Shameless self promotion here . . .
One of our photos from Italy has been entered in a photo contest. We are currently 23 out of 345 photos. You can vote by clicking here.
Remember a 10 is good!
*smile*
This was us a year ago tonight . . . .
Well, actually it was three of us, sadly I was behind the camera. We were waiting for a flight to take us to ROME! This began one of my favourite times together with my family. Also, as Paul pointed out, the longest we have ever been awake - 33 hours. Others conqueur jet lag by a wonderful coctail of Ambien, booze, and a wet cloth on the head. Not us - we push ourselves until we fall into bed at the appropriate time for the area. It worked!
This is the story of our adventure . . .
We never know how to plan our arrival at the airport; we are always either too early or panicking because we’re cutting it too closely. I suspect that this has less to do with us and more to do with the whims of airport routines and security.
Our Air Canada flight from Toronto to Rome was scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm. We arranged for transportation to the airport through Airways Transit – anyone from the GTA flying through Pearson Airport should consider using their services – they are prompt, inexpensive, and efficient. Because we were going to be en route during the normal rush hour traffic in Toronto, the booking agent suggested leaving at 4:30, we’d pick mom and Rose up in Oakville at 4:45, and then head to the airport. Of course the fates intervened and there was little traffic so we arrived at the airport far too early.
Our flight left from the in-field terminal, which meant we had to drop off our luggage, go through security, and board a shuttle to the in-field terminal. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the in-field terminal we discovered that we would have two hours to wait in a terminal with few ‘amenities’ i.e. food, drink, or shopping. With the expansion of Terminal 1 the in-field terminal has been mothballed – I can’t wait until our next return trip to Italy when I can actually ‘enjoy’ sitting around the terminal waiting.
The flight was uneventful. I think I slept through most of it. I took care to get up and walk around every few hours to keep the circulation going. We arrived on time in Rome and breezed through security . . . actually breezed is too strong a word, the Customs agent didn’t so much as grunt at me, didn’t look at my passport, and even worse – didn’t stamp it! I like getting stamps in the passport as a ‘souvenir.’ I was tempted to ask for a Customs stamp but thought better of it – why tempt the fates needlessly?
We found the luggage claim area and proceeded to wait. While waiting for what seemed to be hours I was bored so I decided to allay one neurosis I had by trying my bankcard in the bancomat machine – I didn’t need any euros but needed reassurance that it worked. It did – the slow travel gang had not lied to me – whew!
I amused myself watching one elderly tourist who keep trying to stuff an American dollar bill into the luggage cart rack. He got more and more incensed when the machine kept spitting it out . . . hmm . . . ‘buddy . . . have you heard of the euro . . . do you know that you’re in a foreign country?’ I thought. Finally someone else took pity on him and put in the necessary coins. He proceeded to be cranky with them. Apparently some folk do not deserve to leave the country.
Because our plane was full of seniors going on cruises they were all crowding around the luggage claim belt – they struggled to lift their suitcases, actually, they struggled to even tell one from the other – note to self . . . don’t purchase black or navy luggage! Finally after helping some get their bags (and earning bruised ankles as a result of their failure to judge distance appropriately with their luggage carts) and sending them on their way, our luggage rolled off. We gathered it up and were on our way.
Oh no, mom decided that she needed to go to the bathroom. Apparently standing and waiting for two hours caused her to need the facilities. I don’t know why she didn’t think of this earlier while we were waiting for the bags. Paul went with her to prevent her from getting lost while Rose and I guarded the bags. The bathroom was a hike; they were gone for more than 15 minutes.
Finally we were all together, had our bags, and started wheeling our way out the door to where we were to meet our driver. Right by the entrance stood a tall gentleman dressed in a black suit holding a sign with our name on it.
‘This must be Carlo,’ I thought.
He took us outside, settled us by the curb and went off to get the van. He stowed the luggage, loaded us onto the van, and whisked us into the city. I had pre-booked this on the Roma Shuttle web site and can’t speak more highly about the service.
It didn’t take me long to appreciate Carlo – there is no way I would have found our hotel. The Rome traffic likely would have made me want to pull off to the side of the car, abandon it there, and walk the rest of the way. We never would have found our hotel as it was in an area of narrow one-way streets.
Carlo dropped us off at the Hotel Lancelot which is located in a quiet residential area south of the Coliseum. The gate was open so we walked in with our luggage and checked in. The porter was out at the hardware shop so we were advised to leave our bags and he would bring them up to our rooms later. Mom and Rose took the elevator to their room, #10 on the first floor, (second to us), we walked the three flights of stairs to the third (fourth) floor. Our room was the regular size for Europe with a double bed, writing table, small balcony overlooking a wonderful terrace, and large washroom.
Mom and Rose were going to sleep to deal with their jet lag so Paul and I changed, showered, put our passports and other valuables in the safe, packed the ‘walking’ bag, and headed out to explore. Before we left we got a recommendation from the front desk for lunch. We followed their excellent directions and ended up in Le Naumachie which is a wonderful restaurant frequented by far more local folks than tourists – as soon as we realized that we knew we were set!
This was to be our first experience eating out in a non-English speaking country . . . how would we make out?
Fine it turned out!
With our rudimentary Italian and the waiter’s rudimentary English we were able to communicate. We had two appetizers: suppli and olives ascolane. I ordered ravioli with a butter, sage, and radicchio sauce and Paul ordered a mushroom pizza. We washed this down with a 1/2 litre of wine and a bottle of sparkling water. The waiter forgot to charge us for the wine – hee hee hee. The bill for the two of us came to €18! I could get used to this.
We walked and soon had our first glimpse of the Coliseum – ‘wow,’ I thought – ‘we are really here!’ We walked around the Arch of Constantine thinking about all of the people who had done the same over the past 1700 years. I had to laugh, in Canada we think of something as old if it was 100 years old, we were looking at things that had seen so much through the millennia! We visited with the cats in the forum thinking of the guys back home.
It was getting close to the time when we had to go and pick up Rose and mom so we headed back to the hotel. As we were walking we found the first of many gelato shops. We stopped and ordered a scoop. Paul’s comment: ‘we don’t have gelato like this at home!’ Clearly he was forgetting the blueberry gelato I had made last summer, but I digress . . .
Mom and Rose weren’t ready yet so we sat on their terrace (TERRACE! How did they luck out?) and enjoyed the view.
Once they were ready to venture out we found our way to the Piazza Navona where we were to meet our tour guide for our walking tour of Rome at dusk. On the way we learned how to use a crosswalk in Rome. Initially we just stood there waiting for the cars to stop like they did back home – they didn’t. After about five minutes we realized that potentially we could be standing there all night so bravely we just started across. Most of the cars grudgingly stopped; I had to stare down one Vespa driver but I won.
We introduced Rose and mom to Italian gelato. Paul and I didn’t want them to feel ‘piggy’ so we forced ourselves to have another scoop. I could really learn to enjoy this. Actually, I have come to realize that there is so much about Italy that I could learn to enjoy.
We found the piazza with no difficulty – getting around isn’t as difficult as I had thought it would be. We wandered around looking at the artwork that the artists were selling in the square. I bought a painting of two cats. We took lots of pictures of the mammoth fountains and obelisk.
Finally we were slowly running out of steam, we sat on the steps of a church facing the Fontana del Moro. Paul nodded off, I knew I would follow shortly (after all, it had been 32 hours since I had had a ‘real’ sleep) so I got up and wandered around some more. Soon we met our tour guide Mike; from 3 Millennia Tours (although later we found out the he was actually a tour guide for another company but Tony, the owner of 3 Millennia Tours, had asked him to cover the tour for us). Mike was the first of what we dubbed the ‘Italian Tour Guide Phenomena’: the guides were all Americans who were studying in Italy or had met the love of their life in Italy and were working as guides. In fact, we had seven tour guides in Italy – six of them were Americans.
Mike was a great tour guide – he took a moment to get to know our names, ask about us, and to tell us a bit about him. He asked what we really wanted to see and he assured us that we would see all of the items we suggested. He started off by explaining the history of the Piazza and the fountains. He talked briefly about the rivalry amongst the various artists and architects whose work lined the piazza. He then took us into Sant ‘Agnes in Agone where he told us the story of this saint and talked a bit about the art and architecture within the church. He then took us into a small room off to the side where we were able to see our first relic – Agnes’s skull! Ewwww
We then walked across the piazza; cut through a narrow alleyway where we came to San Luigi dei Francesi, a church completed in 1589. Mike explained that this is the burial place for many French citizens. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in because a service was underway, but Mike explained that inside were three of Caravaggio’s original paintings. He suggested that we go back during the day to see the paintings.
From there we meandered though dimly lit, narrow streets to the Piazza della Rotunda. The Pantheon was incredible! Mike explained about its construction, how its use had evolved over time, and then he took us inside where we were awestruck. He showed us the shrines along the side and made a point of showing us Raphael’s tomb. It is almost impossible to comprehend how this structure has stood for close to 1900 years!
Leaving the Pantheon we walked along via Pastini towards the Trevi Fountain. The street was lined with fascinating looking shops that were calling ‘Jerry, come and unload some euros here . . .’ Alas, it wasn’t to be but I made a note to return and shop at a later date.
We stopped and looked at the temple of Hadrian. It was interesting to see how much ground level is now as compared to when the temple was originally constructed. I wondered how many other treasures are buried under my feet. We heard how later Romans (and their invaders) burrowed into the columns in order to gather lead for bullets thereby solving the mystery of the ‘holey’ columns.
Continuing on our way along via delle Muratte we started to encounter throngs of tourists and the accompanying folk selling junk to said tourists. We knew that we had to be getting close to the Trevi Fountain. When we got there it was overrun with tourists. Mike explained how the fountain was actually built into the back of a palazzo. We took a break, sat in front of the fountain and tossed in our coin to ensure an eventual return to this amazing city. We took our leave, glad to say our goodbyes to the people trying to get us to buy trinkets, roses, and glow in the dark gyro flyers (who really needs any of these things anyway?)
Soon we were walking past the Palazzo del Quirinale, once a papal palace and now home to the President of Italy. We backtracked a bit and stopped outside the Santi Apostoli. Mike explained that this was his favourite church in Rome (and he really knew his churches!) and also it was often the least crowded. We made a note to return here in the daylight to explore it. Somewhere along the way Mike pointed out where Michelangelo lived while he was in Rome but I have forgotten where it was – another reason to return – to solve this mystery!
Our second to last stop on the walk was across from the Victor Emmanuel monument. I can understand why Romans are somewhat ambivalent towards it, but it was breathtaking at night. Mike pointed out the infamous balcony on the façade of the Palazzo Venezia from which Mussolini made has speeches to the throngs gathered in the piazza.
(note - taken the next day)
We skirted past the monument (if it is possible to do this to such a behemoth) and stopped for the final time outside of the Maretime Prison at the edge of the forum. We heard how this was the spot where St Peter was imprisoned and how he is said to have caused a spring to bubble through the walls of his cell allowing him to baptize his guards (the fact that this was also used as a cistern and on the ‘plumbing system’ of ancient Rome may have had something to do with this but who am I to question Christian legend?)
Here we took our leave of Mike. This tour was amazing! Rome takes on such an interesting personality at night and Mike really introduced us to it. He was approachable, modifying the tour based upon what we wanted to see. He was also very sensitive to the fact that we had not slept in hours and were impersonating the ‘walking dead’ by this time. We thanked him, tipped him well and were on our way back towards the hotel and dinner.
We got to see the coliseum lit – truly a beautiful thing! By now we were on our third wind, we were on a hunt for dinner and then to bed.
Mom and Rose had heard us rave about Le Naumachie so much that they decided we would go there for dinner. Paul and I didn’t mind eating there twice in one day (hopefully our waiter who didn’t charge us for our wine wouldn’t recognize us! Smile) The restaurant was extremely busy. We were seated in the basement and quickly ordered - suppli and ascolane to start, two salads to share, and we each ordered a pasta dish for our main meal. We washed all of this down with a bottle of wine and mineral water. The total for four was €51! What a steal for such amazing food.
We dragged ourselves back to the hotel and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow – we had done a lot in our first day!
The entire trip report (in case you need a cure for insomnia can be found here).
What is it about the weather? Why does it come up so much in conversations? Why does it affect my mood so much? What is it about a sunny day that makes me so happy and why does a rainy day make me tired?
