Our Guided Tour to Italy started on 14th September 2013 Saturday. We flew Qatar Airways. The Service was quite good. I am always happy if I get movies to watch especially Indian Movies. I can not sleep in the flight and this movie watching helps me in long distance flight. This time I watched English movie Great Gatsby. Amitabh Bachan comes in one scene and it was a big news in Indian media.
By evening we reach Rome. Our Hotel where we stayed was quite far from the City. We were taken all the way back to the City around 30 kms for dinner that too Chinese dinner. In our group there were 25 people including a small kid and our guide and we were the only Indians and all the others were Malaysian Chinese. This is the problem with booking in a tour here in KL, as only Chinese food is preferred. I noticed in this tour every Chinese restaurant was crowded and we had to wait for our seats and it is filled with tourists from mainland China. In this particular restaurant they did not bother to take care of our needs of being Vegetarians and only a few leaves were given to us while the others were getting course after course. This upset us both and the first day of the tour was wasted just in commuting from city to hotel.
The Actual tour begin the next day. We had breakfast in the hotel . I noticed that the free breakfast given in Asian Countries are better and here it was just fine.
The Coliseum.
An Air conditioned Bus came to pick us up which was going to be with us till the end of tour in Milan. We travelled back to the City and were taken to the Coliseum. We got down and a local guide came to be with us for this tour of Rome. Alas we are not going inside as this is not included in the package of this tour. It is a superb structure where the fights with animals and the gladiators were held . This was so huge it could hold around 5000 people to watch the fights. We were told not only Lions, thirty different kind of animals were used for the fight.
Lot of people have climbed inside the Coliseum which we did not get to do.
There are lot of structures around this building which are all coming apart and are all reeking with history.
After some stroll we were taken by Bus on the road. The roads in the inner city are paved with cobble stones and looks funny and lovely at the same time.
While on the Bus we were shown a beautiful structure called Venice Square. I could see lots of steps and wish I could climb on them. We were shown Mussolini's residence which is near the Venice square, where he gave a speech. We could see the National Gallery Building from afar which looks very nice.
It is around 11 a.m. The Bus dropped us in some place and we were told that from here it is just going to be a long walking tour till we come back and catch the bus in the evening. This being a rainy season we were asked to take umbrellas with us and so we all are ready with umbrellas.
Spanish Steps
Once we get down we walk towards Spanish Steps. Every where there are lovely statues, but all around lot of dilapilated buildings exist. Every place is crowded with People / Tourists
The Church atop the Spanish steps which we visited in the afternoon.
A small water fountain in front of the Spanish steps. The lane which can be seen opposite is the road full of top designer shops.
We were told to be careful about our possessions.
We were told that many of the statues are Bernini work.
We did not go up, the guide took us towards Pantheon.
The cobbled roads were congested with dilapidated, unkempt buildings 3,4 stories big . Just near them some famous structure stood there majestically (very old may be few centuries after Christ) appearing as if vying for attention from the eyesore of the later year buildings.
The Pantheon
We reached The Pantheon. It started raining heavily. Thanks to our umbrellas we were safe. There are pillars in front of the Pantheon and it is a circular dome like structure. It is lovely . There is an opening in the centre of the Dome.
Inside the Pantheon
The flooring and the center round area where the rain water falls.
This being a church people sit and pray.
The Inner Side of the Beautiful Dome
The flooring is also good. It is so nice to watch rain falling inside this structure. There was a belief that rain will never ever fall through this opening and we could see the truth for ourselves.
This was built as a pantheon for different Pagan Gods. Coliseum and Pantheon were built in many places in Roman Empire including France. I remember seeing a Coliseum (Amphi theatre) in Turkey.
Now THE Pantheon is a Church. Inside this some famous people are buried including the famous artist Raphael and famous Queen Margarita who is supposed to have made the Italian Pizza popular.
The Trevi Fountain.
The water where we threw the cents so that we could come back!
We proceeded to Trevi Fountain. Oh Oh, suddenly it looks like a huge water body is gushing as though from a building. I was told that the building was already existing and the fountain built later.
The fountain contains lovely figurines of a man, horses etc and water collects in a pool . People throw coins into the pool . The belief is, if they throw coins, they are sure to come back here. It seems in ancient times Soldiers used to pray that they should come back from war safely and throw coins here.
I was told more than Million Euro is collected here , every year by the Government. I wonder how much actually goes into the exchequer. We also threw 20 cents euro coin, as we very much want to come back to check out everything leisurely , which we could not do in this guided tour.
Whole day it was raining. The guide had told us there are no free public restrooms and told us a trick to use a good restroom. There are many coffee shops and said if coffee is bought , clean restrooms there can be used. For using the restrooms or not, Coffee in Italy was excellent making us go to many coffee shops in the whole trip.
The funny thing about the coffee shops is , the price of the Coffee varies, depending on where you drink it. If you just collect coffee and drink it standing (ala take away in fast food shops), it is cheapest. If you sit in one of the tables it is expensive. The costliest is when you sit in the chairs put outside each of these shops. If I remember correct, it was 2 Euro for a Coffee with Milk (Latte?) of course without the seat.
Another set of statues in Piazza Navona
We proceeded to Piazza Navona a square ( a rectangle space actually) with a beautiful fountain in the centre representing the four continents with statues of men America/Africa/Asia /Europe. The artist Bernini did not know how Native Americans looked and sculpture looks like an African. (Probably he knew lot of African Americans will move to Americas)
In one side of the Piazza a beautiful church is there. We did not have time to go into the Church.
The square with fountains and there are the paintings which are not kept outside due to rains.
An Obelisk can be seen in this picture. There are many such Obelisks in Rome. We had seen one in Istanbul also.
Lot of artists sit and paint in this Square and sell their paintings also. Since it was raining many were not there.
We were taken to a local Pizarro (I think that is what it is called) for lunch. Lucky we got nice Vegetable Pizza and nice vegetable soup with lots of vegetables. We really enjoyed the lunch especially after the nights excuse for a dinner.
My Vegetarian meal which made me so happy.
We had the famous Gelato Ice Cream about which I had heard so much about.
But I was not impressed with the Goleta ice cream.
After lunch we returned to the Spanish Steps.There is a small road opposite to the Steps, which is full of designer wear shops on both sides like Gucci, Armani, Prada. We had some time when everybody went into the shops, we both went atop the Spanish steps.
This leads to a church and we went inside and sat and Prayed ! Even though it was crowded with tourists, inside the church it was very quite.
We could see the lovely view of Vatican Dome from here. I was so excited that we will be visiting the Vatican the next day morning. We met three Indians who had come to attend a scientific conference who are working in Estonia, and Sweden. Felt very happy.
We met up our guide and all of us walked back to some designated place where the Bus picked us up. The Bus could not wait there, as it was a busy road and so the guide kept talking to the driver to know when exactly we were to be at that point.
I could see some train stations and I understand there is an underground Metro which takes to all the places of interest but safety is questionable in these stations.
Today's dinner was in a Thai place. This was run by a Malaysian Chinese and he was so happy to see tourists from his native Malaysia.
We could get some vegetarian food.
Our day ended with our legs telling us how tired they are.
By evening we reach Rome. Our Hotel where we stayed was quite far from the City. We were taken all the way back to the City around 30 kms for dinner that too Chinese dinner. In our group there were 25 people including a small kid and our guide and we were the only Indians and all the others were Malaysian Chinese. This is the problem with booking in a tour here in KL, as only Chinese food is preferred. I noticed in this tour every Chinese restaurant was crowded and we had to wait for our seats and it is filled with tourists from mainland China. In this particular restaurant they did not bother to take care of our needs of being Vegetarians and only a few leaves were given to us while the others were getting course after course. This upset us both and the first day of the tour was wasted just in commuting from city to hotel.
The Actual tour begin the next day. We had breakfast in the hotel . I noticed that the free breakfast given in Asian Countries are better and here it was just fine.
The Coliseum.
An Air conditioned Bus came to pick us up which was going to be with us till the end of tour in Milan. We travelled back to the City and were taken to the Coliseum. We got down and a local guide came to be with us for this tour of Rome. Alas we are not going inside as this is not included in the package of this tour. It is a superb structure where the fights with animals and the gladiators were held . This was so huge it could hold around 5000 people to watch the fights. We were told not only Lions, thirty different kind of animals were used for the fight.
Lot of people have climbed inside the Coliseum which we did not get to do.
There are lot of structures around this building which are all coming apart and are all reeking with history.
After some stroll we were taken by Bus on the road. The roads in the inner city are paved with cobble stones and looks funny and lovely at the same time.
Some beautiful water body in the middle of the road which we saw from the Bus.
While on the Bus we were shown a beautiful structure called Venice Square. I could see lots of steps and wish I could climb on them. We were shown Mussolini's residence which is near the Venice square, where he gave a speech. We could see the National Gallery Building from afar which looks very nice.
The Venice square
It is around 11 a.m. The Bus dropped us in some place and we were told that from here it is just going to be a long walking tour till we come back and catch the bus in the evening. This being a rainy season we were asked to take umbrellas with us and so we all are ready with umbrellas.
Spanish Steps
Once we get down we walk towards Spanish Steps. Every where there are lovely statues, but all around lot of dilapilated buildings exist. Every place is crowded with People / Tourists
The Church atop the Spanish steps which we visited in the afternoon.
A small water fountain in front of the Spanish steps. The lane which can be seen opposite is the road full of top designer shops.
We were told to be careful about our possessions.
We were told that many of the statues are Bernini work.
We did not go up, the guide took us towards Pantheon.
The cobbled roads were congested with dilapidated, unkempt buildings 3,4 stories big . Just near them some famous structure stood there majestically (very old may be few centuries after Christ) appearing as if vying for attention from the eyesore of the later year buildings.
The Pantheon
We reached The Pantheon. It started raining heavily. Thanks to our umbrellas we were safe. There are pillars in front of the Pantheon and it is a circular dome like structure. It is lovely . There is an opening in the centre of the Dome.
Inside the Pantheon
The flooring and the center round area where the rain water falls.
This being a church people sit and pray.
The Inner Side of the Beautiful Dome
The flooring is also good. It is so nice to watch rain falling inside this structure. There was a belief that rain will never ever fall through this opening and we could see the truth for ourselves.
This was built as a pantheon for different Pagan Gods. Coliseum and Pantheon were built in many places in Roman Empire including France. I remember seeing a Coliseum (Amphi theatre) in Turkey.
Now THE Pantheon is a Church. Inside this some famous people are buried including the famous artist Raphael and famous Queen Margarita who is supposed to have made the Italian Pizza popular.
The Trevi Fountain.
The water where we threw the cents so that we could come back!
We proceeded to Trevi Fountain. Oh Oh, suddenly it looks like a huge water body is gushing as though from a building. I was told that the building was already existing and the fountain built later.
The fountain contains lovely figurines of a man, horses etc and water collects in a pool . People throw coins into the pool . The belief is, if they throw coins, they are sure to come back here. It seems in ancient times Soldiers used to pray that they should come back from war safely and throw coins here.
I was told more than Million Euro is collected here , every year by the Government. I wonder how much actually goes into the exchequer. We also threw 20 cents euro coin, as we very much want to come back to check out everything leisurely , which we could not do in this guided tour.
Whole day it was raining. The guide had told us there are no free public restrooms and told us a trick to use a good restroom. There are many coffee shops and said if coffee is bought , clean restrooms there can be used. For using the restrooms or not, Coffee in Italy was excellent making us go to many coffee shops in the whole trip.
The funny thing about the coffee shops is , the price of the Coffee varies, depending on where you drink it. If you just collect coffee and drink it standing (ala take away in fast food shops), it is cheapest. If you sit in one of the tables it is expensive. The costliest is when you sit in the chairs put outside each of these shops. If I remember correct, it was 2 Euro for a Coffee with Milk (Latte?) of course without the seat.
Statue of American in Navona Piazza
Piazza Navona
We proceeded to Piazza Navona a square ( a rectangle space actually) with a beautiful fountain in the centre representing the four continents with statues of men America/Africa/Asia /Europe. The artist Bernini did not know how Native Americans looked and sculpture looks like an African. (Probably he knew lot of African Americans will move to Americas)
In one side of the Piazza a beautiful church is there. We did not have time to go into the Church.
The Church near the Piazza Novana
An Obelisk can be seen in this picture. There are many such Obelisks in Rome. We had seen one in Istanbul also.
Lot of artists sit and paint in this Square and sell their paintings also. Since it was raining many were not there.
We were taken to a local Pizarro (I think that is what it is called) for lunch. Lucky we got nice Vegetable Pizza and nice vegetable soup with lots of vegetables. We really enjoyed the lunch especially after the nights excuse for a dinner.
My Vegetarian meal which made me so happy.
We had the famous Gelato Ice Cream about which I had heard so much about.
But I was not impressed with the Goleta ice cream.
After lunch we returned to the Spanish Steps.There is a small road opposite to the Steps, which is full of designer wear shops on both sides like Gucci, Armani, Prada. We had some time when everybody went into the shops, we both went atop the Spanish steps.
The small lane with designer shops as seen from top of the Spanish steps.
Inside the Church which is on the top of the Spanish steps.
View of Vatican from the top of the steps.
Our Indian friends who made us happy talking to us in Tamil.
We could see the lovely view of Vatican Dome from here. I was so excited that we will be visiting the Vatican the next day morning. We met three Indians who had come to attend a scientific conference who are working in Estonia, and Sweden. Felt very happy.
here is a pillar which is called the Column of Immaculate Conception on top of which is the statue of Mother Mary. Once a year a Wreath is put in the hand of Mary using the Fire truck. We can notice that faded wreath. Some times Pope attends this ceremony.
End of the day. Waiting for the other members of our group.
We met up our guide and all of us walked back to some designated place where the Bus picked us up. The Bus could not wait there, as it was a busy road and so the guide kept talking to the driver to know when exactly we were to be at that point.
I could see some train stations and I understand there is an underground Metro which takes to all the places of interest but safety is questionable in these stations.
Today's dinner was in a Thai place. This was run by a Malaysian Chinese and he was so happy to see tourists from his native Malaysia.
We could get some vegetarian food.
Our day ended with our legs telling us how tired they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment