Hi,
I am cotinuing my description from my last article: Trip t Italy-Truly memorable Part1 in General section of Italy.
We reached Rome early morning on 10th at 7:00AM.
Rome is situated on seven hills, so it is really not that easy to walk through the city. Although most of the ancient Rome can be covered on feet. Roma Termini is the main railway station here. We took a one-day travel card, which is valid on almost all buses, trams and metros. We soon checked into the hotel and then headed towards our first destination Vatican Museums. All our enthusiasm came to a halt when we saw a long queue approximately 500m to 1 KM to go inside the Museum. We kept walking till we reached at the rear end of the queue. Anyway, after 2 long hours of wait we finally got inside the Museum.
This Museum is especially famous for Sistine Chapelwhere Michelangelo worked on the ceiling for 4 years and made beautiful paintings. Here whole of the ceiling is covered with the beautiful works of Michelangelo.
Then we headed towards the world's smallest country, Vatican City,(0.2 square miles (0.44 km2) in area), where the famous St. Peter'schurch is situated. We could not go inside the church that day as it was closed for Easter preparations. St.Peter's is the church where Pope comes to take the mass.
Then we moved towards the St. Angelo castle. It is said that Pope used to hide in this castle at the time of war. A tunnel at the top of this castle connects to the Vatican.
Then it was the time to go to the famous Piazza Navona. This place consists of 3 fountains of which the center one is world class, the fountain of 4 rivers.
Then we moved towards Pantheon. The Pantheon ('Temple to All Gods') is the largest dome in Rome (yes larger than St. Peter's.) It has 10m opening (oculus) in the roof through which the light comes. At the time of rain it is believed to be a quite good site to see as water drips through the opening.
By this time it was evening and we headed towards the Trevi fountain. It was a very crowded place. It is famous for that with the back to the fountain if we throw a coin in the fountain then it brings good luck. Throwing 2 coins guarantees that you'll return to Rome and throwing three means you will get married to an Italian girl/boy. Most of us threw 2 :-).
We waited there till dusk, as this fountain looks fabulous in the night. After the photography session we started going back to Pantheon as most of the places in Rome are worth seeing in the night as well. Then we went back to the Vatican city via Piazza Navona and St. Angelo Castle. After dinner it was already 11 PM and we took a train and soon went back to our Hotel.
After seeing Rome I believe that why was it said that Rome is not built in a day.
The very next day we started our journey at 8:30 AM and reached Colosseum at about 9:00. There we took a guided tour and went inside to witness the stadium where the famous Roman Gladiators used to fight for their life. Many Gladiators used to die every day. There once had a festival of 100 days in which the Gladiator used to fight with other Gladiators or with animals. At the end of the fight it was up to the emperor, whether the loser will die or live.
We got our photographs clicked with one the men dressed in form of a Gladiator.
Around the Colosseum were the famous Roman Forums, who used to be the market place, financial center, seat of government etc. It is all in ruins now as only the pillars have remained of the old buildings, but it still speaks for its grandness.
After passing through the Roman Forums, we went to the Piazza Venizia, where there was an immense marble monument called Vittoriano, which looks like a Typewriter. It is a tomb of an unknown solider.
By this time we were really tired and decide to take a bus to Vatican as we had missed St. Peter's church the very first day. We went inside the church. It was a huge and fabulous church. Inside the church is a marble statue of St Peters and its feet are now so thin as every person coming to this church touches his feet for wishes. Soon we came out and after lunch and a bit of shopping took a train to Piazza Di Spagna, which has the Spanish Steps. This piazza is irregular shaped piazza. The shape of the fountain here is that of a leaking boat with water coming out from many places.
It had already started getting dark, so after changing buses and trains we went back to Piazia Venizia and then to Colosseum and witnessed their beauty in the night.
The next day early morning we left Rome and headed towards the city of Florence. The train journey took about 2 hours. We were in Florence for about 2-3 hours, in which we saw a few churches and a famous bridge with wooden jewelry shops on it.
In the afternoon we started our journey to Pisa, where is situated one the Seven Wonders of the World, The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is basically a bell tower. Its construction started and stopped several times because of the wars with Florence at that time. The marshy nature of the land was responsible for this lean in the tower. It has 297 steps and going to the top is really tiring. At the top we had a photography session.
General Tips about Rome:
1 If u are a vegetarian, u have 3 options in pizza's: Vegetariana, Margarita and Fungi. Please be sure to ask 2-3 times that the pizza does not contain meat or fish.
2 Beware of pick Pockets and snatchers.
3 Do check the opening times of Vatican Museums before planning.
4 Do see Vatican City,Colosseum,Trevi fountain and Piazza Venezia in night as well.
5 Do not forget to bargain when buying Sovereigns.
6 In Rome too it is better to take a day travel card.
These four days in Italy were probably the quickest, as there was so much to see with very little time. You must be knowing Italy for many things but it is also famous for the icecreams and in a good Italian weather it is really very hard to resist from having one, so we had lots n lots of these.
We came back to UK with all good and unforgettable memories of people and places of a magnificent country called ITALY.
CHOW...
Gaurav
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.