Italy

July 3

The Coliseum

On this day I visited ancient Rome. I started by taking the underground to the ancient Circus Maximus. There isn't much left, some minor ruins at the south end, and a large field where the chariot races once took place. It did not take much imagination for me to picture the site, perhaps aided by the 50 year-old film, Ben Hur.

alterimageexit: Command not found. The Circus Maximus	alterimageexit: Command not found. Little has survived
Little has survived	But Picture the track
The Circus Maximus	The Circus Maximus
Palatine Hill from below	Palatine Hill from below
Circus Maximus

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I took the underground back to the Coliseum. Instead of entering the long queue for tickets at the coliseum, I went to the Palatine Hills, home of ancient Rome. There was no queue for tickets here, so I was able to walk straight in, and see the ancient ruins. I stood where the Emperor Tiberius stood. I was where Augustus walked, and where Livia plotted. I was able to look down into the old forum. Indeed, the view from the Palatine Hill was quite impressive; it provided excellent views of the entire city.

It was also very large, at least compared to some other places. The Palatine Hill complex extended for about a square kilometer, with various ruins at different levels. Some of the complex was closed off for recent archaeological work.

Arch of Constantine	The Forum
Arch of Constantine	The Coliseum
Arch of Titus	Arch of Titus
Palatine Hill	The Roman Forum
Looking up the Hill	Old Fountain
Looking into the Forum	Coliseum from the Hill
Titus Arch from the Hill	Flowers
Flowers	Top of the Fountain
In the Forum	Vittorio Emanuela II Monument
Coliseum through the Forum	View from Augustus Caesar's Palace
Palatine Hill	A Very Old Tunnel
Palatine Gardens	An Old Circus
Palatine Hill	The Coliseum
Forum and Coliseum	Palatine Hill

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Also inaccessible was Domus Aurea, at least not without a reservation, and I didn't have a reservation.

After visiting the Palatine Hills, I went to the Coliseum. Since the Palatine Hill ticket was valid for the Coliseum as well, I got to walk past the long line waiting for tickets, to the short line for ticket holders.

Rome, the Eternal City, is also the City of Queues.

Even though we were in the queue for ticket holders, there are always those who think they don't need to queue. In this case, it was a group of Americans with Midwestern accents, despite the loud protests of others in the queue; they just forced their way past it. When I reached the front of the queue, I found them standing on the side, with a guard telling them they will need to wait until the queue is cleared (an unlikely event!) For once, there was some minor justice.

Inside the Coliseum was a little anti-climax. Anyone who has seen pictures knows the inside has been gutted. At one end, they've set up a platform, I guess it is to show where the former floor of the Coliseum was located. Visitors are restricted to two levels, one at ground level, and the other at the next highest ring. It looks like there was another level opened higher up, but it wasn't open when I was there.

Inside the Coliseum	Restoration Work
Looking Up	Looking Down
Coliseum Foundation	Eurasian Kestrel
Looking from an End	Kestral in the Coliseum
Palatine Hills from the Coliseum	Constantine Arch from the Coliseum
Constantine Arch from the Coliseum	Street of Rome
Across the Coliseum	Outside the Coliseum

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What was up there was some form of an accipiter or a falcon. I did not have my European bird book with me, but at a guess, I'd guess a Eurasian Kestrel. It was flying around the top of the Coliseum, so I suspect it was gathering insects there for food.

Although this was not a birding trip, this bird does get "bird of the trip," at least so far.

After the Coliseum, I decided to walk a bit. I made my way to Argentina Square, where I had a quick lunch of penne with pesto, and then I meandered through the city. OK, I'll admit I was lost. The designers of adventure must have been in Rome: You are in a maze of twisty little streets, all alike.

At one point, I found myself at the Ministry of Defense, where I'd assume the guns were real.

Vittorio Emanuela II Monument	Piaza Mattei Fountain
Vittorio Emanuela II Monument	Quirinale Monument
Quirinale Statue	Repubblica Fountain
Repubblica Fountain	Repubblica Fountain

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Eventually, I found the Plaza of the Republic, which was near my hotel. I got back to my room in the late afternoon, with enough time to shower before dinner.

Dinner was at Checchino dal 1887, a restaurant recommended by my friend, Carlo Zorzoli, who used to live in Rome. This was away from the center of the city, near the Pyramid. It was my longest underground trip.

I should note that of the two lines in Rome, one underground line seems to be well maintained. This was not that line, in this case the trains were covered with graffiti, and the stations did not look well maintained. It was reminiscent of the New York subway system of the 1970's. It did work, which was a good thing, but so did the NYC system. Clearly, the "art" of "tagging" by graffiti "artists" has spread to Rome, since the graffiti in some places was extensive, and about as ugly. There wasn't as much graffiti in Venice, so maybe it is a southern Italy thing?

Anyway, it was a short walk from the Pyramid metro station to the restaurant. It was set on a local street, with outdoor tables. Their antipasta misto was the best, with a great variety of cold cuts, including a mild salami, a spicy salami, and something resembling pepperoni. I had a spaghetti carbonera as my first course, and I finished with their special veal. The veal was made with proscuitto, cheese, and mushrooms, and was delicious. I had beans in olive oil as a side dish, and finished with a gelato in three flavors (vanilla, chocolate, and cinnamon.) It was a very good meal.

When I returned to my hotel, I had to sleep.

July 4

Today, I had planned on a day trip to Florence. I was booked on the 6:30AM train, an ES* that travels at close to 300 KPH (188 MPH.) I rarely drive that fast. This time, the train had an aisle down the middle, and each set of six seats had dividers (four seats, two facing two, then the aisle, then a pair of facing seats.) I was grateful for the dividers when a group of unruly Americans came on board. It was clear that the five of them had been drinking all night. At least they fell asleep quickly.

The train's departure was almost completely silent. The train was electric, so there was no internal combustion engine, or the like, to propel the train, just the transfer of electrical energy to rotational energy at the axle. This slow acceleration gave almost no sense of motion until we were well underway. The countryside moves past quickly when the train is at speed, and it seemed like a blink of an eye, and we were in Florence. (96 minutes, actually.)

I had attempted to memorize a map of Florence before I came here, so it was a simple matter of orientation. My first destination was the Uffizi gallery. I had a 9:15 reservation, yet I made it well before 9AM. So, I waited.

It turns out it was "Culture Week" in Florence, so all the museums were free. When I get back, I'll need to get a refund on my admission.

When you enter the Uffizi, you go to the top floor, where there is a statue gallery. You need to look up at the paintings on the ceiling, as they were magnificent. I wish I had been allowed to take pictures, but no pictures were allowed in the museum at all. I saw busts for Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and many other emperors. There were statues to the Roman gods, Athena, Venus, Mercury, Aphrodite, and others.

Santa Maria Novella Cathedral	Palazzo Vecchio
Piaza Signora	Interesting Statue
Ponte Vecchio	Rio Arno

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Then, you enter the rooms. In the first few rooms are the fairly standard triptiques of religious scenes. It is interesting to see how many varieties of "The adoration" there can be. After a few rooms, though, you enter the Botticelli Room.

Are there words to describe the beauty of "The Birth of Venus?" (aka, Venus on the half-shell?) I think not. She entrances you. She seduces you. The Mona Lisa in Paris may be the more famous painting, but this painting is, in my mind, the pinnacle of art.

That's not to diminish the other works. Several painting by Botticelli come close to capturing the magic of that work.

Beyond the Botticellis are other works of art. Some names you may recognize: Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Cannaletto. I'll admit a particular fondness for Cannaletto; he mastered an interesting technique for painting using a predecessor of a camera: He would use a pinhole device to project the image of what he wanted to paint, and he then filled in the painting on the canvas.

Overall, I spent about 2.5 hours in the Uffizi, before exiting for a quick lunch. This time, I went with a spaghetti Bolognese. My ticket at the Galleria Dell Academia was for 2:15PM, so I had some time to kill. I wandered the streets of Florence, which is a very photogenic city.

Palazzo Vecchio from Uffizi	Palazzo Vecchio Shields
Palazzo Vecchio Tower	Palazzo Vecchio
A Sparrow	Statues
Statues	Statues
Duomo Cathedral	The Battistero
The Battistero	Duomo Cathedral
Duomo Cathedral	Medici Chapel

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There is one reason to see the Galleria Dell Academia, and it isn't for the musical instrument collection. After a couple of quick halls, you pass into the main hall, and at the far end is David. The David. Michelangelo's most famous statue, David, is just standing there, 20 feet tall. There are crowds around the statue. There are people trying to sketch the fine details, up close you can see the veins on David's hands, and the muscle tone. It is amazing. Once past the David, there isn't much to see, so you really don't spend a lot of time in the rest of the museum. (I am sure some art historian will point out that there are other treasures there, if only I paid attention. But how could they compare to the David?)

It turns out the David is sort of visible from the street; through two sets of glass doors, one of which is smoked glass. I tried for a picture.

The David (blurry)	Inside Duomo
Inside Duomo	Inside Duomo
Inside Duomo	Inside Duomo
Inside Duomo	Inside Duomo
Inside Duomo	Duomo Dome
Inside Duomo	Santa Maria Novella

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I ventured to the Duomo Cathedral, which is the first place where I could really take pictures. This was a relatively small cathedral, at least it seemed small after Vitus and the Basillica. The stained glass looked good. After the cathedral I went back to the Uffizi book store to buy some gifts. So much for luggage limits.

I had dinner in Florence, too, at a fairly expensive restaurant. The food was OK, but the cost for drinks was astronomical! They charged 7 Euros for water. I had a Tuscan pasta, and s grilled chicken breast. It was pretty good. I meandered back to the train station for my 20:43 train to Rome. This train was a Eurostar train, with a similar seating scheme to the morning train, but with no dividers. It was running ten minutes late, so we got into Rome ten minutes late. I went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

July 5

This was my last full day in Rome, and I had a lot to do. I spent the day doing a walking tour of the city. My tour started and ended at the Spanish Steps.

My father recommended that I visit the Hassler Hotel at the top of the steps, so that is where I began my trip. I climbed down all 136 steps to the Plaza de Spagna. At 10AM the steps were already crowded. I then ventured to Ars Pace, which was closed as they prepared a new exhibit. I was at the Tiber River, so I decided to follow the Tiber downstream. I passed several bridges (Ponte Cavour and Ponte Umberto I) before I saw a bridge with statues, similar to the Charles Bridge in Prague. This is Ponte Sant'Angelo, and is pedestrians only. On the other size of the bridge was an old castle, unsurprisingly named Castel Sant'Angelo. I crossed the bridge and then looked to my left; it was the road leading to the plaza at the Vatican.

Looking up the Spanish Steps	A Fountain in Piaza Spagna
An Obelisk	The View from the Top
A View Down the Steps	The Hotel Hassler
On the Steps	On the Steps
The Augustus Masoleum	The Augustus Masoleum
The Ara Pacia Fountain	The Ara Pacia Fountain
The Ara Pacia Fountain	Covour Bridge
Umberto I Bridge	A Church
Palazzo di Giustizia	Umberto I Bridge
Palazzo di Giustizia	Palazzo di Giustizia
Castle St. Angelo	St. Angelo Bridge
Alberto Elementary School	St. Angelo Bridge
St. Angelo Bridge	Castle St. Angelo
Umberto I Bridge	St. Angelo Bridge Statue
St. Angelo Bridge Statue	St. Angelo Bridge Statue
St. Angelo Bridge Statue	St. Angelo Bridge Statue
St. Angelo Bridge Statue	St. Angelo Bridge Statue
Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge	The Vatican

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I guess all roads in Rome lead there?

I continued to the next bridge, Ponte Principe Amedeo, which also had statues.

Rome is a city made for walking. While Rome is built on seven hills, most of the area is flat, and the hills slope gently. Of course, another part of it is that Roman busses are not exactly safe for tourists who wish to retain their wallets, and there really isn't that much bus traffic off the main roads. Off the main roads are a lot of little alleys that lead to different plazas and most plazas have at least one fountain.

I continued my river walk for a while longer, only turning left (north) into the city to find Campo de Fiore. My friend David Roberts had suggested a restaurant off the Campo, and I wanted to try to find it. I could not. There were a lot of little restaurants and vendors, so I picked a restaurant at random. I had pasta with tomato sauce and chili, which was OK. What was absolutely wonderful were the fried stuffed olives. You pit a green olive, add some prosciuto, then bread and fry it. If I had known about this earlier, I might not have eaten anything else.

St. Angelo Bridge	The Tiber
Castle St. Angelo	Castle St. Angelo
Piaza Giovanni	Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge
Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge	Castle St. Angelo
Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge	Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge
Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge	Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge
Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge	Prince Amodeo Bridge
A Facade	Prince Amodeo Bridge
Prince Amodeo Bridge	An Aquaduct
Piaza Farnese	Palazzo Farnese

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After lunch, I wandered north to a plaza with three fountains, the Plaza Navona. Maybe I was attracted by the Brazilian flag for the Brazilian film festival? The middle fountain was closed off and undergoing renovations, alas.

Farnese Fountain	Plaza Navona
Southern Navona Fountain	Southern Navona Fountain
An impressive building	Relief Work
Mummy!	Northern Navona Fountain
Northern Navona Fountain	Same Building, Different Angle

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I turned east. (I had a strategy in mind.) My target was the Pantheon. This is the best surviving piece of Roman architecture. Alas, it has been convered to a Catholic church, but the exterior is all Roman. Inside, there is an opening in the dome through which the sun shone. Although this was not mentioned, this could have been used as a sun dial, and it wouldn't surprise me if someone had done that in the past.

Palazzo Madama	The Pantheon
Pantheon Obelisk	Pantheon Fountain
Pantheon Fountain	Pantheon Fountain
The Pantheon	The Pantheon
Pantheon Dome	Pantheon Altar
Pantheon Altar	Pantheon Columns

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I continued east, across another main street to one of Rome's most famous destinations, the Trevi Fountain. This is the largest fountain in Rome, and is legendary for the throwing of coins. Thousands of dollars in coin are collected regularly, and are used for charity. (An average day sees 1000 Euros worth of coins, and in the month of October, 2004, 54,000 Euros were thrown in. This is according to Lonely Planet.)

I added my three coins: A five cent coin, a twenty cent coin, and a one Euro coin. I figure at US $1.70, it's cheaper than Internet dating, and probably safer. (The story goes that if you throw one coin, you will return to Rome. If you throw two, you will fall in love with an Italian, and if you throw three, you will marry him or her.)

Trevi Fountain	Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain	Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain	Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain	Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain	Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain	Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain	Piaza Spagna
The Spanish Steps

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I went north from here to the Spanish Steps, where I ended my walk. (Alas, there were no beautiful Italian women to massage my sore feet, and help my coins work. I guess it takes longer than 15 minutes.) I decided to do a little shopping before heading back to my hotel. I already have a nice leather jacket from Argentina, so I didn't need one of them. I decided to look at the glassware, and found a second candy dish that I bought. I was hoping to find a marble egg for my mother and sister, but while I found some marble, it was carved into tacky tourist things; there was nothing as elegant as a nicely carved egg. Maybe next trip I'll see one.

For my last dinner, I returned to Giglio, near my hotel. I wanted to try something different, but I could not resist my last chance at tonnarelli cacio e pepe. But I did opt for a different second course, an interesting veal in gorgonzola cheese dish. It was very tasty. I had chocolate cake to finish.

It was my last night in Rome, so I had to pack. Since I had bought enough, I separated out my small duffle bag, and put some dirty clothes in there, and then put in some books I had bought. This meant I now have two bags.

July 6

It is my last day in Rome. Since I had a 2:30PM flight, I made arrangements to be picked up from my hotel at 11:45AM. This did not leave much time for touring, but I did swing by the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, which was near my hotel. I did not bring my camera.

I returned to the hotel by 11:15, which was fortunate. The hotel staff was having significant problems with my credit card, and for a while it was looking like I'd need to find $900 in cash to pay the hotel bill. (I will admit, I did have that on me, in case I needed it.) They kept saying I needed a PIN number for my American Express card. Finally, they called their local Amex office after I called the US, and was told there were no problems with the account. It turns out they were using the wrong machine, they were using a machine for processing debit cards. They ran it on a credit machine, and it all worked.

Car fare to Leonardo Da Vinci Airport was 75 Euros.

I was concerned that I might finally have to pay excess luggage; I was flying Air One, one of the inexpensive carriers. I had my big duffel, which still weighted 22 kilos, and my second bag was 11.4 kilos. For this flight, the luggage limit was allegedly 10 kilos. Still, they just took my bags without question.

Getting through security was also fast. I had been warned to expect a long delay due to terrorism in London, but there was no delay at all. So, I had an hour or so to write at a cafe before boarding.