Coffeephoria

Living in Rome has definitely required some adjustments, as Karen and I had to re-learn various mundane routines.  For example, I stroded down to the restroom for a #1, and it took me a while to identify the trigger which activated the system.

Anyway, after that we headed out Rome and decided to take the train.  We noticed this one girl who must have skimped on her ticket, as her seat location was a little peculiar…

This is certainly most inconvenient when some passengers need to pass, but beyond that, it is most awkward to have to face a passenger for the entire duration of the trip.  Yours truly happened to be that passenger.

It was one thing to be in the same compartment with 4 other passengers, but being observed like Jim Carrey in the Truman Show while we ate, read, and napped was most unpleasant.

After a few hours, we arrived at the destination, Palazzo Bruchi, where the doors were characteristically small…

And the keys were super high-tech…

Not to mention super-large size penthouses…

And included fancy breakfast served in your room!  Okay okay, so it was some self-serve packaged food, definitely a downgrade from the Convent.

After being spoiled by the St. Peter’s Basilica, we decided to check out the Duomo in Siena, and the facade was…

a facade in the truest sense.  What timing…  Anyway, at least not all sides were wrapped up.

Inside, the entire interior was lined with 172 Pope’s heads, giving a very eerie feeling, as if it were straight from some Hunted House movie….

After that we ventured to Il Campo, the best square in Italy.  No idea why it’s the best square because it’s just a flat piece of land…

We had dined on the square, and the food was actually quite good.  We had some deliciously prepared Salmon…  cooked to medium.

After this we joined the evening walk along Via Banchi di Sopra, basically the one road that runs through town.  I think the whole town was shopping on this street, and it wasn’t long before we reached the end, where all the young people from the town hung out.

I wonder if some of these kids will just grow up in this town and be sheltered from the rest of the world…  Just when we thought we reached the end, we noticed there were people coming up from the underground with a Italian guard posted at the entrance.  Hmm, what was it?  A secret passageway?  Nuclear testing?  Matlab?  Karen and I took out our courage, walked pass the guard, and descended the escalator, only to end up at…

A grocery store.  Okay, maybe we got too carried away with our imagination.

For more pictures, check out the Siena gallery.

Siena was certainly a relaxing town, but we were about to hit the most recognizable monument of all.  Where was this place?  Why did the police start throwing people out?  Find out next time on my blog!

After our departure from St. Peter’s Basilica it was already 4:30pm, so we ran to the Vatican Museum.  Can you spot Karen in this picture?

One of the famous sculptures in this museum was the Torso.  I thought it was some unfinished piece of…  I later found out that this wasn’t the entire work, but what’s left of it.

Check out the impressive depth on the wall…

This being a Catholic museum, I didn’t expect to find pagan goddesses here.  Apparently they carried Antemis, goddess of fertility.  There’s a debate on whether those are breasts or bulls’ balls.

Anyway, after this, we went to the highlight of this museum, the Sistine Chapel.  When we entered the room, it was dim, the room was packed body to body with standing tourists who couldn’t squeeze into a seat, and signs were posted at the entrances saying “No Noise. No Pictures”.  Of course, it didn’t prevent people from attempting to take pictures or talk.  Periodically, a loud “shhhh” would originate from a guard as the crowd quiets down, and the audio level would gradually build up in this again in this perpetual cycle.

Can you find the famous Adam and God portait?

After this we went to Campo ‘de Fiori (Field of Flowers), where we had dinner.  We got here around 6pm, but unfortunately the Italians typically have their dinner around 8pm, so most of the restaurants haven’t opened yet, except for the touristy ones.

As we had dinner, we were treated to the Italian music with accordion et al. 

Again, the Italians really try to preserve old artifacts, such as Theater of Pompey where Julius Caesar was assassinated, so these apartments were built right into the outer wall.  Either that or they were trying to save material costs…

After dinner, we went on the “Night Walk Across Rome” tour from Rick Steve.  Along the way, we noticed this poor dog chained up, with no owner in sight.

After this we went to Piazza Navona, the most interesting night scene with street music, artists, ice cream, fountains made by Bernini, etc.  We tried the “Tartufo” ice cream, “Death by Chocolate”.  Fortunately it didn’t taste like it sounds.

About half way through our enjoyment of the chocolate ice cream, some police cars, followed by some antique cars, started driving into the piazza, circling around, honking.  After examining the Rick Steve’s guide more closely, we realized this piazza used to be a race track back in the Roman days, and they kept the original shape of the tracks.  I wish we had more than a couple centuries of history in the States…

After this, we walked to the Trevi fountain.  The place was multitudinous even at 10pm.  The magic of the place was that if you threw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, it’ll grant a wish and ensure your return to Rome.

At first we were planning to visit the Spanish Steps after this, but unfortunately it was approaching 10:30pm and we dreaded being locked out of our rooms by the punctual nuns, so we decided to skip our last destination.  Maybe the coin at the bottom of the fountain will ensure our return, but for now we could only enjoy the sight of the Spanish Steps in postcards.  For more pictures of this day, check out the Vatican City gallery.

What will James and Karen’s experience be as they arrive in the urban Siena?  What was the most awkward train ride that James has ever had?  And what about the church that deceived James and Karen?  Find out next time on my blog!  🙂

Descending from the dome wasn’t as bad as climbing the dome, even if it’s 323 claustrophobic steps.  By the way, I didn’t describe too many items in St. Peter’s Basilica, so let me just highlight a couple of exhibits.  On the right side was this statue, the only statue behind a glass.

Michaelangelo sculpted this statue, called Piet?, which means pity, is his only signed work.  Unfortunately in 1972, some crazy dude with a hammer ran in and started chopping at the statue, so it’s been behind bulletproof glass ever since.

Of course, being St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the altars marked the spot where St. Peter was crucified. 

Speaking of St. Peter, we saw a funky bronze statue of St. Peter.  The right toe has been worn out from all the foot-fetishists, and there’s usually a line for kissing the toe.  To avoid foot-and-mouth disease, one could also kiss the hand and rub the toe.  Today the whole center was sealed off, so it was not possible to pay reverence to Paul.

Speaking of which, this whole Basilica started giving me the creeps about how pagan everything seemed.  From the statues, which appeared to be idols, to the altars, to having naked statues inside the Basilica, to the goddesses such as Helena.

Everything just seemed so Greek Mythology, except with Bible character substitution.  Anyway…

After this we decended into the truly creepy crypt, where we were greeted by Egyptian sarcophagus.

Oh wait, that’s the pope.  Anyway, you see the resemblance.  Having the popes being higher than the angels, I suppose it was no wonder they got their altar upon death. 

We also passed by the tomb of the newer popes, who no longer got the same distinction but was lined up with lots of picture takers.  One of these was the latest Pope John Paul II.

Further into the crypt where the tomb of St. Peter was.

You couldn’t actually see the tomb unless you took a 10 euro tour, booked a week in advance, so this was all we could see.

After this we exited the Basilica and passed by the clowns, I mean, guards.

After this we ventured into the Vatican Museum, where more paganism manifested itself, but I’ll leave that for another blog.  🙂

One of the privileges of visiting Rome was bumping into monuments everywhere.  Even when we walked on an obscure, tiny road, we saw walls from the first century fenced off under government protection…

At least that’s what I concluded these were.  Validating my theory would have been an easier feat had we spoken Italian, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

After this, Karen and I locked up our bags and squeezed onto the crowded #64 bus, most famous for its pickpockets.  Thankfully with our vigilant eyes, we didn’t miss the stop or any bags.

There were numerous fountains in Rome powered by their well-designed aqueducts.  They were cool, refreshing, and best of all, free.  Braving the chance of E. Coli infection, Karen and I loaded it up and it tasted better than bottled water.

Since we were still alive after partaking the liquid of unknown origin, we took some pictures of St. Peter’s Square…

And St. Peter’s Basilica, where the Pope typically gave his speeches…

Unfortunately because we didn’t attend Sunday worship, I didn’t get a chance to catch the pope and question him on his infallibility.

After lining up for quite some time, we finally arrived at the entrance of the Basilica, where we encountered this Holy Door.  It’s opened on Christmas Eve every 25 years, when the pope bangs the door three times with some mystic silver hammer and the door opens for pilgrims to pass through.

I asked Karen to walk up for a picture, but to my dismay, Karen decided to take a century before looking forward, so I ended up with a Shampoo ad instead.

When she turned around for the normal shot, we were informed by some bored guards that we could not take pictures with the door.  “Only the door, not people”.  While I reasoned with him, I paved the way for hundreds of other tourists to take pictures behind him, but it certainly didn’t help my own efforts.  In the end it was a futile exercise.

So we entered St. Peter’s Basilica…

Despite the basilica being two football fields away and could hold 60,000 members, the basilica was designed to be intimate using optical illusions.  For example, the statue at the top was much bigger than the statue of the bottom, which made the place feel smaller.

Ironically I’d like some optical illusions around my house to make my house look bigger.

After finishing the Basilica tour, we decided to climb the dome.  We first took the elevator to the first level, then climbed some stairs to the second level.  Unfortunately the safety fence 10 feet tall slightly hindered our ability to exercise our photographic liberties.

Fortunately for us, through some ingenious creativity, circumvented the technical difficulty…

And we were rewarded with a shot of the basilica from the middle of the dome, thanks to my image stabilizing lens…

As we made our way to the upper dome, the path became psychodelic as the walls started twisting and the walkway shrunk alongside of the dome…

And when the rope appeared, we knew we were in for some serious staircase…

After squeezing through the final rat hole, we were greeted with a grand view of St. Peter’s Square.

After this, we decended what appeared to be a prop for Slimfast commercial, considering how slim you had to be to squeeze through.  Just look at Karen…

What’s at the end of this staircase?  What else happened in Vatican City?  How did we we end up watching a modern Chariot race?  Find out next time on my blog!  🙂

After walking through the Colosseum, we headed over to the Roman Forum.  We first went through the Arch of Titus, built by the Jews under the Romans for not worshipping the Emperor.

As we walked down the path, we tried to soak in the fact that these same large basalt stones were also walked on by Caesar Augustus 2,000 years ago.  That’s a lot more history than the puny 200 year history on any street in Seattle…

Then we headed toward the Main Square, which looked like my patchy dead lawn in the summer.

According to Roman legend, some twin brother Romulus (Rome) and Remus couldn’t get dates, so they attacked the nearby tribe and snatched their women.  I have no idea why they’re proud of this story.

Of course, we had to visit the spot where Julius Caesar was burned, after being stabbed by his own Senators…

and the meeting place of the Senates who stabbed him…

I see that the statue is headless.  I’m not sure if that was by design.

After that, we passed by this Victor Emmanuel monument.  I must say that this place seemed much bigger in person.

After that we dropped by a bookstore to use the restroom.  Even though I didn’t speak Italian, there was no mistaking which bathroom is which…

It’s also interesting to observe foreign forms of cute transportation…

as well as the transportation for the police department…

and the aftermath of the transportation device’s foul defilement of the street… oh wait, I didn’t take a picture of that.

Afterwards, we swung by Gelateria della Palma for our first taste of the famous Gelato that everyone says we must try in Europe.

I don’t know what all the raving was about because it tasted just like ice cream.  I suppose it was a little thicker…

After this we arrived at the Pantheon, a roman temple dedicated to all of the gods.  Then in the Middle Ages, it became a Christian church dedicated to all the martyrs.

With this engineering marvel, it had a nice and bright skylight illuminating the interiors.  I love skylights.

It’s the only building continuously used since it was built.  Pretty cool, huh?

After this, we were a little hungry, so we decided to go to Cafeteria Brek, with “a modern, efficient atmosphere and cheap prices”.  Unfortunately when we arrived, we saw a note on the door that said…  hmm…  something we didn’t understand.  But we did understand the universal implication of a locked door.

So we took a detour… a long detour, and arrived at another Rick Steve recommended restaurant:

Ristorante Grotto del Teatro di Pompeo, sitting atop an ancient theater, serves good food at great prices, perfect if you want to dine on a characteristic cobbled street, busy with strolling people and musicians.  It’s well-established, albeit a bit tired, but always populate.  Their pasta radicchio (made with red endive) is good.

So we stepped in, and a rude waitress pointed to a table for us to sit down.  On the table sat a wine glass… with lipstick mark on it.  Hmm, definitely off to a good start. 

We didn’t ask for any bread, but she took the order and brought us some anyway, one of which has already been cut in half.  Either she was really nice and precut it for us or the previous customers did.  She also brought the wrong size of the water.  After about 10 minutes we finally waved her down to explain it to her, and she realized it was meant for the table next door and came and just grabbed it and moved it over.

Finally we got our order of pasta radicchio…

I have no idea why took we the suggestion of an American (Rick Steve) for food because frankly we were… less than impressed.  The other dish we ordered, the seafood pasta, turned out to be much better.

Finally we were ready for the check, which she managed to produce by scribbling on a piece of paper.  How ghetto.  We also noticed 4 euros for the precut bread.  I wished I could have left no tip…  oh wait, I didn’t leave any tip!  But then neither do the Italians so it didn’t really matter.

At least on the way back, we were treated to a nice nightly stroll with a full moon and a night scenery of the Victor Emmanuel monument…

We were able to find our way back to meet our 11pm curfew…  barely  🙂  For more pictures, take a look at the Rome 3 Gallery.  I will be adding comments in individual pictures in the gallery soon.

Next stop, Vatican City!

Karen and I aren’t hiking people.  You’d think that being exposed to the panaramic view of the evergreens here in the Northwest would have transform us, but nope.  Last week, our small group forced us all into the jungle in the form of a tent-camping trip to Wallace Falls, where Erick insisted that the hiking trail is super easy.

Jun brought an oversized 12 men tent partitioned into two sleeping quarters and a common area.  As small group tradition, we had to play a few games of Bang before we hit the sacks…

I must say that this is one interesting camp ground.  There were loud popping noises in the parking lot (popcorn machine? wild animals?), and the unmistakable music of the passing train serenaded us through the night.

In the morning, we identified the source of the popping noise…

On the way toward the trail to the Upper Falls, Karen and I discovered this sign…

Hmm, that black windy diamond didn’t seem to suggest an easy trail…

Definitely not an easy trail.  After suffering immense dehydration, we finally reached the destination.

Where we were greeted by a stealthy thief…

A chipmunk.  It’s the first time I’ve seen one!  I guess that made the trip all worth it.  🙂

Click here for more pictures from Wallace Falls.