All Roads

August 27th

At last we made it to Rome. There really isn't much else to Lazio, at least not much else compared to the scale of somewhere like Rome. It is as overwhelming as Venice but at least a little more familiar without streets paved in liquid. In fact for some reason it seemed to remind both of us of London. Sort of.

We got into Rome by bus and then proceeded to spend several hours doing nothing, waiting for agencies to open in a MacDonalds in one of the eastern train stations. Funny how the clientele all look the same whatever country you are in. At least here they serve beer. Hal did the ring-around and finally found a very helpful english speaking lady at a company with a dodgy website. We booked a place for a week, and headed into the area, just east of the Trevi fountain, and found our apartment on the sixth floor, with kitchen, washing facilities, living room, bath room and of course bedroom. And a roof terrace with views out across Rome. It all seemed delightfully excessive after our previous places of recent days. A hunt for the supermarket took us past the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Nice to be so close in but they should do something about the masses of people.

Trastevere and the Forum

August 28th

The first day in Rome we walked. It is a very walkable city. We wandered back to the Pantheon, then south to the Piazza Argentina. Here there is a fairly recently uncovered set of temples, including the location where Julius Caesar was assassinated. It seemed full of cats with Julius' spot marked out by a fairly flat looking black and white moggy. It turns out it is now a cat sanctuary. Romans like cats, but don't get them fixed and sometimes lob kittens and cats out into the street. Mussolini was fond of shooting them, but then that probably says more about him than the cats. We continued south to the more grungey Trastevere. This is sort of like a more spread out Fitzroy, but not quite as interesting. We did spot a butcher, though, which seemed to stick in the back of the mind. Heading east and then north again we came through Circus Maximus, passed the Colosseum -- so named as a monument to Nero apparently, through the Forum, past where JC was cremated and the location of the Imperial Senate, and home. I know, it doesn't sound like much but it was @#$%ing hot. Plus wandering through these places that I've read about since childhood seemed odd. I needed a lie down.

For a change we decided on african cuisine for dinner, going to the strangely named "Africa" restaurant. Flat Ethiopian bread provided for eating a range of different meat and vegetable dishes. I normally don't mention food, but this I'll make an exception for. The food was good but it was more the chance of having a spicy meal that made the difference for us. After four months in Italy we are starting to crave the spice that you get from Asian food. African is just as good given the different flavours.

Saint Peters

August 29th

After a slow start to the day, we headed in the afternoon -- hence deliberately missing the Pope's address -- to St Peters. The Square is, of course, oval. A "perfect ellipse" according to one guide we overheard. I need to work out what that is: okay so we both have a different idea of perfect given the amount of maths we've done. The "square" is quite stunning, and only marred by the stupid queuing, or pushing, arrangement they have in place in order to make sure every visitor passes through the metal detectors before entering the Basilica et al. The Square, designed by Bernini the Younger, has two view points where the pillars of the sides, four deep, line up. Okay I explained that badly. Let me draw a diagram... See?

Next stop the Basilica. This, to us, generated mixed emotions. St Peters is simply an overwhelming and opulent building that belies the senses. But rather than thinking of it as an edifice to draw people's attention to the glory of god, it seemed more as an enormous penis extension for the Popes. Their statues are everywhere. The perfect marble floors are carefully inlaid with markings showing how much smaller other churches are -- the Los Angeles Cathedral is only 110 metres long or something and hence 50 metres shorter than this one -- simply pointing out who is "better". I know this is the prime church for possibly the largest religion in the world, but these "subtle" touches spoilt it for me, that along with knowing what a bunch of power hungry, evil bastards Popes past have been, and the damage catholic conservatism is doing now, with regards to family planning, the spread of AIDS, etc etc. Benedict is certainly not going to improve the situation given that he has recently reinstituted the saying of Mass in Latin. Now that's not at all exclusionary. I would highly recommend you go if ever in Rome, not that my opinion would influence your decision at all, but I wouldn't expect you to enjoy it. Mind you I also think people should visit places like Dacchus, and not for the giggles.

Our final stop -- we couldn't be bothered climbing up into the dome -- was the Tomb of the Popes. This looked like being quite interesting as we could work out from their inscriptions where the Popes had originated from across Italy, for the Italian ones of course. They even had one for a Pope from Avignon. Hal also got bizarrely excited at finding the tomb of the last of the Stuarts, the one-time English Royal family. Oh and John Paul II was buried there. But before we could even get started, we got shooed out for closing time. Goodness knows why, given that nothing else was closing.

Returning home, we decided on having steak for dinner. I proceeded to walk around much of the rest of Rome trying to find an open butcher, finding them either closed for the holidays, closed for good, or simply not finding them at all. We ended up with a slightly average, slightly expensive meal instead.

Capitoline Museums

August 30th

The next day we thought we'd take it easy. So we managed to include in our itinerary one of the smaller museums in the city: the Capitoline Museums. Apparently the first public museum in the world, this one was well situated overlooking The Forum, behind Mussolini's Typewriter, and at the top of a set of steps designed by Michelangelo. What was there: a large collection of marble statues, ancient and not so ancient, some Caravaggios, a large collection of very well done but to me quite hideous porcelain artefacts, half a temple, some ancient flooring, Roman tablets, and a couple of ancient bronzes including one identified as Marcus Aurelius. Impressive to the point that my back hurt. Walking slowly around museums is definitely one way to make my back hurt. Mind you I did try and do it quickly because my brain was full, but Hal wouldn't keep up.

We walked through Trastevere again, this time finding a butcher, and went home with some expensive steaks. Cheaper than your average Roman meal though. And on the way back we managed to stop off at the Pantheon for the third time in three days. Funnily it was raining, one of two times while we were in Rome, and the Pantheon is one of the best places to be when it rains, especially when you need some shelter. The roof of the Pantheon -- this wonderful Roman temple to church conversion -- is a concrete dome with a circular hole in the centre. When it rains it rains inside, and the water quickly drains through an ingenious drainage system. And we got to see it. And we considered ourselves lucky. I highly recommend it if you can manage to be in Rome when it rains.

The Vatican Museums

August 31th

As I was sick of walking around museums the obvious choice was to head to the Vatican Museums today. Oh. My. God. Apart from my body's desire to abandon my mind and visit the cats carefully basking where Caesar was assassinated, this was an impressive museum. Highly recommended. The sheer number of items on display pay tribute to the Popes' ability to horde. You simply cannot do justice to this incredible display and the number of people numbly traipsing around the place.

Particular favourites for us were the Map Room -- a long room painted with numneth Century maps depicting the extent of Italy and the Papal States -- and the Museum of Etruscan artifacts including a full bronze statue. We walked through something like twenty different galleries and were underwhelmed with the gratuity of the Popes once more. Although looking at maps was certainly entertaining given that they generally did not point north and Hal had to interpret by remembering the old names for regions. Personally I was having trouble with the current versions.

The tour ended with the Sistine Chapel, of course. After coming through a pokey little door in the side of the front of the chapel we were greeted by a large number of people craning their necks and mostly ignoring requests to not take photos, and to not talk. There were a number of Italians wandering around trying to get people to stop taking photos and talking, with little success. The Chapel itself is quite stunning. Michelangelo, whatever you want to say about him, certainly knew what he was doing.

After waiting for people to be bothered even serving us as we waited at the in-house cafe, we headed upstairs to the Pinacoteca, or picture gallery. Not wishing to bore you further with a detailed description of things that have since left my brain anyway, let me just say we noticed a Leonardo da Vinci, and three Raphael/Peruginos, one of which originally came from Perugia. It seems that the Vatican haven't received the repeated requests to return it to Perugia...

We then exited via the helicital staircase, with the seals of individual popes carved all over the sides. I can't remember the name of it, only thinking how it greatly enhanced the glory of god with such personal touches. If ever you are planning on going, apart from the Small Gallery, you progress through each gallery in turn with only the occasional side rooms, such as the Etruscan Museum. This is not signed of course, and you only get a map if you hire an audio guide. A guided tour might be a better option, but beware. You are in Rome.

Villa Borghese

September 1st

Another museum. Yay. This one did come recommended, if not located. Villa Borghese is located in probably the largest gardens located near central Rome. The Lonely Planet unfortunately does not know where it is, so we spent a gentle stroll down the Spanish Steps and to the gardens to then undertake a forced march uphill to the Villa. The reason being that you have to be present half an hour before your tour time and you get shunted through in two hours, no photos of course. Two hours is about right given that the Villa is fairly small, but you need the time to take in the exhibits. Hal particularly wanted to take me as it has a fantastic collection of sculpture, and I'm something of a sculpture fan, even if Oscar Wilde reckons it is dead as a form of art. I don't know if Oscar ever got here.

The upper storey contains the usual fabulous paintings if you are into that sort of thing. One I was impressed with was stolen from Umbria and almost caused the region to split away from the Papal States. Of course it was Cardinial Borghese who did the stealing for his collection. I think his nephew later became Pope, which helped in the acquisitions. For us though, the sculpture on the lower floor stole the show. There was the odd piece like a Roman sculpture of an hermaphrodite and a 18th century one of Napoleon's sister as Venus barechested on a couch. By far and away the best pieces were by Bernini, the designer of St Peters Square. This dude had completed half these monumental works before he was twenty five, some time in the 17th century, helped no doubt by his father also being a sculptor. His version of David, completely different from Michelangelo's, is fantastic. The sublime, though, is reached with his Apollo and Daphne, and The Rape of Persephone. Daphne in the legend turns into a tree to avoid Apollo's advances. The sculpture is of the point of the turn, with her legs turning into trunks, and her hair into leaves, frail and delicate, and carved out of marble. The Rape sees Pluto's hands digging into the flesh of Persephone as he captures her, with tears running down her face. I thought I'd seen the best with The David, yet these are certainly in that class. As you would expect, we were ushered out, without even checking the Villa's secret garden.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

September 2nd

I don't remember doing anything on Sunday. Oh, we went to the African restaurant for dinner.

Summary

Rating time! So again here are my purely scientifically fanatic and mathematically singular ratings of each town: