Rome: The Words Blog
Mood:
chillin'
Topic: Roma 2006
(NOTE: please see Stephen's pictoral blog entry for more pictures)
FRIDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER 2006:
Our trip to Rome started on Friday the 8th at 10:15am when we departed from the Woking train station. We never left rail tracks until 9:45am Saturday morning. Our Woking train pulled into London Waterloo with ample time to spare for us to go downstairs to the Eurostar station. Stephen took the extra time to have a mini "freak-out" and pulled me over to one side to ask if I could carry his swiss army knife key-chain in my purse. Because of security. I tried to remind him that on a train, no luggage is checked in, and therefore, it doesn't matter whether or not an object is in your pocket, purse or suitcase. But I obliged nevertheless. The French customs were pretty lax, and it was a breeze to get on that train to Paris. I enjoyed watching London and then the Kentish countryside roll out of view as with hit the darkness of the chunnel for 20 min. Once through, immeidately a sense of space was evident.
Generally though, the countryside looked similar to some of the English countryside. Exceptions were the style of houses and churchs that made up the country villages.
And blink, in no time at all we pull into Gare du Nord and strolled into the very efficient and clean Metro. (ahem: London why can't you renovate the tubes eh? Be a little more like Paris?) The train to Rome was leave Gare Bearcy (in the 12th arrondisement). So we had a couple of hours to wander around the area, where we found a lovely park to walk through mazes, rose gardens, sculptures, etc...here's a building covered in grass:
We should have stayed longer in the park, or have enjoyed a pavement cafe or brasserie, but we didn't realize that travelling in the continental EU, you can jump on your train 5 min. before it departs. In fact, they don't let you board but 10 min. before it departs anyway. No check in, nothing! Lovely.
I can remember the feeling of bewilderment as we found our couchette. Just as you imagine from films: behind a sliding door, there are 2 benches where 3 people sit facing 3 other people. The top half of the bench flips down into one bed, while the bottome half serves as a second. And above this, a bed hangs down for the other people. Very close quarters, and with some people having large suitcases, it's an extremely tight squeeze. We shared our cabin with 3 Italian woman: 1 teenager, 1 mother, 1 grandmother. They were very chatty and then went to bed early. The other was a french 20 something who knew the ropes. A bit awkward at first though. We went to the dining car to kill some time and realized that for 50 euros we could eat tomato & basil spagetti at shakey tables. No thanks. So we got the only vegetarian option at the snack bar: 2 huge salads (& a bottle of red wine). It was fun to try eating standing up on a shakey train, listening to Americans talking way to much and too loudly, and then burping.
But no matter how much you want it to, salad doesn't really make you feel full. But breakfast in Rome we thought!
SATURDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER 2006
We both had slept on an off through the night. And at some point in the wee hours of the morning the 3 ladies had left the train (for Florence?). So Stephen & I let the French man sleep while we admired the Tuscan countryside from the window outside our cabin. I remember feeling how much better it was than flying. Then the countryside turned into suburbs, and then into urban Rome. Lovely buildings crammed together with not so lovely buildings, ancient walls etc...
And we rolled into Statizone Termini on time, with an hour and a half to find our hotel before meeting Jenn (my brother Mark's wife who's in Rome for research). But on our way there, we bumped into her on a street corner. Yay! Let the games begin. But first I desperately needed an Italian coffee and something to eat! We had no trouble finding such a place and enjoyed the reviving qualities of the strong coffee.
We checked into our hotel, freshend up, and then started our journey through Rome at the top of the Spanish Steps. We decided we would find the Trevi Fountain, which we did after getting turned around a bit) the Pantheon, the Forum, the Colloseum and then see how much time we had. So we did just that grabbing pay by the pound pizzas, gellatos and bottles of water along the way. I must say the weather was perfect. Hot, but not too hot, and sunny with true blue skies.
I found the city to be full of tourists, but it hasn't seemed to have chased Romans from living in the historical areas. So it had an authentic feeling of continued life--not just a historical tourist area--from ancient times to present.
It's hard to put into words the scale and range of architecture that we saw. Mostly because I not so very little about architecture that I couldn't really apreciate it fully. Nevertheless, for me, the ignorant, it was still impressive and inspiring. I must get a book on the Romans and try to understand how they were so innovative, confident and successful in just about everything.
After walking and walking and seeing all of the above, we decided it was time to chill out and eat and drink. So we went across the Tiber river to Trastevere. There was a very bohemian section, packed with restaurants and bars. We had some aperatifs, and then walked around in circles for a good 30 min. trying to decide on a restaurant. Typically, we chose one of the worst restaurants any of us had ever been to. For starters, the food was bland, which was criminal. How despressing to be in Rome eating bland food! They had a small selection of vegetarian dishes, 2 of which were unavailable. The gnocci that Stephen received turned out to be laced with beef, and therefore inedible. How do you complain in Italian? To a staff who look like they are about to loose it? So we didn't complain to the staff, but to each other. Not making for a lovely meal... They forgot to bring Jenn's wine, and then to top it all off they espresso was burnt.
We left no tip. Stephen went to a pizza stall and had a better dinner there.
We headed back over the river to explore the festival Notte Bianca where cultureal events would be happening all night. We never heard or saw any music or performances. We followed the crowds down Via Corsa, stopping at a side street to look at tourist kitch like fridge magnents and posters. One stall was selling a poster of Mussolini, in a hitler salut. Hey? What's that about?
We found ourselves back at Trevi Fountain somehow where not very far away we parked ourselves down with beer for a few hours and had a delightful time crowd watching from our outdoor tables. Some people at the restaurant next door started playing some lively music with a small accordian, tambourine and a man playing two plates like they were spoons. It was lovely.
After leaving this place we wanted to continue basking in the festivities, but I believe out of exhaustion (it was 1am) communication started breaking down, and we just headed back to our hotels.
SUNDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 2006
Today was Vatican day. Good choice for a Sunday morning. Of course we were all a bit zonky and tired after Saturdays escapades. We walked over to Vatican City and stood in line to go up to the cupola. This involved walking over 500 stairs to the top of the dome of St. Peter's basilica. If you look at Stephen's picture blog you can see the view we had of the inside of the church during Sunday mass. We also got to walk around the outside of the cupola where we got some breathtaking views of Rome.
Now, comments on the Vatican. This was not a holy place. This was a shrine. A shrine to befit kings, emperors and I supposes even popes. But a shrine to Jesus? Yes, I believe it's said somewhere in the Bible that instead of taking care of the poor, please can you hire the best artists to make beautiful status and paintings of me. Make imagaes and idols he said. Use as much gold leaf and marble, nothing else will do!
The place is almost gaudy with its exhibition of wealth and prestige. I couldn't bring myself to care really.
So we left and had pizza on a fabulous side street next to an old city wall.
Just like in Rome, it is at this point I/we run/ran out of steam. After our very nice lunch, we headed towards the train station, had some beers, and left Jenn at an internet cafe. We killed some time. Walked into a fabulous church that I can not remember the name of. We did some shopping at the train station. I sprayed myself with perfume to hide the sweaty stench, as we would be packed into another 6 person cabin shortly.
And we boarded the train, just as casually as in Paris. We were the only ones in our cabin at first, but a couple hours away we were joined by 4 Italian teenagers on their first trip to Paris. They were pretty cute.
And to wrap up quickly: we had to have salad again for dinner on the train, we slept well that night, and very quickly found ourselves in Paris. We did the Metro in reverse, found ourselves at Gare du Nord, we bought papers and bagette sandwiches and boareded the Eurostar. 2.5 hours later we were in Waterloo where we boarded a train to Woking within 10 min. and then found ourselves at home.
Lets here it for fun, environmentally clean, and friendly trains!
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