Colosseum, Rome
August 7-10
On Saturday morning, we packed our backpacks and headed to the train station in Monterosso destined for Florence, Italy. Florence is known for its famous galleries and churches yet after a few moments of standing in front of the train departure schedule, we contemplated our decision and the idea of crowded museums, sweating in long lines with other tourists hoping to do the exact same thing and decided to take the fast train to Rome. This is the luxury of having a Euro Rail Pass, no itinerary and no hotel reservations.
Before getting to Rome we had to change trains in Pisa; we thought, ‘great opportunity to see the leaning tower! Let’s jump off and check out it out then we’ll continue to Rome.’ Seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, we should have skipped it. We walked for about 1 ½ miles (and it was FREAKIN HOT!) until we finally found it. Yes, it was pretty cool to see, but after 5 minutes of checking it out and watching all the tourists take pictures of their family members pretending to push the tower over, or hold it up with their hands…we were over it and ready to get back on the train. We stopped for refreshing lemonade and a crappy pizza before making the trek back to the train. We got a little lost heading back and I (Adam) led us in a big circle; but we finally made it. To sum it up, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, ain’t worth Pisa! Skip it.
After our brief stop in Pisa, we were back on the train and headed to Rome, the capital of Italy. We arrived around 1:00 pm and headed to the desk called “Hotel Reservations – Last Minute”. A friendly Italian woman helped us find a decent hotel centrally located around Rome’s well-known monuments and museums.
Rome is a treasure chest of history. While we saw many amazing historic sites, I will highlight some of our favorites. Our first historic site, the Trevi Fountain, or Fontana di Trevi, tucked in between buildings and at the junction of three roads is one of Rome’s largest and most beautiful fountains. Otherwise known as Aqua Virgo, this fountain is one of the aqueducts to supply water to ancient Rome.
Next, the Colosseum, originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, is located in the center of Rome and considered one of the most famous pieces of architecture built in Rome. Constructed by the Flavian dynasty under the rule of Nero in 70 AD and completed in 72 AD, this giant iconic piece of history hosted 50,000 spectators to gladiator fights (yes, like the movie Gladiator), battle reenactments and later, housing, a fortress and a Christian Shrine.
Today it stands as a historic piece of the Imperial Rome. Its partial ruins are due to past earthquakes and stone-robbers. With its strong ties to the Catholic Church, religious processions are hosted at certain times of the year such as Good Friday.
Last, but not least, our visit is Vatican City, a sovereign state within the city of Rome along the Tiber River and established in 1929 with only 800 residents. Vatican City is ruled by the bishop of Rome, the Pope, and Catholic clergyman from various nationalities and the home of the Pope. Adjacent to the city is both Saint Peter’s Basilica and the infamous Sistine Chapel, two places Adam and I visited.
The St. Peter’s Basilica is a late Renaissance Church and has the largest interior of any Christian Church in the world holding over 60,000 people. It has been regarded as one of the holiest Christian sites and believed to be the place of death for St. Peter himself. Decorated in marble, surrounded by famous paintings (Michelangelo) and contains a large number of tombs of popes.
The final historic site, the Sistine Chapel, the best known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. The chapel is famous for both its architecture and decoration of frescos developed by Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, who painted over 12,000 square feet beginning in 1508. His most famous, The Last Judgement, is believed to be his best achievement, includes a series of frescoes depicting the life of both Moses and Christ and began in 1533 while finishing in 1541.
Bari, Italy -August 10-11
We left Rome for the long journey to the port town of Bari; this is where we would catch the ferry to Greece. This 9.5 hour series of train rides took us through the southern part of Italy, stopping regularly in small towns. At one stop, a few of the locals seemed surprised to see Americans and welcomed us asking where we were from, helping us find our way to Bari and provided us with snacks. Once arriving in Bari, we frustratingly realized we missed the boat out of Italy by 40 minutes and ended up having to stay in a dumpy hotel before we could leave for Greece the next day.
We woke up to a new day and new attitudes; we were ready for Greece and put Italy behind us. We enjoyed the many wonderful and beautiful cities Italy offered, yet in Rome, we felt that the people we continued to meet were hard to get to know and we were tired of consistently having miscalculations with our bill every time we ate. In many parts of Europe, there is a charge for what feels like everything! They charge you for bread service as well as if you sit down at their outdoor seating spots. To give you an example, we went to a restaurant in Rome that offered a unique Italian ice-cream dessert called Tartufo. If you took the ice-cream to go, it would cost you $5 Euros, if you sat down at a table outside, it would cost you $10 Euros for the dessert plus a service charge (around $2-3 Euros) for the waiter or waitress to serve it to you – basically move it 10 feet from the restaurant’s ice-cream bar to the table. Hmm, it wasn’t a hard decision to simply order it to-go and then enjoy it on a park bench in front of the Navanno Fountain.
We checked out of our hotel in Bari and headed to the port to secure two seats on an overnight ferry to Igoumenitsa, Greece. Standing in line, we met a nice, young 20-year old traveler from Fort Collins named Alex. After exchanging a few travel stories, we headed to enjoy lunch at the ‘Titti Twister Pizzeria’ (which was actually the best pizza we had while in Italy) and then a dip in the Adriatic Sea to cool off from the sweltering hot day. We arrived at the local beach just down from the port, and in less than five minutes of being there, a few locals began to warn us while pointing to their eye that we needed to keep close watch of our backpacks. As a few shady locals circled us and our packs, we decided to quickly enjoy the water and then get the heck out of there and head back to port.
As we waited to board the ferry, we flipped through pages of their brochure describing the trip to Greece -- “enjoy a goodnight’s rest and then wake up in Greece” - this sounded perfect. We boarded the ferry and headed to our “airline” seats as described on our ticket. The options for passengers were: deck, airline seat or cabin (depending on your ticket). Because of our first-class Euro rail pass, we were delighted to not be sleeping out on the deck for the eve and headed for the airline seats.
The room with the airline seats, which they truly were, was set up like a small movie theater with two sections of roughly 60 seats per section and a wall with a flat screen TV separated each section. For the rest of the eve, Ad, myself and over 100 other people did not enjoy a “goodnight’s rest.” Our evening included but was not limited to: endless snoring, people talking, cell phones ringing, text message alerts and three old Italian men having a conversation as if no one else was around.
Igoumenitsa, Greece – Thursday, August 12
We arrive at 6:00 am to the sun rising in Igoumenitsa. With less than 3 hours of sleep, we immediately head to a café in the boat terminal to enjoy a morning cappuccino and Greek pastry (I had no idea what it was) and then head to the local bus station. We left the terminal and immediately felt completely lost and confused by all the Greek signage – a series of confusing symbols that make no sense, it’s like setting your computer font to ‘Wingdings’ and typing a message. A few friendly locals directed us to the bus station for our next journey, a 3.5 hour bus ride to Kalambaka, our final destination for the evening and the home to the unique monument of Meteora.
As the only Americans on our bus, we joined locals on our first ride through the winding roads and mountainous terrain. Up hills, around curves (some littered with shrines dedicated to the unfortunate who overshot the guardrail), over hilltops with Thievery Corporation playing in the background (yes, we had good tunes on the bus ride in Greece), the bus driver drove until he suddenly pulled over to the side of the road, grabbed a few blue plastic bags and handed them to a local passenger who thought she might “toss her cookies”. After a few moments, the local regained herself and requested that the driver proceed more slowly through the turns.
Tomorrow, I will share stories and pics of Meteora!
