Hail ROS!

Woke up a bit later as today was planned to be our day of really really old stuff. We were going to hit the trifecta: Palatine Hill, Colosseum, and Roman Forum. By design our hotel was dead center in Rome so we could walk to everything if we wanted. This group was the closest as we were just north of it all by about a block. Since most of Rome is about seven stories or less, we did not realize our proximity. Also, most of the ancient city is about two stories underground, so it is that much easier to hide behind buildings.

He's A-Cookin' A-Somethin' Up...

Courtyard at Vatican Museum

Okay, so today (day 2 in Rome) was a big day.  Lots to do, only a day to squeeze it in.  First up, the Vatican.  We were told it would take 30 minutes from our hotel, by foot, to walk to the Vatican.  Maybe this was true, Rome is rather small compared to New York.  Turns out when we asked the desk clerk in the morning he told us a different story...more like an hour or more and we had about 36 minutes!  A quick adjustment, hop on the bus, transfer to the metro and a short run up several flights of ancient steps and we were at the back door to the Vatican Museum.  Crazy long lines and we were able to avoid them thanks to a reservation made four days prior.

Notice the tiny cat in the jug!

On this epic tour of stolen artifacts, taken in the name of His Holiness, was Egypt!  All of these were claimed by the Roman army when they went out to conquer, brought back as trophies to show their city how great Rome was.  Lots of statues of ancient Egyptian gods, temple guardians, and some columns, then Greek statues and so forth, then bits and pieces of other ancient Mediterranean cultures like the Babylonians.  Stunning how much the church claimed from the city as being necessary for their collection, fortunately many pieces were in great repair including the famous Laocoön.  Good or bad, the church did preserve these treasures for us to see today.

Roma - First Day

Lindsey, the bunny whisperer.

We took a morning train out of La Spezia, the closest major city to Cinque Terre. I was hoping for the Frecciarossa, the fastest train in Italy, but it only runs from Florence. So we "settled" for a Frecciabianca, also fast - averaging around 80-100mph from what I could tell. The train took us down the west coast of Italy, giving us a wonderful view of the water and coastal towns separated by groves of olive trees, fields of wheat, and other crops unidentifiable from a moving train. Along the way we picked up a teenager headed home to Rome and his pet rabbit that he left in Lindsey's care while he went to for a smoke. This little bunny was rather cute, I must admit.

We got into Rome's Termini station at about 5pm amidst a buzz of Roman activity. The day was already winding down for most people and you could see city exodus about to happen at the train station. We decided to walk up to the Repubblica, a plaza much like NYC's Columbus Circle, fountain and all, only there was the ancient remains of a building (church?) now converted into something Frankenstein would be proud of with metal and glass additions, repurposed into offices perhaps.

Manarola - Day 2

Enjoying Manarola as one of our locations for rest and relaxation, we naturally slept in as late as possible. That means 9am, which was when our breakfast in bed arrived, a small cornucopia of baked treats.

We decided to walk around the hills in Manarola, as the via d'amore was closed in both directions thanks to heavy rain the night before. This lead us way up above the village into the grapevines that cover the hills, used to make a local white sweet dessert wine called sciacchetrà. The views up here were unparalled to sights found on the tourist paths around town. Narrow and steep enough for billy goats, we went up as far as we dared which was only about half way, as the vines and stone stairs kept going up. It was so steep and tall that we could not see the sun rise!

Manarola - Cinque Terre

We organized our trip around tourist sights/locations and places of relaxation. This was the latter and the hotel helped make it so. After arriving by train to La Spezia via Pisa (no time to stop for the ROS there), we picked up a little old train from La Spezia that runs to Bologna and back, hitting each of the five (cinque) towns. Lindsey actually gasped when she had her first glimpse of the coastline around Rio Maggiore. The rocky cliffs, crashing soft blue waves, and brilliant sun were incredible to behold before the train ducked into a tunnel again. This went on for several minutes and shortly thereafter it was our stop.

Entering the town by way of a tunnel, we studied the map closely. It looked huge with buildings, significant landmarks, paths, stores, restaurants, etc. That is until we realized there was only one road that snaked through Manarola. Realizing we may be over-thinking this we just headed to the end and confirmed our suspicions. The map labelled everything in town! Our hotel was just up the road, a rather steep but entirely manageable walk.

Florence - Final Day

Leisurely morning today with a nice, light, simple breakfast and fresh made juice and cappuccinos at "home". Made our way into the city center, specifically for the open air markets where leather, antiques, clothes, and assorted baubles and junk are sold. We strolled, talked, wandered, haggled, shopped, and meandered some more. The leather market lightened our wallets and was cheaper than anything comparable found in NYC, made by hand no less! You could have easily walked away with anything made out of leather here: a new suit jacket, purses, pants, boots, hats, capes, and probably underwear if we had only asked. The one advantage to having locals with us was keeping the price down (slightly - we still looked like tourists without our fashion sunglasses, t-shirts with labels, and nice leather shoes). We were told that being non-Italians tends to leave prices at sticker, or about 50% more than asking.

Florence & Siena

The girls woke up earlier, much earlier than the guys today. Early enough for them to go to the open air market for fruits, vegetables, and other assorted stuff. Lindsey purportedly caused mayhem when she asked to taste a string bean. That sort of thing just isn't done in Italy, so the old man misunderstood and snapped the bean in half showing how fresh and delicious it was.

Not satisfied, the request was repeated and all of the old nonnies standing nearby started to repeat what she was doing to others and clarifying their astonishment to one another. I was told this went on with much furor and excitement for the locals could not believe her actions! All in all they let the girls leave unharmed (probably thinking it safest to leave them alone) and they came back with bags of loot for a total of €18!

There was juice - freshly made juice from the market fruits and vegetables. Oddly, with the abundance of such lovely fresh fruits in Italy, the restaurants are extraordinarily missing them from the menus. Our diet has been a lopsided food pyramid, propped up by the occasional fiber. Stumbling through a slow morning/afternoon on the definition of a lazy Saturday, we finally managed to clean up and venture off into the day.