There's no place like Rome

The weather gods really looked over me when I was in Rome and my last day there was as beautiful as the first. There were no clouds in the sky as Davide and I headed off on his scooter for my last Italian breakfast at his local bar.

I think everyday should start like this

YUM!

This shot is for dad :)

Davide was starting work at 2pm and I had a Vatican City tour booked for one so we had a few hours to zip round and see as much as we could. Our first stop was the Piazza del Popolo (People's Square) and we went into the San Maria del Popolo church (one of Davide's favourite churches) and it was worth a visit. There were so many different types of marble and such exquisite frescoes and sculptures. I tried to take pictures but they didn't catch the true beauty of this place.

Outside San Mario del Popolo

Different coloured marble

Painted dome

Sculptures

Another impressive thing about the square was how everything had been designed to be symmetrical so there were two identical churches at the opposite end. These were built in the 1600s and it is just mind blowing to think how they got it so spot on. Check this out;

Pretty symmetrical to me

On our way to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain we walked down Via dei Condotti, the most expensive street in Roma. We stopped and looked in the windows of a few and it's just crazy to think about the amount of money some people must have.

Oh yea!

I really wanted to get a special souvenir from Rome so when I saw a watch in the window of Furla for a reasonable price I just had to get it! In that moment I felt like a real high roller.

Proud owner of an Italian watch :) :) :)

 I also saw a real Ferrari!

Oh yea!

I threw my coin in the Trevi Fountain to increase my chances of coming back to Rome and this was one of the times I felt like a real tourist because it was absolutely packed there.

Throwing coin into the fountain (it was quite hard to co-ordinate properly)

Davide then took me to a lookout from where we could get some good views of the Roman Forum since I had missed out on the tour on Monday. I can't think of the name of the place but it was a great spot. We had to climb a lot of steps to get up there but as we were walking there we walked past the famous bronze statue of Marc Anthony on his horse and I got to see the bronze wolf with the suckling Romulus and Remus. This was a lot smaller than I had thought it would be.

Marc Anthony with a pigeon on his head

Little wolf

Great view

My fantastic guide Davide :)

It was getting close to 1pm so Davide dropped me near to the Vatican City so I could get ready for my tour. I don't think anything can really prepare you for the Vatican City though. I learnt so much about the Popes and Rome, it was a fantastic history lesson and our guide, Lara, was an archaeologist and historian so really knew her stuff. I learnt that the reason for the existence of the Vatican City was due to the Pope's not been keen for unification of Italy (it meant they lost all their governing power) hence keeping the Vatican City a separate state. This was interesting; the Pope's day is 11th February every year and the Pope resigned on this very date this year! Coincidence? I think not! For the last 500 years they have lived in here and the whole space is no more than 44 hectares. The walls outside belong to Rome and Italy and have been surrounding it since the 1500s. There was just so much information to take in. This was one of the most mind blowing for me; 700,000 pieces of art are on display in the museums but over 400,000 are in the vaults underneath in collection of Vatican museums. It is just phenomenal the amount of stuff they have there. I snapped so many pictures and was quite overwhelmed by it all really. It was great too because it wasn't too busy and we actually had time to stop and look at things for quite a while. Apparently in peak season the Vatican gets 30,000 visitors a day and it is impossible to move around in there. It's hard to say what my favourite thing in there was but a definite high light were the marble sculptures and busts, the tapestries and Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

Athena with inlaid glass eyes

I've always wanted to see this!

Huge original bronze sculpture of Hercules, perspective shot below

Tapestry

Guess who?

Impressive ceiling

Map from hall of maps (this is before satellite images int the 1600s)

Look at the depth!

Amazing!

Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures inside the Sistine Chapel but it is definitely something worth seeing. As I was sitting in there I was thinking about the rituals that take place there and how in a few weeks it will be in that very place where the votes will be placed to elect the new pope. It's all very scandalous in Italy at the moment and there is a lot of chat about why he resigned etc... I guess that's the million dollar question at the moment. My timing couldn't have been more perfect really because soon it's going to be crazy there.

Saint Peter's Basilica was another great part of the tour. Now this a HUGE building. Huge and beautiful. It's the biggest Catholic Basilica in the world and it's quite hard to get a perspective on how big it actually is and even when you are inside it it is hard to take in it's size.

Outside entrance to St. Peters

The dome is 127 meters tall!

Looking out the the square

Really quickly I want to mention another great thing about Roma; there are over 4,000 water fountains throughout the city that were placed there in the ancient times and have been one thing that have always been maintained because they value fresh water so highly. Talk about clever!

A larger fountain called 'The Ugly Boat' and this is at the bottom of the Spanish Steps

My last day ended with a dinner that Davide organised at a friend's brother's restaurant. Great food, great people and a lot of good laughs. It was another great experience and a memory I will cherish forever. The starter was a mixed platter and the salmon was just divine, I think it had been marinated in apple juice. For my main I had the crispy bacon and asparagus fettuccine (recommended by Davide and Danielle) and I struggled to finish it but did in the end and was applauded from the others for doing so. This wasn't because I didn't like it, I LOVED IT, but because I was so full already. Italians eat a lot! Everyone knows you have an extra stomach for dessert so I had no trouble polishing of a caramel and pistachio tart. I also tried limoncello and it burned! I highly recommend the restaurant to anyone visiting Roma. It's called Jetlag 64 :)

Starter

Thumbs up for the good food

Main. YUM!

  

Dessert

Zara and Danielle

A pic for Murray and Jane

Restaurant owners. Jetlay 64 rocks!

The dinner crew

Sadly my time in Roma had come to an end but I don't think I could have had a better time if I tried. Roma has been on my list of places to visit for as long as I can remember and it was everything I wanted it to be and more.

Thank you Davide for showing me around and taking me to so many wonderful parts of Roma, without you I doubt I'd seen half as much.

So now it's back to school for me and time to get my thinking cap on for my next destination.

Paris maybe?

X


  

Hey Hey Pompeii!

Oh dear am I back on that dreaded Aeroflot flight?! That is what was running through my head as my bus took off from Rome to Pompeii. Why did I think this I hear you asking yourselves, quite simple really, everything the tour guide said she said in both English AND Russian. I can assure you now though that this trip was a million times better than my Aeroflot flight, a million and one times better!!!

It was a slow start leaving Roma because there was a car crash on the motorway but we made it to the 'Highway of the Sun' eventually. This is the road that connects the North and South of Italy. They say that you always see the Sun on that highway and I like the Sun so I liked that highway :)

As we drove through the countryside the guide was very informative (in both English AND Russian) and continually gave us snippets of interesting facts. One thing she told us was about the supposed origin of the margherita pizza. Pizza originated in the region of Campania (Naples and Pompeii are both in Campania and Rome is in Lazio) and as the story goes the first margherita pizza was a gift to Queen Margherita of Savoy shortly after Italy was unified and was meant to be the symbol of Italy as it was the colours of the flag; red - the tomatoes, green - the basil leaves and white - the mozzarella. YUM! This story made me salivate.

As Mount Vesuvius came into view this song blasted through the stereo. Play it, listen to it and imagine the scene. I couldn't help but giggle. I couldn't quite understand the lady when she said the importance of it but I thought it was pretty cool none the less.

From what I saw of Naples I was happy that I didn't have to spend much time there. It was very dirty with a lot of high rise apartment buildings with clothes hanging out on the balconies. It's what I expected it to be like. We stopped at the Bay of Naples where we could take photos of Vesuvius. It was a nice view. Naples has a population of about 1.5 million and it was clear that all the money was in this area. It was very different from what we originally drove through. It was there that Franco jumped on the bus, an old Italian guy, and he was with us the rest of the trip and was our guide around Pompeii.

Mount Vesuvius

Bay of Naples

You might be able to see the snow on top of Mount Vesuvius? This is very rare because traditionally the weather in this region is supposed to be very mild. It now has two peaks and originally only had one peak but when it blew in 79AD the top blew off and made another. Seven cities were destroyed when it erupted in 79AD and the two most important being Herculaneum and Pompeii. Herculaneum was covered in lava and mud whereas Pompeii was covered in ash. Did you know that Vesuvius once stood at 6,000ft but now has shrunk to only 2,000ft? Fascinating stuff.

Before we set off exploring Pompeii we stopped as a group at lunch at a little restaurant and got to have a look around Pompei, the new city built around ancient Pompeii.

On the streets on Pompei

As we walked through the gates into ancient Pompeii I felt like I was going back in time. In my mind I knew that it was well preserved but WOAH it was soooooooooooooo cool. I particularly liked walking around the the house complexes because a few of them I've had to write essays on. This place was a Classics geek's heaven and man I am one hell of a Classics geek! There were many sighs and goofy smiles by me and I don't think I managed to get a word out the whole tour because I was just trying to take everything in. In March the British Museum will start a  big Herculaneum and Pompeii exhibition and I'll definitely be popping along to that!

First glimpses of Pompeii

Mint column

Some OLD wall paintings

Street view

House of the Faun

Yay! I'm in Pompeii!

It was a HUGE day because I left Roma at 7.30am and didn't arrive back in until after 8pm. I managed to get the metro and bus home again and it was on this bus trip that something quite magical happened. When I got on the bus I realised I was the only one on it and as I got on the bus driver gave me the warmest smile ever. When he started the bus 'Beat It' by MJ started blasting through the speakers. My day was fantastic but hearing this song made it even better. For some unknown reason the bus stopped mid journey and after some communication with the driver (we hardly understood each other) it was decided I should stay on the bus and wait for it to start again. This is where it got interesting. While he was waiting for people to get on he started to make something out of a serviette. I figured it was for me because he kept smiling at me and motioning me to look at him. This is what he made me;

A kind gesture

Oh would you look at that!

He could tell I was genuinely impressed by this and I think saw it as his moment to shine because he then proceeded to show me various images on his cell phone of things he had made. Things like cars and planes and helicopters. I couldn't believe what was happening. He then took out some scrap paper and started making me something else. I was intrigued but couldn't let him have all the fun so asked if I could also have a piece of paper. He willingly passed some over and there we were folding away while the bus was filling up with passengers. He made me this;

Cute!

And I made him a little rosette that he was so thrilled with he pinned it onto his shirt.

Two happy origami lovers

I then made him some little things that I gave him when I got off the bus. He was thrilled. It was an unexpected journey alright and who'd have ever thought my love of origami and Rome would come together so perfectly hehe only in Rome ha?

Parting gift

As you can imagine what with all the origami and all the bus trip took quite a while so I didn't actually make it home until well after 9. Davide offered to make me some carbonara and I could hardly refuse such a fine offer. It was the perfect way to end a fabulous day. I even got some tips for when I try to recreate it at home. Mmmmmmmmm. Delizioso!!!

Master chef Davide

Mmmmm carbonara!

Red wine from Sicily - a must have!