The last day in Rome

On our last day in Rome we went to see St Peter's Basilica. We had heard a lot of horror stories about queueing for hours (and had seen thousands of people there Wednesday when we went to the Vatican museum) so we went pretty early in the morning. To our extreme surprise we just walked straight in as the place was almost deserted!

It is indeed an amazing building and it is very much a working church. What can I say - it is Roman Catholic, iconic, immense and overwhelming. We went up to the top of the Basilica to see the dome better and to walk around the top of the building. The photo below is a black and white rework of the top of St Peter's.

In the evening, after a pleasant meal at one of about two thousand restaurants within a kilometre of our apartment (!), we attended a free concert in a cathedral nearby. We had seen the notice for it two or three days prior and thought it might be worthwhile. It turned out to be part of the International Festival of Sacred Music and featured a sixty voice German male choir! The organist started with a Bach cantata and then the choir sang. It was a real highlight and I wished my father could have been there with us as he would have been absolutely thrilled.

The next morning we got a taxi to the central station and took the train via Florence to Lucca, where we lugged our cases for about a kilometre and a half to our guesthouse. We were very glad to get there.

La Bella Roma 2

Well, it's Friday and tomorrow we pack up and take the train to Lucca for a week in the Tuscan sun. This post is just to include a few photos of our Roman tour.

Our apartment was just two minutes walk from the Pantheon which is a truly amazing building.

No visit to Rome could be complete without the visit to the Vatican and the Vatican Musuem. The work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel was magnificent, but unfortunately no photos can be taken (although quite a few tourists were surreptitiously taking them). Below are two of the ceilings of the Vatican Museum and one of St Peter's Square.

The spiral staircase at the end of the Vatican Museum and Judith in the Map Room.

The Colosseum - which was more noted for its blood-thirsty killing of criminals, Christians (anyone really) and wild animals as a spectacle rather than the hollywood version Rusty style.

The Trevi fountain.

The Castel de San Angelo on the river Tiber.

La bella Roma

Our week in Rome is going fast and although I can report that we have hit all of the tourist high lights there seems to be much more to see. Around every corner seems to be another church with glorious paintings or another picturesque piazza. We are very lucky in that we have been able to walk everywhere so good to know that all of those hours in Melbourne on the Internet researching apartments paid off. On Sunday we, and it appeared the rest of Rome, went to the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. Monday we got up early and were amongst the first tourists at the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. I heard one Aussie tourist say she could just imagine Russell Crowe there. Her imagination is obviously much better than mine!

Tuesday was yet another fine and sunny day with blue skies and we just walked - across to the Tiber and then to the Piazza del Popolo. Also made it to the Campo Del Fiori fruit and veg market where I bought and immediately ate some figs.

Wednesday was another early start and although we got into the Vatican Museum quite quickly we were far from the first tourists there. It was not a good day to chose (depending on your religious affiliation) because the Pope appeared in St Peters Square. The antiquities and art work in the Vatican is almost obscene (especially when one considers the number of poor and
starving Catholics [and non Catholics] in the world).

Some observations and questions about Rome:
Why are bananas grown in South America cheaper here than bananas grown in Australia are in a Melbourne supermarket?
How do those stylish Italian women (that is most of them) manage to walk on the cobblestones in high heeled shoes? Do they learn it as toddlers?
I have been surprised by the number of beggars, especially young disabled men with untreated talipes (foot deformity). It would be unusual to see this now in Australia.
Milton will post some photos of Rome soon.

Naples to Rome

We finally finished up in Naples, having seen the ruins of Pompeii, the Certosa di San Martino (a monstery more like a palace) and St Elmo's Castle which is on a hilltop with impressive panoramic views of Naples. Pompeii is incredible in and of itself, but it is fascinating to see such an old civilisation that was so advanced.

Our stay in Naples was characterised by a small hotel room with no airconditioning (coupled with three days of oppressive heat and humidity), one wheel on Judith's case breaking (under warranty in Australia, not in Italy), Judith's visa card being cancelled while trying to extend credit on Skype in Italian (coupled with the hotel phone not working and a rather confusing public telephone system), and being situated in a rather "seedy" part of town.

Below are photos of the monastery and the castle Elmo overlooking Naples.

We left Naples by train on Saturday, but the train was delayed 35 minutes because someone had not labelled the carriages properly and there were two carriage "eight"s and no carriage "nine"! To say that the resulting confusion was chaos is to not use the English language accurately, to say the least, as there were approximately sixty Italians loudly arguing and gesticulating and Judith and I trying to make sense of the situation and find our seat. It was with much relief that we finally found our seat and sat down - particularly after carrying Judith's case because of the *$!%&!*! broken wheel.

We finally got to Rome 35 minutes late and got a taxi to our apartment. The apartment is no more than two minutes from the Pantheon, is nice and roomy with a kitchen and bathroom and is in a fantastic part of town as we can walk to almost all of the significant sites. The only drawback is that the bed is very hard and is situated on a mezzanine arrangement which is so low that you cannot stand up. But best of all, it has air-conditioning.

We are looking forward to a comfortable, relaxing and interesting week in Rome.

From Venice to Naples

As referred to earlier by Judith, we had a picture-book trip through and over the alps from Munich to Venice. Although it was quite a long trip it was an enjoyable one and Judith used some of the time to brush up on her Italian.


We spent three days in Venice which was too short and we are now spending four days in Naples which is probably too long! However, Venice is beautiful but over-run by tourists (including us). There are cafes, bars and shops selling Murano glass every three metres and the tacky tourist mill is a sharp contrast to the magnificence of the buildings such as the Doges Palace and the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari and the great art contained within.

On Tuesday we travelled by train through Tuscany, Florence and Rome to get to Naples. It was almost like travelling through two different countries. And this difference is even more dramatically contrasted in the two cities of Venice and Naples.

We are finding Naples very hot and extremely humid. We need to go back to our hotel each day to shower and cool down. Unfortunately our hotel does not have air conditioning but with the help of an open window and wall- mounted fan we are managing to sleep OK.

Art in Berlin to picturebook Bavaria

We are now in Naples, having taken the train from Venice via Roma. Unfortunately the train was delayed for two hours which meant we had a long day's journey into night. I thought I'd do a little catch up as we haven't had a great deal of access to the internet over the last three or four days (8 euro per hour in one internet point in Venice!)

As mentioned earlier, we visited the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, which is housed in an old railway station. The setting was sensational and the artwork ranged from brilliant and visually exciting to very edgy and confronting (a table full of about forty plastic boxes containing rotting matter). Judith was not engaged but Anthea, Andrew and I were. I particularly liked the thousands of roughly hewn slate from the Himalayas (above).

On the morning of the day we were leaving Berlin, we lined up to see the Reichstag along with many others, but found that we were unable to wait long enough as we had to check out of our hotel room by 12.00. We left the queue and then stumbled onto the Holocaust memorial which we'd heard about but had not seen. It was very moving and sensitively done - no mean achievement. It consists of the myriad concrete blocks seen here, with the displays and informative element housed underneath.


After Berlin, Judith and I flew to Munich and stayed with a lovely family Judith had contacted through the internet. Our hosts were extremely hospitable and took us for a drive into the Bavarian countryside where we visited an old castle built by "Mad Prince Ludwig" who only lived there a short time and was reknowned for building four or five castles. This castle was on an island and was modelled after Versailles. Eventually he drowned under mysterious circumstances. We then drove into the hills and had afternoon tea overlooking the lake and island (below). The whole trip was picturebook Bavaria.


The following day we visited munich itself and just had a pleasant day ambling around the streets. Our hosts showed us genuine friendly Bavarian hospitality and our stay was a real highlight of our current trip.

Venice

This is our first full day in Venice and this will be a very short post as Internet access like everything else in Venice is very expensive.

We came by train from Munich yesterday through storybook scenery in Bavaria and Austria into the Italian Tyrol.

Today we went to see the Doges Palace at the Piazza San Marco (with the thousands of other tourists). We are limiting ourselves to one museum/ gallery a day as we are finding that there is a limit to how much one can effectively take in. Venice has a fading grandeur that is really beautiful, but it is impossible to see anything without many other people sharing the experience.

We have another full day here tomorrow and then off to Naples.