Glimpse of Europe - Rome

Our flight to Rome from Paris was for abt 4 hrs.We had decided to take a flight via Zurich. We had reached Charles-de-Gaulle almost 2 hrs before departure. V had a small nap there at the airport and we reached Zurich on time. We barely had time to get down, pass through security check and then board into the next flight.It was 10.00pm by the time we reached Fiumicino airport (Leonardo-da-vinci airport). Rome is a very friendly place for tourists and it was evident soon after we landed in Rome and started walking towards the train station to catch the train to Termini station. Leonardo express train is a special express train service that runs every half an hour from Rome airport to Termini station. The ticket costs abt 11.50 euros per person. We also managed to buy a map at the ticket counter. My spouse was so excited that he started planning for the next 4 days in the train. I was busy trying to look out of the window… The view reminded me of some neat and clean places in India. Our hotel was there in a street called Via Milazzo, that was just abt 2-3 minutes from termini station. Most of the streets in Italy start with “Via” like Via Marsala, Via Milazzo, Via Appia antica etc. One can spot a lot of Piazzas (squares) like Piazza de trevi, Piazza Navona, Piazza Venezia in Rome and each one has a beautiful fountain or a statue of a man riding a horse and lots of coffee shops (bars) and pizza restaurants around. In Paris the name of streets contained the word Rue de la villette, rue des praires. Some of the bigger roads are named as boulevard and avenues.
By the time we reached our hotel it was just abt midnight, but the uncle in the hotel was kind enough to stay awake and get things organized for us. He didn’t know English, but even then we could make out that he was very kind and tried his level best to make us understand what he was trying to say – either in the form of gestures, hand movements or broken English, he was a perfect host.The first thing he told us when he came to know that we were from India was “Sonia Gandhi”. Me and V exchanged a glance at each other before getting back to our room. The hotel where we were staying had only abt 6 rooms, but each room was maintained very neatly and they served good breakfast.

Front View of Colloseum.

Next day, we got metro ticket valid for 24 hrs (only for 4 euros) and first headed to visit the mighty Colloseum. The colloseum was built in 800 AD and it was worth appreciating the fact that Romans had taken a lot of effort in maintaining the monument. We hired an audio set and it was interesting to hear the significance of each and every small thing. We had to return the headset within 2 hrs, so we listened to the comments of only the most important places. From there we had a quick lunch (cheese and spinach sandwich) and then started walking towards Roman Forum. We visited nearby Palantine hill and walked through the Roman forum. ' V ' was damn excited and took lots and lots of pics.. I was busy admiring practically everything there with my jaws almost dropped down. We walked a long distance. From Roman Forum, we walked till Piazza Venezia and from there decided to take a bus to Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a bus for abt 20 min, when someone told us we could walk down there rather than waiting to get into a bus. With the map in our hands, we started walking towards the fountain and simultaneously planning what to do for the next day. When we reached Trevi fountain, it was almost getting dark. There were a lot of people there. Lots of them were throwing a coin into the fountain facing backwards. It is believed that if one throws a coin into the fountain facing behind the fountain, then one definitely comes back to Rome again. From there we walked to a nearby shopping mall and then returned back to termini station in a bus. We walked on the eastern side on the station looking for a restaurant that serves good vegetarian food. We had food at a lavish restaurant and returned back to hotel. The sun set by 5.00 pm and hence we decided to start out day much earlier so that we could enjoy more during sunlight.
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Trevi fountain at Piazza de Trevi.
Next day we were out of the hotel by 7.00 am and we went to visit Cataombs of Domitilla. We got down at a place much earlier and had to walk for almost 1 km to reach the place. Catacombs served as underground cemeteries for Roman Christians in the early years, where Christianity was still not official in Rome. Domitilla is almost spread over 20 kms and 4-5 floors below the ground. It was a bit scary to travel below with just abt 3-4 ppl. But we still managed to complete the tour in 2 hrs time. The same day we also saw a moview based on the history of Rome - how rome was formed etc etc. After taking a few pics outside, we took a bus to see the Pantheon. From there we visited Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps and Borghese garden. We hired a cycle to see the garden and from there went to Piazza del Popolo and from there went to a Chinese restaurant close to our hotel for dinner. It was an eventful day..

View of St. Peter's Cathedral just after sunset.
Next day we headed straight to Vatican city to see the magnificent Square and Basilica of St.Peters (Piazza San Pietro). We climbed up till Michael Angelo’s cupola and thoroughly enjoyed the view there.The view of Vatican gardens was something worth mentioning. We had lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant. We happened to meet the owner of Orange County, a famous resort nearby Mysore in the same restaurant. After lunch, we went to the nearby Post office where we saw lot of people sending postcards to their contries. Vatican city is the smallest independent country in the whole world and apparently they have the most efficient postal service. We too sent 3 post cards from there and then walked down the street and visited Castel St’Angelo. It took us more than 2-3 hrs to complete viewing the palace. From the terrace, we could see a lot of places like Stadio Olympico, Vatican garden, Vatican museu, lots of Piazzas and Borghese gardens. There are a lot of Villas (parks / gardens) in Rome and that too very big ones spread across the city. Villa Borghese is the biggest garden situated right in the middle of the city and is spread over an area more than10 kms. We got our names made from a metal wire nr Castel S Angelo and from there took a bus straight back to Termini. The bus journey was almost for 30 minutes and we sort of got a city tour. I almost fell asleep in the bus. My spouse woke me up soon after reaching Termini. We had dinner at the same Chinese restaurant – hot rice and a vegetable dish and ofcourse Chinese Tea.

View of Vatican garden, parliament house from top of St.Peter's
Next day again we left early in the morning and headed to Vatican city to visit Vatican Museum. During this season, the museum is open only from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm. There is a huge rush to visit the museum. We reached there by 8.45 am and there was already half km queue from the ticket counter. We had breakfast while waiting there and V managed to get some hot coffee for us. We were approached by a lot of “GUIDES” who promised us to take us inside the museum, without having to wait in the queue. We chose not to go as we had planned to hire an audio guide and moreover we wanted to see only certain specific things and move out from there early since we had to fly out of Rome that day. Vatican Museum was amazing!! We saw some original paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci including the famous Magi and The last supper. There was not much light inside the room, probably not to spoil the original paintings, but they were all very huge and wonderful. The line to visit Sistine Chapel was another long one and we started walking through corridors that had paintings on the ceilings and also on the walls. One painting worth mentioning that we saw was Jesus Christ having dinner with two disciples. The painting looks the same when viewed from different directions. Be in from right, left or even straight, the painting looks the same and Jesus appears to be looking at you straight in the eye. This painting depicts Optical illusion in a perfect way. Another painting shows the presence of different famous scientists – Socrates, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Michael Angelo and also Leonardo Da Vinci. We had to pass through different Salle (halls) to reach the chapel. There was a room where secret meeting were held. Finally we reached sistine chapel. The room was full of people and there was absolutely no place to sit down. The room was very silent despite of so many ppl present.

Painting on the ceiling on the way to sistine chapel.

The whole ceiling was painted by Michael Angelo, a genius architect in those days of Rome. The most famous painting there is life and death, which is being predicted all over. The 3-D effect of the painting is so good, that sometimes it is difficult to find out if it is a piece of architecture or a painting. From there we had a quick lunch and went back to Termini. We got the ticket for Leonardo express and went back and checked out from hotel and took the express train to airport. We had to walk for almost 15 minutes from station to terminal. Our next destination was Vienna – Austria

Glimpse of Europe - Paris

Chiang Mai Restaurant in Havenstraat.

Friday was the last day of training and all of us were busy trying to organize our consignments to be sent back. I had managed to pack 3-4 box full of things back to India. We all decided to meet up at C’s apartment one last time before saying a final Goodbye. Our trainer also met us there and after chatting for a while, we headed towards Surya, an Indian restaurant in Hilversum. Unfortunately the restaurant was packed and we had not done a booking earlier. From there we went to Chiang Mai, a Thai restaurant in Havenstraat. This place serves awesome food and we all enjoyed a lot. We also read the slam book details and it was nice to know what everyone thought of us etc etc. It was getting cold there and by 12.00 am we all reached back our apartment after giving each other a goodbye hug. It was an emotional moment for me.

Next day we woke up early and headed towards the open market to do some final shopping. We picked up freshly roasted nuts, chocolates and then visited Hooglievet, Yiee Maee, Albert Heijn and other places. Our final destination was a pet shop in Hilvertshof. This shop is one of my favorite and I always admire their collection of pets, especially hampstead and pet accessories – ranging from simple cages to lavish sofa and bed sets for dogs and cats, the Dutch really have a taste for everything.





Garden of our apartment. Church view in the background


After a quick lunch, we finished off with packing and finally checked out from the apartment and sat in the taxi to go to airport. We reached Schipol airpot by 4.30 and after checking in our luggage, we roamed around in the airport. It was nice to look around and after having a generous cup of Coffee in Starbucks, we went to the gate and waited there. We traveled by air france and the flight was not so full. We had the whole row for ourselves and the best part was there was a man who lay down on all the three seats completely….Such things happen in Europe too!! Just abt 10-15 minutes before landing we could a brightly lit Paris from far off. We could even see Eiffel sparkling from the flight. After landing safely at Charles-de-Gaulle, we found our way outside the airport.

We came to know there that the metro system was not functioning due to some strike going on there. From there we walked till a nearby bus stop. We saw a couple of buses moving there, but none of them stopped. We asked a Police man there abt reaching our hotel area. He told us that we could reach there by either a taxi or by taking a special bus service to arc de triumph and getting down at a nearby place. We had to drag our luggages downstairs and walk for some distance before reaching the bus stop place. After waiting for abt 10 minutes, an empty bus arrived there and we got into the bus. The ticket cost us 13 euros each. Our luggage was put into a cabin below the bus by a watchman kind of person. We reached Paris centre quite fast, as the bus took the outer ring road to reach arc de triumph. There was a lot of traffic on the way becos of the absence of metro, but still we managed to reach our stop by 20 minutes. We got down at a place that seemed near to our hotel from the map. We waited to get into a bus from there, nut couldn’t find one. Also we didn’t know which direction to proceed to reach out hotel. We then hopped into a cab and he took us to the right place…inspite of the fact that we couldn’t speak French and the cabbie couldn’t speak English. We just told him montmarte and hotel mercure. We checked in at the hotel and picked up a few brochures and made an itinerary for the next 2 days.




View of Eifel Tower.

Louvre museum view from one of the rooms.

Basilica da sacre front view.

The next day, we started from the hotel by 9.00 am and had our breakfast which was exemplary. We headed to see the mighty Eiffel tower. It was a chilly day and we could feel cold winds at the ground itself. The Eiffel tower was not visible beyond 2nd level. But we were still excited to go till the third level. As the elevator moved, it felt like a plane ride becos everything below looked so tiny. We took some pics at the 2nd level and headed to wards the third level. It was very wind up there and I just managed to stay at one place where there was minimum wind. My spouse got adventurous there and went one round, took some snaps there. Infact we even noticed ice formation on the grills. We couldn’t see anything below becos of poor visibility, but the experience was quite amazing.


Later we realized that the eifel was visible after 1pm when there was bleak sunshine. From there we headed towards a metro station to go to Louvre Museum. After waiting there for more than 20 minutes, we realized it would be wiser to take a bus. We walked for sometime there and finally hopped into a bus, kept track in the map and finally got down at a place, had a quick lunch and then started walking towards the louvre. We had listed down a lot of things to see and the best ones were the paintings of Leonardo da vinci - Mona Lisa. Until I read abt the painting in detail in Da Vinci Code, I thought the Mona Lisa was just another painting and always wondered what was so special in it that it became so famous when there were so many other beautiful paintings in th eLouvre…. Maybe I will have to write another blog to explain the details.. Then we saw Napolean apartments, the Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Roman architecture. There was Hammurabi code and lots more. In the end, we managed to cover just abt 1/3rd of the museum by sprinting from one floor to another with the help of maps.

Notradame at 5.30 pm
It was dark by about 4.30 pm and then we decided to take a walk along the river Seine. On the way we saw lot of artists busy with their work. We also saw a lot of people traveling with their tricycles or skates. Then we reached Notradame. After spending some time there, I bought a jacket to keep myself warm and then we walked into a street full of restaurants. There were atleast 4-5 streets in that area, that was full of restaurants of all kinds – Greek, Italian, French, Japanese Chinese and more. Finally we went to a Pakistani restaurant and had Veg Falafel. From there we managed to walk till a nearby metro and luckily got into a train till Place-de-clichy. We walked along the road to see Moulin Rouge and found that there was a huge line to get into the opera show. We smiled at each other after looking at the rate per show and coolly walked back to the hotel.




Next day, we started the day by trekking up a small hilly place to reach Basilica da Sacre. This church was behind our hotel and we walked there. We even climbed up till the topmost level top have a look at massive Paris. It was a wonderful view. Basilica is situated a higher level and hence we could view almost complete Paris from there. From there we walked to the metro and found that there was no movement of trains. We decided to walk till La-fayette.




La-Fayette is the best shopping complex I have ever seen. When I saw it for the first time, I was awestruck and my jaws dropped down again when I saw it for the second time. There are 7 levels of shopping for everything- kids, women, formal, sports, accessories, perfumes and lots more. There are 2 more such shopping complex in the same road owned by the same person. One is a 5 storied complex full of house hold accessories and furniture and the other is more for men’s wear, accessories and electronic goods. The most interesting was the window display themes that faced the people walking in that street. We decided to skip lunch and then take a cab to our hotel from there. It cost us abt 12 euros and soon after we reached the hotel, we had some bread , muffins and juice that we had carried from hilversum and then took a cab to reach airport. It cost us abt 40 euros to reach airport.




After checking in at the swiss air terminal, we soon passed the x-ray checkin. V had forgot to pack his deospray in the checkin baggage and the ppl at the terminal threw away the spray. We had reached there almost 2 hrs before the departure of the flight. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do there as there were no shops nor restaurants nearby. So we had to just sit there and wait for our boarding. We reached Zurich and hardly got time to look around there as we had to board into another flight and we were getting quite late. There were lot of Indians there in the airport and just before boarding a swiss air staff lady approached me and started putting a tag on my bag and told me that she will not let me take the bag as hand bag and she will checkin the same. After a small argument with her and telling her that there were laptops inside, she then let us inside the aircraft. Swiss people are tough and we just experienced it. We reached Rome (Fiumicino airport) by 10.00 pm and after taking our luggage we walked towards the train station. The next posting will cover our visit to Rome.