For the last Bank
holiday in 2010, we headed to Rome, to make the most of summer. We arrived on
the Friday, to a warm climate of 28 degrees, and after a huge hours wait for
our bags to be collected (not very good when flying from a EU country!), we
caught a train to our hotel, in Bologna.
It was a mad dash to get back to Colosseo; to meet up with our pre
booked guided walking tour. We
spent the rest of the afternoon with the guided walking tour through the
Colosseum, which was absolutely massive and so impressive (we cannot get over
the fact they managed to build it in 8 years, whereas last year the council
attempted to clean it, with cleaning only 12 of the arches taking one whole
year!). We were also guided up Palatine Hill through the ruins of a private
palace, and then ending at the Roman ruins. We learnt our first Italian saying
on this tour “andiamo” which means ‘let’s go!’, which we used quite a bit
during our stay! It was a three hour tour, in the heat of the day, so obviously
we treated ourselves to our first gelato afterwards. It didn’t disappoint!
We returned to
Bologna, and found a nice restaurant near our hotel, where we enjoyed pizza and
another massive bowl of gelato. Yummy food!
We decided to have an
early night, in preparation for a big Saturday touristing around Rome.
Saturday morning we
headed straight to the Spanish Steps, with the most interesting aspect being
watching the touters, who would walk up to any female, try to give you a rose,
and once the female had taken the rose they would hound their partner for
money. So many people were caught up with these dodgy touters, with some people
even handing over 10 euro notes!
For the record, we were approached twice, and left with zero roses!
We then walked to the
Trevi Fountain, which was such a grand fountain, with fantastic sculptures. I
threw a coin over my shoulder, as they say it will ensure you return to Rome.
We then walked into
the Pantheon, which is 2000 years old, and despite all the scaffolding on the
outside, the inside impressed with a dome ceiling and beautiful paintings on
all the walls. Following this, we walked to Piazza Navona, which was a large
square filled with restaurants and gelato stands…this time we tried coconut and
melon flavoured!
We then walked onto
Vatican City, past Castle Sant, Angelo, and after admiring Saint Peter’s
Square, we walked around the walls of the Vatican and entered the Vatican
Museum. Highlights of this
included the Sistine Chapel, and many rooms filled with floor to ceiling
paintings or beautiful sculptures, but it was impossible to take it all in, as
it was so massive!
We then entered St
Peter’s Basilica, which was jaw dropping-it was so huge and so impressive! What is there to say about St Peter -it
truly lives up to its reputation of being the largest, extravagant, and most
impressive church in the world. We enjoyed a great view over Rome from the top,
after climbing the 550 steps to the top! (Quite an achievement in the 30-degree
heat!).
We then walked through
the area, Trastevere, which had beautifully narrow paved roads, with lovely
quant houses and restaurants and was less touristy! It was very romantic
actually!
We walked back to the
Colosseum, and took some lovely photos as the sun set, afterwards enjoying a
dinner of pasta overlooking the great site. A huge day of 12 hours on our feet today.
We had an early start
on Sunday, meeting up with our tour group, to bus down to Pompeii, via Mount
Vesuvius. There happened to be two Kiwi couples along with us, so we enjoyed
chatting on the bus about NZ news and their travel plans. We stopped initially at Mt Vesuvius,
after driving past Napoli and some pimped out Italian men, who could pass as
Mafia I am sure!
We bussed up most of
Mt Vesuvius, and enjoyed looking at the old lava flows down the hillside from
the 1944 eruption, where the land remained black and dead of plant life.
From here, James and I
took off up Mt Vesuvius, and after 15 minutes of uphill climbing, we reached
the summit, to overlook a massive crater, with a small area of sulphur steaming
out one part. I have to say, I was rather disappointed and was expecting more
sulphur and drama! Nevertheless, there were great views over Napoli, and along
the coast.
We then enjoyed the
BEST pizza of the whole trip, at a local restaurant in Pompeii, with a nice
glass of red.
After lunch we
completed a two hour tour through the ruins of Pompeii, which were destroyed
following the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. The village was completely buried in ash and most people had
died of asphyxiation we were told.
The village itself was so advanced, including using pipes to run water
(not so wise that they were made of lead), and the road being lower than the
houses, so the road drained away any sewerage. They had these large stepping-stones
across the roads, so pedestrians didn’t have to walk through the drainage area
(wise). The whole place was
massive, and if we weren’t with a tour guide, we definitely would have got
lost! Two rooms, including the sauna in the gym area and one house were well
preserved with paintings on the walls.
And there were plaster cast moulds of people and animals found at the
site following the eruption, which was very airy.
We arrived back late
into Rome and wandered into a fantastic family run restaurant, or trattoria,
where the waiter only spoke Italian. The whole menu was in Italian, so James
and I knew we had found a local gem.if only we could work out what to order! We
both chose pasta, with my dish of Ravioli being the winner (I had never had
fresh ravioli before and we can definitely recommend it!). Oh and the bruschetta was delicious too.
After a sleep in on
Monday, we checked out of our hotel, and headed straight for a local market, to
taste a few local treats. I chose some olives, which happened to be in chilli
oil, so really not the best start to breakfast! However, we also managed to
pick up some spices here and later on found a bakery filled with not so tasty
treats (my chocolate biscotti tasted like Christmas cake!).
After more gelato, and
strolling the streets, we collected our bags from the hotel and headed back to
the airport, very satisfied with our first Italian experience.
