Rome

Rome as a city looked to be a ‘cousin’ of Delhi. First time in Europe I saw cars honking, buses not parking itself in the stop to pick up passengers opting instead to make the passengers run towards it. At places even pedestrians did not bother to check the signal before crossing. And of course like Delhi, at various corners you would find something old or historical.
Vatican museum and Sistine chapel was top priority on our agenda. The world famous museum just could not be let gone even though I was the totally non-arty, non-museum tourist. It was my father’s favorite and hence he took the important and proactive step to book tickets beforehand so that we do not have to stand in the queue. The tour was booked for us at 10:30 and we would skip the queue and go in directly. Just the right arrangement or so it seemed. As our alarm bells rang on the soft comfortable bed of Hotel St Paul, we just realized that Venice and Pisa had taken its toll on us and no ways can we get ready and be at Vatican museum (a good 45 min journey from the hotel) by 10:30. So we decided to take it easy. We hoped that the tour (Viator Travels) that we booked will accommodate us at a later slot. We had sumptuous buffet breakfast at the hotel (unlike Paris, scrambled eggs were included) and had enough in our stomach to last us till early evening. As instructed at the hotel we took the bus no. 23 and set off for Vatican (searching the bus stop also took a while as it was quite confusing) museum. On reaching at around 1 PM, we realized how smart we were when we saw the huge queue. However, our booked tour was long over and for the next tour of Viator to begin we would have to wait till 2:30. And what’s more we realized our bookings might be null and void now. We tried our luck if we could go for the 2:30 tour with the same booking. After a phone call with the agency the tour guide agreed to take us but not before we had to pay an extra 15 EUR per person. It was not too bad considering that we would be still skipping the queue and had an extra relaxed morning behind us.

The entire museum area was huge starting with going upstairs through a spiral slope and then be in the midst of thousands of tourists. We followed the sign boards which read Chapela Sistina and followed the crowd. As I said I am not an arty person but the paintings on the wall and ceiling were mesmerizing. The paintings of Michelangelo, Botticeli, Perugino and others adorned the walls and ceiling and it was quite a sight. I had heard about the famous ceiling which Michelangelo painted for four years and wondered whether these paintings on the ceilings were one of them. We did not have the patience to listen to the guide and we had long lost the group with whom we entered. So we had to take the extra effort to read through some of the paintings. We realized after a while that we were far from reaching THE ceiling and this was actually the way which led to the chapel. After watching numerous beautiful paintings and sculptures we finally reached the Sistine Chapel after almost three hours. It was a sacred place and no photography was allowed. The ceiling painting looked majestic and one could stare in awe at such a work of a genius.

Vatican Museum Ceiling

We soon left as we were tiring a bit and had an overdose of art. It took us quite a while to exit that maize of art galleries and finally we were down that spiral slope on to the road at around 5:30.
Our next stop was Vatican City i.e. the residence of the pope and the bus 23 duly took us there. After a short walk through a crowded street we reached there. We were not in the frame of mind to go inside and see the Basilica and were happy to just see the place from outside. In any case the place shut down at around 6:30 and they were not allowing us to enter. But you could enjoy for as long outside and we did that. There was a small parade on display and once done we set our sights on the Colloseum. The metro stop Colloseo was on the blue line and the only landmark we knew was Termini. Hence we thought of taking a bus to Termini and then take the metro to Colloseum. The bus was crowded just like any Indian bus and we were just packed inside. On the way we saw a beautiful square with a white building and down the lane stood the Colloseum. We guessed it would be the most happening square and immediately got down from the bus. We learnt that the place was the Piazza de Venezia. An interesting fact is that in Venice we saw a ‘Piazza de Roma’ and now in Rome we were in ‘Piazza de Venezia’. It was a wonderful walk from the Piazza de Venzia to the Colloseum. It was a confluence of the old and the new Rome. We could see ancient buildings along with the modern structures. The Colloseum looked majestic. I wondered how a burnt, ruined structure could look so grand. Perhaps due to its colossal size I thought and the natural colours which blended beautifully with the blue sky. We were too late for an entry so we decided to spend some time and then come back again the next day. Evening had set in by this time and we were all very hungry. I have had such an overdose of sphagetti and pasta for the previous couple of days that I was determined to hog on some Indian food. We decided to go to Termini and look out for an Indian/Bangladeshi restaurant. We sure found one though it wasn’t the most posh one. Nevertheless, the biriyani tasted heavenly and we were ready to retire for the day.

Trevi Fountain

Rome city has a large Bangladeshi population. In every square if you see a person of South Asian origin selling roses, mementos or running snacks or souvenir stores, you know that he was a Bangladeshi. By the second day, we would not even think twice before speaking in Bengali. It felt very much ‘at home’ when you could ask for directions or any small help from these people who ‘matter’ in your own language. However, these bengalis have become Italianized and so when we asked one of them the direction to the famous ‘Trevi Fountain’, he asked whether we actually meant the ‘Fontana de trevi’.

Piazza De Venezia

Thats exactly what we meant and went about our walk from Piaza de Venezia towards the fountain. The fountain was built in the 18th century, renovated and modernized a few times and was another marvelous piece of architecture. The turquouse water looked gorgeous and as expected the place was buzzing with tourists. We had to make way to click the photos and not have someone come in the way of the camera and the object. I went souvenir shopping as well and purchased a couple of ‘Rome’ t-shirts for 15 EUR. That looked like a super deal to me at that moment (till the moment when Asmi managed to get two similar t-shirts at 10 EUR). Our next stop was the walk to the metro station from where we went a couple of stops further to the Piazza del popolo. It was another huge square but there was nothing much to see. Through the lane we could see the white building of Piazza de Venezia. We then took the walk towards the Spanish Steps towards Spagna metro station which was a 15-min walk. This was another iconic square which was featured prominently in the classic 1954 film ‘Roman Holiday’ (where Gregory Peck finds the ‘princess’ Audrey Hepburn). The steps looked majestic againts the backdrop of a small fountain. The tourists sitting on the steps made it look all the more beautiful. We then set-off for our final destination – the Collosium of Rome.

We had already expericed the sight of it the day before and it looked even more legendary under the blue sky and the bright sunchine. Parents decided against going in but we thought of taking a chance since we had the time and I am glad we did. We bought 17EUR fast-track tickets which would enable us to skip the queue and take a guided tour. We did not have the patience for a guided tour so we walked on our own. The place was as big as one of the largest statdiums of present world. We heard that it had capacity of 80,000 people who used to come and watch Gladiators fighting with the wild animals for pure entertainment. As as I said earlier, seldom has a ruined place leave you in such an awe. From the outside you could never realize that the area was that vast.
Collosium was our last stop and we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and head for the airport. Tired as we were we decided to do the simple thing to take a cab and head off to the airport. It cost us 42 EUR which would be the almost the same had we bought public transport tickets for four people. Bad news awaited us as our flight was delayed and worse was to follow as my mother’s hand baggage was not passed of as a hand baggage and we had to check that in for another 40 EUR. Of late Wizzair had become very strict with respect to size and weight of hand-baggages. We had food in the airport (again pizzas) and boarded the flight close to 11 PM and landed in Prague past midnight.