Colosseo

The Colosseum (Colosseo in Italian) was my only definite plan for today. I also wanted to try to visit St. Peter's Square in the Vatican if there was enough time.

My Flickr gallery for Rome is now complete:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645523086253/

After another huge self-service breakfast, I got the Metro to the Colosseum. It's on the same line as my stop, so it was a handy 15-minute ride from Tiburtina.

I flew through the queue because I'd already bought my ticket at the Roman Forum yesterday. The queue was separated into people that had already paid or had a Roma Pass, and people who hadn't paid. The queue for tickets was reaaaaally long, even though it was about 4 o'clock by this stage.

The Colosseum is divided into an upper and lower store. From the lower deck and most of the upper storey, you basically look over the gladiator pit, where all the fights used to take place before it became a multi-purpose arena for markets and stuff. Basically it was all just red bricks to me, but you could still almost hear the history bouncing off the walls:

A view over the Colosseum

The museum part on the upper storey was much more interesting. Sheltered away from the light, there were many different exhibits, ranging from stuff that had been kept from BC to new stuff that had been given meaning by the descriptions. I found the museum to be the most interesting part of the Colosseum - not that it stopped me from getting a photo of myself with the gladiator pit in the background.

After finishing at the Colosseum, I walked along the River Tiber to Vatican City. It was getting to be 7:00 when I got there, so most everything was closed. I managed to get my picture taken in front of Basilica di San Pietro, but only some of the photos turned out well, being into the sun:

A couple of photos in the Vatican

That's the last of my trip to Rome. Tomorrow night I meet up with dad after what will doubtless be an exhausting day of travelling, involving a train, a plane, and two buses. Until then!

Foro Romano

Today's job was to visit the Roman Forum. I was planning on a short visit, not realising how darn big it actually was.

Day two of Rome is now also up on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645523086253/

Breakfast was the same again today. The lady that runs the B&B has a basket of self-service breakfast, with jams, bread, croissants, and biscuits. And there's milk, juice and yoghurt in the fridge. Plenty of food for everyone!

After arriving at the Roman Forum and paying for a two-day ticket, which also includes a visit to the Colosseum, I found that I had just over two hours there. It ended up being not nearly enough. The place was absolutely enormous. I managed to cover most of what was there, without seeing every little tidbit. The amount of stuff there was incredible, from stuff that has only fairly recently been discovered to stuff that is from earlier than 700 BC.

The forum's place is mainly as where the old 'kaisers' lived. They still have some of the parts of their houses way out the back. The forum also has several hills from which you can look out over the various parts of Old Rome:

 My favourites from the Roman Forum

I knew the forum closed at around 7:15, but as soon as it hit 7 o'clock we started getting ushered out. I thought this was one area the forum could improve on - the security people were very snappy and curt. Not only that, but we were directed to the nearest exit, which was not really the one I wanted to go out of. Added a bit of walking to my trip. Which, by the way, now totals about 200km in two weeks.

I headed back to the B&B and got the same pizza and gelato today - got a bit more pizza because I hadn't had lunch. Tomorrow will be a visit to the Colosseum! And maybe I'll get a chance to go the square in Vatican City. Ciao!

When in Rome...

Go see stuff. That's basically it. There is no 'experience' here like Vienna or Venice. I thought that there would be so much stuff to see that I would be struggling to fit it all in in three days. After my first day I came away with a very different impression of Rome.

My Rome set on Flickr is now available:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645523086253/

I started the day quite late, and headed towards Villa Borghese. The Metro here compared with all the other cities I've been to is just average - the frequency at the station at the apartment is 'only' every 12 minutes in peak times. The Villa has enormous grounds, with a museum/gallery in the actual villa. While I didn't go inside the gallery, I did have a bit of a wander of the grounds. It wasn't anything amazing, there were a few small flowerbeds but otherwise it was just lots of trees and dirt paths:

Villa Borghese

Still on the villa's grounds, above the Piazza del Popolo, there was an outlook over Rome, and the views were amazing. The weather wasn't the clearest, but you could still see for miles around:

The view from the outlook

After I was finished there I headed down to the Spanish Steps. I'd previously learned before I headed out that Trevi Fountain was being closed for up to 2 years while they did work on it. There was also some work going on above the Spanish Steps, so most of the photos had some form of scaffolding in them.

The walk to Piazza Navona was absolutely full of tourists. All the major attractions in Rome are centred around the Old Town area, and every street was the same. Piazza Navona was a major letdown - it was basically a black tile square with a couple of fountains and an obelisk, and surrounded on every side by overpriced tourist-trap restaurants.

The nearby Pantheon was much the same. There were so many people there that I struggled to take any nice photos, it was very much 'people everywhere'. I didn't even bother trying to go inside:

The Pantheon. Just a few people here.

Lunch today was pizza - my first pizza in Italy. Most places were really quite expensive, and luckily I found a place that was a bit cheaper in the expensive area of Old Rome. Pizza here is much different to Australia: you always buy it 'per etto' (per hundred grams). You tell them how much you want, and they cut some squares off the pizza:

Pizza in Old Rome

I walked past the Largo di Torre Argentina, a small section of old stuff similar to the Foro Romano, which also wasn't open, but was quite a nice little place in the middle of town. Here the number of pedestrians was considerably fewer, and I felt far less claustrophobic:

Largo di Torre Argentina

It was getting quite late by this stage, so I decided to not go through with my original plan of seeing both the Roman Forum and the Colosseum today, instead just taking a photo of the Colosseum before heading home. I walked past the Altare della Patria, which is a big white building of some description. I never found out what it was, and I was too lazy to Google it.

The weather was quite nice, and I would never have forgiven myself if I didn't get all the way to Rome without taking a picture of the Colosseum in the afternoon blue sky. I got quite a decent angle of it, but almost the entire half that you can just see in this picture was covered with scaffolding:

The 'hero shot' of the Colosseum

Because I'm staying in Tiburtina, which is where the locals live, there are several pizza and gelati places downstairs that are really quite cheap, compared with the rest of the city. You can feed yourself with a decent amount of pizza and a small gelati for under AU$10. Easily:

Pizza in Tiburtina

That's all from Rome today, tomorrow I'll visit the Roman Forum. Until then!

Trip Report - Frecciargento

Today was my last high-speed train, for this journey anyway. I got a Frecciargento (literally "Silver Arrow") from Venice to Rome.

I had decided to walk the 20 minutes or so to the station, rather than pay the outrageous fare for the water bus. Once I got to the station, I had about half an hour before departure. For those that aren't aware, a fair amount of toilets in Europe charge an entry fee - the ones at the station in Venice charge an outrageous €1. The one on the train was free.

Once the train arrived, everyone piled in. I had reserved a seat, which apparently everyone on the train had done. Santa Lucia was literally where all the tourists got on, while all the locals got on at Mestre and Padua. All the American tourists rudely crammed their luggage in the overhead storage, leaving no-one with any room to put small bags. Bloody Yanks! The seats were about on par with the ICE ones, with a small fold-out table in between and minimal legroom:

A seat on a high-speed Italian train

Once the train filled up in Padua, everyone was crammed in quite tightly. The train was basically full until we reached Florence, where almost every tourist piled out of the train again, leaving it quite empty. We got to stretch out and enjoy the Italian countryside as it rocketed past at 250km/h:

The southern Italian countryside

Apparently the names of the three high-speed trains in Italy are based on their speeds: Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) is the fastest at 300km/h, Frecciargento is in the middle at 250km/h and Frecciabianca is the slowest at 220km/h. We wound up in Rome about 5 minutes late, having mostly made up a 15 minute delay in Florence:

Frecciargento leaving Rome Tiburtina

I spent the rest of the day chilling in the apartment in Rome. I'll have a detailed report from Rome tomorrow. Bye all!

Canals!

Yes, Venice has more canals than you could poke a stick at. There's not a lot of water-free photos, but some.

My Flickr set for Venice is now complete:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645471497911/

There hasn't been many fantastic photos in Venice, so far, just mostly solid ones. I did the same today as I did yesterday more or less, just wandering the canals, except I extended my reach a bit further.

In the morning, I headed up to the northwestern corner of the island, which is a lot less touristy as it's more a place where people live. I also walked through the Ghetto, which is a Jewish area of Venice that was the first, original ghetto, where the word gets its name from.

I then made another trip to Alfredo's, this time for a pork pasta for lunch, and walked down almost to the southeastern corner. There's a remarkable green park next to the seafront, with lots of tall trees.

My favourites for today

I'd previously learnt some Italian at QUT's free language classes, and found out that Marty, the Venetian girl who was teaching, was going to be in Venice at the same time as me! We had planned on going for a bit of a walk, but unforunately she was busy, so instead we went to this happy-hour place just past Rialto Bridge, where I tried Gingerino, which is what non-alcohol drinkers in Venice drink, to make it look like they do drink alcohol. It was great to catch up with Marty, I may even go back to Italian class next semester to improve my Italian further:

Met with Marty today

I also, on recommendation from my host, tried a Gianduiotto, which is a typical Venetian ice cream from this place on the Zattere called Gelateria Nico. It wasn't amazing, but it was good to have said I've had one. It's basically a hazelnut and chocolate ice cream block shoved in a massive mountain of cream. I could feel my stomach expanding:

An evil Gianduiotto

I'll be adding another trip report soon for my train trip from Venice to Rome. Until then.

Day 2 - yet more canals

A lot of interesting stuff happened today, on my second day in Venice. It was much the same again, just wandering around the canals and looking for pretty pictures.

I've added quite a few more Venice photos to my Flickr set:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645471497911/

Today I started off walking in the general direction of Piazza San Marco, the big famous square in Venice that is permanently full of tourists - and pigeons. Lots of pigeons. This little yappy dog got let off his leash and was chasing the pigeons with glorious fun:

This dog was happy

For lunch I went to this famous place called Alfredo's. It does takeaway pasta, and it's very good. For those of us that are going to Venice this trip, you have to try it at least once. It's not a well-kept secret, and it can get pretty busy until it closes at 8:30. Today I got a pesto sauce:

Alfredo's pasta

After that, I went for another walk before going to a famed ice cream joint, La Mela Verde (literally The Green Apple). This was also delicious - the Straciatella was chocolate chunks, not chocolate chips:

Gelati from La Mela Verde

While I was eating my gelati, I came across the American family from the overnight train from Vienna. It shows you how small a place Venice is, especially since they were only there for a day and a half:

The Americans from the train

After some more wandering, I got to Rialto Bridge just in time for sunset. I managed to get one of the 'hero shots' that everyone gets while they're in Venice:

Venice's typical photo

On the walk home, the tide was rising, and the restaurant on the banks of the river was getting underwater. There were kids piggybacking across the water, and the waiters were wearing gumboots. Would you like a snorkel with that spaghetti sir?:

 The rising tide

That took me through the rest of the night. Until tomorrow everyone!

My first taste of Venice

Having arrived on the train early in the morning, I had today and two more days in Venice before heading to Rome. There isn't a massive amount to see in Venice either - just like in Vienna, it's more about experiencing the culture. Despite that I was sure I would do lots of walking.

My first day of Venice photos are now on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645471497911/

Almost all the locals in Venice have a view of at least one canal from one of their windows. The Airbnb I was staying at was no exception:

The view from my bedroom window

After I got to my Airbnb place, I had some catch-up time and had some lunch, which was a leftover croissant, an apple, and a chocolate.

Today's lunch

After said catch-up time, I headed out into the streets. It's incredibly easy to get lost here, even the locals get lost almost every day, as some streets dead-end, and some go to the middle of nowhere. I satisfied myself by wandering around the area near Rialto Bridge. I knew I would be back at some stage to take the 'money shot' that everyone takes while they're in Venice:

My favourites from day 1 in Venice

Dinner today was a street food joint selling hot pizza rolls. The roll certainly wasn't amazing but filled a hole until breakfast the next morning:

Pizza roll

After picking up a gelati, I noticed that there was a storm approaching. Apparently the summer storms in Venice are quite bad:

A storm approaches

That's all for today. Another relaxing day of walking in Venice tomorrow!

Trip Report - ÖBB overnighter

My overnight sleeper experience was massively improved today by my realising that the train departed Westbahnhof at 8:56pm, not 9:56pm. That could have been awkward.

This was my first time getting an overnight sleeper train for the purpose of getting from A to B (yes, mum, there was "that other one", never to be spoken of again). I had no idea what to expect, and bought a whole bunch of food beforehand. I stocked up on dinner with a noodle box, and stocked up at the train station on a few different pastries, as well as some fruit.

When I arrived about 20 minutes before departure, I was confronted with a weird-looking ticket, until I realised that 403 referred to the carriage number. Why they aren't just 1, 2, 3 I don't know. I'd booked a 3-seater sleeper for myself. Once I found the correct compartment, I discovered that while it was fine for me, it would be a little cramped if three people booked into one compartment:

My room for the night

I also discovered that breakfast was included with a sleeper room. Great - my pastries live to fight another day!

The breakfast menu

There was a single conductor for each carriage, meaning that there was one conductor for about every 20 passengers. Further down the carriage was a family of Americans. The three daughters were going on a lightning tour of Europe as a post-graduation holiday - just like me. I talked to them for a while after we left Vienna, talking about what we had all done and what we were doing next.

There were quite a few stops between Vienna and Venice. Most of them were short two-minute stops, but there were a few longer stops as well - in Salzburg for an hour and a half, in Villach for an hour and in Tarvisio Boscoverde for 25 minutes. At about 11, I sat down and ate my noodle box for dinner, after the conductor brought around a small fruit salad:

Noodle box for dinner

It's now half past nothing in the morning, and we've been in Salzburg for about half an hour. The station is actually quite busy early in the morning, with several trains to other places in Europe:

Half past nothing in Salzburg

After the conductor turned down the bed in my compartment, I settled into a fitful sleep. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but it was still better than nothing. I had to get up a few times to silence some creaking noises supplied by the wardrobe and window shade.

At about 5:30 in the morning I lifted the window shade to some absolutely spectacular morning fog in the north of Italy:

The rolling Alps in the morning

The conductor told me there would be a significant delay between Udine and Treviso as there was track work going on. Breakfast ended up being a solid spread, with yoghurt, hot chocolate, juice, bread rolls and various spreads:

Breakfast translated to the plate/tray

Once we passed the Alps, we started getting into flatter Italian countryside. As promised, we crawled very slowly between Udine and Pordenone. The delay ended up being over an hour and a half - lucky I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry!

The bridge connecting Venice to the mainland is a fairly long one - it gives you a good indication of just how isolated the city is. We pulled into the station and disembarked to searing sun, which was better than the spits of rain in Udine:

Made it to Venice!

I took the water bus from the station to my accommodation in Zattere, on the south of the island. At €7 for a one-way trip, I will be making the 25-minute walk to the train station on the way back.

See everyone from Venice tomorrow!

More wandering in Vienna

Today was my last of three full days in Vienna. Having already done the two things I wanted to see, I decided to just cruise around the city, taking whatever photos I could, mainly basing myself around the Hofburg.

My Vienna Flickr set is now complete and available at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645485796815/

My first stop was at a local guest house called the Pöschl, to try another of Vienna's specialties: the Wienerschnitzel. It's basically battered veal, but with a local seasoning. Having done it once, I'd say I probably don't need to eat it again. The dish's traditional sidekick was a quite nice stodgy potato salad:

 Wienerschnitzel and Erdapfelsalat

Someone once described Vienna to me as a city stuck in the 80s. I can certainly see how - smoking is still standard practice, not only in numbers outside but also inside many popular restaurants.

I'd also heard very good things about Zanoni & Zanoni, a local gelateria. Their range of flavours was enormous, and it was quite cheap too:

Zanoni's range of flavours, in enormous buckets

Munching my gelato (which was absolutely delicious), I headed towards the grounds of the Hofburg. The Hofburg originally started as one building, before repeatedly expanding. It now includes a massive variety of buildings and gardens. There is the occasional map of the area, but you are mostly left to your own direction:

 My Hofburg favourites

Some of the other querky things I saw in Vienna today included 'No Kangaroos in Austria' t-shirts, an automated petrol station in the middle of the old town, and underground toilets. Oh, and the enormous museums are weird. The first photo is of a Papyrus Museum. Seriously. Only in Vienna:

 

 

 

Only in Vienna

The Hofburg took me through until basically the end of the day, and the end of my time in Vienna. My next update will be a trip report of my overnight sleeper train to Venice.