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| Spanish Steps |
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| Day 13 – June 8, 2001, Friday - Venice - Rome |
Weather: A nice and cool but sunny day
6:30am – Wake-up call, 7:15am – Bags 7:45am – Leave Hotel
8:00am – 10:00 am – travel on the road
10:00am – 10:30am – Stop over at rest stop (for drinks, snacks, gas and most importantly, restrooms)
10:30 am – 12:30am – travel again
12:30pm – 1:15pm – Lunch by Auto Grill. They served hot meals which was great. Had a great Italian lunch which included pasta soup, lasagna (which is the best lasagna I have tasted), and dessert of custard flan and gelato.
1:15pm – 4:00pm – Head to Rome. Orientation of the city inside the bus by our tour director. Note: Beware of pickpockets. The city although famous for its landmarks, historical ruins, and the Vatican City with a lot of religious people, Rome is also home to a lot of pickpockets – and tourists are their main victims.
4:00pm – Checked-in at Hotel Ergife Palace. This is a 4-star hotel, but a bit old. It was somewhat of a shock when we got to the hotel. A lot of tour buses parked outside, and hotel with its 5,000 rooms are fully booked. It seems that different kinds of people or associations might have booked there. We saw priests, nuns, regular tourists (like us) and interestingly, we saw a group of people with multi-colored tattoos on their bodies. Some even colored their hair pink, blue, etc. Anyway, the hotel was not as nice as the one Venice, so I think, that’s why we were a bit disappointed with it.
There was A/C in the rooms, although it seems that they turn it off during the day, and part of the evening. That hotel also has an olympic-size pool, and a poolside bar where there is nightly entertainment. We did not have a chance to try the pool since I was sick, and don’t want to get worse, and we were tired from the excursions as well.
5:00pm – Introduction to Rome by night – we took the optional excursion , which 21 people in our tour joined. First our bus drove us to the subway station, where we took the subway. With our tour director and the rest of the group, we all boarded the subway. There is 2 lines – A&B. Their subway is not as clean as that of London and Paris, its even shocking to see the trains full of GRAFFITI… As expected, the train was also packed, so we had to stand.
5:30pm – 6:00pm - Our first stop is Spanish Steps – where we admired the view of the steps as well as the church on top. Was built around 16th century which is a combined effort of Spain and Italy. 100+ steps takes you up the church. Immediately down below is a fountain which is shaped like a boat. People are seen to be drinking the water from the fountain, which comes from a spring way underground. Anyway, the whole plaza is known as piazza spagna.
6:00pm – 6:30pm - Then we walked pass the shops of Via Condotti. We passed the Obelisque monument for Marcus Aurelius and then to Ceasar Augustus.
6:30pm – 7:15pm - On to the Pantheon
- The Pantheon is one of the best preserved Roman Monuments in Rome. This building dates from 118-128, when Adrian reconstructed the original Pantheon, which was destroyed in several blazes. Its dome is an architecture marvel, which later inspired Bramante when he constructed the Saint Peters one. Under the dome we can find some famous coffins: Raphael (the painter), Humberto I, and Vittorio Emanuelle II.The dome’s diameter is precisely the same as its interior height: 142 feet. At its apex there is a bronze- lipped circular aperture 30 feet across, wide open to the weather and also to the changing angles of light ordained from hour to hour by the circlings of the sun and moon overhead. Construction started on 27 BC, but struck by lightning in the time of Trajan, the Pantheon was extensively restored by Hadrian shortly after 110 AD. Created for the temple of the gods.
7:15pm – 9:00pm - After that, we head to one of the biggest plaza’s in Rome, Piazza Navona – where there are 3 different fountains in the big plaza.The church is St. Agnes church, and fountain of river is directly in front of it. Artists stay in the middle of the square, and draw portraits and caricatures of the people around. There we spent 1 hour to just admire the artists, grabbed a bite to eat (of pizza and calzone), and of course, can’t forget the gelato. Shopping for gifts, a few sketch paintings and souvenirs were also at hand.
10:00pm – Back to hotel.
| Day 14 – June 9, 2001, Saturday - Rome Sightseeing |
Weather: 80’s, hot but has a cool breeze. A Beautiful day, but very crowded everywhere we go in Rome.
6:15am – Wake-up Call
7:00am – Breakfast – this is our first American breakfast. In a big function room, different tour groups fall in line to get their breakfasts. Ham, cheese, as well as hardboiled eggs are served. Of course, the traditional bread rolls, marmalade, butter, cereals, and even fruits, yogurt are served. Drinks included coffee, tea, milk, and fruit juice also available.
7:30am – leave the hotel for morning optional excursion.
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| Sistine Chapel |
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| Sistine Chapel details |
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8:00am – Vatican Museum – after falling in line for half an hour before it opens, we finally made it inside. This is the most crowded place we have been to. Passing sculptures, and paintings, and tapestries, you can barely walk a few feet. Its just good that they invented this new technology called "The Whisper", where all of us in the tour group wear ear piece to hear what our local tour guide, Marie, would say on her mouthpiece microphone.
First we saw the courtyard, where there is the big ball of steel depicting explosion. Also, the different paintings in the Sistine Chapel was also explained to us in detail before entering the chapel itself.
The Last Judgment was commissioned from Michelangelo by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) shortly before his death. His successor, Paul III Farnese (1534-1549). forced Michelangelo to a rapid execution of this work, the largest single fresco of the century.
Michelangelo returned to Rome in 1508. He was to paint the Twelve Apostles and a few ornaments on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He, who had always insisted that he was a sculptor, was thus to learn the art of fresco painting, and practice it on a vault decorated by fifteenth-century artists as a starry sky. However, as he began work on the project, Michelangelo conceived grander designs for the decoration of the ceiling. He spent the time between then and the 31st of October 1512 painting more than 300 figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Click on this link to take you to a more detailed explanation of the frescoes:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/tours/sistina/index1.html
We spent half an hour admiring the beauty of Michael Angelo’s masterpiece – the Sistine Chapel. This experience alone made our trip to Rome.
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| St Peter Basilica |
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St Peter Basilica's Altar |
10:00am – 11:00am – St. Peter Basilica – after our very awesome tour in the Vatican Museum, mainly in the Sistine Chapel, we head to St. Peter’s Basilica. This is the mother of all Catholic Churches. This is a very impressive church where you see marble and gold all around.
The famous Pieta - Michael Angelo's famous sculpture - This is the most beautiful of the sculptures you can find inside Saint Peter’s Basilica: the Pietà of Michaelangelo. He carved this sculpture when he was only 25. Unfortunately it's difficult to appreciate the details of the sculpture, because for security reasons it lies at a certain distance behind a bullet proof glass.
11:00am – 12:00pm – Lunch near Piazza San Pietro. Just grabbed a small slice of pizza and 2 drinks, already for $10. It was quite "expensive" everywhere near the church, from food, to souvenirs, and other gift items. Even the exchange rate which is normally 2200 ITL = $1, here is only 2100 ITL = $1. I guess people take advantage of the fact that this is really a tourist spot, so they hike up their prices.
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Roman Forum |
12:00pm – 2:00pm – went to check out some of the remaining ruins such as Roman Forum.
Coloseo – the famous Coliseum where Gladiators used to fight. We were able to go in and see the interior of the coliseum, with its underground rooms, and even climbed up the steep stairs to go to the higher level and admired this great ruin right in front of us.
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Exterior of Coloseo |
2:00pm – 3:30pm – then we drove to the Catacombs, where we braved the underground burial place of the early Christians in the 1st century. We had some delay coz one of our members in the tour got lost, so we had to look for him and wait for him. Fortunately, he went to the bus when he realized that he was late to meet us at the place designated.
3:30pm – 5:30pm – back to hotel to freshen up and prepare for the last night of our trip. Was able to take a nap as well.
5:30pm – 8:30pm – had our farewell Dinner at a local trattoria near the termini station in the Manggare area. This is the best dinner we had overall when it comes to fun. There was live entertainment of Italian singers with accordions singing to the tune of famous Volare, and upon request, one of the Tenors also sang Andrea Bucelli’s song "Its time to say goodbye".
Ladies were given roses each, and we were having a blast, lip-synching their soprano singing an Italian song.
Dinner included: appetizer (bread with tomatoes, and also melon), antipasta (spinach-filled flat pasta), then pasta with mushroom sauce, and then main entrée which for me is salmon with potatoes, and Manny tried the beef. Dessert was tiramisu with fresh strawberries. Of course, drinks were included, there was already wine on the table, and they also served champagne.
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Trevi Fountain |
8:30pm – 9:30pm – Fontana de trevi – before we leave Rome, it won’t be complete without a trip to this famous Trevi fountain. Of course, we tossed 3 coins: for love, luck and most importantly, return to Rome. Five years ago, I was here in Rome with my mother tossing 3 coins as well, and who would think, I will come back with the man I love in my arms – now wishing for us to come back someday.
9:30pm – 12:00pm – back to the hotel. Of course, we had to say our thanks and good bye to our Tour director, Kevin, for a job well done. Thanks and Arivederci to Andrea, our driver, and our gratuities. Upon unloading our stuff in our bedrooms, we joined some of our groupmates by the pool side where they had a bar. Ordered a few drinks and listened to live entertainment. Exchanged stories, and sadly, farewells. In the 12 days that we were all together, we have grown close to each other, and the presence of each of us made each other’s trip a memorable one. Dancing to some Italian songs, and later on to more common pop tunes, just before midnight, our last night in Rome. Ciao, Grazie and Arivederci.
| Day 15 – June 10, 2001, Sunday - Leave Rome to go home to USA |
Day 15 – June 10, 2001 – Leave Rome to go back to USA
Weather: it was a good warm sunny day
Wakeup call: 5:30am – pack stuff, shower, and prepared for departure
6:15am – leave the hotel. Kevin arranged for our transfer from the hotel to the airport. Since a few people are leaving around past 8am, we had to go that early with them to catch this ride. Andrea also drove us to the airport. No traffic so we got there a little past 6:30am. Was able to eat breakfast there with some of our groupmates.
9:45am – our flight was supposed to leave, but it was a total chaos there. This was the only time we boarded our planes, and everyone boarded at once. The flight was packed, and we left before 10:30am. Our flight to Newark, New Jersey was 9 ½ hours.
1:30pm – arrived (Eastern Time) in New Jersey. Then stop over for less than 2 hours there, where we grabbed some lunch. Just happy to be in American soil again, especially when upon landing we saw the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty. Glad to be back. We ate New York hotdogs by the airport, before taking the monorail to our terminal. Of course, we had to go through customs and immigration first since this was our first entry.
3:30pm – left for our flight of 6 hours again to LAX. We just crashed during the flight and slept all the way through, with a combination of fatigue, colds and cough dizziness and jet lag, we just slept.
7:00pm – Pacific Time – we’re back home in California… We had a great time in our vacation, sad to see it ending, but we are also glad to be home.
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