Day 1: Arrival in Rome
We flew direct from RDU to Paris and then on to Rome, arriving in Rome at about 1:00 PM. Our hotel, the Monti Palace, was in a neighborhood about 3 blocks from the Colosseum. Although the hotel was built in about 1910 and didn't look like much from the outside, it was very up-to-date (albeit with small rooms) inside. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of our room. The hotel wasn't in the hippest area of Rome, but the neighborhood had some local character.
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| Monti Palace Hotel |
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| View from a back window of the hotel |
After taking a nap, we went to a local bar for a drink. After a couple of drinks, we decided to have some bar food, which was pretty good. The highlight was the music that was playing, which was almost entirely from the 60's and 70's, including the legendary "
Gimme Dat Ding" by the Pipkins.
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| Enjoying the Pipkins |
Day 2: The Colosseum and Roman Forum
Since our hotel was close to the Colosseum, we decided to make that our first stop. It remains largely unchanged since we last visited it in 1990. Actually, it remains largely unchanged since the Middle Ages.
Under normal circumstances, visitors to the Colosseum can only visit the above-ground levels, but you can book a special tour to visit the "underground" where the animals and gladiators stayed until they were brought up for their events. In Roman times, the underground was covered by wood, which in turn was covered by sand to make up the floor of the Colosseum. Today, the underground areas are mostly exposed.
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| View of the underground areas from the seating area |
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| View from down below |
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| Where prisoners and animals waited |
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| Elevator used to raise animals to the floor |
Next to the Colosseum is the
Arch of Constantine, which was built to commemorate Constantine's victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. Across from the Arch is a corner of the Roman Forum.
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| View of Arch of Constantine (left) and Roman Forum from the top of the Colosseum |
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| Constantine's Arch |
From the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, we went across the street to the
Roman Forum, which was the center of activity in Rome from about the 8th century BC to about 112 AD. Our first stop in the forum was the Arch of Titus, which was built in 82 AD.
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| Arch of Titus |
Near the Arch of Titus is the
Basilica of Maxentius, which was completed in 312 AD. The only remaining part is one of the side halls, so in the picture below, the people on the left are basically in what was the center of the building.
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| Basilica of Maxentius |
We continued walking along the
Via Sacra, which was the main street of the Roman Forum.
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| General view of the Roman Forum |
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| American tourist amidst the ruins |
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| Along the Via Sacra |
We then walked up the
Palatine Hill, which overlooks the Roman Forum.
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| View of the Roman Forum from Palatine Hill |
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| Bird's eye view (literally) of the Roman Forum |
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| Colosseum and Arch of Titus as seen from Palatine Hill |
That was pretty much it for the day. We went back to the hotel for a nap and had dinner in the neighborhood. I don't remember what we ate, but pasta was probably involved.
Day 3: San Marino
Today was a trip to San Marino, so I could collect my 113th country. San Marino is one of those county-sized countries scattered across Europe (like Monaco, Lichtenstein, and Andorra). Once upon a time there were lots of little principalities like these, but all of the others have been combined into other countries.
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| Where San Marino is |
Although San Marino looks like a pretty straight shot from Rome, it's actually a pain to get to. First you have to take a train from Rome to Bologna and then transfer to a train from Bologna to Rimini, which is on the coast. In Rimini, you catch a bus to San Marino. All in all, the trip takes about 3 1/2 hours. So, we first took the metro to the main Rome railroad station (Termini)
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| In the metro station near our hotel. The Rome metro is not world class. |
Then the fun began. At the metro station, we bought train tickets to Bologna and then to Rimini. For the Rome-Bologna train, our seats were reserved. We then went to the tracks and got on a train. I immediately noticed that the train had neither car numbers nor seat numbers, which made me a little suspicious. Then the train began rolling about 5 minutes
before its scheduled departure, which convinced me that we were on the wrong train. When the conductor came by (fortunately about 2 minutes after the train left), I explained the situation and he made a face that said "You idiot, you're on the wrong train!" He didn't speak much English, but there was another passenger who did, and they explained that we needed to get off at the next stop, go back to Rome and get on the next train to Bologna. So, we got off, and discovered that none of the trains back to Rome went to the station we came from. However, thanks to my trusty Google Fi phone, I was able to determine that there were trains to Bologna from the station we were going back to. Once we got to the Rome station, we had to buy new tickets to Bologna, but our tickets from Bologna to Rimini were still good.
After all was said and done, we got to Rimini only an hour later than we were scheduled to arrive. Fortunately the bus to San Marino left from near the train station, so by about 3:00 we were in
San Marino.
The Most Serene Republic of San Marino (as they like to call it) is about the size of a U.S. county, and the capital city (also called San Marino) is on a small mountain in the center. It has the smallest population of any country in Europe (33,000) and one of the highest average incomes in the world.
The bus took us to the center of the city, where we discovered that the city and the country are pretty much closed for the winter. It appeared that about 20 percent of the stores and museums were open.
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| View over the Principality of San Marino from the city of San Marino |
The main industry in San Marino is the sale of duty-free goods, including lots of guns and what looked like more serious weapons. I later found out that San Marino has the loosest gun laws in Europe.
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| Where Homer gets his beer |
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| One of many arms stores in San Marino |
Since the city was about 3000 feet higher than the surrounding areas, it was about 20 degrees colder, with snow on the ground.
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| San Marino Town Hall |
We spent about an hour wandering around the town, stopping at whatever shops were opening and having sinful cups of hot chocolate at a cafe.
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| Note tree growing from wall |
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| View of San Marino City from below |
Given the lack of anything open, we only spent about an hour there, so our late arrival didn't have much of an effect. The trip back to Rome was uneventful and we arrived in time for dinner Fortunately Italians eat dinner after 9:00.
Day 4: Touring Rome
Today we bought tickets for one of those "Hop on-Hop off" tourist buses and took the bus around Rome. The bus left from Termini Railway Station, the main station in Rome.
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| Inside Termini Railway Station |
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| A protest gathering outside the station |
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| Exterior of Termini Station |
First we drove by the Colosseum (which you don't need to see again) and the Roman Forum.
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| Circus Maximus |
Eventually, we got off at the west end of the Roman Forum, and walked over to
Trajan's Forum, which is sort of connected to the Roman Forum. Trajan's forum dates to 112 AD.
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| Trajan's Tower and part of Trajan's Forum |
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| More of Trajan's Forum |
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| Panoramic view of Trajan's Forum |
Near Trajan's Forum is the
Victor Emmanuel Monument, which was built in the late 1800's in honor of the first king of reunified Italy.
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| Victor Emmanuel Monument |
We then took the bus around to other points of interest in the city. The main tourist sights in the city were very crowded, which makes me wonder what it must be like during the high tourist season.
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| Castel Sant'Angelo, in Vatican City, dating from about 200 AD |
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| Spanish Steps |
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Crowd looking at Trevi Fountain |
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| Italian Parliament |
Eventually, we made our way to the
Pantheon, which was completed in about AD 126. It's probably the most well-preserved building from Ancient Rome. Definitely a highlight.
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| Front of the Pantheon |
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| Panoramic view inside the Pantheon |
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| Inside the Pantheon |
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| Dome of the Pantheon |
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| View of the square in front of the Pantheon |
We eventually made our way back to the hotel, rested up and went for dinner (presumably pasta).
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| Our neighborhood at night |
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| St. Mary of the Dumpsters |
Day 5: Vatican and to the Ship
The morning was dedicated to a visit to the Vatican, and in the afternoon we made way to our cruise ship. We began by going to the very secure Metro station near our hotel and taking the Metro to the Vatican.
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| Just a bit of security at our Metro station |
There was a huge line for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and since we had seen them on our last trip, we decided to concentrate on St. Peters Cathedral instead.
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| St. Peter's Cathedral |
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| St. Peter's Square |
The interior of the cathedral was modestly decorated, likely at very low cost.
We left the cathedral and wandered around St. Peter's square. The Pope did not honor us with a visit.
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| View of St. Peter's Square from the Cathedral steps |
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| A Swiss guard |
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| Panoramic view of St. Peters Square and Cathedral |
After St. Peter's, we went back to our hotel, got our luggage and headed to the train station. There we boarded a train (about 45 minutes) to Civitavecchia, the cruise port for Rome. From the Civitavecchia train station, we walked to the cruise terminal, and boarded the ship.
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| Festival in Civitavecchia |
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| View of Civitavecchia from the ship |
Next:
Days 6 and 7 -- A day at sea, and Malta
