This morning I woke up at 4:45am for the second day in a row in order to shower, eat breakfast, finish packing, and leave the house by 6am to get to the train station to catch a train to Paris. P and I lugged our bags down the hilly streets of Monte Carlo (all 4 of them), waited at the station for a few minutes, and then jumped on our train. Once the train was in motion and almost at the first stop, I pull out the tickets so I could fill in the date on my ticket (ahh, the honour system). I ask, “Hey P, what’s the date today?” The third, right?
Our tickets were for the fourth. !@#$
Normally, I would have had a huge spazout on the train, but P was cool, calm, and collected (as per usual, unlike me) and suggested we continue to Nice – where we were supposed to change trains and have a 20 minute wait – and try to change our tickets to go to Paris today. As luck would have it, although not normally, we were able to change our tickets (however, we don’t have a hotel reservation for tonight, so we’ll see what happens there).
This is by far the dumbest thing we’ve done so far, next to yesterday, when we were travelling from Pisa to Monaco and had to change trains in Genova. The train we were on stopped at more than one station in Genova, and we happened to get out at the wrong station. This wasn’t realised until we couldn’t find our next train listed on the departures board. So we ran to Information with many WTFs and OMGs, followed by a sweaty run to the platform to catch a train that was just about to leave for Piazza Principe. As luck would have it, although not normally (we had two days of stupidity and pure luck), we managed to catch our final train from Genova to Monaco. Disaster averted.
Yesterday was my last day in Italy, after having spent just over a week there. Venice was absolutely amazing, and is definitely the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to. It’s one of those places that you really can’t imagine what it feels like to be there until you actually get there. It seems so bizarre to be in a city with no roads, no cars, and nothing but sea water cutting you off from the rest of the world. It’s so incredible seeing all the buildings that are hundreds of years old, sitting so close to sea level, and noticing how their ground floors are slowly succumbing to the ocean. The main islands of Venice were completely filled with buildings hundreds of years ago, and there is no land available for new buildings. Because of this, and the fact that people are obviously reluctant to tear down the historic buildings, Venice seems not much different than it would have been in the century before last. I doubt there are very many places in the world where this would also be the case. It really is a one-of-a-kind city.
From Venice, we caught a train to Rome (photos). We visited the Colosseum, the Fountain, of Trevi, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican City museum, the Roman Forum, the Venezia Palace, the Pantheon, and the catacombs. We did most of those in the first day we were there.
The Colosseum is as one would expect – rather large. Like most of the sights of Rome, you don’t get to see the best parts, as I really wanted to walk through the underground tunnels. It’s quite sad seeing how much of a ruin it is, and hearing how a lot of it was destroyed in an earthquake in around the 1500′s, and reading about how the bricks and marble were taken and used for other buildings, leaving the Colosseum as just a shell.
The Roman Forum was one of the most interesting things we saw, mostly because we did a tour of it with this really great guide. The Roman Forum is where the old markets used to be, and near it are the ruins of a massive palace built by a crazy lead-poisoned Roman. As you walk around the hill it was built on, you step over 2,000-year-old slabs of marble flooring, columns, and concrete walls that were also once covered in marble.
The Fountain of Trevi is really quite amazing. It is an incredibly large fountain built against the side of a building in about the 1700′s. The water that flows through it comes from a 2,000-year-old aquaduct that is still in use today. The water comes from miles away in the mountains, and is ice cold and perfectly drinkable. There are also many drinking fountains that are constantly running, which feed from the same aquaduct. The water tastes just as good as bottled mineral water.
The Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican City museum, and was absolutely packed full of tourists. It was hot and stuffy, but worth seeing. Vatican City is smallest country in the world, but really it’s just a part of Rome. I didn’t see the Pope, but I did see a sign for “papal blessings” and an arrow pointing into a souvenir store.
The Pantheon was closed for renovations but we sat outside to look at it and sneaked a peek through the massive doors. It is just huge. It’s hard to believe it’s still standing, since it was completed in the first part of the 2nd century. It’s even harder to believe it when you’re touching the marble columns or the huge bronze door.
The Venezia Palace is a huge monument that was only finished in around 1910, but looks much older. It is all white marble, and very large. Apparently, most people who live in Rome hate the sight of it. At the top level, it has a very nice view of Rome, between the massive marble columns and underneath the beautiful frescos in the open air viewing area. The strange thing is that it is the most guarded sight in Rome, but it isn’t an ancient treasure like the other sights of Rome. There are policemen constantly on guard, and two military men standing at attention on either side of one part of the monument – the monument to unknown soliders. You aren’t allowed to sit on the steps, take baby carriages up the stairs, make obscene gestures, be “badly” behaved, and numerous other things. The guards were constantly blowing their whistles at people to tell them off.
The catacombs were a sight to be seen. They are quite a few metres underground, and in the burning heat of the day it was so cold down there that you could see your breath, and the marble slabs that were still intact were wet. They stretch for miles and miles and cover 600 acres of land underneath the outskirts of Rome. Christians that were persecuted were buried there and sought refuge in their underground graveyards during those times. It’s very sombering walking through these small tunnels and seeing the graves, and sitting down in an underground church where St. Sebastian was buried.
Aside from the ancient (and not so ancient) sights of Rome, Rome isn’t that nice a city. It’s very dirty and smelly, and full of homeless people and beggars. People can’t drive at all, and the roads are packed with cars. This was most apparent when P and I hired a Vespa for a day. It was a good idea though, because it was really the best way to get to the catacombs (you can’t get there by Metro).
We left Rome a few days later and headed north to Pisa (photos). We planned to stay there for just one night, which was a good thing because Pisa is possibly the most boring city in the entire universe. The Leaning Tower of Pisa costs €15 to climb up, which is a lot considering it is only 7-stories high. P and I decided not to go up it, so going to Pisa was really a waste of time. It also didn’t help that the hotel we stayed in was filthy yet expensive. I wouldn’t recommend going to Pisa, but I guess, at least I can say “been there, done that.”
We spent the afternoon of the day we arrived back in Monaco at the beach. The beach in Monte Carlo is really beautiful. The water is pretty clear and warm, and it’s been built like a mini-harbor, so the sides along the walkways are waveless and perfect for swimming. There are schools of fish that swim around the beach, and the bigger fish swim all the way up to the shore. P and I had goggles and tried to catch them, but they were too fast. It really is one of the nicest beaches I’ve been to, and being in Monaco where every is rich and there are no poor or homeless people, you can leave you bags on the shore and not worry about them being stolen. The only beach I’ve been to that was nicer than that were the beaches of La Phare Amadee – a tiny island off the coast of New Caledonia – which had white sand, crystal clear water, and brightly coloured tropical fish that would swim up to you when you were only in the water up to your knees.
So, now I’m off to Paris for two days. I can’t wait to go to the Louvre, and to try and use some of my French that after 7 years of non-use has become absolutely pathetic. (Je ne comprend pas! Je ne parle pas le Francais! Ma Francais est tres tres mal! Zut alors!) Here’s hoping I don’t do too badly.
