The Wonders of Italy

Date: July 26, 2008
Location: Naples, Rome, Vatican City, and Pompeii
Lat: 40° 50.3N Long: 014° 15.44E

Rome is known as Eternal City. I don’t know whether that’s because it has lasted so long, or you could spend an eternity seeing it all. I do know that two days certainly was not enough to see everything, but we made a good try.

I suppose some general comments on Italy are in order. First off, there are wild dogs everywhere. This was particularly true in Pompeii. I have a lot of great photos of dogs just walking around the ruins. Also, there were some pretty big piles of garbage around Naples as well. I guess it might have been worse before, but it is still a problem. The Italians are always hustling. While this is to be expected when one is passing through street vendors, it was particularly funny when you are walking down the street and you start getting invited into restaurants. Also, taxi drivers also hustle the hell out of you, one could say we got robbed by a taxi driver, but that comes later (this foreshadowing is what makes me an excellent writer).

We woke up pretty early and headed out for Rome. We decided to walk to the train station as we would avoid the taxis. It was around a 35 minute walk, so it wasn’t too bad. Well it wouldn’t have been except it felt like hell with each step onto my cut foot, it is better now though. When we made it to the train station we started to use the self-service ticket machines. They had an English setting so that helped a bit. However, we were not in any way home free.

This brings us to robbery number 1. While we were trying to figure the trains out, an old Italian came up on us and grabbed our tickets. He then shoved it into the machine that apparently validates the tickets. He then loudly demanded we give him money for his “services”. We had initially assumed that he was being helpful so we didn’t tell him to back off. We all gave him some money to get him to back off, I gave him a 5 Euro piece and he backed off. Some of our group gave him 7 Euro and he kept demanding more. I guess greasing the wheels is part of life in Naples.

We did make our train though and off we went. I sat next to the window next to some Italians. They were hard at work completing Sudoku and crossword puzzles so there was no cross-cultural communications. In addition, I did not feel very nice towards Italians after the stick-up a few minutes before.

We also made it to Rome. We got off our train and then started off to try and find the Coliseum. I suppose there is room for a slight aside. Rome is clearly an organic city. I mean in the nature of the streets, there is no logic to it at all. Sometimes streets curve into piazzas, other times little side streets shoot off and then rejoin the main road. Navigating Rome is by no means an easy trick.

Our first stop was the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Mayor. These churches are extremely hard to describe. One can only say that the church was beautiful so many times. However, I’ll do my best. The Basilica is situated in a piazza. The front was absolutely gorgeous; there were a series of columns that on the top had statues of saints and other holy people. There were also various angels on the balconies, all together, the front was extremely impressive.

Another fascinating thing was the confession booths. Above the entrance there were placards that stated what language the padre spoke. There were also lights stating which ones were occupied by the fathers. It was a pretty neat system and many languages were represented.

However, after one entered they witnessed the true glory. The interior is covered in gold leaf. The gold leaf surrounds paintings of the blessed Virgin, Popes, Moses, etc. There were also glorious basins for housing holy water. Also there were stained glass windows that were absolutely beautiful with the bright Italian sun shining through. I put a Euro or two in the offering, figured it couldn’t hurt to have God on my side and we were off to find ancient Rome.

The influence of Ancient Rome is clearly a huge factor in the city. For starters, all the manhole covers have SPQR printed on them. SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, or “The Senate and People of Rome”. This is pretty much the standard phrase of Rome, representing all that is Rome. Obviously it is seen on many of the arches and Roman ruins.

We didn’t wander for too long until we found the ruins of Ancient Rome. We first saw the Coliseum. It is truly staggering to witness something you’ve read about for so long. The building is truly massive; it is hard to convey the sheer scale of it. Another thing is the depth of history in Rome. One could say that our history started with Jamestown in 1607; however, Rome has been in existence forever.

We quickly left the Coliseum because I had a tip from my roommate back at school that one should go to the Palatine Hill to get tickets. The tickets cover all of ancient Rome and clearly the Hill doesn’t have the sex appeal of the Coliseum so the line was much shorter. I don’t mean to impugn the hill, it was really impressive. The Roman forum as well as many other ancient ruins was there. It is just so stunning to see all these ancient ruins. After watching all these History Channel specials and taking all those years of Latin class, it is just so awe inspiring to see the areas where these people lived and died.

We then headed off to the Coliseum proper. We ended up getting onto a guided tour. This was a great deal for us since we had already paid for our tickets so the cost was only five Euros. Obviously the Coliseum was impressive. A very interesting thing is that there are a ton of divots in the walls. People like to claim that the damage is due to erosion, however, in actuality, scavengers pulled out metal re-bar that strengthened the building. I guess it is not surprising when something has been around that long that people try to abuse it.

It is absolutely incredible to see these things. We also walked by a museum. We didn’t go in, but there were some really neat statues. I was pretty impressed I was able to pick out some of the figures from history books. I saw a statue of the two Gracchi brothers who were key figures in Roman land reform.

After this we walked to another church, the Basilica Saint Maria delgi Angeli. Now this church was once again, impressive. The fascinating thing about this was that it was built into the Roman Baths of Diocletian. The church was an absolutely gorgeous mix of marble and statues. The altars were particularly beautiful.

Probably the neatest thing about this was the meridian line. This essentially functioned as a sundial, except it was designed to show the progress of time through the year. I guess it is hard to accurately describe, however, it was certainly impressive.

After we left the church we started heading towards the Trevi Fountain. However, I noticed a few things while we were walking there. It seems like everywhere there is some gorgeous marble building there is a Pope’s name slapped on it. For example, a Pope slapped his name on the Coliseum, not to mention the many other buildings we saw. I guess it’s the Protestant in me talking, but it started to seem like it was more about the Pope’s glory than God’s.

Another neat thing is all the obelisks in Rome. There are all these neat Egyptian obelisks with Hieroglyphs all over them. Of course since a Pope made the obelisk possible, there is cross slapped to the top of it. It sure seems a bit out of place walking through Rome and seeing a huge obelisk in a piazza.

The Trevi Fountain is also beautiful. It is kind of a common theme here. The Fountain is pretty much a testament to what human hands can do with marble and water. The Fountain depicts a couple of water horses and figures. I guess it is also a bit hard to describe, but it was equally impressive. We got some great photos in front of it. The legend is that you need to throw two coins into the fountain, the first coin is for good luck, and the second one is for safe return to Rome. I’m covered because I threw my two coins in.

We then headed out towards the Spanish Steps. They were a bit distant so we got to see some pretty neat stuff in the process. One thing we saw was the Column of Marcus Aurelius. The column is approximately 100 feet high or so. The most fascinating part is that instead of boring grooves, there is a relief that spirals up to the top. It was hard to get a good view because of the sun, but it was clearly a triumph of building. In typical style there is a statue of Jesus at the top symbolizing the superiority of God over the Romans.

Our next stop was the Basilica of Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles. There was a bit of an open area in front of the church so paradoxically there was a troop of break dancers. It sure seemed like a large contrast between the two. The Basilica was amazing, as usual. There were beautiful paintings on the ceiling and awesome statues. The neatest thing was the Relic of the Heart of Saint Charles. I wasn’t able to figure out what exactly he did, but it involves his heart somehow. It was on display, I thought it was a bit morbid, but apparently a lot of people pray to it.

We left the Basilica and then moved onto the Spanish Steps. While the steps are pretty neat; I’m not quite sure what the big deal with them is. There is a church at the top of a series of steps that wind around up to the church. I guess the steps are sort of a place to hang out at; the steps were crowded with people. They were nice.

We were going on a Pub Crawl that met up at the Spanish Steps around 10 so we had some time to kill. We decided to go and get some delicious Italian food. I had an excellent meal of pasta with olive oil and prosciutto. Prosciutto is very salty ham that has been cured for a very long time. We also got a liter of the house red and white wines. All in all, it was a very good meal.

After this we embarked on the Pub Crawl. It cost 20 Euro and you got a cool t-shirt, some pizza, and an open bar for an hour. We had a good time. It was a bit harder to get back to our hotel at night but we made it.

I suppose I should talk about our hotel for a bit. For what we paid, the hotel was excellent. We got four separate beds which was real nice. There was no AC so we just left the window open and let the sounds of Italian street life serenade us. This wasn’t bad at all and gave us a pretty good view in the morning.

The thing that wasn’t so good was the shower situation. First off, the shower was more of a fire hose. This bit me bad as I decided to turn the water on and let it warm up. This was a bad decision because the water came flying out of the shower and hit me full force soaking me, still standing in my boxers. There were some choice words uttered by me, my friends thought I had died or something bad. I persevered and carried on. However, this is compounded by the towels. If one pictures a linen placemat at a fancy restaurant that is pretty much what we had to use. I sure didn’t feel dry after using it, but it got the job done mostly despite its small size.

We decided to travel internationally that day so we headed to the Vatican City. The Vatican is absolutely incredible. We took the Rome metro to get out there. The Roman transit system is rather good, one only has to pay 1 Euro and they are free to go anywhere. This was rather convenient as we quickly got to the Vatican.

We were walking towards the tall walls of the Vatican when we were approached by a solicitor. We first brushed her off since that’s the way to get by in a country where everyone hustles. However, she wouldn’t take any guff and told us in unaccented English that we couldn’t say we weren’t interested since we did not even know what she was selling. She rattled off a quick sales pitch about the Vatican tour they were offering and we quickly got on it. Not only did it enable us to skip the massive lines, we also actually got to know what we were seeing. There is virtually no signage in the Vatican so having a guide clearly helped.

We then began to tour the Vatican Museums. The Vatican has an absolutely incredible collection. Our first stop was the Pine Cone Square. This was a neat place as it combined a massive Renaissance era bronze pine cone, two Egyptian lions that were gifts to Rome from Cleopatra, and Roman peacocks. Also there was a neat statue of a sphere inside a sphere; it looked like a large golden sphere with a large cut in it that exposed the inner sphere.

Our next stop was a gallery of glorious sculptures. It is extremely hard to accurately describe the majesty of these statues. They were absolutely gorgeous. Words can’t really describe these so I guess one will have to wait for the pictures. There were statues of gods, epic heroes, dogs, lions attacking horses, and more.

We also saw some gorgeous tapestries. These were constructed by Flemish tapestry makers. The use of color was particularly impressive. One that was particularly interesting was the Circumcision of Jesus. One sees a Rabbi reaching for Jesus to perform the ceremony and Jesus is clearly not thrilled about it and is leaning away from the priest. Another neat scene is one that depicts Jesus emerging from his tomb triumphantly carrying a banner. These were very neat.

Our next destination was the Gallery of Maps. This was a room full of very ornate maps depicting essentially all of Italy. There were something of the order of 40 maps and they were incredible to see.

After moving through some other rooms that housed glorious paintings we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. Obviously the roof is incredible. It is really mind blowing to see something as paramount as the ceiling in person. It was truly an experience. I was able to snatch a few photos despite the frequent protestations by the guards to not take photos. I wanted to really capture it. I don’t think I’m saying enough here but we all know what the ceiling looks like, it looks like the photos, just that more awe inspiring when one views the frescos up close.

We next went to Saint Peter’s Basilica. This was extremely stunning. The size and scope of the building are absolutely incredible. One neat thing is that one of the doors to the Basilica is only opened on Jubilees, so it won’t be opened until 2025. I thought it was neat.

When one enters and looks to the right they are greeted with Michelangelo’s Pietà. How does one put a statue like that into words, I don’t know, but I’ll try. The statue depicts Mary holding Jesus after he has been taken down from the cross. The look of extreme sadness on the Virgin’s face is absolutely depressing. The artist certainly captured the moment.

Saint Peter’s is absolutely massive. Its decorations are stunning. Every surface is designed to further God’s glory; I was absolutely awestruck after I entered. My entire group, even the vocal atheist, was absolutely floored by the building. The floor is extremely high, supported by beautiful columns. Every chapel in the building has a masterpiece of art in it. Typically seeing so many of the same thing would become routine, but not here, not at Saint Peter’s its absolutely stunning.

After we had walked through the building we decided to visit the tombs. There were a large number of Popes buried in the building. Most of the tombs were sort of ignored, with only a little placard discussing what the pope did. However, Pope John Paul II’s grave was certainly different. As we rounded a bend in the catacomb, we saw a large number of people behind a velvet rope looking into a recessed area. As we walked towards it we saw what had the crowd so stunned. JPII’s marble grave was gorgeous in its simplicity. I was more moved by the photos and roses laid at the grave. It was also staggering to see the large number of people crying looking at his final resting place. While I’m not a Catholic, it was very moving.

We then decided to climb up to the top of the Basilica’s cupola. This was a big haul as the Basilica’s dome is huge. We were all sweaty and out of breath when we finally made it to the top. This is kind of funny as at one point the stairs started to curve with the bend of the dome. This made us have to lean in as we went further and further.

The pain was totally worth it as the view was incredible. Rome goes on to the horizon. I wasn’t even able to pick out the Coliseum. The view of Saint Peter’s Piazza was incredible. Geeze, everything about the Vatican was stunning. It is absolutely mind boggling when one thinks of how much of the world’s money is invested in the Vatican. However, I can safely say that they didn’t waste it because the entire complex is just amazing.

Saint Peter’s Piazza was really neat too. There is a large Egyptian Obelisk in the middle. There are also two large wings that go from the base of Saint Peter’s around the square. These form the shape of two praying hands. At the tops of these were statues of saints and things. It was all very powerful and moving.

All of our walking around the Vatican made us very hungry. We found a nice sandwich shop. I got a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich with some bruschetta. The mozzarella was clearly fresh as there was still milk coming out of it. The entire meal tasted excellent and it was pretty cheap too. The hole in the wall food places in Italy are still incredible.

We then walked back to the Spanish Steps. They are sort of central in Rome. After we made it there we moved on to the Pantheon. This huge building was very incredible. One neat feature of the city is the tendency of the Church to come in and slap some crosses on a pagan site and call it a triumph of God’s glory over the pagans. The Pantheon is a great example of this. What was originally a temple to all the Roman gods was turned into a cathedral. All the same, it was awesome seeing so much history. I wish I could have seen it before it was “christianized”. That withstanding, it was neat seeing Raphael’s grave.

We left the Pantheon and headed out to a Piazza. There were some neat shops where I got a t-shirt or two. There were some neat fountains and buildings here. We all stopped for gelato, which tasted delicious, of course.

We then headed back to the train station to get back to Naples. However, before we headed home we wisely decided to stop for liquid refreshment. One of my friends and I broke off and headed to the train-station bar. We got some Peroni, but we were thinking small-time compared to our other two friends. When they came back they quickly revealed four boxes of wine. Apparently on the weekends in Rome, stores can’t sell bottles. This is a safety precaution so drunk Italians don’t break bottles over each other’s heads. The boxes cost 1.80 Euro for a liter of wine. Clearly, we weren’t getting the finest vintage in the store. We split the cost of the boxes and everyone was feeling good.

We took our boxes with us onto the train to Naples and we were good to go. We each enjoyed our box than split the last one. We were feeling quite nice when we got back to Naples. However, this brings up the robbery number two story. As we were walking towards the exit, a taxi driver approached us and told us that he would get us back to the ship for 30 Euro. Despite being a ridiculous price as is we decided to go with it as we wanted back to the ship so we could sleep as we were extremely busy in Rome.

Our driver drove like a madman to get us back to the dock. While we were a bit offset by this, at least we were getting home. However, when we finally arrived at the dock, he pulled a fast one. Instead of going with our prearranged price, he decided to jack it up. He claimed we had agreed to 30 Euro per person, which is absolutely insane. He had the child locks on the doors on so those of us in the back couldn’t get out. However, one of our guys in the front got out and opened our doors. We gave the driver (or should I say, thief) twenty more Euro and he left.

While it was a bit of a down note for our Rome experience, it was absolutely incredible. We all quickly split up and headed to our state rooms. I needed the sleep because I had a busy day seeing Pompeii today.

I suppose there is room for an aside here. I’ve had to cross streets all over Europe and I must say that crossing the street in Italy is probably the worst. While there were crosswalks and such, no one follows them. What a person must do to cross the street is start to wander out, look for an opening and book it despite traffic coming left and right. Clearly it’s a bit hectic.

I use my cell phone as an alarm. I had it set up so I could wake up early; however, apparently during the night my phone lost power. Thankfully my roommate puttering around woke me up. I quickly got dressed and headed outside. I knew I had to get there early because I accidentally had the ticket for the tour which left yesterday. In the guidebook, both Pompeii tours were listed on the same day, however, the tour I was on was yesterday. The field programs staff realized the problem and made every accommodation to help people in my situation out. Thankfully I got on the tour.

Pompeii is an absolutely stunning site. Pompeii was a Roman town that was buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. This served to preserve the town in the state it was when the volcano blew. The town is in impressive condition given its age. Most of the town has survived, obviously in ruins but it still serves as a time capsule.

We toured the majority of the city seeing many neat things. It’s kind of funny, we entered the city through the marina gate where the sea was in 79 AD, yet today the sea is extremely far away. One surprising thing is that wild dogs are absolutely everywhere. It is a funny contrast to see mangy animals wandering around Roman columns.

I guess it gets old to say we went here and there and saw some old columns, but Pompeii was so neat. The streets and stepping stones which allowed foot traffic to avoid stepping on the streets, which were used as sidewalks, was very swell. We went into the Roman baths which were incredible. There were frescos that were still intact which were very cool.

Perhaps the funniest thing was the brothels. As far as the archeologists know, there were around 25 brothels in Pompeii. We visited the best preserved one. There were stone phalluses pointing in the direction of the brothel. Once we entered there were a series of erotic frescos. The Romans sure had some crazy ideas.

After Pompeii was finished, we got some Italian Ice outside the town. The lemon flavor was real tasty after the hot day. When we made it back to the M/V Explorer, a friend and I decided to have some pizza as a last Italian meal. We first ordered an appetizer; we both thought we were ordering a bruchetta type dish. We were a bit off as what we got was a fist sized hunk of mozzarella surrounded by cut in half cherry tomatoes. However, this was also very good and I ate it happily.

I then ordered a pizza. Given the menu was in Italian, it’s a bit like playing Russian roulette. I got a pizza covered in oil, mozzarella, tomatoes, and eggplant. I was really full from my appetizer so I only ate half of it. However, it was very good and was a fitting sendoff to Italy.

I then headed back to my stateroom and took a two hour siesta. When I woke up, I attended a cookout the ship had. This was pretty tasty since there were ribs and things they don’t usually serve. The ship’s band also played so it was fun listening to my classmates play some tunes.

After that I started typing this with a few breaks here and there. I think we’re near Messina now, but I could be wrong. It’s a warm night, around 80 degrees with a nice wind that keeps the temperature down. The Mediterranean is a gorgeous sea and Italy is a gorgeous country. I had a great time there and would love to go back.