Our winter Adventure in Rome

Today was the day we booked to see the Sistine Chapel in Rome. I will find out the website, but there is one on which you book the time and date.

This morning we took the local bus to the meeting point, outside where a tour organiser checked our tickets - there were about 20 of us, and took us over to the main entrance.

There I had a bit of a surprise. Instead of a chapel, which I had assumed that was all we would see, we were at the Vatican Museum, or series of Museums. Our guide checked us in, gave us maps, made a couple of brief explanations, then told us that we were on our own!

So off we went. Along corridors, into rooms, and more corridors, long hallways, rooms within rooms within rooms. The Vatican has museums of everything!! Museums of art, sculpture, modern religious arts, mosaics, animal statues, maps.....

The Vatican has recently turned 500 years old. According to wikipedia, there are 54 galleries, or salsas, and the visitor route through the museum takes one through almost every one. Naturally the Sistine Chapel is at the very end, so we saw many other famous and beautiful items, including many paintings and frescos by Raphael. has a detailed writeup of all the famous items here. After our visit, which took a leisurely two hours we went around to St. Peter's Square and Basilica. We spent a little time wandering in the peaceful square and inside the basillica, in which there is a lot to see - and well worth it - we spent a considerable time in the cathedral when we were here several years ago.

The best thing about our visit to Rome this time, was that being winter, there were not many people about. So we saw everything in the museum and churches at our leisure. Just imagine trying to see everything while shuffling along in a huge queue!! No thanks....

We spent the rest of the day strolling and bussing around Rome, enjoying a the Pantheon and the beautiful Trevi fountains. Again, we could do so at our leisure, without pushing through crowds and joining queues.

Then it was off to stroll along the Tiber River. Oh look - are they flowers on the riverside trees? In the middle of winter? Oh, no, its not flowers, it is hundreds of plastic bags and rubbish - all caught in the trees during the recent flooding. And its a good thing we decided not to to do a riverboat tour - the Wharf is all smashed to bits!!

Never mind, I might check out the shops instead - are the winter sales still on??

From Florence to Rome, two different cities

Each city we visited during our winter holiday in Europe had it's own special character and personality.

One of the activities I especially enjoyed was exploring the parks and open spaces, even though in winter time they might not be at their best. While Chris explored the antique and artisan shops on the by the bridge with the Jewellery shops, before he discovered a 'real' and warm London Style pub because he refused as did some other visitors to pay to visit a park, I walked around this one, quickly, because the day was very cool. There were many marble statues along the walkways, fountains, a very interesting porcelain display, and a reproduction of a typical cottage or courtyard garden in Pompei, the result of archealogial and soil diggings. As with many gardens of ancient cities, the garden designs were very much advanced and served several purposes, for examplem herbs for cooking, cosmetics and curing, vegetables, flowers, insect control, irrigation, and cooling.

Before I start talking briefly about animals, it is interesting to note that in this garden there was a notice about a particular bird which apparantely was very special, the only time I have ever seen anything at all about animals in parks. All the gardens we visited were restored to preserve the past. Not like in New Zealand, where we conserve our birds and trees!!

While strolling around this park in Florenza, I noticed some very well fed cats and a couple of feeding bowls. Apparently cats are welcome and looked after in some parks. In Rome, the next city we visited, there are many cats living around the Colossium. And there is an organsiation of ladies dedicated to feeding the cats, including speying them and looking after their well being. Their services also include looking after neglected cats, often finding homes for them, a bit like the SPCA in NZ.

Rome was a little warmer than Florence, but damper, we felt. Built on seven, or was it nine hills by Romulus and Remus, Rome today is a city with all the modern trappings built around many ancient ruins, many of which have beed restored and are available to visit. So one can be walking along a busy city street, turn a corner and there is the Coloseum, an ancient church or just a wall. The place I, and many others, love to visit, which is suddenly come upon when turning a corner, is the Trevi Fountain. Attached to the end of a building, the white colouring of the statues and steps, and the peaceful shushing of the water, is an oasis in the city. On the we visited, there were quite a few people there, not like the first time we visited, a few years, in summer, when you could hardly get near to it because of the crowds.

Because we had already visited many of the attrations during our last visit to Rome, this time we spent a lot of time strolling around the city, enjoying the street life and occasionally visiting the shops as the winter sales were in full flow.

The next day we visited the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel, more about that in my next blog.