Italy trip report (long, with pics)

[SomethingClever]

Don't keep us waiting too long for the rest of this TR.

The wife and I are scheduled to arrive in Milan on Oct 11...

[ThaSaltCracka]

NolanFan, check out QFC for meat on a stick.

Keep it up man! Clarknasty style is how I like this TR's.

SC, shoulda played football man!

[nolanfan34]

Rome (cont)

After wandering the streets of Rome a bit, we planned out the rest of our day during lunch. In a city like Rome, with only two days to check it out, it's tough to decide what to see or do. One of the nice things about the Rick Steves books is for most of the towns, he gives a couple of self guided walking tours with some basic history, so you can check things out at your own pace.

Speaking of this, Rome introduced us to the "flock of sheep" style of tour, with the guide at the front holding up some sort of windsock to keep everyone aligned. Some of the groups even had...shudder....nametags. Wow, I can see why for some people it's easier to take one of these tours, where you just pay your money and all of the details are taken care of. Personally though, I can't imagine being stuck with the same group of strangers for that length of time.

Somehow I managed to not get any pictures of this phenomenon, but sadly it was always easy to pick out the American tours - just look for the fattest, most clueless looking group. Hate to say it, but that seemed to be the case wherever we went.

OK, back to the trip.

In the afternoon, we decided to hit the Vatican. We're not churchgoers at all, but there was an appeal to check out in person something like the Sistine Chapel and the square. We hopped on the subway and easily found the stop. The subway is certainly a great way to get around Rome, and was another part that made the Roma pass well worth it.

mrs nolanfan at the Vatican:



We ended up taking the Vatican Museum tour, which ends in the Sistine Chapel. My 2 cents? Make sure you do this tour after a full night of sleep, because it's looooonnnggg. Room after room of paintings, etc, which were really interesting, but the mrs in particular was sleepwalking through the last few rooms as we wound our way to the Sistine Chapel.

A nice feature of the Vatican Museum is that they actually let you take pictures. This unfortunately is not the case in most other galleries, like the Borghese, which was a big disappointment for reasons that will be clear when we get to that part of the tour later in this post.

Just your typical non-Sistine Chapel ceiling:



This turned out a little bit dark, but I think the title of the painting was "nooooo, they be taking my rabbit!" Couldn't find the proceeding "I has a rabbit" painting:



After winding our way around, we finally reached the Sistine Chapel. The place was packed with tours, with local museum workers fruitlessly trying to keep people from talking and taking pictures. We took some time to check out the ceiling of course, but given the packed, hot, muggy room, we didn't linger too long. I would recommend trying to get there early if you want to spend some time in the Sistine Chapel.

One quick note on the no photography rule in museums. Doesn't apply to Japanese people apparently (racist ban, obv.). Regardless of where we were, Japanese tourist have this amazing ability to not be able to read picture signs that show a camera with a big "x" through it. They were also the worst tourist groups to be around, because they generally didn't watch where they were going, or care if they bumped into you or ran you into a staircase if you were in the way of where they were going. I remember the same phenomenon when I went to Hawaii a number of years back as well.

After the Vatican, we hopped the subway back and rested up before heading out for our evening adventure, a nighttime Rome walk from our book. It basically started at Campo di Fiori, and ended at the top of the Spanish Steps, with the Trevi Fountain in between.

Rome is a great city to walk at night, and the Campo di Fiori was a great place to start. It's a fun little square with a bunch of outdoor restaurant seating on the square. Very festive environment, and our first chance to check out these types of restaurants, which were pretty common throughout the rest of our trip. It was also a good chance to check out the prices of these places - you of course pay a premium to sit on the square itself through the prices at the restaurant.

While we weren't trying to be total cheapskates, we did do a lot of comparison shopping before choosing a restaurant. I'm not baller enough to afford the best places in each city, so we tried to pick and choose to find some good deals. Overall, our general theme was to go a block or two from the main sights in any given place, and find menus with no English on them for the most part. Worked pretty well, outside of a few exceptions I'll mention later in the trip.

After a decent meal a block off of the Campo, we headed out on the walk.

As I mentioned before, walking through Rome reminded me of New York in a lot of ways, and walking at night was also similar. Crazy traffic, and your best bet for crossing streets is to just get behind a local and go for it.

On the walk, we checked out the Trevi fountain. This was really a big hit with mrs nf, who really liked the sculptures. Tons of people were just hanging out drinking, smoking, etc, but it wasn't too crowded.



(She is going to kill me for posting some of these, haha)

On our way to the Spanish Steps, we passed by a great Truth in Advertising #2. Luckily the mrs doesn't really like shopping:



The Spanish Steps themselves were packed with teenagers and others drinking and smoking again. I guess 500+ year old landmarks make a cool hangout in Rome.

So ended our Monday journey. The next day was to consist of a tour of the Borghese Gallery, and then our journey to Siena.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning started early for me, at about 5:30, as I set out for a morning run around Rome. I'm training for the Portland Marathon, and had to try to keep up on my runs throughout the trip, which would be a challenge. Basic route for my 8 miles or so.



Got up early, and hit the streets. That early in the morning, you really have the streets to yourself. And while Rome might be a late riser, it certainly rises with a vengance, as the streets are hectic like someone flipped a switch.

It was a great time though, you just haven't lived until you've dashed down the streets of Rome with Journey's Separate Ways (Worlds apart) blaring in your head.

After the run, we packed our stuff, negotiated with the front desk for a late checkout, and headed off to the Borghese Gallery.

The Borghese features an incredible collection of Italian paintings and particularly sculptures by Benini. Only a certain number of guests are allowed into the place, in two hour blocks throughout the day. We made reservations online about a week before, which is highly encouraged.

And I would certainly recommend it. Amazing museum, with a great audio tour, which is worth paying for. I'm not a huge art guy, but I've been appreciating it more and more over the years as we start to check out museums and galleries. In particular, I've never been that overwhelmed by sculpture, but Bernini's stuff is amazing. I can't fathom how these guys carved this stuff out of marble. Seems like it would be even harder than painting.

We really enjoyed checking out the works, and it heightened our anticipation to see The David in Florence.

Of course the true highlight of the gallery was not any of the art. No, the real highlight was when we discovered the most awesome hairstyle known to man - the afro-dredlock mullet.

Yes, it's as good as it sounds. We were in one of the last rooms, when we saw this older guy, probably mid-late 60s, with a young Japanese woman. And I'm not kidding, it was breathtaking to see. Somehow he had grown out the top of his hair into this gray afro. But in the back, he had these dreadlocks growing down, making it into this uber-mullet of awesomeness.

At this moment I started to curse the fact you can't take pictures in the gallery. So I present to you this MS Paint replica.



I am not an artist, obv, but hopefully that sheds some light onto how awesome this thing was.

All abuzz from the gallery and the afrodredmullet, we headed to the train station and hopped our first train for the next part of our journey - Siena.

Back with the next part later, need to upload Siena pics.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
NolanFan, check out QFC for meat on a stick.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whoa, really? How have I missed that?

[KotOD]

[ QUOTE ]
My 2 cents? Make sure you do this tour after a full night of sleep, because it's looooonnnggg. Room after room of paintings, etc, which were really interesting, but the mrs in particular was sleepwalking through the last few rooms as we wound our way to the Sistine Chapel.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not-even-thinly-veiled brag post.

[Dominic]

I'm assuming you loved Siena...great pics...love the "oh noes they be stealin' my rabbit!" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

The Vatican is a long tour, isn't it? It was great to see but I don't think I'd do it again.

Rome is much more about the cafes and piazzas and bars and walking!

[ThaSaltCracka]

Wow, that ceiling pic is amazing.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm assuming you loved Siena...great pics...love the "oh noes they be stealin' my rabbit!" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

The Vatican is a long tour, isn't it? It was great to see but I don't think I'd do it again.

Rome is much more about the cafes and piazzas and bars and walking!

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed on the Vatican tour, worth doing once, especially if you're Catholic, of course, but I wouldn't feel like I needed to go again. I'd go back to Borghese for sure though.

Siena was fun, yes, I'll have some good pics to post.

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
NolanFan, check out QFC for meat on a stick.

Keep it up man! Clarknasty style is how I like this TR's.

SC, shoulda played football man!

[/ QUOTE ]

I wish I could have played football; I heard you were like a cross between LDT and Jerry Rice out there.

Sadly I've been packing for like the past week straight.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Seth didn't tell you? I was a TD machine with 3.