Contents
- Preface
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam, Helmond
- Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
- Amsterdam, Bruges
- Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
- Berlin
- Berlin, Potsdam
- Berlin, Wansee
- Berlin, Prague
- Prague
- Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
- Vienna
- Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
- Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
- Munich, Innsbruck
- Innsbruck
- Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
- Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
- Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
- Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
- Zermatt
- Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
- Barcelona
- Barcelona, Sitges
- Barcelona
- Milan, Venice
- Venice
- Venice
- Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
- Cinque Terre, La Spezia
- Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
- Florence
- Florence
- Florence, Siena
- Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
- Rome
- Rome
- Rome, Sorrento
- Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
- Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
- Sorrento, Capri, Naples
- Naples, Bari
- Patras, Athens, Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
- Santorini
- Santorini, Athens
- Athens
- Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco
Prev :: Monday, 10 October 2005 :: Next
39. Rome
Photo Gallery
Another beautiful day this morning — surprisingly clear with a nice blue sky and very little air pollution. Crossing the street does require some care, but it isn't nearly as bad as I expected; by the end of my three days here, I was actually leading the Romans out into the street instead of the other way around! The worst part is crossing the major arterials, where the stoplights can be painfully slow to change. Almost as bad are narrow streets where cars barely have room to pass people without running them over. I would hate to live in a place where biking would be so unpleasant, but otherwise I do really like Rome. It's much greener and leafier than my expectations of a dry, dusty, dirty place.
I walked by the Colosseum and up through the ruins on the Palatine Hill. This is the smart place to buy a combination ticket for the Colosseum, because you avoid the long line there. With giant mega-stadiums everywhere nowadays, the Colosseum almost strikes me as surprisingly small. The interior is interesting; you can see where the emperors sat, and the floor has been removed so that you can see where the fierce animals were held in waiting below. Just to the west are the fascinating ruins of the Forum, the heart of the ancient empire. Further on I walked up to the top of the Capitoline Hill, with its beautiful square designed by Michelangelo, and around to the Vittorio Emanuele Monument — which the Romans seem to find in poor taste, a gleaming white marble "wedding cake". At its base, there is a considerable amount of pomp surrounding the tomb of an unknown soldier. You can also see that Rome has its own Leaning Tower to the north — a blocky medieval brick structure which points significantly away from the vertical — but it's less beautiful and far less famous than the one in Pisa.
I continued walking to Piazza Navona for some daytime pictures of its sculpted fountain. One of the best pizzas on my entire trip was a cold slice from a shop just to the west of the Pantheon — a pizza with topping in the form of a Caprese salad. The Pantheon is truly an unbelievable piece of classical architecture, with its huge dome and a hole in the middle open to the sky. I repeated my walk from last night in reverse, passing Trajan's column, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish Steps, before heading west across the Tiber on the metro.
From the metro I walked south to the Vatican and St Peter's. The vast square in front of the church is amazing, encircled by columns and statues. The line to get into the church is equally amazing, stretching most of the way across the square. But it moves reasonably fast, so that I only waited perhaps half an hour. I headed first for the top of the dome. This is a crowded climb, and it can be uncomfortable as the stairs proceed up between the interior and exterior walls of the dome, forcing you to walk sideways for a while. The view into the church is stunning. The view outside from the top is also grand, but it was one of the least pleasant places I had been because it was so crowded that I had to jostle for some time in order to get up to the edge. After coming down, I spent a while walking through the astoundingly vast cathedral. A service was going on, occupying only a tiny fraction of the floor space but providing a beautiful musical backdrop. A beam of sunlight shone through a circular window, lending a magical quality to the place. Definitely the best of all the cathedrals — having visited so many, I knew that this was in a way a climactic point in my trip, and sadly the trip would not go on forever but would come to an end in the foreseeable future. I walked back over the Tiber past the large round Castel San Angelo just as the sun was setting.
Tonight was once again time for laundry. I was told there was one near the studio, but I couldn't find it. So I ended up walking all the way back to Termini, where there are a few. I found one about two blocks southwest of the station, which also conveniently had Internet access. The staff were efficient, but brusque; they closed ten minutes early before 22:00 and I didn't even quite have time to fold my clothes. I headed back to the metro, but the line was now mysteriously closed! It had been a great day, but the night wasn't going well. By this point I was very hungry, so before walking all the way back to my studio, I stopped at a Roman restaurant, where I chatted with some German girls who were staying nearby. After that, it was good to get some sleep as it had been a long day.