Villa Adriana, Vatican museum part 2

On Saturday we took a day trip to Hadrien's villa, or Villa Adriana, in Tivoli outside of Rome. To get there, very easy. Well that's what we thought. First you take the metro, then the other metro almost till then end. So far so good. Then a bus, for which we only had to wait 15mn. When we arrived in Tivoli, the one thing on which we were counting, namely the tourism office, was closed. Tivoli is on the top of a hill, and from there an old men showed us the site of the Villa Adriana... of course at the bottom of the hill. We decided to take the local bus to get there, rather then risking getting killed on the road without any space for walkers. Obviously, we didnt have any tickets (you have to buy them in tobacco shops before, there aren't machines and you cant buy them in the bus), but we looked so lost and friendly and not speaking italian, the bus driver let us in. I guess he must have many tourists like us regularly. He even was nice enough to tell us when to get off, and from there it was another 300m till the entrance.
But all in all, it really was worth it: the site is huge, very nice, ideal for a picnic (this time we were ready) and relatively tourist-free (understandable when you see how long it took us to get there).
We came back in the late afternoon, with the first clouds deciding it would be just about right to start raining.
Sunday we went for the second time to the Vatican, as the entrance was free. Luckily, we only wanted to see the parts which we had missed the first time (early christian statues and tombs, as well as paintings and tapestries), and those were rather empty. Since the museum closed early, most people ran directly for Rafael's chambers and the Sixtine chapel, which was as usual packed with people. We took the exit reserved for the tours, which leads you close to the entrance to the basilica and leads you through a great staircase designed by Bernini.
Today we went for the first time to the cinema. The Island was the only movie in all Rome shown in english, but the interest wasnt that great i guess as there were only 6 people total in the room. Very nice big comfortable cinema, good popcorn and good movie :) The nicest was that there werent italian subtitles. Explains probably the lack of spectators...


Me in front of the Canopus of Villa Adriana

The view on Tivoli from the Villa Adriana site

In the city of the dead underneath the Vatican

On Wednesday morning, Mark and me took off once more to visit the Vatican... but this time we intended to go to a place most tourists don't even know of: the 1st century necropolis underneath StPeter's Basilica. According to the Bible and the old stories and legends, or whatever you want to call them, Peter died crucified up-side-down (he didn't consider himself worthy to be crusified in the same way as Christ) in the circus of Nero (just outside of todays Vatican), and then buried on the slope of a hill next to the circus, the Vaticanum hill. This hill was, until the late 3rd century, a pagan necropolis. Imagine a street going up the hill, and on both sides small houses, mausoleums, for each family, and inside these the sarcophages or urnes of the dead members. Only the most important members of the families had their own sarcophage, most of the other were buried in the the ground of the house. Even the ashes of the slaves were kept close-by. So, when Peter died, he was buried on this hill, but in a very simple way,sinces this was just the beginning for Christianism and the persecutions very high. There were two supportive walls in the ground between which his body was burried, erected by his followers in secret to mark the spot where he rested.
A few centures later, in 313 the Emperor Constantine declared Christianism to be the official state religion. In honor of StPeter, he decided to build a basilica on the hill where he was burried, and the altar should be placed exactly above his tomb. There was already a small mausoleum with two columns (again by the later followers of Peter) which was kept, and well integrated in the altar. The construction works were huge and difficult, as out of a hill they had to make a vast ground to hold the basilica. They "cut off" the top of the hill, and filled the old necropolis with earth, built fortifying foundations and made the basilica on top. Good 12 centuries later this wooden basilica was already too old, fragile, and even dangerous, so, in the early 16th century (1506 - also the foundation of the Swiss Guard;)), a new basilica (the actual one) was built on the exact same spot. Again, a new altar was built right above the old one, using it as a foundation, a glorious bronze canopy, made by Bernini, which, even today, is only used by the Pope.
When we visited all this, we were taken two levels underneath the basilica, and walked on the street which once used to be the main street of the necropolis, with the old houses of the dead on both sides, all with very nice frescoes and mosaics. We could also see the ancient foundations built to support the first basilica. And we made our way up, following the path uphill. We saw what is supposedly the tomb of StPeter, and above it the different layers of altars, as well as his bones (where exactly they are and how they got there is another long story). Finally we emerged one level underneath the basilica, in the Grotto where the Popes (who are not saints yet) have their tombs. The one drawing most attention to it now is of course the tomb of late John Paul II.
Sorry if I got any of the dates wrong, didnt cross check but you can find info on the net if you're interested.

Vatican, Wedding and earthquake

So, the Vatican Museum and the Sixtine Chapel... finally made it! Luckily, the queue was quite short, the problem was more the amount of people inside, but that's hard to escape. The best strategy is to spot an empty space between two organised tour groups and get lucky. Anyway, we didn't visit all the museum, we'll go back on the days when the entrance is free. It is huge, and very crowded, long corridors so lots of walking (7km in total if you do all of it), but so much to see... mainly statues of the Roman era, and paintings from the Renaissance. Of course the more than famous Sixtine Chapel with the Last Judgement (we actually bought the puzzle of that, afterwards I'll be an expert on that painting), the Rafael rooms, loads of statues where you can test your knowledge of roman gods... But when you get out you're really happy. With us came Bori and a friend of hers travelling to Rome with his parents. So basically it meant me being the only one not hungarian speaker. For lunch we went to one of those tourist-trap restaurants right next to the Vatican, and it proved to be just what we expected: a tourist-trap. The food definitely won't stay long in my memory, the service was poor, and it was a bit too expensive.
On Friday morning, I woke up at 5:30 and took my plane to Geneva. It almost felt like one of those many week-ends taking the train home, really since you don't need a ticket, no passport, I didnt have any luggage... The week-end was great, specially catching up with my friends and seeing one of them getting married! The youg married couple looked just like you would imagine: so beautiful and so happy. The best of luck to them for the future!
And now, back in Rome where I was greeted by a nice storm in the night, and rain ever since. Back to work as well. Highlight of yesterday: a small earthquake (4.5 on Richter) which shook Rome and got some people really panicked according to the newspapers, as Rome usually doesnt get earthquakes. But mainly just 5 seconds of trembling walls and no damage.
All the following pictures are from the Vatican museum.

Angry Swiss guards

Great ceiling painting

Mark explaining the Sixtine Chapel paintings before entering

In the Vatican Museum

Pictures

View of the Colosseo from the Palatine Hill


The ruins on the Palatine Hill, with the ruins of the Bath of Caracalla in the background. On the very right, the start of the UN FAO building in Rome.


Me and Bori on the Palatine, overlooking the Forum

The Palatine Hill

Yesterday I finally got to visit the Palatine Hill, situated right next to the Colosseo, where Mark has been guiding for a month now already. One of his friends arrived in town to spend the week-end here and so we thought it was a good occasion to go. Plus the fact that we didn't have to pay the entrance, as Mark was working and had tickets left.
From the Palatine Hill you get one of the best views of Rome: the Colosseo, the forums, Vittorio Emmanuele Monument, the Circus Maximus, even the Dome of StPeter's in the back... very much worth it. Although you'll miss a lot of interesting facts if you don't have a guide along to tell you what is what. One of those interesting facts for example is, that in the baths built by the emperor Domitian, there is a large circular room which was used for talking and decision making, so all important people sitting there, with the particular feature of these seats all being... toilets :) Yep these Romans certainly knew how to maximise your time ;) Thanks to the Aqueduct there was a system of running water passing there and making sure the toilets got "flushed" permanently.
Today, after a short 2 hours at work, I'm finally heading to the Vatican museums, hopefully the queue to enter won't be too long. News and pics coming tonight.
Oh, and did I mention I'm going home tomorrow?? I'm so excited, Laurence (one of my best friends) is getting married on Saturday (I still can't believe it!) and of course I wouldn't want to miss that!! I'll be back in Rome on Sunday evening already though, back to work on Monday morning.

Star wars... for those bored at work ;)

Here are two funny links for those of you who like Starwars, or even if you dont know it that good, still fun...
The first one is called Storewars, where you follow the fight of Cuke Skywalker the Cucumber in his fight to save the way of organic food :) Really hilarious!
And then check your power and mastery of the force against Darth Vader, and see if you can outmatch him... not that easy!
Have fun!

Terme di Caracalla, San Giovanni and Villa dei Quintili

Last week has gone by smoothly, working as usual, going out a bit, walking a lot… Towards the end of the week we went on with our quest to visit all of Rome.
Friday after work we went to the Terme di Caracalla, which were built between 212 and 216 after J-C. and could welcome 1600 persons at one time. What’s left of it now are huge walls, a few mosaics and that’s about it. It is impressive from the outside, but the visit as such doesnt bring much, specially since there aren’t any explanations to the site. Most of the tourists were french, probably the Routard is the only guide giving the site lots of stars ;)


Me in the Terme di Caracalla


Happy as ever :)

On the way home from the Terme, we stopped at the Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano, which is one of the most important cathedrals in Rome. It is indeed very big and impressive, with massive 7m statues greeting you above the entrance of the Basilica. Inside you’ll be blinded by the golden decorations everywhere and again see huge statues of saints.


The holy door of San Giovanni, one of four holy doors of Rome which get opened in a special ceremony once every 25 years by the Pope himself. Last time was in 2000.


Mark having a holy revelation in San Gionvanni ;)

On Satuday we set off for a trip to the Villa dei Quintili, at the far end of the Via Appia Antica. The ruins of this villa are the biggest preserved sub-urb roman villa, and to access it we had to take the metro and then a bus, taking us outside big Rome. The ruins themselves are spread in a big domain, with a small museum. It was very nice for our picnic, and getting out of town, but after having seen Ostia Antica it looked a bit… small... somehow. And very deserted, as not many tourists make the effort of going so far out for some old stones. But it was definitely nice for a day excursion in the countryside.


The Villa dei Quintili

Sunday, Mark was working the whole afternoon at the Palatinum, and I was just having one of those typical lazy Sundays, at least I went walking (accompanied Mark to the Colosseum and back)

Appia Antica and a taste of Sri Lanka

The week-end was great and full of walking (for a change..). Saturday we started off at the Vatican, and walked up a hill overlooking all of Rome, which was really nice. We could see most of the landmarks, even the Colosseo and the SanGiovanni Basilica close to where we live. We then went through Trastevere, an old area on the other side of the Tiber, which now became one of the "hot spots" for young people, with restaurants and bars. We even found an english bookshop, called the "Almost Corner Bookshop" and located some ten meters from the corner :) A real old-style bookshop, with books piled about anywhere you can think of, in no order whatsoever and just there for you to go and find that one book. I ended up buying two books, just couldn't resist, on the scale of temptations it's even higher than ice-cream, which says it all.
Sunday we set off at 9 to walk to the Via Appia Antica, where we went to visit the Catacombes. We arrived and there were already the buses of tourists unloading, and we thought we'd end up in a big group not hearing anything (because you can only visit with a guide), which we did. Almost. We rushed to the entrance where the guiding had already started for the english speaking group, about 20 people, and calling out for the start of the next tour was the french speaking guide. So we joined that one, saying that Mark did understand a bit (which he does, he is improving :)), and were in that mini-group with a french lady and two romanians, a 30 something woman with her mom. Who, it turned out, wasnt speaking much better than Mark, so the guide was speaking really slow with lots of hand movements, very nice of him, and very entertaining ;). After that we walked some more, and more, and got back dead tired, and earned ourselves a nice long nap in the afternoon :)
Monday, time to go work again, Mark did his first official tour of the Vatican museum as a guide, and I did as always some research. Today he finally went to the hospital for the dentist, at least now he knows its the right place and he did the administrative stuff, but although he arrive at 7:45 (the place opening at 7:30), he got ticket 101 and by 12, when they closed, there were still some 30 people in front of him waiting. Meaning he has to go back on Thursday, even earlier, to make sure he gets to see a dentist this time. Luckily, the pains have been much much better so it's all ok.
As for me, I joined in the afternoon a presentation on Money laundering (blanchiment d'argent) given for a group of Sri Lankan judges who are following a two weeks intensive course about commercial law here in Rome. It was really interesting as such, but those Sri Lankans (not young people, no, respectable judges mind you!) really behaved like kids. Worse than delegates at an AIESEC conference, arriving 1 hour late at the lunch break, always talking and laughing, just like they were on vacation. When you know how much it costs for these two weeks courses, if they had paid themselves they probably wouldnt take it so lightly. Anyway, so much for me thinking that they would be a model of seriousness and all, there were just the roll calls missing (for the non AIESEC people: the dances and shouts we do regularly to wake people up between two sessions).


View of Rome (concentrate on the background view, I know we dont look our best...)


The REAL Bocca della Verita


Having a drink by the Tiber


An old church on Via Appia Antica


Postcards of the catacombs

A less interesting week in the eternal city

Another week passed by... time really flies. The main thing keeping us busy was the race for finding a dentist, which proves to be nearly impossible when all of Rome is out of town on vacation and the left-over doesnt speak English, and all in all they keep sending you in circles. In the end, after finally figuring the right phone number which was actually working, we had an office collegue help us out to call in Italian. That as well was an adventure in itself, as we got first connected to the Pronto Seccorso (First Aid), then to an office which didnt pick up, then to another one which sent us again to somebody else, just in the end to be told to come in person as no appointments were being made, and there it's like at the supermarket or post office: you take a number and wait. And wait. And wait. And then it's noon, they stop seeing people and if you didnt manage to get through, you'll get a nice smile and "come back on Monday". Where of course you have to start brand new with a new ticket. So Mark will just go back on Monday, and this time be the first one there.
On Wednesday Mark had its first day as a guide to the Vatican museums, including a visit of StPeters and attending the Papal Audience given every Wednesday. The crowd was huge (several thousands of people), and by some twist of chance Mark got into arms reach to seventh heaven, sorry i mean to the Pope.
In the evening we got home and fell asleep all dressed around 8pm, woke up two hours later and realized it was too late to go to the concert we wanted to attend. The next day, in our quest to be like an old couple, we went to a classical music concert (Strings ensemble playing Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky) in an old decaying church full of old people. Except the few grumpy teenagers who obviously weren't there on their own will. A few other interesting figures: an old lady with a Fifi Brind'acier (Pipi Langstrumpf) type of hairstyle and sunglasses (which she changed twice during the concert to other sunglasses); a bold guy who always talked and finally got his wife to get out after around half the concert; a guy and a woman sleeping behind us throughout the whole concert; but the best was a 50-something transvestite totally in trance with the music, in some rather short orange dress that would have made any decent priest blush. And yes, I did pay attention to the music as well :)
Yesterday after work we went to a museum which had an exhibit about Leonardo da Vinci, which proved to be a waste of 3 euros each, as it was nothing but random copies of some of his notebooks, without explanation, and quite small as well.
Today, lazy Saturday, later on we'll have to go shopping, and then we'll do a big walk to a hill overlooking Rome for a great view.
Oh and for all the Indians, travellers and trainees in India, or just Bollywood fans: yesterday we watched "Bride and Prejudice", and here goes the greatest and oh so true (although a bit insensitive?) quote of the movie: I figured out the trick to Indian dancing: it's just like screwing a lightbulb with one hand and petting the dog with the other... :)


The one and only Watermelon Colosseo :)

National day, StPeter and dentist

Monday, 1st August and Swiss national day, was just a day like any other. The embassy had told me that nothing special was being organized for that day, and I didnt notice if the Swiss guards at the Vatican were shooting some fireworks under the Pope's appartments ;) How much does the celebration of a country's own national day show? So far: the French organized a huge party with lots of food and plenty of decorum. The Swiss didnt do anything. Mark called the Hungarian embassy to enquire about the Hungarian national day (20th August), and he was told that the embassy doesnt organize anything, but the Hungarian embassy at the Vatican will probably do something, sometimes between beginning to mid-September!!
Instead of celebrating, I finally went to visit StPeters basilica after work on Monday. Just wow. Huge, impressive, solemn, intimidating... We didnt have to queue to get in, started with going underneath the basilica to see the tumbs of several popes, including the late John Paul II and StPeter. The basilica itself had lots of tourists in it, including nuns and priests of all over the world taking pictures or praying. There is a whole section dedicated to confessing sins, with booths where priests are waiting for you and signs that indicate which language they speak.
Back in the real world, and italian territory, we headed home. The next day was spent at work for me, and in crazy going around in circles from dentist to hospital for Mark. Most of the dentists are on vacation, the dental hospital didnt seem to want to take him and sent him to another hospital, which told him to go back to the first one, most of the dentists are private dentists and not covered by the insurance, which makes it too expensive... Now we finally have managed to figure some phone numbers which should work, and he will try this morning again. Well, after going to the Papal audience (every Wednesday) as part of his job, since starting next week he will be guiding for the Vatican museums as well.

Pictures of Ostia Antica

Our encounter with a true Roman in the ruins



One of the nice Domus in Ostia antica



Taking the picture of ourselves, you can see my arm in Mark's sunglasses



Very nice big mosaic of Neptune and some monsters



Some more ruins...

Ostia Antica, beach and toothache

Going to the movie last Thursday (Chicago) was really nice, although it was a bit of a shock to realize that we were by far the youngest people in the room with an average age of 60. We decided to walk home, which took us a good 1.5 hours, with a gelato on the way for some encouragement. The next day, had to go to work later but stay as well later, and in the evening we just watched a movie at home.
Saturday morning we set off to Ostia Antica, which is (at least so i've been told) a cheap version of Pompeii. Anyway, it was really great, very few tourists, beautiful park (I'll post the pics tonight), lots of ruins with very nice mosaics everywhere. We ended up spending 4 hours there, really going almost anywhere possible. After that, we were sweaty and covered in dust and decided to go to the beach. So we hopped on the train again, and then a bus, and after getting off at the wrong stop and back and again off (my mistake), we finally got to THE BEACH. Big beach, not all too crowded, very nice sand, warm water, just perfect. We rented an umbrella and just enjoyed our time. But we ended up not staying as long as wanted, Mark started having a really painful toothache and we went to the beach first aid house where they gave him a shot of painkillers. Back in Rome he seemed to be doing a bit better, and then in the evening it started again and we decided to go to the Hospital emergency. Luckily Sara (one of our roommates) came along and was a great help. We first went to a hospital which sent us to another hospital, and there after over an hour of wait he finally got in. I wont go into details, they did what they could and told him to go to a dentist on Monday. We got back home past 1am. Sunday was just spent home, plus shopping for food and medication. Mark is on yogurt drink and soup until he gets to a doctor, so i really hope it doesnt take too long.
Today I'm back at work, and Mark has been fighting for a dentist all day long, they seem to all be on vacation somehow, and the hospital for some weird reason wont take him, etc etc... the embassy doesnt answer, and somehow it all seems against him. Let's hope tomorrow will go better, it's really urgent... At least he has all the insurance papers he needs and all.