Cosmos S. Italy and Sicily Part 3
Dec 12th, 1999, 09:21 AM
#1
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Cosmos S. Italy and Sicily Part 3
In Parts 1 and 2 I covered the Amalfi coast and Sicily. Next our tour continued to Rome. <BR> <BR>The weather was terrible when we left Naples, but the rain stopped shortly before we arrived in Rome. With no time to waste(tours never spend enough time in Rome), some of us headed off for the center. I wanted to see the Pantheon and was very impressed. I had thought it was just an empty shell, but it's beautiful inside! We walked around a nearly deserted Piazza Navona (1 of the 3 fountains is scaffolded). We also visited Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church. It's the one with the elephant and obelisk in front of it. The interior was amazing! I think it was my favorite church of the trip. Next we stopped for lunch at a little bar with just three tables. I had an excellent cappuccino and a tomato, lettuce and mozzarella sandwich on really fresh bread for 6500L. We were the only tourists there and the owners seemed so pleased that we stopped in. Then we did what everyone should do in Rome, just wandered around. There really is an unbelievable amount of scaffolding in central Rome, but there's so much else to see that it doesn't matter. Except Trevi fountain. It was disappointing to see it covered and drained. Oddly it was still one of the most crowded areas in Rome. Then we hopped on bus 160 for the quick ride back to our hotel. Most of the group was going out for the optional Rome by Night dinner which was very expensive I thought. I went with a couple of people to a pretty good restaurant near our hotel for pasta and salad (14000L). The service was good except it took a long time to get our bill. <BR> <BR>Today the Vatican. I decided not to take the optional tour since I find it tiring to be led around in a large group. I went with one other tour member instead. I had planned on taking the shuttle bus through the Vatican gardens to the museum, but a sign by St. Peter's said it has been suspended. We went into the cathedral and, honestly I'm sorry to say, I was a bit underwhelmed. Perhaps it was because there were so many barricades and little zamboni-like floor cleaners buzzing around. Many areas were off limits and I think something important was happening the next day and they were preparing for it. The Pieta was incredible though. <BR>We walked over to get in line for the museum. It's not a long walk at all. It was about 9:30am and we had to wait only 35 min. to get in. I had a very good little booklet called 60 min. in the Vatican museum (although we stayed a leisurely 3 1/2 hours). It's good to have some sort of a focus because there is an unbelievable amount to see. I also had photocopied part of Rick Steve's Mona Winks guide. We saw many familiar sculptures such as Father Nile and the Apollo Belvedere. A few I wanted to see were out being restored. Somehow, without noticing the candelabra gallery, we found ourselves in the tapestry gallery. Here it was very crowded. We continued into the gallery of the maps. There was quite a traffic jam going into the Raphael rooms. The School of Athens is largely under restoration though we were able to see some of it. Fire in the Borgo was brilliant and my photo of it (no flash) came out really well too. At this point we sat down for a break and to read about the Sistine chapel so we would be prepared. Then I put my camera away and we joined the throngs. Soon we heard the loudspeakers and then we were there! The Sistine Chapel was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. I didn't think it would be. After all, I'd seen so many pictures and postcards of it, I thought it would be too familiar. What I didn't know was that pictures don't capture the most amazing part, the 3-dimensional effect. I found this absolutely fascinating. Some of the figures looked like they might fall right off the ceiling! It took me a while to realize that the columns and arches up there are in fact painted on and not really sculpted. We stayed longer than we planned because it was so hard to stop looking at this remarkable work. The large crowds didn't bother me at all and I barely noticed them once we were in. The Sistine Chapel totally exceeded my expectations. <BR>It was nearly closing time, so we made our way out and back to St. Peter's square. I had all my postcards with me and went to buy Vatican stamps. Now, I would love to know how my postcards that I mailed at the Vatican on Saturday afternoon arrived in Canada on Tuesday morning. I mean, I heard the Vatican post was efficient, but WOW! Overseas in just one working day! <BR>We also wanted to see the Forum today. We boarded notorious bus 64 but it was 1/2 empty, a pretty tame ride. Before tackling the Forum, we needed a break. We stopped at a bar in Piazza Venezia and had cappuccino and a croissant for 3500L. I wasn't finding Rome very expensive at all. Revived somewhat, we entered the Forum (it's true, no admission fee for the lower part). It is very ruined and you have to use your imagination a lot, but I enjoyed it and couldn't imagine visiting Rome and not seeing the Roman Forum. We walked around the Colosseum. The park across the street with Nero's palace looked very inviting and I really wanted to have a look, but it was getting dark. Clearly I will need to visit Rome again soon. Before calling it a day, we walked to San Clemente with its extensive underground labyrinth and then San Giovanni in Laterano. I had heard the interior of this cathedral was covered a couple of months ago, but it's all open now. Beautiful sculptures of the Saints here. <BR>Now we had a bit of a problem. I only knew how to get to the hotel from Piazza Venezia. There was a lot of road construction where we were and it wasn't exactly clear where we should get the bus. The traffic was terrible as well. So, I told my friend, hold onto your bag, we're going to Termini! This was not my first choice after all the negative things I've read on the forum about Termini station, but we needed to meet our group at the hotel at 7pm and the metro seemed to be the fastest option. We caught the moderately crowded car to Termini and didn't have any problems other than one half-hearted pickpocket attempt (lady with a baby, but at least she didn't throw him at us!). We switched lines and rode a nearly empty car to our stop. It took us less than 15 min. to get to our station. It would've been perfect if I didn't lead us out the wrong exit onto via Ostiense instead of circonvallazione Ostiense! After walking about 10 min., things didn't look familiar so I asked an Italian man outside his flower shop for directions to our street in my very basic Italian. Three other men came over and they had quite a long, animated discussion in Italian about the best way for us to go. It was too funny! In the end we did receive the proper directions and arrived at our hotel with 2 min. to spare. About 1/2 of us went to the pizzeria next door for dinner that night. It was the best pizza I've ever had! Really thin crust and the freshest toppings. Much too soon, it was time to go and pack. <BR> <BR>A few more thoughts: <BR> <BR>ATM's - use them. It's so easy and convenient in a country where the banks always seemed to be closed. Like many others, I went home with all my travelers cheques uncashed. <BR> <BR>Italian - I got a language tape from the library before my trip. It's easy to learn the basic phrases and you won't feel like a dumb tourist when you have a question and no one speaks English. The Italian people I met were friendly and made me feel welcome. Those who didn't speak English wanted so much to understand my little bit of Italian and be helpful. It made me glad I made the effort. <BR> <BR>Guidebooks - Couldn't find the perfect one so I put together my own with notes and photocopies from several. The Touring Club of Italy's Rome and Sicily books have outstanding, highly detailed maps, far better than any others I saw. Good, free city maps were also available at our hotels. <BR> <BR>Cosmos - very good value and not really what I would consider budget travel. I would call it middle class travel, at least based on this one tour. There were several people in the group who had travelled with Cosmos previously. I would use them again as well. <BR> <BR>I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about my trip as I've enjoyed the other trip reports on this forum. Questions or comments welcome.
Dec 13th, 1999, 03:17 PM
#4
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Hi. I am so glad to have read your report. I am the person who won a trip to Italy. Most everyone has taken offense to my comments regarding the Sistine Chapel. You would have thought I'd stabbed the Pope. Did you rent one of those CD's someone mentioned to tour it?
Dec 15th, 1999, 09:06 AM
#5
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Hi Cherie, <BR> <BR>I read your original post. We do get some great sarcasm on this forum so I'm guessing they're not really that hostile. <BR> <BR>Rick Steve's guidebook is less dry than some of the others. I felt it gave me enough info to appreciate what I was seeing, but I've never tried any CD tours so can't comment on them. Though the Sistine Chapel was very crowded, many other areas of the museum were not. <BR> <BR>I'm sure you're going to find lots to like about Italy. It's such a varied country with many different things to see and do. Don't forget to post something when you return. I'll bet many people will be interested.
