our time in Rome came to a close. That night we took an overnight train to Milan, where we caught a plane to Santorini in the Greek Islands.

That story up next...

Until then, stay safe.

Love,
Chris and Caroline xx

GELATO: THE DEVIL'S FOOD

ITALY GELATO COUNT:
Chris: 5 double scoop cups, 3 double scoop cones. Favourite flavour: lemon
Caroline: 6 double scoop cups, 2 double scoop cones. Favourite flavour: Baci






ON A PERSONAL NOTE:
Our time in the sun in Italy has given us, both a lovely Mediterranean glow. It's a shame we will have faded to our usual pasty selves by the time any of you see us next.  But this is hardly a worry for Chris, celebrating his 29th birthday on July 21, who is more concerned with wrinkles, grey hair and his new preference for quiet music and early nights.

THIS IS WHY WE NEEDED AN ITALIAN FOOD FUND

HIGHLIGHTS:
Rome:  the ruins, the breathtaking art, the history you can feel. Fantastic.

Marveling at Michelangelo's "David" in Florence.

Walking into Vernazza in Cinque Terre.

Sampling every flavour of gelato on offer Italy.

Our Tuscan picnic.

FILLING UP AT ONE OF ROME'S WATER FOUNTAINS

WHAT WE LEARNED IN...ITALY
Italy is hot, really hot. And while they contain some of the most spectacular works of art and architecture in the world, the big cities like Rome and Florence are just that - big cities, with graffiti and rubbish and pollution, just like anywhere else.

Italians are so far the worst drivers and the rudest people we have encountered on this trip. Road rules appear to be "suggestion only" and customer service seems to be based around the motto "the customer is always an annoying pest that should be ignored and/or considered with a sigh and a look of disdain". (No offence to the nice Italians we know).

Lack of manners aside, the Romans really knew their town planning. Ancient inventions, like sewers and concrete, are still being used today and modern Italy really has it right with the icy cold, drinking fountains found everywhere to refill your water bottle.

FIVE MONTHS ON THE ROAD, THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BECOME