Rome, Day 4

Today was the "Vatican Day." Since our guidebook had led us wrong every other day and we heard from others in our hostel that the Sistine Chapel closes at about 2pm, we decided to get to the Vatican Museums right away in the morning. Then 7 more people from our hostel decided to join us. After 9 people got up, ready, had breakfast, bought tickets for the subway, got on the subway, and then got to the line, it was about 8:45 in the morning. Not quite as early as we had hoped, but such is life. At 10:20 am we finally got our tickets and were in the Vatican Museums. We didn't leave until about 2pm, and after we got back to the hostel, we realized that we had accidentally missed a whole chunk of it. Another lady from our hostel stayed in there until well past 3pm! By the time we were out of there, we were starving, and well ready to be done with museums for the day. The collection is wonderful though. The audio guide is not worth it through, and the map that goes with it sucks. If you go, buy a map from the gift shop or get one before hand online. That's how we missed a whole section, crappy map. But what we did see was AMAZING. There was one room full of mini-mosaics. They couldn't have been over the size of a 50 cent piece but all the little pieces crammed into that small space was incredible. And all the detail too!
No visit to the Vatican is complete without a stop to St Peter's Piazza and Basilica. We did see the funny looking guards, but they were disappointingly far off, and the guards at the car entrance don't have the crazy stripes, just blue. The guards at the metal detectors and baggage scanning machines are just normally dressed security guards. VERY disappointing. I wanted guards telling people to put on more clothes! They were a lot of people getting through that according to the "rules" shouldn't have... maybe the Church is rolling with the times. The church is absolutely amazing. The outside is beautiful and the inside is breathtaking. We took tons of pictures. One of the interesting points of the church, is that they mark how big it is compared to other churches. This one is MASSIVE. And the artwork in there is incredible. I cannot really describe it in words. I haven't uploaded these pictures yet, but even those do not do it justice.



After leaving the Vatican, we walked along the old Pilgrimage route for a bit. The street is very narrow (which does not stop cars) and beautiful. A lot of the corners in Rome had artwork of the Virgin Mary or other religious icons up on them. It was really interesting. This street of course had them.



We stopped at quite a few more churches during the day. The churches here are amazing, but, unfortunaley, with cramming so many of them into such a short period of time, they start blending together. At least we could label most of them when we got back! This one was really interesting given the turet. It swirls around at the top. We tried to get into it, but couldn't find any way of doing that.

Pants

Apparently "pants" here means "underpants." Just found this out last week too.

No wonder the salesman in the outdoor gear shop gave us such a weird look when we came in looking for "rain pants." His response, "... ohh... you mean water-proof trousers?"

And we thought that was hilarious!! I can only imagine what he was thinking of our water-proof panties!!

Rome, Day 3

This morning we woke up and headed to the Catacombs of San Callisto out on the Appian Way. Even though the catacombs are outside of Rome, due to the laws of the ancient times, they were surprisingly easy to get to. A bus picks you up right outside a Subway station and drops you off right outside the entrance. And if you want, you can wander down the Appian Way and see more sites.

The Catacombs of San Callisto are the largest around Rome. Our tour guide told us that there are 3 floors and about 15 miles of catacombs, but only one floor is open to the public. We were able to go on a 30 minute tour and learn lots. They estimate that 500,000 tombs were here at one point in time. During raids, many items of worth were carted off and the early Popes' tombs were taken to safety during this time as well. Along with all the tombs, the catacombs were a site of early Christian Worship as it was outlawed in Rome in Christianity's early stages. We also learned of the entombing process and how the smell was kept down AND even were able to see thousands of years old dead people. Little creepy.

The rest of our day was a massive walking tour of the city. We went back into Rome near the Circus Maximus (where the chariot races used to be held) and then walked in a massive circle around the various neighborhoods. Our first neighborhood was Aventine Hill. It was mainly the older part of town. Circus Maximus is in this area, along with old Roman City Walls, churches, and beautiful streets. The Baths of Caracalla are also in this area. It was a massive and impressive structure even though it is 1000's of years old and in ruins. It used to be a wonderful public bath house and leisure center. Many of the floors still exist, the mosaics and some of the decorative stone work. The building must have been huge at one time and incredibly impressive. Apparently during one of the attacks on Rome, the water supply was cut off and since this is on the outskirts of the city center, it was left to fend for itself. At the end of the attack, it was left abandoned. What a shame.
We then made our way through the area known as Testaccio, named after a "mountain" made of broken pottery and other objects (which according to the guidebook should have been open, but wasn't.) Unfortunately, our guide book yet again led us astray with this walking tour. There are a couple of interesting cemeteries here of historical importance that you can wander through, they were closed. There is a really interesting pyramid here though.
After that slight bit of frustration with the guide book, the next 30 minutes of our day made me want to throw it on the ground and stomp on it. There is a park called Parco Savello that is supposed to have wonderful views over Rome and a beautiful old church in it, Santa Sabina, that is one of the first churches of Rome. Now we knew the church would be closed as it was around lunch time and most of the churches are closed. It was getting into the park area that proved to be incredibly difficult. The map given makes it look like its right next to the road. It is, but up a 30 foot cement wall. We had to walk all around the stupid thing AND then figure out how to get into it. By the time we got to the park to see the views, I had to go to the bathroom so badly we couldn't enjoy it. Another point of contention with the guide book is that of the bathrooms. They correctly inform you that there are not many public bathrooms in Rome, but that restaurants have to legally let you use their bathrooms. Not so at all. The Police will back the restaurant owners in NOT letting you use the bathrooms, we saw it happen (not to us thankfully.) And Frommer's response "opps."
Then we stopped by the Mouth of Truth. There was a long line, so we didn't put our hands in the stone's mouth. And I was still in a desperate search for a bathroom. The legend of the Mouth of Truth is really interesting (click on the link above.)
Our next neighborhood to wander through was the Jewish Ghetto. This part of town was absolutely beautiful and seemed very unchanged. It of course has a troubled history. We started at the sign signifying the place where 3,091 Jewish people were taken to Auschwitz, 15 made it out. If you look carefully while walking through here, you can catch old signs in Hebrew on buildings. A few of the buildings did have newer signs in Hebrew, but not a lot of them that we saw.





In the Jewish Ghetto, there is a wonderful piazza called Piazza Mattei that holds the Tortoise Fountain. You can make out the turtles being helped to climb into the fountain behind us.









By now the churches were open again. Near the Roman Forum and the Capitoline Museums, is this church. Santa Maria in Aracoeli was a beautiful church on the inside, but first you had to climb 124 steps in the hot sun. Not that I was whining about it. It was just a LOT of steps to climb up. The inside of the church was well worth it though. The marble work was amazing, along with all the art, and it was nice and quiet. This church even had chandeliers hanging! Santa Maria's big claim is the Bambinello. Its a small wooden carving of Baby Jesus. It was miraculously finished when the carver ran out of money, it has been stolen a few times and miraculously shown back up, children sing to it and praise it during the Christmas season, and people from all over the world write letters to it for help. I am sure that the list of what this little olive wood, bejewelled Baby Jesus can do is much longer, but this is all I can remember.



We then headed over to Tiber Island. At one point in time, I am sure that it was an actual island. Now it looks like a man made island. Everything is cement. It start 1000's of years ago with the Romans making the island look like the hull of a ship. There is a church there and a hospital. A lot of people were sitting out on the esplanade sun bathing, and there were even a few fishermen. I have no idea what one would fish for in a river running through Rome, but I wouldn't want to eat it. The water didn't look all that particularly dirty, but there was quite a bit of trash in it.

Then it was off to find somewhere to eat. Not going to lie. We tried using the guidebook again to help us in making this selection. We figured since it was a Sunday, in Rome, we may have some issues actually finding some where to eat. Especially since our usual breakfast cafe of the week was closed, and it is in a busy area. We found the restaurant fairly easily this time (we had already learned to consult other maps), but the place that was supposed to be open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner was VERY closed. Maybe the owners were confused on the date...
So... we went back to the same place that we ate at the night before. They all remembered us, which was spectacular. And the pizza is divine. And the chocolate mousse dessert. And the wine. And the Italian Appetizer. I might have to fly back to Rome just to eat here...

Rome, Day 2

Apparently, I have married someone so incredibly similar to my father, it's scary at times. Mike had us awake and ready to start the day by 7:30am. One morning I even was greeted with the phrase "We don't want to waste the daylight hours." :)
At least we packed everything and laid out clothes the night before so that we didn't bother the other people in the room. We got the Trevi Fountain before the thing was even turned on. But on the up side, there were very few people there and less of a chance of being robbed. And we did see tons every day.
This fountain is absolutely amazing, AND HUGE! It takes up one whole side of a building and about half of the piazza. The detail in the sculptures is incredible as well. After throwing a coin over our shoulders and into the fountain, we headed off to see more of Rome.


The Spanish Steps was the next stop. Every morning we tried to hit the really touristy spots so we would not be robbed. Nearly every person we ran into had some story of them being robbed or someone they knew. While we never walked around with tons of money or lots of credit cards (one guy had his wallet stolen with his passport, ID, 5 credit cards, and 140 euros), we still didn't want to deal with the hassle of it all. We arrived here just as they were done watering the large amount of flowers. The views from the top of the steps and the church at the top are both wonderful. And interestingly enough... the French paid to construct this, not the Spanish!


We walked over to the Mausoleum of Augustus next. It was interesting but during Mussolini's reign, he put an ugly wall all around it. It was unfortunately, not open to the public. The picture on the left is of Basilica dei SS Ambrogio E Carlo. It was one of the many churches we visited while we were there. Obviously there are loads of churches in Rome, and, of course, not all of them are listed in our guide book. We must have visited about 10 churches a day while we were in Rome. Many of them looked interesting, or we just want to sit for a minute, so we would pop into one and poke around. What we found interesting is most of the churches were all built in the period where churches were incredibly plain on the outside and incredibly breathtaking on the inside. Very few are from other periods. AND most of the churches close from noon to 3pm. Kinda like a siesta period in Spanish speaking countries, but only for churches. It was rather odd and meant that you really had to plan your day around certain churches closings and openings.
The Piazza del Popolo was quite interesting. They were having all sorts of activities going on as they are trying to host the Soccer World Cup some year in the future. They was all sorts of stuff going on to try and back their bid. And they sell little bike-mobiles. They reminded me of the "cars" from the Flintstones! It is supposed to be one of those "must see" places when visiting Rome, and it was beautiful, just full of people.
The park, Villa Borghese, is right above the Piazza del Popolo. The view from the Pincio Terraces are amazing as well. You can look out over Rome and the piazza below. The park is wonderful. Our guidebook map was horrid, but there is a wonderful map up next to the terraces. Be careful of the man wanting to "give" you a rose though. After Morocco, I learned to always keep my hands hidden when some man tries to "show" me something. But the walk through the park was lovely and it was like you weren't even in Rome.
Castel Sant' Angelo is right next to the Vatican and is one of the many spectacular museums in Rome. Since we got into it for free with our Roma Pass, we decided to go - might as well make the thing pay for itself. It was quite interesting with apartments all re-decorated and fresco paintings all over. And the views of the city from the top were wonderful. You can see over the Tiber River, across two amazing bridges, and have great views of some of Rome.


After the museum and a quick look at St. Peter's Piazza and Basilica, we wandered through the streets of the Trastevere neighborhood. It is a charming area filled with winding streets, picturesque buildings, beautiful churches, kids playing soccer, and scooters. It was great fun to wander all the streets and take it all in. We visited a beautiful church there called Santa Maria in Trastevere where we were able to try out our new camera tripod. Low light shots have been a hassle in the past as we have to try to stand incredibly still. This, surprisingly enough, has been hard for me. The tripod worked wonders.
The night before we had walked for about an hour and a half searching for a restaurant that our guide book said was great. We finally gave up after circling the area for the second time and settled on some restaurant that served us something microwaved from a box (it was quite bad). We decided to give the book another chance. After 45 minutes of looking (only 1 1/2 circles this time!) and consulting 2 other maps, we finally found it. The restaurant that was supposed to be open from lunch through to dinner was still not open yet and it was 6pm. After that we gave up on the guide book. At least the place we chose for dinner this night was spectacular!

Rome, Day 1

We got into Rome late on Thursday evening. It was wonderful flying over a very lit up Rome.
The next morning we were up and ready to go by 7:30 in the morning, downed breakfast while going over our game plan, then tackled Rome. We started out at the Colosseum. It was spectacular! You can walk a lot of the ruins. There are multiple levels of walkways to explore and there is even a mini-museum with all sorts of columns, fountains, and other artwork from the building. There are also tons of columns, and slabs with old writing on them that you can actually touch! They are re-constructing a bit of the floor and some of the stands so that you can try to better imagine what it looked like way back when. The ruins themselves are impressive, so it must have been something back then with all its stands, underground tunnels, and the such.


On the plane, we were sitting next to this Priest who is from South Bend but has lived in Rome for about 14 years. He gave us all sorts of wonderful tips, one of them being to visit Basilica San Clemente. This church was amazing. The artwork was incredible and there were ancient frescoes on the walls that were beautiful. Like many of the Churches in Rome, the current church was built on top of another church, which was built on top of a pagan worship center. We were able to go underneath the current church and explore. There are lots of tombs, pagan images, frescoes, and other interesting things.


Next, was Palatine Hill. It was mostly in ruins, but the ruins were interesting. Lots of beautiful columns and detail work. And the gardens were beautiful. It was not very well marked as to what anything was though, and there were no maps provided. Therefore, it was hard to imagine what it all once looked like. There is a museum at the top of the hill that you can poke through that explains it all in GREAT detail, but we were not all that interested in reading loads in a museum.

Right in front of the Palatine Hill is the Roman Forum. Since its free, there are no maps either, but our crappy guide book (I will explain that later) at least gave us a little map and explanation of what some of the ruins were so it was easier to imagine what it all looked like. That and there are loads of posters that the vendors are selling that show you what it all looked like in its glory. One of the reasons that it is so destroyed is that when the buildings were not in use any more, all of Rome came here to get marble for the buildings that they were constructing.



The next big site we went to was the Pantheon. It was amazing! We were able to listen to an audio clip to learn all about the different chapels. It was incredibly beautiful, but Mike and I were both a little shocked at how nice it was. It was built during Roman times as a temple to the different Gods and at height of Christianity was converted into a Church. So everything is newer and quite shiny. I have no idea why, but it was different than we expected yet still great.
We saw loads more of Rome this day and walked for about 13 hours. I would love to explain it all, but it would probably take all day and bore you to tears. So, look at our Flickr pictures and there are stories there of all our adventures. I took about 750 pictures, so the are not all uploaded yet... maybe by next week... maybe

Pictures

I have finally finished uploading all the photos from Mom and Dad's visit. We got back from our 5 day stay in Rome last night at about midnight. I am still tired from all the walking that we did, but we had a blast and saw tons. I am frantically trying to label all the picture before I forget what they are, so I will tell all of you about our travels later in the week!

Falkirk Wheel and Glasgow

26 March 2007

We didn't have to return the car until noon, and since they gave us the car on near empty, we of course had to return the car with just as little gas, if not less. So, we headed over to Falkirk to see the Falkirk Wheel. Its this amazing system for a loch between two canals. The arms can each carry so much weight and it lifts the boat from one canal to the next. You can go on a boat ride on the Wheel, but we got there before they were really starting them. We got there early enough to see them testing it though, and the people that arrived after us had to wait until people started going on boat trips in it.

For the rest of the day we visited a pub, The State, so we could all have more real-ales. We have hooked Mom and Dad on them, and then sent them home to the land of no real-ales. Maybe they'll come back to visit... :) We did some souviner shopping, had tea at The Willowtree, which was quite nice, and toured through the City Chambers. The tour was absolutely wonderful. This building was built ages ago, but is incredible still. Lots of marble and lots of money put into it. Its nice to know my city council taxes go for something. We did get the nice tour guide to give Mike and Dad hat pins.

The Highlands

23-25 March 2007

We were able to do SO much in three days, it was amazing. I have uploaded the pictures onto Flickr. We saw lots of lochs, the Glenfinnan train viaduct from the Harry Potter movies, castles, lots of mountains, lots of ruins, Isle of Skye, stone circles, standing stones, symbol stones, and more. We saw hawks, sheep, Highland cows, and STAGS! Dad was so incredibly excited to see the STAG! I almost drove off the road when he yelled WOW!! LOOK AT THE STAG!! Goes to show you can excude the enthusiasm of a 5 year old at any age. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Mom could have seen a bagpipper in a full kilt walking out of the mist of the moor while playing something haunting. She was very specific about this, and needless to say, it never happened.

Parks and Chapels

22 March 2007



Mike had class this morning, so Mom, Dad, and I headed over to Pollock Country Park. The park is easy to get to and is a great city escape. I had been to the park in November, so it was wonderful to be able to walk through it now when everything is in bloom and green. On the left is Mom and Dad on a really neat park bench. I love the otter carving.

The Pollock House was thankfully free still. Come April 1st it will be £8 to get into and will stay that way until November. Now that we have gone through it, I am glad I will not have to pay the rather steep entrance fee. The house was great and beautifully decorated, but not really worth the £8. The outside is gorgeous though. They were just starting to plant the flowers for all the gardens. I would love to go back mid-May to see everything in bloom.
Then we headed to the wonderfully eclectic Burrell Collection. I not only love the building (huge glass windows looking into the woods and rest of the park), but the collection itself is amazing. Anything you could think of that may be classified as art is here. Old stained glass windows from Churches, wall, doorways, window frames, spoons, vases, tapestries, entire rooms, furniture, etc. are all here. And barely half of the entire collection is on display. It is absolutely amazing.

Then I got to try my hand at driving on the wrong side of the road. On the highway. At least then I couldn't accidentally move into oncoming traffic. We went down to Roslin to see the chapel made even more famous for being in Dan Brown's book and then the movie, The Da Vinci Code. Its out in the middle of no where in this beautiful valley. Unfortunately the chapel was packed with people. Since its new found popularity, tour companies pack buses full of people and cart them down there. We tried to explore and stay away from all of them, but it was rather difficult. This is just one of the many pictures I took of the interior of the chapel. All the detail work was absolutely amazing.



The roof has to be redone on the chapel. At one point in time, in order to restore and preserve the ceiling, Historic Scotland put a coating on the ceiling and walls. Unfortunately this coating did not allow for any moisture to leave the walls. SO... when it rained the moisture just stayed and therefore everything was green. According to one of the workers there, it was so bad that they used to marvel at the detail work of the sculptures by comparing the carved ferns to the actual ferns growing out of the walls. While they are gathering funds and doing repair work, there is a massive umbrella-like covering on the chapel and scaffolding that you can climb up and walk around the top exterior of the chapel. It might have been disappointing at first to walk up to all the scaffolding, but it was great to be able to see all the stone work that closely. And the view of the valley was great!


Then we walked down into part of the valley to examine the castle ruins. This was one part of the ruins, and the biggest section. There was not a whole lot left, but the walk was great. It would have been nice to do more of the path, but there were signs all over the car park saying that they would lock the rental car in at 5pm. Granted the village is small, but I really didn't want to invest the time walking all over it looking for someone to unlock the gate.

Near Glasgow is a city called New Lanark. This part of the city is a recreation of a milling village. You can go through a factory, mill, tenements, etc. We got there too late in the day for it to be open, but we were there to see the Falls of the Clyde. Mike and I had read that we would be able to walk less than a 1/2 mile and see at least two of them. Not so, and the path was quite uphill and as it was becoming dusk, we decided to just see the falls that were easily within reach of this little village. Being stuck in the woods after dark with no flashlight did not sound appealing.

Glasgow Green and our 'Surprise' Night

I have obviously delayed in posting tales of mom and dad's trip over here. (1) Because, again, Mike was using the computer for REAL work, and (2) I had my first real bout of homesickness sense coming here. I have been the one saying how much I would love to move here, yet with the departure of mama and dad, I could not stand being so far away anymore. So for a couple days I wallowed in homesickness, and then got over it. There's too much still to see here, and its not forever. We'll be home in 4 months. Saying that... here is the first installment in our tales.


The first day that they were here, Mike took them to Glasgow Cathedral where one of the Rectors took them on a personalized tour of the Cathedral. You have no idea how jealous I am that I had to work. Not only did Mike get only child time, but they also got a great tour of the church. They also got to venture through the Necropolis and see a lot of the beautiful old monuments.

The next day mom, dad, and I wandered down to Glasgow Green and the People's Palace. Mike had to do some schoolwork, so it was MY turn for only child time. Not going to lie, I LOVE only child time. We were hoping to stop at the Police Museum, but as it was not yet Easter, it was closed. The Park Rangers were starting to plant all the flowers in Glasgow Green, and its always a pretty park anyway. Its right along the banks of the River Clyde, which is a dirty river once it hits Glasgow, but its still picturesque. I had not been in the Winter Gardens yet as last time we were there, a wedding was about to take place and they were trying to take pre-wedding pictures. The Winter Gardens cannot compare to the Botanic Gardens in the West End (nor Meijer Gardens), but they are still nice. This photo is of two of the three wire sculptures depicting the different parts of the Glasgow's Crest: the bird, tree, fish, ring and bell. The rest of the People's Palace was really quite interesting. Its a museum telling the social history of the city. You get to learn about the different industries, the tenement houses, fairs, businesses, etc.


We had lunch at a West Brewing Company. Mike has been seeing signs for it over the past few months, and has been dying to go. It was really great. I felt a little under dressed in my jeans and fleece, but the prices were reasonable, and the food and service was great. Its right next to Templeton's Carpet Factory. This picture was taken right outside the gates for the restaurant, with the factory in the background.




We took our time walking back to our apartment as we went through the older, more ornate, Merchant City on our way back. The buildings are spectacularly made and everything seems to be so ornate. Its one of the many parts about this city I will miss when we return to Michigan. On our wanderings, we stumbled across a park/old graveyard behind the Ramshorn Theatre. It was really beautiful and the gravestones seemed so old. Some of the lettering was so worn that the only way to read the writing on them was to follow the path of the moss.

After that, it was time to head back to the apartment and get ready for the surprise evening we had planned. Mom and Dad knew that we were taking them out to an authentic Scottish restaurant for dinner at Cafe Source, but after that it was a mystery. We had a spectacular meal, and everyone got to try haggis. I am still surprised that I like something made of organs I would never normally touched and all cooked in a sheep's stomach, but I do. And its a taste you just cannot describe, nothing else tastes like it. If you're in Scotland, its a must try event. Dad and I tried very traditionally Scottish stovies, while mom and Mike got lamb and fish. Surprisingly the lamb had lemon on it and not the fish. Thankgoodness we asked, or the trip could have been a disaster!

Then we were on the the "surprise" of the night. Months ago Mike and I had read about Ceilidh dance lessons at St Andrews in the Square. It is a beautiful venue, and it sounded like a blast. Mike knew mom would love it, so we made it a big secret. I must say, neither of us knew how it would go since all of us had NO experience with traditional Scottish dancing. It was a BLAST. It was two hours of exercise and it was cheaper than a movie or dinner out, and just as fun. Even my husband who HATES to dance, had fun. We might even go back another day.


After all the hard work, and given the fact that they happily danced with us, Dad and Mike felt the need for a beer. We brought them to a great Irish themed pub where they were able to try the new Guinness Red. We all agreed that the regular Guinness was much better. There might be a reason its only in the UK for the moment. We have a friend who lives in Dublin and even he has not seen it yet.

More Bragging

We just heard that Mike got the grant for his language study in Germany. Its through a division of the German Government called DAAD, and he was up against Post-Graduate students from all over the USA and Canada. So, come the end of May, we will be moving to Germany. We will be there for 2 months, and still have no idea where. We should know that sometime in late April.