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nausicaa83First entry for my Roman Holiday journal. Four days in the Eternal City with my family, 200 pictures taken, it was a journey I'd dreamed about ever since I was a kid. For viewers just tuning in now, I graduated in Archaeology in 2006 with a thesis on Roman roads and harbours (I'll spare you the details because it was super technical and, according to everyone but me, super boring). This to give you an idea of what this trip meant to me.
I uploaded the pictures to Photobucket, drop me a line if the links don't work. I haven't used it in a while and I'm worried they'll pull the 'exceeded bandwith' card again.
We rented a lovely flat near San Giovanni In Laterano. It was me, my aunt, my uncle, and my youngest cousin Marco. My other cousin, Francesca, was in Oslo to visit her boyfriend who works there. We called them every evening on my cellphone, using Skype. Technology is awesome. :D This was the bedroom assigned to Marco and me. When we entered and he saw the two beds, he instantly grew sad. My aunt walked in and asked us how the room was, and I replied "it's great, I'm sleeping in the single bed", at which point Marco looked at me quite shocked, and I told him "I'm much shorter than you, it makes sense", and he looked rejoiced. He was ready to be a gentleman and let me sleep in the comfier bed even if it meant he wouldn't have been able to sleep a minute the whole week. It was the cutest thing ever. Also, yes, he doesn't talk much, but I understand him alright. :D
We had this super cute kitchen, the whole flat was lovely.
San Giovanni In Laterano. We were lucky, it was sunny every day but saturday.
Inside the church. For those of you who've seen La Grande Bellezza, the church with the holy staircase is across the street from this one. You know, the scene with the zombie nun at the end of the movie. We went there too, but it was packed full of people climbing the stairs on their knees, and I couldn't take a picture because I found it too ridiculous for words. My aunt, who's Catholic, was appalled, and called it paganism. The funniest thing is that we talked about religion a lot (Holy Week in Rome, duh), and we always agreed on everything. I love my family. :D
And there it was, the Colosseum, sitting happily in the middle of traffic and tourists. I was so happy I was jumping up and down.
To be fair, there weren't many people. To be more precise, there were, but to me, born and raised in Venice, a person who weathered 30 Carnevali, it didn't look like much. Usual business. What shocked me was the number of beggars. They were everywhere, every three steps someone was asking for money, or the cops were arresting young pickpockets, it was very depressing. We still haven't reached that level in Venice, although I fear it won't be long.
The Trajan's Column! So, so beautiful. I had a picture in one of my university books with all the bas relief laid out as one single strip. This journey was one flashback from university after the other. It made me feel so young. ^^
I really like this picture. ^^
My first view of the Tiber. It's as blonde and beautiful as the poems say.
My aunt looking super cute.
My uncle and my cousin looking super cool. :D They're not much for history, they lightened up when they saw fishermen by the Tiber shores, and spent a good hour standing next to them and watching them fish. They both have hunting and fishing permits and talk of little else. Me, I eat what they bring home, I don't really care for the rest.
While they looked at fishermen, my aunt and I joined other tourists on the shore of the Tiber Island, and fell asleep in the warm sun. So, obligatory picture of footwear. :D
There were two tourists sleeping next to me, a mom and a daughter, who were very obviously from the North. I'm talking Norse North. I'm talking so white and blonde that five minutes in they were already as red as lobsters. I wanted to warn them, but after all it was none of my business. Boy, were they ready for some barbecue sauce.
Kitties!
Okay, this one deserves an explanation. This is one of the fountains in Piazza Navona, and I took a picture of this glorious butt for a reason. Say, a tradition. During my first year in uni we had many greek art courses, and one of the teachers spent weeks telling us how the first statues were only sculpted on the front, because that's the part that was visible. Then they started sculpting the rear, even if the statues were meant to stand against a wall, and that's when classicism started. It was a bit more complicated than that, but the next year the same teachers took us to Athens, and when we found ourselves in our first museum, surrounded by all these statues we had only seen in black and white pictures, we started taking pictures in a frenzy, yelling to each other from one side of the room to the other "remember to take a picture of the ass, the ass is paramount!". It took us at least five rooms before we realized what it sounded like. And there and then we made a solemn vow to take pictures of marble butts wherever we went. Thus, a tradition was born.
A few meters from where I was standing there was a woman singing Un bel dì vedremo from Madama Butterfly, asking for money. She wasn't really that good, more like someone who just took a few lessons, but she was in tone and it created a wonderful atmosphere with the warm colours of the sun and the beauty all around us. The link goes to my favourite version, the one by Maria Callas. I love her so much I'm starting to get worried.
The Pantheon! It's exactly like in Assassin's Creed! Wish I had something better to add, but it was closed because they were saying Mass, so I caught only a few glimpses of the inside. Still, just like Ezio saw it. :D
On to the second part!
I uploaded the pictures to Photobucket, drop me a line if the links don't work. I haven't used it in a while and I'm worried they'll pull the 'exceeded bandwith' card again.
We rented a lovely flat near San Giovanni In Laterano. It was me, my aunt, my uncle, and my youngest cousin Marco. My other cousin, Francesca, was in Oslo to visit her boyfriend who works there. We called them every evening on my cellphone, using Skype. Technology is awesome. :D This was the bedroom assigned to Marco and me. When we entered and he saw the two beds, he instantly grew sad. My aunt walked in and asked us how the room was, and I replied "it's great, I'm sleeping in the single bed", at which point Marco looked at me quite shocked, and I told him "I'm much shorter than you, it makes sense", and he looked rejoiced. He was ready to be a gentleman and let me sleep in the comfier bed even if it meant he wouldn't have been able to sleep a minute the whole week. It was the cutest thing ever. Also, yes, he doesn't talk much, but I understand him alright. :D
We had this super cute kitchen, the whole flat was lovely.
San Giovanni In Laterano. We were lucky, it was sunny every day but saturday.
Inside the church. For those of you who've seen La Grande Bellezza, the church with the holy staircase is across the street from this one. You know, the scene with the zombie nun at the end of the movie. We went there too, but it was packed full of people climbing the stairs on their knees, and I couldn't take a picture because I found it too ridiculous for words. My aunt, who's Catholic, was appalled, and called it paganism. The funniest thing is that we talked about religion a lot (Holy Week in Rome, duh), and we always agreed on everything. I love my family. :D
And there it was, the Colosseum, sitting happily in the middle of traffic and tourists. I was so happy I was jumping up and down.
To be fair, there weren't many people. To be more precise, there were, but to me, born and raised in Venice, a person who weathered 30 Carnevali, it didn't look like much. Usual business. What shocked me was the number of beggars. They were everywhere, every three steps someone was asking for money, or the cops were arresting young pickpockets, it was very depressing. We still haven't reached that level in Venice, although I fear it won't be long.
The Trajan's Column! So, so beautiful. I had a picture in one of my university books with all the bas relief laid out as one single strip. This journey was one flashback from university after the other. It made me feel so young. ^^
I really like this picture. ^^
My first view of the Tiber. It's as blonde and beautiful as the poems say.
My aunt looking super cute.
My uncle and my cousin looking super cool. :D They're not much for history, they lightened up when they saw fishermen by the Tiber shores, and spent a good hour standing next to them and watching them fish. They both have hunting and fishing permits and talk of little else. Me, I eat what they bring home, I don't really care for the rest.
While they looked at fishermen, my aunt and I joined other tourists on the shore of the Tiber Island, and fell asleep in the warm sun. So, obligatory picture of footwear. :D
There were two tourists sleeping next to me, a mom and a daughter, who were very obviously from the North. I'm talking Norse North. I'm talking so white and blonde that five minutes in they were already as red as lobsters. I wanted to warn them, but after all it was none of my business. Boy, were they ready for some barbecue sauce.
Kitties!
Okay, this one deserves an explanation. This is one of the fountains in Piazza Navona, and I took a picture of this glorious butt for a reason. Say, a tradition. During my first year in uni we had many greek art courses, and one of the teachers spent weeks telling us how the first statues were only sculpted on the front, because that's the part that was visible. Then they started sculpting the rear, even if the statues were meant to stand against a wall, and that's when classicism started. It was a bit more complicated than that, but the next year the same teachers took us to Athens, and when we found ourselves in our first museum, surrounded by all these statues we had only seen in black and white pictures, we started taking pictures in a frenzy, yelling to each other from one side of the room to the other "remember to take a picture of the ass, the ass is paramount!". It took us at least five rooms before we realized what it sounded like. And there and then we made a solemn vow to take pictures of marble butts wherever we went. Thus, a tradition was born.
A few meters from where I was standing there was a woman singing Un bel dì vedremo from Madama Butterfly, asking for money. She wasn't really that good, more like someone who just took a few lessons, but she was in tone and it created a wonderful atmosphere with the warm colours of the sun and the beauty all around us. The link goes to my favourite version, the one by Maria Callas. I love her so much I'm starting to get worried.
The Pantheon! It's exactly like in Assassin's Creed! Wish I had something better to add, but it was closed because they were saying Mass, so I caught only a few glimpses of the inside. Still, just like Ezio saw it. :D
On to the second part!
