Travel

Rome Day 4

jessb — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:00:00 GMT

I can tell that we're winding down a little more cause today was a nice light day, but we still did plenty of walking. We started off by going to a church called San Giovanni in Laterano. This is the church dedicated to John the Baptist. It was cool cause they also had statues of all of the disciples up and down the main hall.

Afterwards, we went over to the Scala Santa across the street. These are the Holy Steps that Jesus took to Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem and that got wet with his blood. They've been moved several times, and ended up in Italy around the 1500s. Today, we saw several "pilgrims" going up these stairs by their knees, one step at a time. There are prayers associated with the steps as well. We went up the other steps and saw several other mosaics and paintings. The whole thing was unreal...

After that, we ended up on the Via del Corso again and did a little more shopping. (I got myself a pretty Italian leather purse.) We went to La Rinascente, which is a big department store. Then we headed down to Capitoline Hill. We were going to go into the museum, but lost motivation, so we went to the Cafe there instead. This was up at the top of the hill, so we got to have our coffee with amazing views of the city.

The other place on our list of things to do was the Mouth of Truth, so we walked past the Teatro di Marcello and the Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus) to the church dedicated to Saint Mary, which also houses the Boca della Verita. Then we waited with a bunch of other shoving people that wanted to stick their hands in the mouth and take a pic. It was interesting to see, but nothing spectacular.

Other than that, we're just going to head to dinner tonight and hang out. It's been an expensive week, so I'm not sure what else we're planning on doing. I think tomorrow we'll just hit up some walking sights near the hotel before heading out to Ciampino for the flight back to Paris. Hopefully, we'll get the same driver as before cause he was awesome. :)

Rome Day 3

jessb — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:10:00 GMT

Thankfully, today was a really light day after the past two intense days of sightseeing. We started off the morning at the cafe and had our cappucino and croissant. Then we headed out to the Villa Borghese, which is really just a large park with several temples and museums. This morning was pretty cool, so it was nice to walk around a park, but really, after a while, it wasn't that exciting. :)

We headed up to the Galleria Borghese to see the museum, but they required reservations, so we pretty much headed back out after that. We walked through the Via Veneto neighborhood briefly, but walked with the purpose of getting to the Spanish Steps. It was pretty cool once we got there. There was a church at the top of the steps, and the steps themselves were broken into several sections. There were people everywhere just lounging about. There were also azaleas everywhere, with a big section of them in the middle of the steps.

Going down the stairs led to the piazza, which lead to the shopping. Teo and I walked down one of the main streets and went into Prada, Gucci, Max Mara, Furla, and a whole bunch of smaller (more affordable) stores on the Via de Corso. I bought a really cute vest at Stefanel. Then, we found a small pizzeria and had lunch.

After a quick nap (when in Rome...), we headed over to Campo de Fiori. This consists of a large piazza with tons of restaurants, florists, and other stores around it. There was also a large column (looked like a smaller Washington Monument) in the middle. We saw lots of street performers, including a little kid with a crazy loud voice that played the violin, a weird mime, and some dude on the guitar that liked to play Sting.

We went into a bunch of stores in the Campo de Fiori area, and once we finished with that, we went to a restaurant in the piazza. We had the buffalo mozzarella, some great white house wine, and I finally got to have some veal saltimbocca. It was really good. Oh, and I tried some olives, and actually liked them. We'll see if that happens again.

That was pretty much it; it was nice to have such a quiet day. Surprisingly, as many stores as we went into, I only bought the vest and Teo didn't buy anything. That's alright, though, we do plenty of shopping at home!

Rome Day 2

jessb — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:36:00 GMT

Today, we spent all day at the Vatican, and if I had to describe it with one word, it would be overwhelming. Everything was beautiful, but there was so much to see.

Anyway, we got to the Vatican around 10 or so, and as luck would have it, Pope Benedict actually speaks in the morning on Wednesdays. So, we hung around the piazza right in front of the Basilica for about half an hour before the Pope began his procession around the square. We actually got to see him drive by and Teo got a great picture. We hung out for a little bit to listen to them talk, and there were several different men that read the same gospel in different languages. It was amazing.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Vatican Museum. This is where it got overwhelming because there is so much to see. We started at the Pinacoteca, which is a picture gallery. Got to see some paintings by Raphael and Da Vinci. In one of the galleries, we saw a tapestry of the Last Supper! Then we followed the throngs of people to the Sistine Chapel. On the way, though, we got to see several salons with paintings, the Hall of Constantine, the Gallery of Maps, and the Raphael Rooms. Most of these are fresco paintings, so by the end of the day, my neck hurt from staring up as I walked.

We finally get to the Sistine Chapel after walking in what felt like circles, and as soon as you walk in, there is a guard telling you to be quiet and to not take pictures. Actually, there were many guards around. So Teo and I sat and just looked at everything. The room is smaller that I would have thought length-wise, but it was surreal. Where we sat, to our right, was the painting of the Last Judgement. Definitely, more anger and more nudity (but according to our guides, the fig leaves were added for modesty). Directly above, on the ceiling, was the paintings of Creation. This was much more intense to focus on because of all the different scenes. Gorgeous, though, and I was able to pick out some stuff, but Teo and I both missed the famous touching of the finger to God. On the walls, looking like a border, where different scenes of Moses and Jesus. Where I was sitting, I saw a scene of the parting of the Red Sea and Moses reading the commandments. It was so cool.

Oh! And another weird thing happened while we were sitting there. This guy and girl holding hands came up to us. The guy just looked at us and said "Do you remember me? I'm Satish". Yeah, Satish, our class valedictorian from high school - haven't seen him since UVA, and we run into him and his wife in the Sistine Chapel. Unreal. But because of the silence in the room, we really couldn't talk, so they went on their merry way.

After the Sistine Chapel, we ended up getting something to eat at Da Cesare down the road. Here is what we had: antipasto consisting of salami and some other meats (course 1), fettucini with a tomato sauce (course 2), beef with lettuce and lentils (course 3), some type of amaretto liquour with biscotti and cafe (course 4). Yes, we ate for 2 plus hours and were the last people to leave. Luckily, the courses weren't as big as they are at home, so we were still able to walk around. Man, was it good though!

The next stop, after walking through Vatican City itself, was St. Peter's Basilica. Since the Pope was there this morning, nobody could get in until the afternoon. Anyway, after shoving around way through security, we ended up going to see the tombs of the popes first. Of course, everybody was crowding around Pope John Paul II's tomb, which was very nice - there were fresh flowers there and everything.

Once we finished there, we made our way to the Basilica itself, which is enormous, beautiful, with lots of gold everywhere. There was lots of sculpture and artwork there, and we even got to see the altar and tomb where the apostle Peter was buried. We have tons of pics, but will never remember everything we saw. We even got to see several church services and watched the procession of a cardinal as he was coming in to lead a service.

Next (yes, we crammed in a lot again), we went to the Dome of St Peter's. Because we were so close to closing time, there was no line, so we made our way up there pretty quickly. The first level was above the Basilica inside, so we got to see everything from pretty high up. Next, we walked outside to another part of the Basilica, so we could enter the Dome. They included on the sign that it was 320 steps, and pretty much every one of them sucked. There was spiral staircases, slanted stairs, steep and short stairs all in a row. Once we got up, you got to see amazing arial views of Rome and Vatican City. It was neat, but I'm not really sure I'd do it again with those stairs (yes, going down was easier, but these were really narrow!)

By the time all this was done, it was 6 and raining down pretty hard (our first day of rain), so mostly we were done. We caught the bus back to the hotel, watched the Break Up, and went to a small cafe for dinner. Oh, and we stopped by and got a cannoli on the way home.

The crazy thing is that as much as I typed just now, I didn't even cover half of what I saw. It is amazing how much they've done in that small city. I still can't believe we got to see and hear the Pope speak (even if I didn't understand a word he said). Luckily, Teo took a mess of pics, so that should help me remember some of the stuff...

Good night! Buona Notte!

Rome Day 1

jessb — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:50:00 GMT

Before I begin the story about the day, Teo and I had a very random experience on the way back this evening. Earlier in the evening, we were at the Pantheon, when some weird looking guy came up to us and told us in broken english that we could take off our shoes because the marble feels great on our feet. He walked off, and sure enough, our curiousity got the best of us and we did test it out. This was probably around 7ish.

On our walk home around 10, we were talking on the Via Imperial Fori towards our hotel, when Teo asks if the guy walking near us was the same guy from the Pantheon. Sure enough, he came up to us and told us that the street feels very nice on your feet if you take off your shoes. Pretty much after that, we booked it home. Weird experience in Rome.

Anyway, today was a very packed (and hot) day. Our hotel is right near the Colisseum, so we went there first, and as it turned out, the line for tickets to get in was not long at all, so we went in. It was absolutely huge and amazing. There was also an exhibit on Eros, the god of love, which was mostly statues and vases depicting different gods as well.

We finished the Colisseum, and saw the Arch De Constantine. Then we crossed the street and walked to the ancient ruins of the Roman Forum. There were a lot of temples and other buildings within, but after a while, it just got confusing. Beautiful and breathtaking, but confusing.

After that, we headed up a huge amount of stairs and ended up at the Capitoline Hill, which consisted of two museums on the sides of the piazza del Campidoglio and the main building in the middle. Because this was on a hill, we had to talk down some more stairs to head down and check out the roads below. We did, however, stop for a gelato break (I had pineapple and it totally reminded me of the stuff we got in PR).

We saw the Il Vittoriano building, the Colonna di Taiano column, as well as some additional forums. But we did end up wandering back through the ruins to the Palatine Hill, which sits above the Roman Forum, and has gardens, more ruins, a maze like area, and an additional museum. Because of the hills, it had amazing views as well.

Lunch consisted of bruschetta, pizza, fruits, and house wine - which was then followed by a nap. But afterwards, we did end up going to the Piazza Navona and saw a beautiful church, and that is when we made our way to the Pantheon. We got to see where Raphael was buried and there is a big hole in the top of the building where the rain comes in and cleans everything out. There are supposed to be holes in the floor for drainage, too, but we did not see them.

(Almost done, so for anybody who has read this far, hang in there). The Trevi Fountain was next, but we heard that a great time to do this was in the evening after the sun had set. So we grabbed dinner at a little restaurant, where the waitress practically forced us to sit down and then continued to check on us every 6 seconds. We did talk to another patron there, who was laughing at what was happening to us. She is from Israel, lives in Rome, and travels all the time. Then, the people on the other side told us they were from California and Connecticut. Awesome. I had the spaghetti carbanara. Mmm.

Back to the Trevi fountain and we got to toss in a coin. Legend is that if you take your right arm and toss a coin in over your left shoulder facing away from the fountain, that means you are going to return to Rome. Curious to see how that is going to work out. We even got to see a proposal there.

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Italy (Liberation Day). Mostly, this means stores will be closed, but the touristy stuff will still be fine. We are planning on going to the Vatican all day with probably about a bajillion other people. Still looking forward to it though...

Okay, all done. Buona Notte!

Day 4 - Travel

jessb — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:15:00 GMT

Well, what can I say about a travel day? I am typing on an Italian keyboard which is indeed different from a French keyboard.

Anyway, our travel day consisted of some souvenir shopping, but nothing too hard core. We did check out the Bon Marche, which would probably be the equivalent of a Bergdorfs in NY. Which means we looked but did not touch.

Afterwards, we caught the metro to the RER C and transferred to the RER B. All of this with Big Red in tow. Mostly, that sucked, but at least some nice french men helped bring the stupid thing down the stairs. I am going to have to rethink my luggage.

We got to Orly airport with plenty of time. When we finally did get on the EasyJet flight, it was pretty much a cattle call like Southwest. The flight was smooth and we got into Rome Ciampino airport safely. Unfortunately, though, we did not get a stamp on our passport cause the airport caters to the smaller airlines, like EasyJet and RyanAir that fly in Europe.

We got picked up by the shuttle service provided by the hotel and we could not decide if the driver reminded us more of Fat Tony from the Simpsons or a character from the Sopranos. He was awesome and I could barely understand a word he said.

The hotel is pretty cute. It is a bed and breakfast run by an Italian couple. The guy greeted us when we checked in, gave us lots of candy and a map of Rome, and showed us to our room. He is really sweet. The room is small, but we get AC and we get to open our window to an italian street. We went down the street to a Trattoria and got ourselves a quick dinner (or as quick as the Italians do it) of pizza, which was amazing and inexpensive.

Okay, that is all for now. Ciao!

Paris Day 3

jessb — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:18:00 GMT

Thank goodness, the people at the hotel taught us to switch to an American style keyboard. The letters are different, but at least I remember where everything is. BTW, the European keyboard has more of the letters with accents on it, the Q where the A is and the M and the , have switched. I have no idea why.

Today, we crammed in a good amount as well. We started off at a little cafe that was very Parisian and kind of rude. So we're not going back there again. Afterwards, we took the RER to Versailles (where we met a nice American family). Anyway, it was absolutely amazing. Huge, of course, with lots of ornate decorations. The Hall of Mirrors was undergoing restoration, but was still great. We also got to see Marie Antoinette's bedroom, which was beautiful.

After the palace part, we looked at the gardens a little, but it was getting really crowded, so we headed out. But not before hitting up lunch at a cafe where they served galettes, which is a form of crepe. One galette came with a salad and the other with egg, cheese, and ham. So goooood. Oh, and the dessert? A crepe with ice cream and chocolate.

We took the RER back and ended up heading to the Musee de Mode and Textile. Based on our guides, I thought this would have exhibits on French fashion. Mostly, it was arts and contemporary furniture stuff, with a small exibit on Jean Paul Gaultier. I was not too happy with it; we headed out after that and headed over to the St. Sulpice. It is a gorgeous church that Teo wanted to see cause it was also featured in the Da Vinci Code. :)

The Jardin (Garden) de Luxembourg was right down the street, so we made our way over there after the church. We saw the Palais and the Musee that was around the gardens, but was the most amazing part was how huge the area was. It wasn't just gardens and flowers. There was a huge fountain in the middle and people were sailing little boats on it. I have no idea where the boats came from, but they had these sticks that they would use to push it around. We sat there and people-watched for a long time.

Once we finished there, we headed back on the metro and headed back to our neighborhood. Since we hadn't quite yet tortured our feet, we got off at the Ecole Militaire stop and took some pics of it. Teo got some more pics of the Eiffel Tower as well which is right across from it (kinda set up like the Mall in DC). We headed back to the hotel to regroup after that.

BUT I'm still not done. Cause it ain't a full day until you change your shoes and keep on keep trucking. We ended up going to dinner at a cute little cafe right on the Seine and afterwards took one of the Bateaux (boat) cruises on the Seine. It lasted for an hour and we got to see a huge amount of sights that we wouldn't have caught. Unreal - I cannot believe how much there is. We got to see both islands (Cite and St-Louis) and the Louvre from the river. We also got to see a whole bunch of other landmarks that I have to look up!

On the complete opposite end of the Notre Dame (towards the end of the hour long cruise), we were past the Eiffel Tower farther west. Anyway, we got to see the smaller Statue of Liberty that exists over here. It was really cool seeing it so close. I do still like ours better!

So, we're almost done with our Paris adventure. Tomorrow, we head out in the afternoon, so we're going to spend the morning checking out a department store and some of the stores in our area. Did I mention that right around the corner from our hotel is a precious little marché? That's an outdoor market area. It's open every day, and we've been catching breakfast there. They also have quaint little stores as well. We figured what better way to spend the last day than to do a little shopping? I can't decide if I want to commit to buying any designer stuff - mostly cause it's more expensive here, but then again, we are going to a department store...

That's it for now. It's 12:30 and I'm crazy tired! Bon soir and see you tomorrow...

Paris Day 1 and 2

jessb — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 08:02:00 GMT

Okay, so I am usinga European keyboard and having to hunt and peck; this is not going to be very wordy.

Day 1:

Landed at 8AM and got to the hotel by 10. Our hotel is on the left bank right next to a marche which is essentially an open air market. Good for breakfast and afternoon snacks...

Went to the Arc de Triompe; walked the Champs Elysee. Then we turned onto a street with the top fashion designers. Only Teo and I would stumble onto such a pleasant surprise. Did I mention we went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe?

Had lunch at Pomme de Terre, then went back and took naps. Afterwards, we just wandered around the neighborhood, had dinner, and caught the light show of the Eiffel Tower.

Day 2:

Crammed in a lot more today. Started breakfast with bread and coffee at a cute little cafe. We caught the metro which we took to the Louvre. Got to see the Mona Lisa (La Jaconde), Venus de Milo, etc. We wandered around for a couple of hours. Also got to see the Pyramids and the smaller Arc de Triomphe.

Walked around the 1er arrondissement where we found a cute little parfumerie. Teo and I both bought some fun french parfum. Had lunch at the Juvenille of calamari in a spicy curry sauce with a glass of Rosé.

Saw the Palais Royale and continued walking to make our way to the Notre Dame. Took lots of pics inside, but we did not get to do the tour. Maybe tomorrow. After Notre Dame, went to the Musee D Orsay. Saw Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, and many other Impressionists.

After that, we pretty much took it easy and had a nice long dinner in the St Germain area at Aux Charpeniers. Three courses including escargots, goat cheese, lamb, chocolate and pear mousse and an amazing Bordeaux. Oh, and we followed that up with an espresso.

Okay, I wrote more than I thought Iwould, so I will close for now.

à bien tot...

Preparty

jessb — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 22:14:00 GMT

Okay, we haven't gone anywhere yet, but I wanted to test this thing. I've already exchanged some euros, bought some cute outfits - I think we're ready to go!