Day 67: Vatican City

There is no shortage of pictures this day! I got up quite early, in part due to a girl in my room who's alarm went off at 5:00, 5:10, 5:20 etc etc. I'm not sure why she neither got up nor turned it off, but I can only assume she did not know the difference between snooze and off. I have no idea at what time she actually got up, as I was already gone. I took the overcrowded but cheap metro to near St. Peter's Square and walked the remaining distance through a tangle of beggars trying to show off their piety and the usual street vendors trying to sell knockoff handbags and keychains.

I had been warned that the line to get into St. Peter's Basilica was long, and it was, but it moved quickly and I was through in 20 minutes. I had the foresight to respect their no-shorts policy, but even though the signs said people would be turned back if they didn't meet the sacred site's rules I saw many people with shorts within. The Basilica was quite impressive for it's numerous sculptures and for the architecture and ceiling art. The most famous sculpture in it is Michelangelo's Pieta, but all of it looked great.

Next was the cupola of the basilica. You can either take an elevator up, or climb the 551 stairs. Luckily for me the cost was based on convenience and not fun! The stairs started off as wide, sloped steps and it was a pretty leisurely climb. Then they changed to conventional steps, the conventional spiral steps. Then the walls started to slope inward so that you have to twist your body on an angle a bit to get up, and finally there is a tight, steep spiral staircase. It didn't take very long at all, and from the top I finally got the view of the city that I've been promising.

Also, just for the sake of of awesome - Pontifical Swiss Guards!

See, that's 80% of my photos and I haven't even gotten to the Vatican Museum yet. They allowed photos in everything except the Sistine Chapel, but I've been finding there isn't too much point in taking photos of artwork that is all over the internet. Mostly I just took pictures of things that are really famous, really impressive, or things that are neither of those but that has some element that interests me - for practicing my drawing, for example.

A few rooms of the museum were closed, but there was ample to keep me occupied for a solid 4 hours or so. The hall of maps was neat for its uniqueness, and there was a small sculpture room with all the muses that I enjoyed a lot. Overall it was a good mix of sculpture, paintings, architecture, jewellry, furniture, pottery, wall hangings, and other artsy things. The art in the Sistine Chapel was amazing of course, but the large crowds and lack of respect for the no noise policy took away from it.

I took the long way home, heading south of Vatican City and then east to the Trastevere area of Rome before eventually working my way back up to the north-east where my hostel is. Doing all this included covering the 6th of the 7 hills of Rome, so I'll see if I can squeeze the last one into my explorations tomorrow. No real plans for my last day other than what I mentioned before, but I think I'll spend much of it in the southern part again as I liked what I saw walking through there today.

Day 66: Worth the Wait

Today was very straight forward. My reservation for Galleria Borghese wasn't until 1:00, and I didn't have any other plans for the day so I took a meandering route there and had an early lunch along the way. I actually found a real entrance to the park this time, as opposed to dodging across a highway, hopping a fence and climbing a wall that I had to do yesterday. I got to the Galleria around 11:30, but it was another sunny day so I was happy to hang out in the park and enjoy the day. On the way in I encountered an accordian busker who I had also seen/heard yesterday. I'm not generally much of an accordian enthusiast, and to be honest most accordian buskers are terribble, but this guy was amazing both times - playing complicated classical pieces. This time he was playing my absolute favourite classical piece - Vivaldi's l'estate presto - and I swear it sounded better than on violin. I'm normally pretty stingy with buskers, but I felt I had to give some for this guy.

Accordian, who knew!

I paid extra to get one of the audio tour gadgets and finally began my much anticipated visit. Now, I hope I'm not overreacting, and I'll see how I feel in a few days when the euphoria has faded (and after I've seen the Vatican gallery to compare it to) but I'm pretty sure Galleria Borghese is my favourite gallery I've been to so far. Better than the Rijk gallery, better than Ufizi, and yes, better than the Louvre. It's not that it's a huge gallery - the Louvre dwarfs it in size and number of works, but for my tastes at least Borghese is almost perfect content and each room was spectacular. In the Louvre it's like walking through hall after hall to get to a few great pieces, and I felt that there were great pieces everywhere at Borghese.

A little background into the collection might help. Scipione Borghese was a nephew of Pope Paul V, and when he took the was elected to the papacy he made Scipione a cardinal, and soon gave him the powerful position of Cardinal Nephew. He was a great lover of art, and used the nearly limitless wealth of his position to buy pieces, and the power that came along with it to steal, blackmail and confiscate art that he admired. With all the religious ties you'd think most of the art would have religious content, but Scipione loved classical art and was a big fan of Greek and Roman artwork and mythology. His focus on pagan gods and nude figures was apparently pretty scandalous with his peers, but he had the power and support to get away with it. The collection started being put together in the early 1600s, and unusually he kept it open to the public - very rare in those days. His descendents added to the collection and many of the pieces have gone through restoration over the years.

The gems of the collection are sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Despite loving sculpture, I don't really have much history in it, and I wasn't aware of any of these sculptures until I was in Florence. Now, 2 or 3 of them are in my top 10 favourites - possibly even the top 5. Photos weren't allowed, but it's too hard to communicate his sculpture with a picture anyway. They are so much more dynamic than classical sculpture, with figures twisting so that each step you take around it reveals new details. The detail and creative structuring to avoid ugly braces makes parts of them look so delicate and lifelike. Here are pictures of two - 'Apollo and Daphne' and 'David', but again, the real thing is so much better.

I'm sure for most people it wouldn't be as exciting as it was for me, but I think it's definitely worth the price for anybody visiting Rome.
On my way back through the park I spotted some more interesting birds, so more animal pictures! I'll throw in the hostel cat to round off my image limit.

Day 65: Price of Admission

I'm going to write this one fast. I meant to do it last night but got sidetracked and I need to stash my things and head out soon.

Since it was nice out when I got up yesterday I decided to go visit the Borghese gardens, galleria, and the surrounding park. The Galleria Borghese in particular is high on my list of things I want to see. I swung by the Trevi Fountain and Piazza del Popolo on my way there, and took my time walking through the park.

When I got to the gallerie I learned that you have to reserve a 2 hour time slot to see it, and they were sold out for the day - ugh. I reserved a ticket for the following day (which is now today - so I'll be trying again). Since I was already north of the city center I thought I'd go check out the MAXI gallery, which was considerably further down my list. It's a contemporary art gallery, and I've mentioned my distrust of modern art galleries, but it came very highly recommended by two Americans I met in Florence. Unfortunately beyond the architecture of the building itself I didn't enjoy much of the gallery, especially when the flowing design meant that an obnoxiously loud group of school kids could be heard yelling and screaming no matter where you went in it.

After striking out on my first two attempts I decided I may as well get one more ticket out of the way so I walked to the Musei Capitolini. It, at least, was better than I had expected and helped balance out the disappointment from the first two stops. It was largely sculpture, but with big sections on ancient writing and engraving and a decent collection of paintings.

Going focus on the Borghese area today, Vatican City tomorrow and then have a free day at the end to maybe check out some street art, go exploring and take care of a few maintenance things like getting a haircut and doing some laundry.

Day 64: Day in Ruins

The day began with an ominous drizzle. Many of the big indoor attractions are closed on Mondays and I had a few places I actually wanted to see in the rain. As soon as a few drops of rain fall an army of street vendors swarm outward hawking umbrellas at substantial markup, and as more time passed and the rain got harder I soon became one of the few people out without one, which just made them target me more. In total, number of umbrella sellers I was approached by: 16; number of umbrellas bought: 0.

My first stop was the Spanish steps. I don't really even have an interest in the Spanish steps, but somebody had told me earlier in my travels that if there was a drizzle when I was in Rome it was the perfect time to see them. Normally everybody sits on them and they become quite clogged, but when the steps are all wet people stay away so it's a good time to see them. I actually came at them from the top, which was a bit disappointing since I didn't get to climb them - only descend, but in the rain I wasn't about to make another trip to go up them just for the sake of it.

Next was the Pantheon, which is probably the best preserved building of ancient Rome. The reason I wanted to see it during the rain is because of its famouse oculus in the top of the dome which lets the rain pour down into the center of the building. It's a cool effect in person, and hard to really capture with a picture, but I tried my best.

The rain was still coming down and I wasn't quite sure what to do next. I was close to where all the ancient stuff is - the Forum on Palantine Hill and the Colosseum, and I knew I at least wanted to check out the inside of the Colosseum so I decided that was as good as anything to do in the rain. Luckily the line to get in was under cover so it gave my clothes a chance to dry somewhat. By the time I got my ticket the rain had eased off a bit and it was back to a drizzle, so walking around wasn't bad. In addition to just walking around the outside and looking down at where all the underground tunnels were, there was a bit of a museum on the second floor that had bits and pieces found through archeological work and information on the history of the Colosseum and all the mechanics of how things worked. I think that part is the most fascinating, with all the mechanicals bits they had to raise up animals or props from underground in a very sophisticated manner.

The rain had completely stopped by the time I left the Colosseum, so I immediately headed over to the adjacent Palantine Hill. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, other than a lot of ruins, but I loved this area. It's basically walking around a park on a hill, but unlike your usual parks you're completely surrounded by old ruins of walls and pillars as well as plants. I went to the section with the Forum first, then checked out some gardens and just followed random paths to some of the excavated domus'.

I spent about 3 hours walking about, and by the end my feet were getting a bit sore. The actual distance covered wasn't exceptional for my normal days, but I had made the mistake of wearing my sandals and the wet + sandals + lots of pebbles was causing my ankles to chafe quite badly in places. I worked my way back to the hostel in time for free pizza that they give out on Monday and Thursday, and spent the evening talking and eating yet more gelato (my second cone of the day). Debating which of two plans I want to do tomorrow, but in either case it should be a busy day.

(Did you see what I did with the title there? I was implying that my day was ruined because of rain - but no! It was spent walking amid ruins! Clever right? What? Yeah, well you try coming up with an interesting title every single day!)

Day 63: Where All Roads Lead

Rome has more than its share of cliched expressions, but in this case the title is somewhat true for me. Rome marks the end of my first Eurail pass and the end of what I consider the second phase of my trip. Since I wasn't in a big rush I took the normal regional train from Florence instead of the usual highspeed one because it didn't have a reservation fee. The train was a lot slower plus it stopped at every little town along the way, and a lot bumpier, but at least the scenery was nice. By the time I got to Rome I had a bit of an upset stomach from the rough ride, so once I checked in I just took it easy for a couple hours until I was feeling better. Since it was only 4:00 or so I decided I had plenty of time to see a bit of the city, so I took off to just wander about. I brought my map along, but strictly so I could find my way home at the end.

My initial impression of Rome is very high. It's a bit like Paris in that whichever direction you walk it's going to be gorgeous and you're going to see amazing things, but I feel Rome has a much more natural, organic feel to it. There are two thousand years of architecture standing side by side in the city, without anything really looking out of place. I haven't ventured much beyond the city center yet, but everything has a palette of sepia and oranges with an occasional splash of white, and everything framed with pines, cypress and palm trees. I think Rome has the most vegetation throughout the city of any of the big cities I've been to, and combined with an evening of perfect weather it all made for a very nice first look.

I'm just north of the city center, near the train station, and I did a loop south across the Tiber (my classics background is revealed by just how amazing it feels to realize I'm standing above THE Tiber river in Rome) and then back north a bit further over to the east. My quick survey of the area led me past a few notable highlights such as Trajan's Column, the remains of Circus Maximus, and yes, the Colosseum.

I'm doing a bit more planning for this city, since there is a lot I want to see. I'm spending some days going to a specific region and exploring it (Vatican City, for example) but I have plenty of time here to fit in what I want I think.

The Science of Cat Photography

Here's one for Jessica. She requested a take pictures of cats of the world on my travels. Up until now I've seen random cats here and there, and taken pictures of a few, but I was always held back by the "of the world" part. Cats are so universal that a picture of a cat sitting in some bushes or lying on the street seems too generic to me. For it to be a true "cat of the world" you need some geographic or cultural context in the picture in addition to the cat to give it a real place in the world.

For example:

See, no context here. The stones are a bit interesting, but these cats could be anywhere!

Ahh, context!

The problem now, of course, is how much do you zoom in on the cat and sacrifice the surroundings? The cuteness-to-context ratio, if you will. I experimented a bit, so here is my effort. I give you the cats of Rome!

I'll put the rest I took on picasa later. Loung is about to close, so I may have to do my full post tomorrow morning.

Day 62: Lizards and Dead People

My main goal for my last day in Florence was the Uffizi Gallery, and I planned to just make up the rest as I went. On my way to the gallery I stumbled onto the big Florence street market. Unlike most street markets I've seen in Europe, the Florence one isn't about food, but about leather. Italian leather is obviously pretty famous, and the street market sells things cheaper than the big designer stores, so it's popular with anybody into leather goods. There are some other stalls mixed in, but the smell makes it clear what this market is about.

The Uffizi is the most famous gallery in Europe, and probably in the top 4 or 5 in Europe. It is focused on Italian painters, and the collection has works by Titian, Botticelli and 3 of the ninja turtles (Donatello only did sculpture I think). I spent maybe 3 and a half hours there, and while it wasn't nearly as impressive as the Louvre it was good value for the price, and I added a few more names to my list of artists to investigate further.

While I was in the area I also visited the Santa Croce Basilica. It has a few small museums in it, but the highlight of it is that it contains the tombs of some of Italy's greatest minds. The big 3 for me were the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli.

The last big stop for the day was to visit the Giardino di Boboli, which is a big garden / park in the south part of the city. I just wanted a bit of nature to end things after all the galleries and churches. It had some really nice sculptures, and another great view of the city. I also was on the lookout for some animals, since I didn't have any animal pictures from Italy yet. I tend to be pretty observant when I'm walking in nature, and I noticed a little lizard peek out from behing some vines on a wall. I sat down nearby and waited to get a better picture of it, and then a bunch of French people came to take pictures of the view and try to figure out why I was looking at the wall (they didn't) and I was afraid it would run off. After they left and a bit more patience it finally crept back out and I managed to get in close without disturbing it.

This relatively short post took me a long time to write because all the new guest house visitors have been coming and going and I've been doing a lot of talking. Everybody else seems to have headed off to bed or headed out and there are still two half full jugs of wine I feel I shouldn't let go to waste. Hopefully a few more people come back in. My train to Rome isn't until 11:00am tomorrow so that will allow me a much more relaxed morning than most of my travel days. Most of the other people here seem to be coming from Rome, so I have loads of tips and advice ready now. It should be a good time.

Spotlight: Clet Abraham

I'm finding the current format of my blog posts a bit limiting, as I generally want to use my picture space on them giving a summary of my day, and I try to avoid delving too far off on random tangents about things. I will keep doing my mostly daily posts with the "Day " heading to separate them, but I'm also going to start throwing in shorter random posts about cultural things I notice, traditional art, street art, plants and animals, random thoughts - really anything else I wish to talk about. This will hopefully give me a chance to write a bit about things that interest me but don't directly deal with what I'm doing each day.

I'm going to start off with Clet Abraham, who is a street artist. I only know the name because I googled it, and other than that I'm going to just stick with what I've seen and not get into his background. His thing is altering street signs into artwork, and after seeing a few of these signs I started looking for more as I went about my day. I just took special notice because they're all obviously by the same person, and I haven't seen anything like this on my travels so far.

Fun stuff. They are just done with removable adhesive, but they certainly make the streets a bit more interesting. Now to write my normal post.

Day 61: Firenze

The trip from Venice to Florence went blessedly as planned for once. I'm staying in a guest house as opposed to a normal hostel for a change, and after a few hiccups getting in both the people working here and staying here as guests have been good fun. Since I only have two nights in Florence I have a lot of ground to cover. I'm limiting myself to two museums/galleries, and today was the Galleria dell'Accademia. The most famous piece there by far is Michelangelo's David. David has never been all that high on my list of favourite sculptures, but so far on the trip I think it has most exceeded my expectations, just due to its size and grandeur. Tomorrow will be the Uffizi.

I checked out many of the big squares in the city, and crossed over the river Arno to the south by way of the Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is a bridge that is covered with top grade shops selling art and jewellry, but pretty cool on its own just for the architecture.

I then wandered uphill, as I generally do, to the Piazzale Michelangelo to get a nice view of the city and its landmarks. Florence is pretty much exactly what I dream Italy should look and feel like, from the architecture to the landscape. It's a relatively small city, at least compared to what Rome will be, and it's easy to cover a lot of ground, which I imagine I'll do tomorrow as well.

At 9:00 the guesthouse has a "party", which is basically just some wine and sweetrolls, but it's a good chance to get to know the others staying here. Only 4 or 5 people came by to hang out, but it seems like a good group, although nobody is really spending more than a day or two here.

Day 60: Leaving Venice

I don't have too much to write for today. I went to main city Venice today with two of my room mates who are from Winnipeg. All of us had really seen all the major things we wanted, so today was mostly just about hanging out and wandering around. We went to the Venice fish marker to check out the local selection of seafood and had a relaxing lunch of pasta and beer followed by some delicious Italian gelato.

Since I didn't have room to include many of the stereotypical Venice photos yesterday, here's a few from then - I didn't really take many pictures today.

It was getting overcast and threatening to rain, and there wasn't too much more we wanted to see so we headed back after a bit. Back at the hostel we hung out with two charming Australian girls who I promised to mention in here (sorry, I already forget your names! Natalie maybe? I'm bad with names). We all had a cheap 4.50 pasta/salad dinner at the hostel and just took it easy for the evening discussing travel and music.

Off to Florence tomorrow morning.