Friday, 29 June 2007

• Rome : Part 2 of the Graduation Trip 2007

  On to Roma!

  mag, chloe and i awoke early and made it to the train on time, with enough time left over for McDonalds breakfast  always wanted one of those in London but never could actually get up on time.

  upon arrival, it was a harried and stress-filled quest to locate the property office from which we were renting our apartment for a week to pick up the keys, and finding our apartment. Yes, they were located in different areas, and on opposite ends of Central Rome.

  from the Termini station (central bus/train station in Rome) we took the underground for 1 stop with all our luggage. Left chloe to guard the bags as mag and i tried to decipher the newly purchased map of Rome for the elusive office.

  Many (expensive) phone calls later, we found the office, checked in and got the keys and headed back to the underground station to go back to Termini station and meet Esme, who was flying in from London.

  Upon meeting up, we gathered our bags and boarded a public bus to our apartment. the guy at the office had said that it would be a 20 minute journey, and to stop at the first stop after the river. He did not, however, mention the notoriously unreliable Italian public transport system and that our bus would be packed like sardines.

  But we found our apartment eventually, after much detouring. It was tiny - with a bathroom, a common room with a double bed and a single fold up bed and small kitchenette. there were 4 of us in an apartment meant for 3. Ended up pushing both beds together to fit 4 of us.

  The bathroom wasn't very impressive - the drain clogged every so often despite our best attempts, and the hot water ran out after precisely 1 1/2 showers. Hence we had to time our showers accordingly - "Who's washing their hair today?" the luckiest would be the first to go in to shower, and the unluckiest would be the last two. the middle one would try and speed her way through showering and hope that by the time the hot water ran out, she'd have almost finished conditioning.

  Some showers, fresh change of clothes later, we headed out to see the sights of Rome. Oh, and lunch too - which was unimpressive. We didn't have a lonely planet guidebook for Rome. And without one of those, Rome can be a massive tourist trap. Our lunch was an example. Never would have thought that the land of pasta could serve such mediocre pasta.

  Anyway.

  We waited almost half an hour for a bus to take us to our first sight, the Colosseum. Upon giving up waiting in the unmerciful sun, we decided to walk instead, which led us to discover something about Central Rome: everything is within walking distance

  

  After walking a bit, we got to Piazza Venezia (piazza means 'square') and were met by a massive crowd of extremely unhappy looking people. What you see above are riot police.

  

  Esme's arm with the map on the left, and more unhappy people having a face-off with the police. These were taxi drivers, and they were on strike. Something about taxes and pay...they were the only ones who were unhappy and shouting. some riot police could be seen smiling, and the piazza being a touristy area, tourists were happily snapping pictures ("Oh look darling, a real Italian demonstration! Quick i want a picture with that policeman make sure you get his helmet and shield") That included us.

  

  The strike and demonstration ended up closing several roads, including the one we wanted to take to the Colosseum. But on the other end of the piazza, was this important looking building - the Monumento Nazionale, in all its (scaffolded) glory. Free entry, so we went in for a look around.

  I was dying of thirst at this point, but the refreshment trucks all around were fleecing tourists with their overpriced refreshments. i flatly refused to pay 5 euros for a bottle of Gatorade. Tourist traps.

  

  Tomb of an Unknown Soldier in the Monumento Nazionale

  

  Spectacular view from the top of the Monument. that's the Colosseum all the way to the right. It was when we saw a potential route there... 

  

  One of the rulers of Rome on impressive looking horse at the Monument. Climbing up the numerous steps of the Monument, we got to see behind the statue. Such detail was paid to this sculpture, I could tell that the horse was male. Ahem.

  

  left to right - Esme, Chloe and Mag on the steps of the Monument.

  

  One of Rome's many excavation areas with exposed ruins

  

  The long road to the Colosseum. There were grandstands being set up on either side of the road at the time of our holiday as the Rome Marathon was in a few days.

  

  The Colosseum

  

  Some arch at the side of the Colosseum, think its called Napoleon's Arch or something

  

  Esme and I were too lazy to queue to pay and enter the Colosseum, so we sat outside to take a break while mag and chloe went in. that's them in the distance, mag's the one with the bright pink bag.

  After the Colosseum, we were all ready to call it a day and headed back towards the apartment, stopping by a supermarket on the way back and grabbing some dinner (pizza).

  

  The next day: on our way to the Vatican City

  

  Us outside the Vatican City

   

  While I was busy taking the many pictures that make up this shot...

  

  ...They found it funny to take pictures of me.

   

  A Vatican Guard. The closest I ever got inside the Vatican, because my shorts exposed a bit of my knees, I wasn't allowed in (been inside before, so it was okay). So while the rest went in, i roamed around the area, stopping for some coffee and found a lovely internet cafe to while the time away.

  when the rest came out from the Basilica, they couldn't enter the Sistine Chapel as it was already closed. We proceeded to the Spanish Steps, where most of the shops are...

  

  Mag, with the Spanish Steps in the background.

  

  

  Some guys were on the rooftop of a nearby building, singing Beatles hits in Italian.

  

  After the Spanish Steps, it was on to the Trevi Fountain. Esme with part of the fountain in the background.

    

  A slightly distorted view of the Trevi Fountain. The story goes that if you throw a coin in facing away from the fountain, you will return to Rome. Worked for me the last time, so we each threw a coin in

  

  Next stop: the Pantheon.

  

  The pillars of the Pantheon were very thick.

  

  Really really thick.

  

  Don't ask me what she's doing.

   

  The piazza outside the Pantheon.

  By this time, mag had located a bookshop and acquired an all-important guidebook to Rome.

  Dinner, I'm happy to say, was better this time around - though still not what i expected of Italian food. We had the requisite cone of gelato after that. My Vahlrona chocolate gelato, mmmmmmmm....unfortunately no pictures, hehe.

   

  Random Rome view

  On the whole, the Rome trip was pretty laid back, woke at noon on some of the days and pretty much took our own sweet time. One of the days, though, we managed to make a day trip out to Tivoli, a nearby historical town. 'Nearby' entailed going to the nearest underground station (all the way back to the Colosseum) and riding to the last stop, taking a bus (again packed like sardines) and getting off at what we guessed to be the right stop, about half an hour's ride.

  There were 2 ancient villas that were recommended for visiting: the Villa d'Estes, and the Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa). as the Villa Adriana was 10 minutes bus ride out of Tivoli, we opted to just go for Villa d'Estes. It was previously built by a wealthy family who claimed to be descended directly from Hercules, before coming into the ownership of several governors and eventually a cardinal who restored the place, at least that's what i can remember of what i read.

  Besides, entry into the Villa d'Estes was free for that day

   

  the fountain that greeted us at the entrance

  

  The courtyard

  

  frescoed ceiling of a room in the Villa. pretty much all the rooms looked like this. They depicted scenes from famous myths and Roman Gods - and the odd Biblical story here and there.

  

  Lovely weather - from a pretty archway at the adjoining restaurant.

  

  The gardens of the Villa d'Estes

   

  View from the balcony of the Villa

  

  View from the back of the Villa

  

  some of the structures in the gardens of the Villa.

  

  the main fountain. if you look hard enough you can see small rainbows in the fountains.

  

  By the middle of the visit, some were enthralled by the great weather and fantastic view...

  

  ...others were hungry and thirsty and grumpy.

  

  so it was back up a steep slope to get to the exit of the Villa.

  

  Waiting for the bus back to the station.

  

  Tivoli was a rather nice little quaint town. Wait, is this a picture of Tivoli? Oh well...

  On reaching Rome, we were hungry (having skipped lunch) and started to stake out one of the restaurants recommended in the trusty guidebook. After painstakingly locating the street and lot number, we were dismayed to find that the address stated in the guidebook led us to a small dingy alley with shut doors. No such restaurant. Attempts to ask for directions from nearby astrology shopowner failed as well.

  After thumbing through the guidebook again, we eventually found another restaurant just a street away, and quite affordable too.

  

  Clinking our well-deserved glasses of sweet Italian sparkling Muscado wine.

  

  Ravenous monsters that we (or rather i) were, no holds barred in ordering food. A typical Italian menu consists of a starter, a pasta dish, and a mains, followed by dessert. We usually ordered a pasta dish, and sometimes a starter ("do you guys want to share a salad????") after several days of this (plus the fact that we walked so much during the day), i was quite tired of the feeling of not being full enough. the other girls ate far too little. So this time i ordered a bruschetta (grilled italian bread with topping) to share, a pasta dish, and a steak.

  

  The left is a bruschetta topped with cherry tomatoes, rocket and buffalo mozzarella. To the right is a salad.

  

  This restaurant specialised in bruschettas, and this was no different - bruschetta topped with porcini mushrooms, cheese and truffle cream. it was heavenly. After dinner it was gelato at another recommended gelato joint, as always

  On the last night that the four of us were together in Rome (Esme was to fly back to London the next day, Chloe to meet Adam to travel to another part of Italy, and Mag and I to meet 2 more friends to drive to Tuscany), we did not do much. Only for our last dinner....

  

   

  It was also Chloe's birthday, and we sprung it on her with a slice of cake from a nearby gelateria (didn't taste very good) and a Chupa Chups as a candle, in a small alley..

  

  "this so cannot compare to what i had last year..."

  After that dinner we headed for our usual gelato, hehe.

  It was back to the apartment and we slept pretty late at about 3am, only to be rudely awakened at 10.20am by a buzzer.

  Horror of horrors, when we moved in on the first day no one bothered to read an innocuous looking piece of paper stuck on the back of the front door. I read it with bleary eyes which slowly widened into panic: we were to vacate the premises on the last day by 11am, or we would be charged for an extra day. we were also to leave the flat as it was when we first came (no big deal, it wasn't that clean to begin with) and clear the rubbish bins, or it would entail a 60 euro charge.

  4 large suitcases with their contents strewn all over the single studio apartment (we were all girls, what to do..) and no one had showered/washed up/dressed yet.

  The buzzer sounder had been the cleaner, who unlocked our door and poked her head in, explaining that she needed to clean the premises as someone else would be moving in at 12pm.

  Never underestimate the power of being threatened with having to pay extra.

  By 10.50am, we were all standing outside the block of apartments fully dressed, with suitcases packed and locked, and waiting for a taxi that we'd called to take us to chloe's next accommodation. Not only that, the beds had been separated, bed sheets taken off and folded, and everything cleared out.

  Why is it that the first and last days of my stay in a new place always has to be so stressful?

  We cabbed it to chloe's new accommodation and waited for Adam to arrive (flying in from Notts).

  With all our luggage, Mag, Esme and i walked to the nearest underground station and went to Termini station again, where we deposited our luggage in storage lockers and bought coach tickets to the Roma Ciampino airport. Rushed back to Central Rome to make our booking for a restaurant, ate lunch and did some last minute shopping and coffee before rushing back to Termini to catch our coach to Ciampino Airport.

  Upon arrival, Esme flew back to London from Ciampino Airport (where the flight was delayed and she missed her connecting coach back home from Stansted Airport, heh) while Mag and I tried to find our way to the hostel where we were to spend the night before coming back to Ciampino Airport to meet 2 friends to drive up to Tuscany.

  We got horribly lost. it was initially thought that we were to take a bus straight to the hostel from the bus stop at the airport. Didn't help that the guy at the hostel whom i called didn't speak very much english and could only tell us to take a bus and get off at Ostello del Monaci, which is the bloody name of the hostel.

  It turned out that we were supposed to take a bus FROM the airport to the Ciampino railway station, where we had to take ANOTHER bus (about 20 minute ride) to the hostel.

  we missed our stop at the railway station, and sat in the bus for an unsettling 30 minutes or so for the driver to finish the route and turn back towards the airport, getting off at the railway station. It was already getting dark by that point, and we were not very sure of where we were to take the bus to our hostel.

  Ciampino town is also on the far outskirts of Rome.

  There were taxi drivers outside the railway station, but these were unmetered cabs and us being Asian, we would be cheated.

  I went to a nearby shop to ask for directions, leaving Mag with our bags. Shopkeeper didn't know what i was talking about, naturally (stupid guy at hostel had also given me wrong spelling/wrong pronunciation of the name of the place where we were supposed to be waiting for the bus). Came back out to find Mag talking to 2 Italian girls.

  Turns out that they spoke really good English and were just coming back from a day out in Rome. Also turns out that they lived just behind our hostel. And one of them had a car parked in the railway station parking lot, and offered us a lift there, since it was late and it was likely that there were not going to be any buses going to our hostel, which was in the middle of nowhere.

  I had never felt so grateful.

  Our hostel was isolated and quiet. Very quiet. Except for a troupe of nuns staying there too. only one man (same guy who fielded my phone calls) staffed the desk in the deserted lobby. Did i mention that he was creepy? the whole place was creepy. Our 4 bed hostel room (no one else, so we had the room to ourselves) looked like a hospital ward. There were no restaurants open in the vicinity too, for dinner. we bedded down for the night where i had a difficult time getting to sleep due to mosquitoes and the sheer eeriness of the place.

  

  somehow it doesn't look so scary during the day...

   

  Hostel front, missing several letters

  

  

  Outside the hostel, just proving how middle of nowhere it really was.  

  

  Not forgetting token abandoned airplane in the parking lot...

  We waited for the stupid bus to take us to the railway station for almost an hour (supposed to come every 20 minutes). When it arrived it was a tiny vehicle and we were crammed inside with other tourists and their luggage where the driver proceeded to drive recklessly to the railway station, all the while having a loud argument with a local who was berating him for being late.

  Thankfully we got to the railway station in one piece, waited at the right stop for the connecting bus to the airport.

  We made it on time, met with the guys, XW and Jon, collected our car and proceeded on the next leg of the adventure.

  Which will be Part 3.

  Long-assed entry.

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