Europe Trip Part 1 - Rome

Note:Me and K made a trip to Europe in the December of 2005. I would like to post them in a blog so I can make the memories of the trip evergreen.
Ok, here I am all geared up, at 3:30 early morning to write about a part of my vacation. Well, this post is not going to be about Rome and its history, you can read history books for that, nor is it a lot about the places to see in Rome. This is solely, my and my own experience in this historic city, during the happy times of Christmas.

We landed in Rome at about 12:30 in the afternoon. We noticed that we were probably the only Indians or rather Asians to the distance we could see. People around us were talking in melliflous tones, which was, as you guessed right, Italian. I never thought for the life of me, that I would be able to actually understand Italian. But I did to a certain extent, as it was more Latin, and closer to English, than French or German was.

We tried to talk to a bunch of people working at the Airport. I was not too surprised to note that nobody understood what we were trying to ask! Then on, our sign language started. Watching the 1:30, News for the deaf, did not help I tell you.

We got on to our buses to head to our hotels at about 3PM. We were excited to see the city itself, the roads, the cars, the sign boards, how people drove, etc etc. I should say driving in Italy is not as crazy as driving in India, but quite close! K commented that probably driving in Italy is like driving an airplane, where the pilot has to concentrate on keeping his front wheels to the marked white line in the centre, while the plane spans on either side of the line. Some car drivers were doing just that, spanning on both lanes, not giving any indication whatsoever to drivers behind as to whether they are going to go to the right lane or the left lane.
The cars were pretty small too, like toy cars. We were to know later in the day from our tour guide, that this was so they can park their cars in any nook and corner of the city! Parking was a big problem in the city it seems. Well, tell me, where is it not??

We did also see a small accident on the way. Well, if they drive as crazy as this, and pump down on the brakes as frequently, there is bound to be numerous small mishaps. One lane was blocked because of this. But no Polizia car came by, and people just diverted to the other free lanes, as if the accident was an everyday thing!

It was right hand driving like in the US, and the exits were the same kind. The roads were pretty narrow. Or may be we thought so because we were in this huge bus, which was bursting from its lane.

We reached our hotel finally, it was a huge one, decorated with a huge Christmas tree and Santa, with cosy rooms. We had to meet the tour director in the evening, who would brief us about everything we need to know for the trip. I should mention a few words about him, Luc, he was over 50 years old, a Belgian, with a very cute accent. He talked English like a kid learning to talk. We were to enjoy his company and witty remarks during our long drives through France and England.

We were about 30 of us in the tour. It was a real mini-world out there, which some representing every part of the world. We were the only Indians, which kind of made me feel good, as we could behave as we wanted without getting sly glances from anyone. There were a bunch of people from Australia, a bunch from America, South Africa, a young Singapore-Malaysian couple. We were to make some good friendships with some of them. Of course there werent any Europeans, why would they be on this tour anyway right.

We were to go to explore the city that very evening, before Dinner. We had a tour guide and a bus driver who were Made in Italy as Luc put it, with the meaning obvious, that they were born and brough up in Italy. I loved the way our tour guide streched each and every 's' she pronounced. 'Christmas' was 'Christmassssss' and 'friends' was 'friendsssss'. They have a way of extending the 's' syllable a reallly long way.

We did learn some Italian words too. She told us how to ask some general questions, like 'How much?' - Quanto? , which is often to be used in shops. We learnt Buon giorno - Good day, Buona sera - Good evening, Buon nathale - Merry Chirstmas, and Buon nanova - Happy New Year. The one word we were to hear pretty often from Luc was of course andiamo andiamo for 'Let's go! Lets go!' :--)

We crossed the Tiber river to the other bank where the heart of the city was located, through the huge walls around the city center to reach our stop of the evening. We noticed cars parked, perpendicular to the curbs along the road! Like bikes! Aha! I have never seen anything like it, anywhere. Go small toy cars!

We went to the top of the Spanish Steps, and walked down, to the Piazza di Spagna looking at the Baraccia Fountain. We did get our history lesson via the radio we had, from our Tour Guide. I was at a loss as to what to do, listen to the historical significance of the place I was seeing, or admire the exotic beauty of the place, try to take everything in, the ambience, the people, or take pictures and videos. It was total confusion I should say. The place was pretty crowded, as it was near Christmas time and a Friday, and everyone was there to 'See and be seen'.
Right across from the Spanish steps was the most famous streets of the city, Via Condetti. We walked along the street, rubbing shoulders with lots of natives, doing window shopping. The street was full of designer shops with exotic looking dresses with an exorbitant price tags. It is a law that all wear kept on show in shops should have a price tag. So the shops had ultra tiny price tags which can only be seen with a microscope, so as to not give people admiring their products a heart attack! :) So our guide said.


We walked through a number of streets with historic buildings, quite dirty, like in India, but huge, and old. We visited the Parliament house of Italy, which was an old building, with a couple of guards standing in the front, and a couple of flags flying high.

Though the buildings looked old, and battered, the interiors were fabulous. They had art work on ceilings, intricate ones. We just looked in through the high windows. :)

Each building had about 3 to 4 floors. The second floor was mostly the family rooms, which had huge windows. The servants quarters were at the top, which had tiny small windows. Family is first and foremost to Italians, it seems. Families are very tightly knit.
The roads inside the walls of Roma were stone pavements not tar roads. The Italian Govt, I guess is doing all it can to preserve the old Rome. It is a beautiful medley of the old times and the modern times.

Each and every street probably had a fountain. We visited about 4 or 5 fountains that night. There were a number of churches. Each of the church had a obleisk in the front, and a fountain.

The highlight of the night was probably the Pantheon. It was built in the early centuries about 2000 years ago. It had a lot of scientific facts, with the open gaping hole in the middle of the dome, where the sun came in through. A few famous people were buried there, including many Italian Kings and famous artist Raphael. The brass from the dome of the Pantheon was taken and used to build the world famous altar on top of St. Peter's tomb, in St. Peter's Basillica in the Vatican City. The dome was an exact hemisphere, and it was built 2000 years ago, when there werent any exotic measuring instruments what so ever!
The walls and pillars outside had huge holes in them, like bullet have hit them. They are actually the holes through which the marbles were pinned to the walls. Now of course the marble tiles are gone.



We then walked to the Piazza Navona, with another church and a huge famous fountain and an obelisk of course. The fountain was designed by famous architect Bernini. We saw the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers), exotic. There was Chirstmas Market going on, and we had some time to do some shopping there, only no money! :) We had not gotten any Euros from any ATM or Travelex.



I was amazed to see a _huge_ wall poster of Intel Centrino at the square. Needless to say I took a picture of that too - Intel in Italy!

We went back to the Hotel for dinner. This was the only Dinner I did not really like in the whole trip. With some sticky rice and turkey, which we could not have, and some desert. We had to pay 3ER for %$%&# water too!!

We were to visit the Vatican City and Colosseum the next day. Next post.
We were a little disappointed with the pictures of the first day, because everything was at night, and we could not exactly get good quality pictures. It got better from then on.

PS: I am not able to post many pictures because, obviously, they have us in them. I will try to post any many as I can. We are not professional photographers, we just clicked away whenever we felt like, so apologies if the pictures arent very good.
If you have read till the end, Thank you! for my efforts have not gone wasted!