5/18/11: wow only took blogger 6 days to recover this
About 10pm: Today was so long I don't even remember what I did this morning. Woke up around 8 and went to St. Eustachio again for breakfast. Backtracked to Largo Argentina and took Bus 87 to San Clemente, where I had tried to go the other day. The church itself is beautiful and from several different centuries, but then you can pay and go downstairs for several different ancient things. First, the old church but also a bunch of Mithraic stuff, which Rick Steves describes as a strange cult. And it was strange indeed down there. I feel like over these past few days I have been underground a lot. Anyway, there weren't that many people down there (tour groups were just arriving as I was leaving), it was dark and there were sounds of gushing water from the old aqueducts, and I cannot say I liked it very much!
Showing posts with label Rome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rome. Show all posts
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Day 4 - 5/11/11: Rome, Rome, Rome
10pm: Sitting in the room after another long day. Didn't sleep that well but then slept til after 9am. WTF?!? Rushed out and instead of having breakfast at the bar included with my B&B I walked a few minutes to famous St. Eustachio, supposedly with the best coffee in the city. It's pretty delicious and so was the chocolate croissant.
Walked over to trastevere and found the Villa Farnesina, which is a Renaissance villa that has a lot of paintings and frescoes from Raphael. Walked through Trastevere through where I was last night for dinner. Still a very lively place even in the morning! Found Piazza St. Cecilia, where I wanted to see the church and also have lunch. Yesterday in the catacombs, I saw St. Cecilia's tomb and a replica of a statue of her. Today I saw the church build on top of her house. She was a 12 year old Christian killed for her faith so they built a church in her honor. She's the patron saint of music. For 2.50 you can go downstairs and see the ancient excavations of her house. Pretty cool.
Walked over to trastevere and found the Villa Farnesina, which is a Renaissance villa that has a lot of paintings and frescoes from Raphael. Walked through Trastevere through where I was last night for dinner. Still a very lively place even in the morning! Found Piazza St. Cecilia, where I wanted to see the church and also have lunch. Yesterday in the catacombs, I saw St. Cecilia's tomb and a replica of a statue of her. Today I saw the church build on top of her house. She was a 12 year old Christian killed for her faith so they built a church in her honor. She's the patron saint of music. For 2.50 you can go downstairs and see the ancient excavations of her house. Pretty cool.
Day 3 Pictures - 5-10-11
More than 100 pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157626574582979/
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Day 2 pictures: 5-9-11
Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157626692862122/
Also I got up the video from the Spanish steps of the opera practice. It's only 4 seconds and high-pitched: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/5707886355/in/photostream
Also I got up the video from the Spanish steps of the opera practice. It's only 4 seconds and high-pitched: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/5707886355/in/photostream
Day 3: Aventino, Testaccio, & a Lot of OLD STUFF
6:15 pm: Holy long day. Slept well again and woke up to my alarm at 7:45. Had brekfast and set out for the Aventine hill. I knew I could take bus 30 there, but somehow I kept walking around Largo Argentina in circles so I decided to hop on the (not-so-)Express bus 40 to the station, then the metro to Circo Maximo. Still a big empty oval. Set out to find the Aventine Hill - on a day like today I had to find the Knights of Malta Keyhole - famous for perfectly framing St. Peters's dome. Pretty amazing stuff. Also wandered through this lovely orange garden (with equally lovely views) and saw the peaceful Saint Sabina church. Descended the Aventine in the direction of Testaccio to find the famous covered market. Yummy food wonderland full of fresh fruits and veggies from all over as well as lots of meat and fish and bread (and pet food and toilet paper?) stands. I found the one thing at which California beats Italy - the strawberries.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Day 1 Pictures
Finally uploaded here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debstah1/sets/72157626563382329/
I'll tag and title them later but most of them are pretty recognizable anyway ;)
I'll tag and title them later but most of them are pretty recognizable anyway ;)
Day 2: Orvieto, San Pietro, and More
Phew, what a long day! I actually slept better last night than I have in a long time - take that, jetlag! Woke up with my alarm at 7:10 and got ready quickly because I had an 8:22 Intercity train to Orvieto that I had already booked (at half price by booking in advance). Got breakfast at the cafe my B&B associates with. Nutella croissant never a bad way to start the day. Bought bus tickets (following my Italian victory of asking a newsstand if they sold them - in Italian!) and took the bus to the station. I never realized how massive Termini is. It's basically a shopping mall combined with a train station that has more than 30 tracks. Anyway, after a short delay, the train set off and arrived in Orvieto a little over an hour later.
Orvieto is lovely, but, really, not all that much different from the other hilltop towns I've seen. The duomo is ridiculous, however. And it has this amazing system of over 1200 underground caves. Now they offer a tour so I took the English one at 11:15 for 6 euros. Orvieto was originally settled by the Etruscans, so you have ancient olive oil mills/presses, quarries, and ... pigeon homes. Wandered around a bit more and grabbed a quick focaccia lunch at a bakery, followed by a delicious gelato. One shop had gorgeous olive wood stuff, reminding me of my favorite shop in Siena, however, the owner greeted everyone in English and there was a sign outside saying "$ accepted here" - I refused to buy anything just on principle. Made my way back to the duomo and took the bus to the funiculaire to the station and bought a 2pm ticket back, arriving in Rome a little after 3pm.
Orvieto is lovely, but, really, not all that much different from the other hilltop towns I've seen. The duomo is ridiculous, however. And it has this amazing system of over 1200 underground caves. Now they offer a tour so I took the English one at 11:15 for 6 euros. Orvieto was originally settled by the Etruscans, so you have ancient olive oil mills/presses, quarries, and ... pigeon homes. Wandered around a bit more and grabbed a quick focaccia lunch at a bakery, followed by a delicious gelato. One shop had gorgeous olive wood stuff, reminding me of my favorite shop in Siena, however, the owner greeted everyone in English and there was a sign outside saying "$ accepted here" - I refused to buy anything just on principle. Made my way back to the duomo and took the bus to the funiculaire to the station and bought a 2pm ticket back, arriving in Rome a little after 3pm.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Day 1 Cont.: Ciao Roma!
Sitting in the room at the lovely B&B (lying in bed more accurately) after a long day that really feels like two. After the plane arrived a few minutes late, I coasted through passport control. An aside - WTF does a girl have to do to get a frigging Italy passport stamp because apparently going through an Italian passport control with a US passport is not enough!
Anyway, luggage took some time so it was nearly two before I went through customs and found my trusty Rome Cabs driver waiting for me. And thanks to him he provided the first epic memory of the trip. As he was pulling out of the airport, he didnt let this girl cross the street (Pedestrians do NOT get the right of way here - in fact i think there is no such thing as Right of Way here). she gave him a look, then he drove on for about 2 seconds. stopped. backed up. got out of the car, and totally told her off. Holy crap, have I ever mentioned how much I love this place?!??
Anyway, luggage took some time so it was nearly two before I went through customs and found my trusty Rome Cabs driver waiting for me. And thanks to him he provided the first epic memory of the trip. As he was pulling out of the airport, he didnt let this girl cross the street (Pedestrians do NOT get the right of way here - in fact i think there is no such thing as Right of Way here). she gave him a look, then he drove on for about 2 seconds. stopped. backed up. got out of the car, and totally told her off. Holy crap, have I ever mentioned how much I love this place?!??
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Holy Crap Where Has the Time Gone!?!
Sarò in Italia in tre settimane!!!
It seems like just yesterday I was formulating the plans for this trip in my head. Now it's only 3 weeks away and after a few potential road bumps, it's all steams ahead. I readjusted my itinerary a bit from the last time I posted - it's now 5 nights in Rome and 4 in Naples. After starting to read about all the things to see in Naples, I just had to add a day. To compensate, I decided against the cooking class in Rome. That freed up a day and I think I'll be able to fit everything in to Rome that I wanted to see, and more. In the interest of maximizing my time and sights, i'll stop in Pompeii on the way from Sorrento to Naples and check out Bari for a few hours before meeting up with my tour guide.
In Rome interesting things have opened up recently and I've made plans to take advantage: namely the Domus Romane at the Palazzo Valentini and the underground/3rd level of the Colosseum. I prepaid for both of those tours, as well as reserving a time to see the Galleria Borghese, finally. I wonder how things like this got around before the internet - these sights are too new to be in any guidebook, thank god for TripAdvisor! I also pre-purchased a few train tickets to take advantage of the "MINI" fares and saved several euros.
It seems like just yesterday I was formulating the plans for this trip in my head. Now it's only 3 weeks away and after a few potential road bumps, it's all steams ahead. I readjusted my itinerary a bit from the last time I posted - it's now 5 nights in Rome and 4 in Naples. After starting to read about all the things to see in Naples, I just had to add a day. To compensate, I decided against the cooking class in Rome. That freed up a day and I think I'll be able to fit everything in to Rome that I wanted to see, and more. In the interest of maximizing my time and sights, i'll stop in Pompeii on the way from Sorrento to Naples and check out Bari for a few hours before meeting up with my tour guide.
In Rome interesting things have opened up recently and I've made plans to take advantage: namely the Domus Romane at the Palazzo Valentini and the underground/3rd level of the Colosseum. I prepaid for both of those tours, as well as reserving a time to see the Galleria Borghese, finally. I wonder how things like this got around before the internet - these sights are too new to be in any guidebook, thank god for TripAdvisor! I also pre-purchased a few train tickets to take advantage of the "MINI" fares and saved several euros.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Watch Out Southern Italy, Here I Come!
Oops, I should probably have posted here before now. By this point, everything is pretty much official. I've put down a deposit on a tour, booked 2 other hotels, and got travel insurance worked out. I'm going to southern italy for 3 weeks in May 2011!!!
Here is the plan:
Rome - 6 nights
Sorrento - 4 nights
Naples - 3 nights
Lecce - 2 nights
Puglia tour with Experience Puglia - 6 nights.
Here is the plan:
Rome - 6 nights
Sorrento - 4 nights
Naples - 3 nights
Lecce - 2 nights
Puglia tour with Experience Puglia - 6 nights.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Why you should plan your own trip
One of those eternal questions in traveling seems to be... to take a group tour or not? I'll preface this by saying I have a strong opinion about this. I think the vast majority of people should plan and research their own trips, and I will go on to explain why. But I realize that, for some people, they simply don't have the time - and it really does require lots of time to do it properly - to plan a trip. I understand that. But there are tours out there that allow you more free time than others. Some tours merely provide your hotels and transportation and leave most of the sight-seeing up to you. For some, maybe this or using a travel agent is the best of both worlds. But I will start with a story.
On my last night in Rome, my last night in Europe after 6 and a half glorious life-changing weeks, I returned to Da Francesco's - a little trattoria/pizzeria off Piazza Navona that had come highly recommended to me by the dear people over in the TripAdvisor Rome forums. I went there my first night in Rome and the pizza was so amazing, so memorable, that for my last night in Europe, I just had to go back. On this lovely evening in this little beautiful piazza, I was sitting next to a lovely American mother and her adult daughter, we hit it off because they were from the Boston area, which is where I grew up. They were with a group tour (hint: company begins with a G) and since they did not want to do what the tour was doing that evening, they asked their tour guide about a place to go, and he suggested this one. Only one problem - they didn't know the name of their hotel, they didn't know it's address, and they didn't know how to get back there. WHAT?! How can you go to a big foreign city and not know where you are! Needless to say, we chatted throughout or meals, and really they were lovely people, but after our meal, we had a gelato together and I showed them how to take the bus back to the train station (they thought their hotel was near there). They were very grateful and of course I was happy to help. They couldn't believe how much I knew; I couldn't believe how little they knew.
This bothered me on many levels. Besides the fact that these otherwise intelligent women were blindly trusting a tour guide for everything, because they did no planning or research of their own, they learned nothing about the culture or how Romans live on a daily basis, nothing about the geography or orientation of the city, nothing. I'm sure they had a great time, but did they have the same experience as someone like me who learned the buses, wandered around just to explore and experience and learn? I doubt it. Maybe they didn't want to. And that's OK. But forgetting all that esoteric cultural profundity, what about the fact that it was at night after dark in a huge city where they didn't speak the language and they were essentially lost and had no idea how to get back to their hotel!? I mean, that's a safety issue. What would they have done if I hadn't been there? I'm sure they would've safely found their way back somehow, but how long or frustrating would it have been?
But we're all different. If I took a tour with even just 15 other people, my opinions are completely ignored. Why should I pay thousands of dollars to speed through things I might like or spend a lot of time at places I don't like? Why should I spend this much money on what might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip to be rushed through cities and herded around like an animal?
Like I said, I know that some people really just have to take a tour. But at very least, research the tours. Find ones that fit with you and your interests. And at very least, don't blindly trust the tour for everything. If you venture out on your own - which I hope you would - at least take a business card from the hotel! But if you have the time, do it yourself. You will learn so much more and have a much richer and more fulfilling trip. I really believe that.
On my last night in Rome, my last night in Europe after 6 and a half glorious life-changing weeks, I returned to Da Francesco's - a little trattoria/pizzeria off Piazza Navona that had come highly recommended to me by the dear people over in the TripAdvisor Rome forums. I went there my first night in Rome and the pizza was so amazing, so memorable, that for my last night in Europe, I just had to go back. On this lovely evening in this little beautiful piazza, I was sitting next to a lovely American mother and her adult daughter, we hit it off because they were from the Boston area, which is where I grew up. They were with a group tour (hint: company begins with a G) and since they did not want to do what the tour was doing that evening, they asked their tour guide about a place to go, and he suggested this one. Only one problem - they didn't know the name of their hotel, they didn't know it's address, and they didn't know how to get back there. WHAT?! How can you go to a big foreign city and not know where you are! Needless to say, we chatted throughout or meals, and really they were lovely people, but after our meal, we had a gelato together and I showed them how to take the bus back to the train station (they thought their hotel was near there). They were very grateful and of course I was happy to help. They couldn't believe how much I knew; I couldn't believe how little they knew.
This bothered me on many levels. Besides the fact that these otherwise intelligent women were blindly trusting a tour guide for everything, because they did no planning or research of their own, they learned nothing about the culture or how Romans live on a daily basis, nothing about the geography or orientation of the city, nothing. I'm sure they had a great time, but did they have the same experience as someone like me who learned the buses, wandered around just to explore and experience and learn? I doubt it. Maybe they didn't want to. And that's OK. But forgetting all that esoteric cultural profundity, what about the fact that it was at night after dark in a huge city where they didn't speak the language and they were essentially lost and had no idea how to get back to their hotel!? I mean, that's a safety issue. What would they have done if I hadn't been there? I'm sure they would've safely found their way back somehow, but how long or frustrating would it have been?
But we're all different. If I took a tour with even just 15 other people, my opinions are completely ignored. Why should I pay thousands of dollars to speed through things I might like or spend a lot of time at places I don't like? Why should I spend this much money on what might be a once-in-a-lifetime trip to be rushed through cities and herded around like an animal?
Like I said, I know that some people really just have to take a tour. But at very least, research the tours. Find ones that fit with you and your interests. And at very least, don't blindly trust the tour for everything. If you venture out on your own - which I hope you would - at least take a business card from the hotel! But if you have the time, do it yourself. You will learn so much more and have a much richer and more fulfilling trip. I really believe that.
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