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.
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
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