Italy

Following our first week or two of adventures Mum and Dad went to Crete and had a ball while I got back to work...yaaaaaaaaaawn... and earned some more dosh to spend on the next trip - Rome.

I wont go on about Rome because I have done this at least twice and maybe more previously but this trip was totally different. We were mucked about by the B&B folk and I recind my recommendations of them now as the new folk are rubbish. However after a battle of wills we got the room we booked and the view etc and took a walking tour looking for diinner. This time around we found Largo Argentina (many times - one of those spots we kept stumbling across) and ate in a cool little pub that was showing the Americas cup (Dad was happy) and strolled about taking in the forum and colloseum and all those things nearby. Over the next three days, after much walking and a scam artist ((I've lost my wallet and cant buy petrol - if I give you a leather jacket will you give me money etc etc etc) and gelato and sun and bustle we got a ticket to one of the tour buses which was well worth it! Dad got to walk along the ring of circo massimo and mum got to the tiberine island and we all wandered up and 'admired' the hoardes of people at St Peters... More gelato (no surprise there)...we also found a fantastic little restaurant for dinner the second night and decided that was where we were going forever more but it was closed the next night...possibly a good reason to get us looking farther afield for our supper!
It rained then was beautifully hot and sunny... the crowds were astounding and the toutes are now all of a different ethinic background and MUCH more creepy than those that occupied the streets on my previous trips.
We had the most fantastic hail storm - just after we had returned to the B&B on teh second day it chucked it down with hail stones the size of golf balls. The streets cleared of everyone apart from the tout selling umbrellas (he did well the day before but I dont think he did so well with the hail). The scooter riders pulled up onto the sidewalks and hid under dooways and anywhere they could find and we all just watched the hail fall for a full half an hour. The place looked like it had been hit with a snow storm for a short time afterwards but the sun popped out and melted it all pretty quickly! It was mad weather!
On our final afternoon Mum and I found a FANTASTIC porceline shop I'd love to live near (but I'd be broke if I did) called Bianca something...Huge baskets of prceline that looked like woven wicker and teeny tiny little pestles and mortars and everything in between - heaven, absolute heaven.
Because it was near easter there were pilgrims everywhere and you couldn't go anywhere without seeing one of three things - nuns/priests/monks; a wall of mopeds at the front of every queue at the traffic lights; hoardes of police men and women at intersections guiding traffic to allow police/ambulance vehicles to get through the almost constant crush of traffic. What a fabulous place!

We tried to get lost and right when we thought we succeeded we walked around a corner and were at the Trevi Fountain so it proves all roads lead to Rome and you can't get lost if thats how it works can you?! I think my mum got a bit of a culture shock - the traffic certainly had her stumped but Dad had ladies blowing him kisses every time he stopped traffic to help mum get across so it can't all be bad can it?!

After Rome we took some time to go up north - aiming for John O'Groats. But you'll have to read the next blog for that info!!

In my 3 years from home I have made a fair dent into my list of places to see. The 'big four' places left (those ones left from the original list) seem to be languishing in the distant future at the moment because of work commitments and cash going on other things but they will be done. In the meantime I have been reminiscing over past travels with my friend Mark who is now on his OE and staying with us.

Combine that with reading Dan Browns Angels and Demons and you can just tell how itchy the old feet have gotten. I have definitely gotten a bit Rome-sick. Its such a beautiful city and you can gad about the central city on foot and walk from the Pantheon to St Peters Square in minutes passing the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Nouvona on the way.

If you fancy going bottom to top, you can walk from the coloseum right through the city via the Forum up to the Spanish Steps (nicer in Spring than summer)and right up the the walls of the Vatican city without feeling like you have taken on a major trek. This is always helped by frequent stops to buy Gelato and look at various souvenir shops.

One of the really lovely and unique things about Rome is the drinking fountains. The Senate declared that Rome would supply fresh drink water to all her citizens and so it is. If the fountain isn't good for dangling your tootsies in its good for filling your water bottle from so you always have a supply of cooling liquid at no extra cost. Which is important if you are going to walk all over the historical city on a hot day.

On my last trip to Rome, with Anton, we managed to cover the city several times over. Every time we walked back to our hotel which was situated behind the colosuem we directed ourselves past this fountain very near the Forum and stopped for 10 or 20 minutes to let our feet recover. Bliss is a cool fountain on a hot day!

For those people who are into the slightly different you can also travel south of the coloseum by the Metro and go to the Non-catholic cemetary which is fronted by a pyramid and is home to another population of Romes cats (much like the colloseo cats). Here you can visit Keats and Shelley in their final resting place or sculpture/american artist William Story and his amazing final sculpture which deorates his wifes grave. Its so peacefuland calm and oasis like that it is worth a stop if you are in Rome. Its like a little time out!

The Vatican city is also somewhere I think you could visit a dozen times over and not get bored! There is so much art and so many rooms to see! The Sistine Chapel alone could use up about 4 hours of your day. On both my previous visits to Rome I have seen Il Papa (John Paul II). To then walk through the city you really understand why the catholic faith has inspired so many millions of people. St Peters is also such a tremendous place you can only feel awe when you are there.

Something I noticed about Rome that I haven't really considered on any other trip to Italy is how massive the buildings are - their dimensions are just huge - but within an hour inside the city you stop noticing the enormity and your perspective adjusts or adapts so that you have to remind yourself how huge are the buildings you are in or looking at! The pantheon is a prime example. Its just so huge! It totally dominates the square it is sited in between residential buildings/restaurants. However, once you have taken it all in your eyes adjust and then this massive dome seems to be just the right size even though you may have never seen a one floor building of its magnatude before! When you get home and see a photo of yourself completely dwarfed by the Pantheons gargantuan proportions you think 'I don't remember it looking so huge'! And the whole city is like that!

Its a beautiful place. Of all the Italian cities I have seen Milan and Rome are my two favourites so far. Milan is small and has such sweet and small places to see that you can visit its major tourist highlights in one day but you could spend a lifetime shopping - from Gucci to the market square - but rome offers shopping and sights and experiences that far surpass any other place in Europe that I have been. It was the one city I never really wanted to see but Rome has totally captured me!

If you go make sure you stop and see the monastery of the cappucine monks. There are 5 chapels or alters in successive rooms that have each been entirely decorated with the bones of dead monks. Sounds creepy? Thats right! Apparently the monastery was originally outside the walls of Rome but at some point in more recent times (say - a few hundred years back) they were ordered inside the walls for their own protection. They refused to leave their brothers behind and so dug them all up and brought them with. And now you can, for a donation, visit the rooms and see how they have been decorated. I have tried to describe it to people but its not the easiest image to convey so go and see, leave them a hefty donation to help them keep on keeping on and marvel at the alters! This site comes highly recommended!

And while your in Rome, or if you stop in Italy at all make sure you spend your days eating Gelato! I have found love and love is... gelato! Simple as - this food is gods gift to man- and womankind. Life does not get any better once you have discovered gelato.

I can rave about it all day but I think you get the idea. Its better than regular tip-top or walls ice cream. It beats the pants off mr whippy and it sure as heck rates as highly as any of the other good stuff in life. You make a trip to italy totally worth it if you only go for the gelato!

Still Rome-sick. Roll on holidays!