Here, admiring one of the well-known structures in the world - the Colosseum. |
The lolos (grandfather) of my lolos have been claiming that our clan –
Garduce, were all descendants of Italian migrants to the Pacific. Given current genetic look, I’d say, if ever
there were some truth in it, maybe less than 3% of Italian blood/genes run
through my veins. So other than the plan
to visit the land of the Roman conquerors, I guess it was time to ‘trace back
my claimed roots’ (my added alibi).
(April 2014)
Visiting the land of Euros would be a financial challenge, so the thriftiest way of travel must be considered. It will be a shame not to visit, what I’d call ‘the big three’, so planning the itinerary became simple. Rome, Florence, Venice. All the rest would be side trips.
Visiting the land of Euros would be a financial challenge, so the thriftiest way of travel must be considered. It will be a shame not to visit, what I’d call ‘the big three’, so planning the itinerary became simple. Rome, Florence, Venice. All the rest would be side trips.
Being a mountain lover, I have to inject a mountain visit in
the itinerary and I was glad that the Italian Alps (in Aosta) was just ‘relatively close’
to Milan. With Holy Week vacation as
primary window for working-class citizens like me, I have to plan my travel
during the late winter weeks of Italy.
Not so ideal, but at least relatively less touristic. Or so I thought.
I’ve decided to start south, but not too way south. The hope was to allow at least one week to thaw
out the snows in the north to make my northern visit more warm and pleasant.
Flight
Going to Europe is expensive and one option that seems
relatively price-ok was Etihad. My first
for this airline. I took an 8-hour flight to Abu Dhabi, then boarded another
flight to Rome, which took an additional 6 hours.
Better than a longer US travel, but still relatively long. Not knowing much about Abu Dhabi, I was
surprised to see so many Filipinos in the airport, and especially much later on
the way back home. It was just like another remote town in the Philippines. During the flight, I
got to watch ‘Frozen’ for like 3 times out of boredom!
Large statues dating many hundred years if not a thousand are common sightings in Rome museums and historical sites |
Here at the Palatine's interior. What remains of once 'in city' where the rich, famous and powerful lived... |
the Forum (i think), near the Coloseo and Palatin |
ROMA
I was excited to see Rome for the first time. My small ‘team’ soon disembarked, I was hauling
a huge 20kg-bag containing enough gear for a mini-expedition. Airport was ok but not comparable to the
likes of Singapore’s Changi, the latter being a lot more lively, touristy and
spacious.
Before my Rome visit, I’ve been intrigued on how one of the
longest ruling empires survived and thrived.
Romans pioneered many things that we still see today - roads, malls,
urban design, even law and politics.
Their trace of legacy was not just in the history books, but in many
remnants of their occupation across most Europe which still stand today, and especially more in the heart of Rome.
The first order of the early +12C cool morning was to find
my elusive hotel – named ‘Discovery Bed and Breakfast’. Based on my hostel research, this one seemed
to offer a relatively expensive room, but at least near the sites. Using a not-so-complete, black and white city
map printed off google maps in varying scale, I immediately got lost. From the vague scales that I recall, it was
like 3.5km to the hostel. A long
distance if one is carrying a heavy load.
My merry band of tourists, all 3
of us – decided to try a local transport.
Not knowing the hows and wheres, I just bought tickets for 1.5 euros each.
Then tried asking more than 8 people to get even more confused. Seeing many Filipinos around, which was
another surprise, I started asking them in Tagalog – again with no good
result. Ano ba!? My frustration grew higher after more than
30mins of failed directional question-and-answer, I
was tired and needing sleep, was carrying 20kg in my pack, half of it was not
even mine – and here lost in the middle of a haystack.
Finally, I realized that I may be asking a
wrong question. I tried to find another
landmark in the map and ask one guy on how to get there. True enough, he pointed me in the right
direction. My group took a tram and as
directed, stopped on the right station.
Finally, we were making progress.
Walking a few blocks, I finally found the elusive hostel. The operator was a south Asian, which means
he speaks good English. The locals
mostly don’t. Or don’t want. I handed him my printed ‘reservation sheet’
which he himself sent via email.
After asking me to wait for around 30mins, he finally declared that
there was a booking mistake. He was
bumping me off. Freakin what!? He said
not to worry and he’d help me find accommodation. It was not high season and we’d be able to
find a good alternative. Yeah, and carry
the gadamn weight-bag to the other end of the city! – was my thought.
True enough, he found one for me using booking.com. I was like – why didn’t I just trusted those
.coms and relied on direct hotel reservations?
The better part was that – the
alternative was even cheaper, and a ‘real hotel’ which means – it has a better
bed and a toilet inside. The bad part,
well I have to ride back the tram to the central station called Termini, and
walk few long blocks to get there. “I’m
a mountaineer, I can live with that.”
The good thing about the metro+tram+bus ticket in most of Italy was
that, it has a time-bounded multi-use feature.
I didn’t have to buy a new one and simply re-use it.
Soon we found ourselves checking in the hotel, throwing our
bags inside the nice room, and did a quick
let-me-lie-down-for-a-moment-and-relax-from-all-this-chaos. Before living the previous hostel, I was able
to grab a good and almost complete city map.
Reading through it, I was finally more aware of the city landscape and
how the metros operate. In most modern
cities, the easiest way to move around was by metro. You have a map, plus sub-way metro, and if by
luck your target sites are near or around a station – you’d find navigation
to be very easy. I completely ignored
all the bus lines and just focus on ‘where-to-go plan’ using the 2 main
metro-subways that operate in Rome.
Luckily, both Colosseo and the Vatican were within easy walk from a
metro station. These two were my top
must-visits, the others were merely icings.
On the bus ride from the airport, we already got a glimpse
of the Colloseo (aka Colloseum). From
our hotel north of the central terminal – it was an easy Metro ride going
southwest. Given an almost half-day
remaining on our day-1, we decided for this site and the nearby old Roman town
of Palatine.
The Colosseum was majestic and impressive as expected. It was huge and dominating. What I didn’t
expect was the long lines of tourists wanting to get inside this ancient gladiators’
arena. Going around its perimeter to get
a good shot was easy, and enough to say “hey I’ve been here”. The only challenge was how to exclude or hide
the big scaffolding structure built on one side. An on-going restoration was
clearly there.
Where gladiators once fought and died.. one can easily imagine the 'dark era' where men fought with animals and men - for entertainment! |
To save time or allow the tourists to thin out – which
didn’t happen, I encouraged my companions to visit Palatine first. And luck was
on my side. The ticket area there sells
ticket for both Colosseo and Palatine. Cheaper if you buy the 2-site package,
which we did.
Not knowing what this site was all about, and not wanting to
spend extra euros for slow-going tour guides, we guessed and tried to ‘over
hear’ what the colossal of monuments and structures were about. Clearly, the
site used to be a very important Roman town for the rich and famous. There were broken temples all around,
remnants of decaying ghost houses, still-standing building with bronze doors, puzzle pieces of giant columns and walls
which once made this dead town like Beverly Hills of the present. Well, minus the big temples I guess. Nearby, another popular structure called The
Forum can be seen. It has an impressive
group of tall columns – similar to most columned Roman temples.
If one is not into
history or into architecture – he or she will find this place boring. In my case, I normally attempt to travel back
in time, and imagine or feel the place as it was once. I imagined politicos, rich merchants, rich
landlords – all walking about town wearing their finest clothing and best
of their jewelries as they visit temples, or mingle with friends. I imagined a once powerful race that
conquered and dominated not just Europe, but many parts of Asia and Africa. I
imagined splendour, treasures in varying forms, grand structures and overall –
a time of life when one simply feels rich, powerful and invincible. Going back to the present ruins, it was easy
to see that those good things in the past ended a millennium ago and I remember
a message in my head saying “every splendour, every richness, every treasure will
always melt away.”
We wrapped up our Palatine tour and quickly walk a few
hundred meters back to the Colosseo.
Armed with tickets, we zoomed in past the long queue of desperate
tourists. As usual, looking at the amphitheatre made me imagine gladiator
fights. I learned that even wild animals
were used similar to our ‘sabong’ (cockfights) but more varied. Sometimes human
hunters were release to catch and kill wild animals, lions included. If the place was once used for dancing and
music – and not to say that we enjoy relishing the good old barbaric times,
Colosseo may not be as special as it was today. Its blood-full of history made us feel more
human, and a great reminder of how man can be cruel, violent or simply mindless
about how special life is. But setting
aside this thought, the amphitheatre was an ok place to visit and to see from
the inside. I did hope for a more
magical experience like when I entered the pyramid of Cheops. I guess seeing a hundred tourists everywhere,
blocking every chance of a perfect picture made it less magical. Still, the view from above and inside – the
colour contrast of an already setting sun hiding behind one of the
amphitheatre’s wall, the silent echo of dead gladiators’ swords and spears – or
maybe my imagination, still make the Colosseo a worthwhile visit.
To prolong the experience, we decided to have dinner on the
road opposite the old structure. Pasta
and chicken are the default meal of the day.
Or the next day. And the
next. Eating in a Panini-pasta-rissoto
country didn’t seem to offer enough variety of food. On the bright side, olive oil was always
around and available – as if they were a mere ‘patis’ (fish sauce) or
salt-and-pepper back home.
We soon rode back the metro and slept in our nice room. I didn’t even bother switching either the
aircon or the heater. Merely opening the
window provided enough ‘natural air-conditioning’.
(to be continued)
at Papolo. went down from Papolo train station and walk southwards to breeze through this, the endless shop-ful of streets, the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain |
At the Spanish Steps leading to the Cathedral. There are millions of tourists in Rome and it was hard getting that picture-perfect moment without tourists in the frame.. |
view from the top of Spanish Steps just outside St Mary's Cathedral |
the famous Trevi - featured in a few popular movies. |
4 comments:
The church at the top of the Spanish Steps is St. Mary's Church in Cosmedin :) I stayed 4 days in Rome but it wasn't enough. There was so much to see. I went there early spring so there wasn't so many people. One tourist gave me her used ticket to go inside the Colosseum. It saved me 16 euros (IIRC). LOL Hope to go back there soon!
True, even a full week would not be enough. Thanks for the Church's name info, will reflect that ;)
Wow!you're in Rome... Kainggit... I bet u already memorized the song "let it go" lol :D be safe! :)
Magaling ka pala magsulat! From now on iso-stalk ko na ito. Hehe
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