Pizza to the Max
Trip Start
Jan 26, 2008
1
22
36
Trip End
Feb 29, 2008
Rome,
Italy
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Boy with Flute
. Did I mention the crowds of people yet? People everywhere, most of them in guided tour groups, the guides all had a thin metal pole with variously coloured items tied to the top, I guess so the people in the group can keep track of which one of the many groups they are in. The first major hall of exhibits we went through was the Hall of Candelabras. Didn't notice any candelabras but there was marble a plenty - statues, urns, boxes, etc. The censor of male dangly bits had been at it again with his vine leave although there were a few whose modesty remained unprotected. I cannot say I enjoyed this first part of the museum, plenty of things to see but the morass of people was a bit difficult to deal with. We managed to get clear of most of the groups by the time we entered the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, although we didn't really have time to dawdle while admiring the colourful and detailed maps of parts of Europe, as we needed to keep ahead of the tide of humanity coming along behind us. After the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche we came to a new series of corridors. There were two signs here which both seemed to be pointing in the same direction, to the left, one indicated the way to the Sistine Chapel the other to the Sistine Chapel and Stanze di Raffaello. Thinking we were still on the trail of the Stanze di Raffaello we followed where we thought both signs were pointing and after some richly decorated corridors found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel. It is amazing to see it for yourself, so many of the images are so familiar. The chapel was moderately crowded but you were able to spend time to stop and stare up at the ceiling without feeling to pressed in upon. Michelangelo's work on the ceiling and his 'Last Judgement' behind the altar completely overshadow the rest of the works that adorn the remaining walls. One thing that did surprise us was how small many of the images on the ceiling looked. The famous image of the God figure reaching his finger to Adam is so much smaller that both of us had expected from the various pictures of it we have seen
Oil Lamp
. They ask that you do not take photos in the Sistine Chapel, I refrained, Belle couldn't resist taking one picture with her phone, just to prove she has been there. Other people did not show the same restraint, some even going so far as to use their camera flashes even though you are asked not to use a flash in the other parts of the museum where they do permit photography. We left the Sistine Chapel not really because we had had our fill but because our necks were starting to hurt from all the craning back you have to do to view Michelangelo's spectacular masterpiece. We headed back through the Vatican Library which is suspiciously devoid of books as far as we could tell, although many of the corridors were lined with cabinets which may having being hiding books. The Vatican Library is again spectacularly decorated over all the ceilings and upper walls. The Hermitage was also richly decorated but somehow the decoration in many parts of the Vatican seemed at bit tacky. To paraphase Elizabeth Bennet, I found the Vatican to be 'uselessly fine' or to put it another way, The Vatican is to Lady Catherine DeBourgh's Rosing's Park while The Hermitage is to Mr Darcy's Pemberley.We got back to the foyer area having managed to bypass completely the Stanze di Raffaello. We went for a coffee break at the museum cafeteria. I have not mentioned the coffee in Rome as yet, I think, but in general every coffee we have had has been superior. At one point I found myself complaining about a particular coffee but was then forced to acknowledge that although the coffee was not as good as some of the others I had sampled in Rome it was still of a much higher quality than what we normally think of as good coffee back home. I say that because, although the coffee in Rome is fanatstic, the coffee in the Vatican is disgusting! Having thoroughly not enjoyed our coffee break, we headed off to the Pinacoteca where many Italian masterpieces hang
Ceiling in Vatican Library
. We saw some spectacular Raphael's and a brilliant Caravaggio, somehow we missed the Da Vinci, perhaps it was on exhibition elsewhere. We decided that we could not leave without seeing the Stanze di Raffaello so followed the signs once more, back through the Candelabra Hall and Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, and came to the point where we had gone wrong last time, although the two signpost were both pointing left, there were two corridors to the left and we had previously taken the one that bypassed the Stanze di Raffaello. We headed down the correct corridor this time, joining the ever swelling crowds of people and after a while came to the Stanze di Raffaello. This had been worth the effort but once we had seen them we wanted out. You cannot just leave, however, and we were forced to retrace our steps through the Sistine Chapel, which was now doing a pretty good impression of a can of sardines, and Vatican Library. We bought a book of the art of Michelangelo and Raphael at the Vatican and then headed out of the museum, leaving much of it unseen but not sorry to be leaving the crowds behind - I would hate to be here at the height of the tourist season.Our next stop was a large bookshop that we had seen adjacent to the Vatican Museum entrance. Here Belle managed to find her English language, Italian recipe book - we are three from three now: Russian cookbook, German Cookbook and now Italian
Carravagio
. I noticed some art folios which were only 1.50 Euro each and I picked up one which covers the sculpture work of Donatello. Would have got more but I was mindful of adding to much weight to our ever growing luggage load. After that we went in search of lunch and found some at a small but busy Pizzeria. We had been hoping for some pasta but 12:00pm was to early for pasta so we settled for Pizza #6 -quite excellent and very filling. Next stop was the many souvenir shops we had seen along the way to the Trevi Fountain from the Spanish Steps. We finally located the shop selling Murano Glass that Belle had seen on Wednesday. We picked up the required souvenirs and then headed back to the Forum Romanum where I desperately wanted to get up close to the Arch of Titus, which we had tried to find on Wednesday but had somehow missed. We got there just after 3:30pm, maybe it was 3:31 but could have been 3:32pm. Access to the Forum Romanum closes at 3:30pm and it didn't matter what we said there was no way I was getting through the gate to take about 20 steps to where I could get a picture of the relief on the inside of the left pillar. Fortunately you could get a good view of the relief on the inside right, and a managed to get a barely adequate shot of inside left relief by holding my camera way above my head to get a clear shot over the gate and clicking and hoping, took about 15 to 20 images and two of them hit the jackpot. the inside left relief is the one that shows the booty being carried off from the Temple in Jerusalem, after the sacking of Jerusalem in AD70.After our disappointment at Forum Romanum we headed back to Piazza Campidoglio where I was able to get some good pictures of Castor and Pollux, Minerva and the rest of the cast of characters as there was good light still available. I am glad, however, that we first went to the Piazza in the early evening as it was getting dark, as the atmosphere was so much better yesterday evening - it was peaceful and quite inspiring
Arch of Titus
. During the mid afternoon the place is crowded with the ubiquitous tour groups and just not the same. We did a bit more wandering of the streets and eventually came across another Pizzeria that we liked the look of a stopped in for Coffee and a calzone and an arancini. We did a bit more wandering and then, as the light was starting to fade headed back to the Colosseum by bus and from there caught our train back to our hostel for the final time. At the hostel we started packing away all our belongings in preparation for our flight to Madrid tomorrow. At about 8pm we went down to the restaurant which is below the hostel where we had intended to have some pasta - Belle had been expressing a need to try spaghetti and meatballs in Rome. We entered the restaurant, indicated that there were two of us and were ushered to a table. Almost immediately a waitress appeared and poured us each an Aperitif - Spumante something or other Aranciato - some sort of orange juice based alcoholic drink which was very tasty. She also took our drinks order and while we were looking for a menu, and finding only a list of pizzas, a waiter turned up with some focaccia, bruschetta, crouquettes, a calamari salad, some ham with rocket and mozzarella balls, and some sought of slice that looked like polenta but turned out to have been made of mashed potatoes. Turns out there is a set menu and no pasta. After we had eaten our antipasto the waiter was back requesting our pizza order - Belle got tomato, eggplant and mozzarella, mine was gorgonzola and radicchio. The Pizzas came and were probably 35cm in diameter. The only thing that enabled us to make even a small dent in them was that the pizza base was no thicker than 2 or 3 millimeters and was beautifully light and crisp. I got through most of my pizza but Belle only ate about a quarter of hers. We were able to box it up to take away for latter. The waiter then offered us Dolce which we accepted despite already being stuffed to over flowing. We both had the Tiramisu which was delicious (I am running out of adjectives!). We settled the bill and then went for a bit of a walk in order to work off some of the large number of calories we had just taken on, before heading back to the hostel for the night. Tomorrow it is on to Madrid!
