Once we awoke in our bunks on the Riviera Night Train (we double check all our time zones and our clock now, after the Normandy incident), we began to ‘wash’ and get dressed, each basically staying in our bunk as the other got out. Lindi used the ladder; it hangs on a rod, and nests near the wall, and then angles out to climb up or down. We got as cleaned up as we could and got ready to leave. The attendants are pretty insistent that you get ready before it arrives and as soon as it stops you are to get off. We found this very similar to the ferry – time is money, go get out of our way!
You may recall from the last entry that we didn't sleep well - frankly, we didn't sleep much at all. The constant stopping and starting made us crazy. Consequently, we were fairly zombied by the whole thing as we left the train.
We rolled ourselves and our luggage
into Rome
station – wow, that’s a big place. We were both nervous inside and just outside
the station as we pictured pickpockets everywhere, and it’s such a crowded
place (in my opinion a not-well-secured place, either.) We rolled our stuff out
and down the street, and then recovered our maps and instructions about how to get
to the Hotel Aberdeen. This is one of the only real hotels on our trip, as most
of the others are either a flat (like in London
and Paris), a bed-and-breakfast, or
a farm-stay. We rolled our bags for three or four blocks and then into the
hotel. We had been told that check in was in the afternoon, but even though it
was only 10.00 (10am) we went over
there anyway, even if we only would check our bags and go elsewhere (which was
our initial plan). We were so pleased to hear that our room was ready, and we
could go right up. Hallelujah! We could now clean up and get ready for our
13.00 tour of the Vatican
in our own room, and that’s just what we did. We went right up, and here's what we saw:
Our room at the Hotel Aberdeen was nice. Well appointed and with a cool view of Rome city streets. Nice bathroom as well; quite big and with its own window to the street. Our TV turned out later to be broken but we didn’t really care much – it’s of interest to note that we have started by this time to be somewhat interested in what’s going on out in the world, so TV a few minutes a day or full-time internet would be nice. Because we stayed in more country environments, we’ve missed that access to the internet… but it’s worth it for where we get to stay. The big disappointment for our hotel is that they did NOT have internet access directly in the room, but instead only make a few computers available downstairs, and this is what is commonly referred to here as an ‘internet point’(similar to an internet café). The room features a breakfast, like most hotels of this type, and the breakfast was good each morning.
With such good luck in checking in early, we cleaned up and got ready to go back out. "Yes" is the answer to those of you thinking that we should be mighty tired at this point, after a night of train ride with very little sleep, but interestingly we were energized by the shower and were dedicated to the idea of getting as much out of Rome as we could – "we can sleep the next night". We used this philosophy at all our wonderful sites, through injury and weather and fatigue. Since it was still pretty early, we headed out for a lunch (at what would be considered a slightly early hour here) because our tour runs from 13.00 to 17.00 or so, and no time for anything else. We went looking for a recommended smaller café called ‘Target’, but couldn’t locate it. Instead we found a little café in the Piazza Repubblica, but the name we can’t remember now. The food was OK, but we obviously were now in ‘tourist land’ – they all speak fair English and the attitude wasn’t good. The food was fairly cheap for a tourist location, and was fairly good. Surprising.
Because we needed to get ourselves to the Vatican tour, we finished up and made our way toward what we hoped would be a taxi stand. It’s interesting that taxis are everywhere, but it’s many times hard to find one on the street. Bcause of that, taxi stands concentrate folks together for the benefit of the taxis, and the more this happens, the less the taxis just troll for riders on normal streets. So, once we realized we couldn’t easily locate a taxi stand near us, and that we didn’t have the time to go back to the hotel for a special phone reservation, we continued our walk back to the train station – you may recall that the hotel is only a few blocks from the train/bus station and this turned out to be greatly convenient without being painful in any other way. Imagine now the main taxi stand in one of Europe’s biggest stations – yes, there was a huge line. We began to be concerned about the time and our tour reservation, but we saw that the taxis were streaming in, and the line was moving pretty good. Unlike so much of Italy, there was a real and proper queue (line) and everyone pretty much respected it. It took us only about 10 or 12 minutes to get to the front, and we were on our way!
Is traffic crazy in Rome? Uh… yea. Not only are there no street lane markings, and drivers go way faster than they need to, but they also tailgate horrendously. Further, locals step off curbs anywhere expecting cars and busses to stop for them. As you might think, this is a wild ride for the uninitiated passenger in a taxi.
Our ride was strange, as it was hard to tell if the driver was going the exact direction needed, and we recommend having a map available in the taxi so the driver known that YOU know where you are going. On the other hand, the drivers generally know the ins and outs better than you do, so expect some slight variation of route. In our case, the traffic around lunch was horrendous, and we really never figured out why. Our driver didn’t speak English, and like all the others was on the cell phone 101% of the time, but my questions toward the end made it clear we were almost late for our tour.
Those of you who know us, and especially me, know that a tour doesn’t sound right. We have assiduously avoided tours of any kind for a lot of reasons, but this one that Lindi found was perfect. An expert on Italy, Rome and the Vatican takes a maximum of six folks on a 4-5 hour tour of the entire facility, knowing the places to stop and the places to skip over for priority, and all the stories in between. It absolutely tripled our enjoyment of the Vatican. The place is called Context Tours, and the person we had was Timothy Allen – he knew so much about the religious, political, historical and art aspects of everything we saw and was very outgoing with the data, and answered all our questions, that the experience was phenomenal. We later reviewed the terminology the guide used about himself, and realized that tours of this type are always couched in religious terms and not in commercial terms – interesting.
Back to the cab ride; the cabbie figured out how late we were, and got us to within a (long) block of our location, and stopped. He pointed, we paid, and we started jogging up the hill to the meet point, just outside the Vatican City wall. Even though we were 10-12 minutes late, it turns out we were the first customers of 2 full tours! Ridiculous! We stood aside and waited for all the other knuckleheads who either weren’t as careful as we were, or were stuck in the same awful traffic we were, and they finally started streaming in. At some point (perhaps 30-40 minutes late) our tour finally assembled with Tim – one of our three couples never made it, so we had an even more intimate four-to-one ratio with the guide. Nice.
We started in the line. It stretched to infinity, it seemed. But, it went in pretty quickly. Again, because we were late getting started and the fixed closing time of the Sistine Chapel, it would turn out to be more crowded and the tour would be shorter. It didn’t matter so much, and we heard later that the day we were there was slightly less crowded than other ones – partly this is coincidence and partly a result of some careful Lindi planning. The line was only about 30 minutes, so we actually got in by 14.00 (2pm).
I don’t know where to start in my description of the interior of the Vatican City. Each view and exposure to art, history and architecture (as well as the interesting politics behind all of it) builds to a higher and higher crescendo. The courtyards, the various ancient Roman artifacts rescued and protected by the church over the hundreds and hundreds of years, the sculptures and paintings either collected or *commissioned* by the various Pontiffs over that time, and the exquisite environment within which they are placed… well that simply can’t be captured easily in text or pictures, but I invite you to read about the interior of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. The latter is an awe-inspiring space, festooned with art pieces (paintings, reliefs and full sculptures, each of which could start a museum on its own) surrounded by scary amounts of gold and marble. As you walk around this building (size) you see that the entire floor and nearly all of the first three stories in height is solid marble, of various colors. Seriously, I’m usually a talkative guy, and I was stunned and speechless. A lot of the trip was that way, but the architecture, both ancient and more recent (but still very old), was the most awe-inspiring to me.
I took a few pictures inside the Chapel and the Basilica, but I wasn’t supposed to. The tour was informative and we enjoyed it very much. We ended up in front of St. Peters in the square. Wow.
We left the square and went over to a taxi stand to make our way home. Where the previous one we stood in was well organized, this one was not. There were a number of people who had come over to the area together and were attempting to be civil, but a number of locals were trying to push their way into a taxi before everyone else, and Lindi and I didn’t care for that at all… so, once the others got their taxis, we went into a more aggressive mode ourselves and got the next taxi more forcefully, or else we would be standing there still. Luckily Lindi didn’t have to hurt anyone.
We arrived back at our hotel fairly exhausted, as you might imagine, after the overnight with little sleep and the immediate 5 hour tour. It really took the wind out of our sails… we wandered just around the corner from the Hotel Aberdeen for a quick meal, of pizza of course! The Punta e Vigolaro, a small pizzaria just down the street, had some great pizzas, and it was quick. We also had some Italian beers, but sorry we have started missing the exact names of the alcohol for the report; many apologies. We finally headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night – we tried for a few minutes to get a turn on the ‘internet point’ computers but no luck, as others were using them. Also, I couldn’t find a single open internet access point, and this surprised me in that area.
Back upstairs to the room, and… crash. So ends day 18.
DW
Excellent detailed commentary (how could we expect anything less from you?). Big question: with all the typing do you actually have anytime to SEE anything?
(BTW Andy said we should try to swamp you with emails)
T1
Posted by: T1 | 10/02/2007 at 12:01 PM
[this is good] wow, what a good travel experience youve got here! very interesting! :)
Posted by: travel buff | 04/01/2008 at 06:54 PM
Hey Thanks for the comment. Please keep watching as we intend to FINALLY finish the updates someday... sheesh
Posted by: David W. Smith | 04/06/2008 at 03:53 PM
[this is good] I am so envious of you guys... :) They're beautiful photographs.
Posted by: Eindoodle | 05/19/2008 at 10:35 PM