We arrived at Da Vinci Airport some ungodly early hour of the morning. It wasn't really that early, but as my entire family lives in the Eastern Standard Timezone, a reasonable arrival time of 9am is, biologically, 3am for the rest of us. The customs check at Da Vinci Airport is non-existent. Well, that's not entirely true. The customs agent actually did look at my passport picture, which is more than the line to my left, where that agent was merely looking at the passport covers and waving people through. No stamp on our passport, nothing. Just a quick glance and we were on our way. Don't get me wrong, the security isn't non-existent. You do get careful scrutiny from the Italian police, who are armed with semi-automatic machine guns and are accompanied by German Shepherds who are straining at their leashes. Do try to avoid having the guns pointed at you without looking too jumpy. We took a train ride to the Termini train station in Rome, which is Rome's major train hub. From there it was a short walk to Hotel Adler. Hotel Adler is clean and efficient and nice. The rooms do have private bathrooms, which is a distinct plus. On the other hand, like most hotels in Italy, the towels are as thin (and absorbent) as bed sheets. After a quick freshen-up break, we headed outside into the cloudy, drizzly weather. This is weather that would follow us for most of the trip. More days than not were cloudy, and rain ranging from drizzles to brief downpours would show up on a regular basis. Considering that this trip was in April, we were not expecting this at all. We hadn't packed warmly enough, although we did have the foresight to bring umbrellas. (Whenever it started raining, umbrella vendors would show up out of the woodwork. Don't be afraid to haggle.) Rome is a city built out of Legos. To be more precise, it's a city that looks like someone has added on winding street after winding street, shoving in more buildings and creating more alleyways wherever they could. Whatever you do, DON'T RENT A CAR. Driving in Rome is akin to suicide for non-residents. Cars are bumper-to-bumper at all times, whizzing down alleys with inches to spare at incredibly high speeds. It's easy to understand why small cars like Fiats as well as mopeds are so popular. When walking through Rome, make sure you cross at the light because it might take you several hours to cross otherwise as you wait for a break in traffic. Don't be afraid to step into said traffic and hope they stop, for that matter. It's the Roman way.
We decided to go to the Vatican for our first day, since so much of it was indoors. One brief bus ride later and we were right outside St. Peter's. St. Peter's is dark and gloomy, with high and impressive ceilings. There's a tower we could have climbed, but after hearing about the several hundred steps we decided to give it a miss. In an amazingly short amount of time we were done with St. Peter's and looking for the Sistine Chapel.
Finding the Sistine Chapel is a bit of a challenge. Many maps place it right next to St. Peter's, and to some extent that's true. You can't get into it from St. Peter's, or even nearby. You've got to take a long walk in a gigantic circle to find the entrance to the Vatican Museum, which the Sistine Chapel is part of. People on the street managed to claim an amazingly large amount of ignorance on where the Vatican Museum was, but after splashing through far too many puddles we managed to find the Museum. Mind you, finding the Vatican Museum is only the first part of the challenge. The next challenge is finding the Sistine Chapel itself. To do so, you must wander through endless corridors that all start looking alike. There are some great attractions along the way, especially the Hall of Maps, which has a series of maps of Italy and beyond—really impressive stuff. None the less, it's a long walk through the Museum (which has an amazingly large amount of Roman and Egyptian pantheonic art on display for being the Vatican Museum) before you can find the Sistine Chapel.
I have to admit, the ceiling of the Chapel really is impressive, especially now that the cleaning process they finished a couple of years ago has restored the bright colors. It's staggering to think of the sheer amount of work that went into painting this work of art. Be prepared for guards to "shhhhh!" you every 30 seconds. Picture-taking, flash or no flash, is not permitted. Get used to this. That's not to say that you can't get your own pictures without buying a book, mind you. Someone I know who will remain nameless, on her first trip to the Sistine Chapel, "accidentally" left her video camera on and held it pointing up as she walked around. Sure, her chin was in the picture a lot, but she did get some good shots of Michelangelo's artwork. After we found the Sistine Chapel, we attempted to leave. It's amazing how difficult this can be as you follow misleading sign after misleading sign, wandering for hours on end in search of the exit. My mother was dying for a drink, to top it off, and all we could find were locked doors that supposedly led to a snack bar, or unplugged soda machines. Following our escape we took the bus back to our hotel—and found that it was packed solid. Everyone had gotten out of work and, it seemed, gotten into our bus. I was so tightly wedged into a corner of the bus I couldn't move and wondered how I was going to get out at my stop. We should have just taken the subway back (which probably would have been just as bad) but you live and learn. Dinner was at La Carbonara, which is the originator of carbonara pasta. I had to have it there and it was quite good. We got some gelato for dessert—I now understand why my mother raved about gelato for months after her last Italy trip. It's a thousand times better than ice cream, with incredibly rich and delicious flavors. My favorite gelato flavor was probably the riso gelato I got in Florence, which tasted like homemade rice pudding. Coconut and chocolate gelato (it's perfectly normal to have two flavors put into your cup or cone—they seem to expect it) was my combination of choice at most gelateries.
After dinner we wandered around for a while. We came to the Trevi Fountain, which is the fountain from the song and movie "Three Coins in the Fountain". It was beautiful at night, with the water making strange shadows on the statues surrounding it. My sisters and I all made wishes... we'll see if any of them come true. As we continued to walk we came across the Pantheon. It was closed, but just seeing the outside at night was impressive. One thing that really struck me was how much Rome has been built up; on one side you can see how much further down the original stairs went to the ground. Rome's a good foot higher in the area around the Pantheon. Who knows how much has been covered up elsewhere? Finally we headed back to the hotel. It had been a long day (with little sleep on the
plane) and as exciting it was to be in Rome, getting some sleep sounded awfully exciting
as well... |
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