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Italia

June - July 2023
A 21-day adventure by Jarrod Read more
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  • TravelerItalia

    Train days

    June 13, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    After the late arrival to my Rome accommodation, I didn't bother to give myself too much to do as I had to check out at ten and make my way to Florence. So I just had a sleep in. The public transport system isn't as straightforward as in Singapore, and as such, I found myself getting lost trying to get to my long-distance train. Never the less, after a couple hours of fucking around I made it to the correct station for the train to Florence. Unfortunately, to save some dollars, I took the 4 hour train ride rather than the 1.5 hour train. This wasn't a big deal as I couldn't check into my room until 3 anyway. I don't have any regrets about it as it was nice to see the Italian countryside but, it highlighted the biggest issue of Italy- everywhere is so beautiful and unique, but trying to capture it with a photo is always so difficult to do. It was made harder by the moving train in this regard, but it was nice enough to just enjoy the view. I don't have many pictures because they would either be shit or not accurate to the actual state of the view. So today doesn't look like much in terms of photos, but I still enjoyed rural Italy and the train ride.

    Upon arriving in Florence, I knew I was in for a good few days, as even the walk through the town to get to my accommodation was breathtaking. I had my backpack on for the good 30-minute walk, thinking it would be all my walking for the day. But it was so nice of a city to walk through, I just had to give it another crack after dropping my bag off. So, after checking in, I took a walk around my accommodation- I was careful not to stray too far as I knew I had a lot to get through over the next 5 days and I didn't want to spoil it by trying to do too much on the first day, wearing myself out and not getting a proper chance to see everything in the area. As a result, I just walked through the local plaza, and it was awesome. The buildings are so close together and often overhanging the road in such an interesting display of architecture. Small restaurants and bars crammed into little spaces, it is fascinating. I wanted to keep going but knew if I spread myself too thin, I would miss things and have to go back tomorrow. So after taking a slightly longer route home, past the Pitti Palace, I started to make my way back to the accommodation. Watching people play football and basketball in the park really solidified the perspective of being in Italy, and it was so cool to see. Stopping by to get some dinner at about 6 pm is quite hard in Italy as most places don't open until 7. As such, I had to pick a bar that I normally probably wouldn't have gone to. I didn't have data on my phone and so I couldn't google the meaning of their menu. This made me do one of the most despicable things in my entire life. The man came around for a second time to ask me what I wanted, and I just ordered the cheeseburger... in Italy, I ordered a cheeseburger. I panicked and just picked something. It was a shit burger, too.

    My accommodation looks awesome, the bar area is fantastic. I went down there for a quick drink before realising it only serves cocktails. Although I was mostly keen for a beer, I figured I'd get a cocktail to prepare me for bed. It is an open restaurant, so there were mostly people that weren't staying in my accommodation, which is disappointing, but i didn't plan to stay for too long either way. After that, I headed to bed for a relatively early night to get a good sleep and get a bunch done tomorrow.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 1

    Southern Florence

    June 14, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Without having to worry about travelling and trains and flights, this felt like my first full day of sightseeing without having to be on a schedule. I had booked in for free tours on the Northern part of the Arno River, and as such, I stuck around the Sothern end where my accommodation was. There was still plenty to do, and I am glad I split it up this way as I managed to fit just about everything into today that I really wanted to see. My plan was to go see the views from the top of the hill, track back down to the river and then finish off by heading West and seeing everything to see on the Southern side of the Arno.

    It started off with a bit of a long walk up the hillside, but the view at the top was definitely worth it. The red brick roofs, colourful exteriors, and colossal monuments that protruded from the rooftops (such as the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence and so forth), made for an unreal view. Once again, the photos don't do it justice, but it was truly incredible. Then, after some more aimless wandering, I ended up in a war memorial park that had a quite sombre feel about it, but it had some amazing views of the Italian countryside just to the South. Florence is actually a very small but compact and functional city. After completely circling the strange stone structure that the park encapsulated, I ended up at the entrance to the Basilica di San Miniato by complete accident. Unfortunately the Basilica itself was undergoing works so that made getting a good photo much harder, but even just walking through the graveyards and into the church itself was an experience on its own. The inside was so incredibly well built and maintained that it was hard to believe that it could ever have been built during the 11th century. This is likely the first of many churches that I will get to view, but if they're all like this, I won't complain. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be taking pictures in the cemetery part of the Basilica, so I held back sometimes but still managed to take some good ones. The size and extravagance of some of the burial sites were unbelievable - this wasn't something i was going to see, but I'm glad I stumbled upon it. After another smaller church and walking through the Piazzale Michelangelo, it was time to head down the hill again toward the river.

    On the way down, there were these extraordinary waterfalls inbuilt into the architecture that were just amazing to me for whatever reason. There were no rivers running down the hill, but these waterfalls just seemed to appear from out of nowhere and looked amazing. I can barely describe them, the water fed into this big pond at the bottom with fish all through it - definitely worth a look through the photos to best describe it. After this, I was by the river and began tracking to find some lunch, but first, I was tempted by the house of Galileo that was just up the road from where I was. It wasn't far, but it sure was steep. I had high expectations for the house when I got there, but unfortunately, it was just a house that you couldn't walk through or even see anything exciting about. I almost missed it if it wasn't for maps saying I was right out the front. It had a picture of Galileo, but other than that, you would have never guessed it was his house, I think people live in there still.

    Next, i went to the famous Ponte alle Grazie bridge, where houses and stores are run on the bridge itself, often overlapping. This was so cool and incredibly busy, but that is expected in these types of areas. As they sell mostly jewellery, I saw little reason to stop, but it was still cool to look. I then tried to visit the Medici garden, but it closed at 7, so I was left with not much to do with my afternoon. As a result, I found a calzone to eat for dinner and went back to my apartment for bed.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 2

    Florence Nightlife

    June 15, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today was a very big day that started off with a free walking tour of Florence. I had avoided the main town centre because I wanted my first experience to be with a tour and I'm glad I did. By the end of the tour, there were only more things to add to my list of things to do. The person organising the tour was very well versed in the history of the city, and as such, he provided great insight for the tour. He began with a brief description of the city as a whole and highlighted the need to spend some time in the south of Florence. This reinforced my decision to spend my first day down there, and it sounds like I did everything worth doing, so that was positive. After this, we began our tour and we started by going through the religious centre of Florence so I got to experience the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Brunelleschi's dome, The Gates of Paradise and Giotto's Bell Tower. This was incredible. The size and grandure of these momentumens are indescribable, to think how old they are and how enourmas they are is difficult to comprehend. I had seen them from afar but never expected what I witnessed. The most perplexing part of the buildings are arriving through the small and narrow streets and seeing your vision blocked from these enourmas structures that appear in the distance. This is not something I expected and can not begin to describe. The tour guide did a good job of explaining the history and the building processes to create it. A hectagon is important imagery in Catholicism, and so they wanted to create a dome that matched that symbolism. Yet they did not yet have the capacity to develop a dome in this way. As such, they could not build it. The rest of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral was built in preparation for the day they would figure it out. Eventually, Brunelleschi figured a way to make it work (by constructing a regular spherical dome on the inside and encapsulating it with a hexagonal dome) and so they could complete the monument. They thus named the dome after him. I have booked tickets to walk the steps between the two domes (which include over 400 steps in very confined spaces) because the view from the top would have to be the best Florence. We then left the religious parts of Florence behind us and made our way to the Piazza Della Repubblica, which represents the economic centre of the city and the tour guy explained the history behind the city centre after it became the capital of Italy (briefly). Back in the day, It was dirty, and so they rebuilt it to be much cleaner and more organised. He used the time to explain the differences between the Italian cultures from Tuscinians, Napolians, Sicilians, and so on. This was interesting to me as I was unaware of the differences between the regions. He showed the previous boundaries of the city and how it has expanded over the years. This was cool as you could see the city grow before your eyes. We passed the Ponte Vecchio bridge as part of the tour. I visited this yesterday, but it was good to do in a tour as the guide explained the history behind it. During the plague they made the connection that where there was a high prominence of bugs and rats, there was more deaths due to the plague, as such they decided that they would place butchers and the like along the bridge so they could dump all the waste into the river, therefore reducing the number of rats and bugs that were present in the city. Finally we made our way to the cultural centre of the city at the Piazza della Signoria. This includes the Ufizzi Gallery, the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Loggia dei Lanzi. This was an incredible experience as you got a glimpse of the history that the city has to offer. He explained how the Medicis (former bankers and politicians famous for being incredibly rich) eventually inbred themselves into extinction. But before the family died away, the final heir of the family left all their belongings to the city of Florence under the clause that it would never be sold, would never leave Florence and would stay in the possession of the city. This is part of the reason the city maintains such a large plethora of historical artefacts. As one of the richest families of all time, they had owned, now priceless artworks. Because of this decision, Florence is renowned as a cultural hub of Italy, Europe, and the world. We finished overlooking the replica statue of David and the guide once again did a good job of explaining the history of the monument. There were two anatomical inaccuracies with the moment. Michaelangelo was an artist and a man of science and so studied anatomy. He had no muscles that didn't exist in the human body, and everything was anatomically accurate. He used the statues nearby to represent how other artists make the men impossible strong, with muscles that do not exist in the body. Everything was accurate, but the fact that the hands and feet were considerably bigger than is possible on a human male. He did this because he was considerate of perspective. He expected the statue to be placed atop the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. As such, I wanted to ensure these features could be visible from 50m below. The second inaccuracies relates relates the cock. David - according to the story in the bible would have been circumcised, but to be accurate to the model he used to signify David, he left the monument uncircumcised. The accuracy of the art makes it that much more important and makes me want to see the real statue while I'm in Florence.

    That was just my morning with the tour. Afterwards, I restarted my general tendency of walking around random streets. As this was pretty much my first time in the northern part of the city, there was still plenty to see. Just about every road has some hidden monument you never expect to come across in the narrow streets. First, I stumbled into the markets, but they mostly sold Italian leather and so I wasn't quite in the market for anything. I moved on a couple of streets down and came across the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, and it was magnificent. As I am doing this retrospective of a couple of days, it was as impressive as some of the museums and gallery's I have been to. It was 7 euro and so I wasn't sure about it but it was well worth the money. Huge altars, stained glass, painted walls and ceilings, artwork, amazing architecture, and statues lined about every surface of the church. Having just stumbled across this Basilica wandering the streets of Florence, knowing this is one of thousands really puts into perspective of the wealth that the Catholic Church has. Even outside the Basilica, it had an outdoor area with tombs and artworks, followed by a small museum with collections of artefacts and clothing from different periods and pope's.

    This brought us to the afternoon, and I was already knackered. Because of this and a dinner i had planned, I thought I'd send myself home. I began walking along a riverside park on my way home, but it was not much of a park from what I had seen. It was a long asphalt path with trees on one side and the river on the other. I got to a point where another path developed that resembled something closer to a park. But as I entered, I had a man yelling from across the park that he wanted to chat, I tried to keep walking, but he eventually caught up to me. He was nice enough and was mostly just trying to sell me drugs, but I said no and just tried to get out of there as soon as possible. That was the end of it, and I restarted my walk. I eventually got bored of the walk however, and having noticed the same guy was now following behind me (which I'm sure is just a coinscidence), it signified a solid reason to cut my walk short and went home.

    I then caught up with a local as an opportunity to learn about Italian night-life (as I haven't been able to go out really), and see the city at night. Italy is a very interesting place - we walked between a few bars and got something to eat. But the amount of drinking in the streets was hard to believe. All the buildings are too small to hold more than a few people and so everyone just drinks in the streets. It was kind of dirty but very interesting. Then on the walk home, it was cool to see the town at night, less busy and lit up with all the lights, there were still plenty of people about for 2am but nothing compared to during the day. I found it very interesting to know the lady I was with lived maybe 20m from the Ufizzi Gallery. All these narrow and tall buildings I found it hard to believe that people lived in them, but of course they do. I couldn't wrap my head around living across the road from one of the most significant art galleries in the world. In Australia, the closest you get to that is a pub across the road. It was also the location of a Mafia bombing attack targeted at the Gallery and which badly impacted her own building and killed 3 innocent people. Even these little streets and houses are so filled with history that it is mind-boggling.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 3

    Medici Gardens and Ufizzi Gallery

    June 16, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I was in for another big day of walking, as I finally found time to get to the Giardino do Boboli, or the Medici Family Gardens (for Florence), and I intended to get through the Ufizzi Gallery. I started off by wandering through the gardens, completely randomly but being absolutely struck by the wealth that this family must have had. I mean, I try my best to compare it to the richest of the rich today, and I can only think that they would trump everyone in the modern age. They had hectares of space in the south of Florence, completely dedicated to going on walks. I spent hours in this place, and the number of monuments and artefacts you come across is incomprehensible. This doesn't even begin to mention the house itself. Even for today's age, it is enourmas, I struggle to understand what would be inside. It is basically a castle with the size and walls surrounding the complex. You could go inside, but for a further fee. It is now a museum and would have been interesting, but I have other museums i would rather see first. I will simply leave you to look at the photos for further description of the size of the mansion.

    I then made my way to the Ufizzi museum. Getting a ticket was shockingly easy, walked into the building to a line of maybe 10 people, bought my ticket, and walked in. Even the inside wasn't very busy, so that was a major plus. For this reason alone, I think I enjoyed it more than the Vatican Museum. That being said, it started off rather boring, as I didn't have the audio guide, and it was mostly about the history of Florence newspapers, but it did improve. I got to the modern art section in which most of it went way over my head. My capacity to understand art was truly tested there, and I did not pass. There was a drawing of a bull with a cock, that I truly think I could have drawn in grade 6 (and likely did). That being said we made out way to the historical art and monuments. This was much easier to appreciate and understand as I have a pretty good understanding about who or what the monuments were dedicated to. Normally roman empowers or events in Greek, Roman, or Catholic religions. As such this was very interesting, I got to see in person, the sculptors that I have only read about. The art was also much easier to appreciate. Although normally depicting catholic religious events, the skill to complete these works is clearly more impressive than the child's drawing of a bulls cock. This museum was enourmas and you could spend days in there if you wanted to know more about each individual piece of artwork, but I was mostly walking through and taking pictures. Despite this I was still I'm there for 4 hours. Luckily there was a cafe toward the end where you could briefly recharge with a drink. A major necessity after all the walking. The view from the top was incredible, too. The pieces of art that stuck with me the most were The Fall of the Rebel Angles, The Birth of Venus, and the Portrait of a Man with a Medal. All of these had something about them that made them more notable than all of the rest. Whether incredible detail, 3D perspectives or just simple beauty, I found myself most impressed with these.

    By the end of these two activities I was sore beyond description. I parked up for a few beers at the Irish pub and began to gear down for bed. But I actually had a ngihtime tour that I had booked that relates to the dark stories and history of Florence. I expected this to be interesting but the person performing the tour was no where near as charismatic or engaging. Either that or I was just too tired but I found myself to be bored most of the time. There were still some interesting stories but nothing too impressive. By the end of this I was incredibly ready for bed, and so headed back and went to bed asap.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 4

    Rest Day (Somewhat)

    June 17, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After a few very big days and bigger days coming up, I took a well needed day off (or so, I thought). I spent much of the morning in bed, taking it easy before feeling as though I'd have to do something somewhat productive. As such, I made my way to the Central Market of Florence. Outside was mostly clothes, leather and jewellery for sale - none of which I am in the market for. It was, unfortunately, a lot of the same stuff for sale, to be honest, and so that furthered my disinterest. I then made my way inside, where it was much more interesting. This was the food section of the market, and where I began to hunt down some lunch. There were so many things that chose from it, which was very difficult to decide. My stomach had shrunk slightly over the past few days with lots of travelling and barely enough time to eat, but I was keen to get a big feed into me. In the end, I sat down at a nice old couples stall, and they explained to me that the most traditional Florence dish they offered was something called Lampredotto. It was tasty and an interesting texture. I later learned that I had eaten the lining of pigs' stomach, but it was still an interesting way to enjoy the culture of Florence. After this, i was pretty much gearing down for an early night.

    But, a mate i had made a couple of days earlier from France messaged me on whatsapp to go for a drink somewhere. Given that I didn't have many friends and hadn't had much opportunity to drink, I jumped at the offer. It ended up being a much bigger night than I had expected given that i was having a rest day. We had gone to Santo Spirito for a drink, and he was a very interesting person indeed. He had been riding from the north of France all the way through to Florence as a 'holiday'. He would camp wherever he got tired and was lucky if someone would let him camp in their front yard. Something in Australia that would be outrageous if not impossible. After a few drinks, we thought it necessary to try and make some friends. This is where Italy rules and nightlife can be very dangerous. Half anxious and unsure of how we would do it, we wandered into the main Plaza and was instantly swamped by girls trying to talk to us. He and I were shocked beyond belief. It felt too good to be true. That's when we eventually learnt that they were in high school and 17 years old. In Italy, the drinking age limit of 18 is more of a recommendation. After a quick look at each other, we decided it was time for a "drink" so we could escape that situation. We left and got a drink and tried to find somewhere to sit (away from the children). Once again, it didn't take long for some nice-looking English people to approach us. This time, they were asking for the location of a nightclub, which, as foreigners, we could not help them with. They eventually invited us to join them, and we figured we would ablige. After about 40 minutes of walking drunk through the streets of Florence, we ended up in a very fancy night club in the middle of nowhere. It was expensive but was my first taste of nightlife in Italy and it was awesome, we had a view over the city, good music and the English were good fun. My French friend had bailed by now but I was still having fun with my new friends. Eventually, we decided it was time to leave at about 3:00 a.m., and we headed back to theirs. They invited me to stay with them and given the opportunity to sleep in a comfy bed for a night with air-conditioning for a night. I jumped on it.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 5

    The dome and Italian Festivals

    June 18, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Although I had not expected to be hungover, booking Brunelleschis dome on this day was not a good idea. I had a great sleep given I was in a comfy bed for the first time in a while, but when I learnt I had about an hour to get home and check out, I was rushed into a more focused mindset. I left the girls' place, walked to my accommodation, quickly packed my bags, found my luggage drop location, and made my way to the main square. This, however, was only the beginning of my pain. Before my lay over 500 stairs before I could reach the top of the dome.

    As part of the Brunelleschi's dome, we got to see the full Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. This was interesting but not as impressive as some of the others that I had seen. This was surprising given its the biggest cathedral in Florence, but I think the main attraction is the dome. Nonetheless, it was cool to see the ceiling from inside the cathedral, then see it up close halfway up the dome, then see Florence from the rooftop. They did not lie about the confined space in which they expected you to walk through. For someone of my size, I hit my head multiple times trying to watch my step. The view was well and truly worth it, though. It was amazing to see the city of Florence from that high up. You could pinpoint key locations around the city, see the countryside and hills overlooking everything. I could not have been ready for the incredible views. You simply have to see the pictures to get any sort of valid description of the views. Florence is truly a beautiful city. Its global significance dwarfs its actual physical size and, as such, makes moments like this even more special. You aren't just overlooking replicas of the same building, but you are overlooking thousands of years of architecture, artistic design, compact living, cultural spaces, beautiful nature, and impressive feats of engineering. A view like this in Brisbane would likely not even be worth the steps. But in a place like Florence, I would have done 5x that to witness the view (even as viscous hungover as I was). It hasn't been long into the trip, but Florence has taken the cake as the city to beat in terms of beauty, culture, art, and all the rest. It's truly incredible.

    My day was far from done there, however. It had barely begun. I then had to return and pick up my bag, and take it to the train station for my trip to Rome. I had lucked out once again by staying with Stef and securing free accommodation at a proper airbnb as opposed to a hostel. The catch (that wasn't really a catch) was that she was going to a music festival that night for an Italian rapper. Although I was very tired, she was kind enough to let me stay with her and so I felt I should go to the concert and spend some time with her. It ended up being a bigger fuck around than I had expected however. She went into the festival early to get a good spot and I trailed behind because it was a long train ride. I got to the accommodation but didn't have a key so I had to give myself a make do shower with wet wipes and throw my belongings over the fence. I could then make my way to the festival but never in my life had I seen so many people in such a compact area. I have been to many a festivals in my time but trying to get through the crowds an hour before he even came out on stage was as difficult as anything I've ever done. But eventually I made it to Stef. When the guy eventually came out it was so dense and sweaty with people I knew I wasn't gonna make the whole way through. Another thing I learnt is that Italians are very short so I had many woman complaining that they couldn't see over me, not that I could do anything about it. But I did find it comical to look over the crowd of brunette people all significantly shorter than me. The photos reflect this. I've also never seen so many people choosing to film the event rather than enjoy it either. The girl in front of my literally posted the whole 1.5 hours onto her instagram story. About 20 minutes until the end, I decided it was time for a drink and a break. That being said, getting out was almost as hard as getting in. People were happy to let you out, but it was so compact in there that people could barely move if they wanted to. And the number of people who had joined the festival since I arrived meant that the distance I had to squeeze through people had tripled. It took me a while, but eventually, I got out. I had fun but fuck me was it a big night. We eventually made it back despite a very dodgy uber driver, who must have been in his 60s trying his best to hit on Stef. When we got home, we had a little smoke and passed the fuck out to prepare for yet another big day ahead.

    Overall, despite not understanding the rapper and being cramped the whole time, I did enjoy the festival and it was still cool to witness. It was a nig day but it was worth it    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 6

    The Vatican

    June 19, 2023 in Vatican City ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    The days keep rolling, and I keep doing more and more shit. Today, Stef wanted to visit the Vatican - something she had never done, despite being to Rome before, and I was also very keen to see it. Above everything, the best part about travelling with Stef was the fact that we could easily communicate and ask questions to the locals. She knew a fair bit but was mostly useful for finding out the best things to do. She knew how to find the nice restaurants, or at least knew how to ask people where they were.

    We started at the main Plaza of the Vatican, and this was impressive enough. The number of statues and pillars that circled the incredible large area was amazing, not to mention the biblical sized Basilica that overlooks it all. We then continued to simply wander the rest of Rome as we weren't going to get into the Vatican museum until tomorrow, so we figured we would get up early and do it then. We went to the supreme court, to see the magnificence of that building before going to the main attraction for the time being, the Castel Sant'Angelo. The bridges leading up to the castle and the castle itself were incredible. It is crazy the number of things you can see in this city without travelling far at all. This is particularly true for the areas around the Vatican. Just standing on the bridges near the Castel Sant'Angelo, you could see different monuments that spread across the whole city. It is difficult to comprehend how it must have looked hundreds of years ago, given it is hard to fully understand the size and scale of the buildings even today.

    After seeing a few things along the way (Piazza Navona and the Largo di Torre Argentina, most importantly), we made our way to the Campo de' Fiori. This was a little market that is called something like the flower market in italian. When Stef was last here, there were beautiful flowers everywhere, but this time, it was just a market, and most places were once again selling the same stuff. We didn't stick around for too long before heading to the pantheon. Although quite busy, it was an incredible thing to see, the line as too long for either of us to want to wait through, so we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. Once again, it was very touristy but cool to see in person. Although cool, it is difficult to spend more than a few minutes here because of all the number of people, so we went back to the airbnb for a shower. Stef had us booked into a very fancy restaurant, so we got ready and headed there.

    Because we were early, we stopped off at an incredibly nice rooftop bar for a cocktail. We then made our way to the proper restaurant for dinner. After a few drinks, she had already decided what we were going to order. She refused to tell me what we were going to eat but assured me it would be good. The first meal was a standard Italian pasta dish, although very good it was nothing too adventurous. The second serving consisted of ox tail and pigs stomach lining (tripe). I do not remember the names of the dishes, unfortunately, but they were both good. The ox tail was far better than the stomach lining, as the stomach lining was a bit chewy. After she finally broke the news of what I had eaten, we eventually figured out that I had already eaten Lampredotto, which is a traditional Florentine sandwich with tripe. At this point, we were incredibly full and drunk and figured we should get going. She then informed me that most trains in Italy stopped at 11, and given it was 10:45 and had to catch 2 trains to get home, we could only run to the station and hope. Although we made the first train, the second was done for the day. Some more running later, we made it onto the bus and found our way home eventually. By the time we got to bed, it was early in the morning, and we had already decided we had to get in line for the Vatican museum the next day. Not only this, but i had to make my way to my accommodation in Rome after it all. Meaning, it was going to be an interesting day tomorrow.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 7

    VatiCANT Move Museum

    June 20, 2023 in Vatican City ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    After a big day yesterday, we expected today to be even bigger. After getting up early, we arrived at the Vatican museum at 7 am. I had to go drop off my bag and so didn't return until about 8 am. After waiting in line another 2 hours, we finally got into the museum. By this point we were already fucked - especially Stef as she had been standing for an hour longer than me. We had hoped it mightn't be overwhelmingly busy by the time we got in but we quickly realised this would not be the case. Although the museum was very cool, having to deal with literally hundreds upon hundreds of people, made enjoying it that little bit harder. The magnificence and artistry that goes into every roof, corner, window, and wall is truly unbelievable. Every inch of every wall would justify a photo. Only being able to include 20 in this journal entry is incredibly difficult. I could not believe the total hours that must have gone into the construction. Once again, though, the number of people made getting around and reading the descriptions near impossible, and by the end, Stef and I simply couldn't be bothered to even try and read the descriptions. It may have been the wait in line that pushed us to the edge, but we were drained from the beginning. We persisted and did the whole thing but found ourselves looking for the exit by the end.

    Nonetheless, the museum had a special ancient Egypt section at the very beginning, which was of particular interest for me. Given that I won't be making it to Egypt on my trip, it was cool to get some taste for the culture one way or the other. We then made our way to statues and monuments of roman emperors and Greek gods. My interest in both made this a really cool section to get a look at how they were perceived thousands of years ago. It was cool to see the stories of Greek mythology retold in statues. Although the Roman and Greek names are different so I often wasn't sure of exactly what I was looking at even after reading the description (which isn't always easy). We then made our way through the most impressive section of the whole museum, in my opinion. It includes ancient maps of Italy on all the walls, with exceptional pieces of artwork on all of the rooves. It was as though they were crammed in because they had too much beautiful art to include in the museum and resorted to filling them into the ceiling however they could. The lighting they had also added to the effect of a literal godly environment. World can't explain. The video I took I think begins to do some justice to what we witnessed. We then entered rooms with 360-degree murals depicting different wars and events - literally turning a whole room into a single piece of art. The final section was the Cistine Chapel, and although impressive, i was actually not as impressed by this as i was with the previous sections of the museum. I understand it is incredibly old and large, but other than that, i didn't think it was worth sticking around for too long in there and continuing to try and battle the crowds. Perhaps with a guide, I would have understood the monument more and been more impressed, but the other sections of the museum still outshun it, in my opinion. Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I am wholly glad I did it, but I think it would have been better to go in winter.

    To me, the highlight of the day and the trip so far was actually Saint Peter's Basicila. Once again, every mm of space through the whole building was covered by artwork and beauty. But above everything else, the enormity of the building can not be explained in words. Even in today's age, a building of this size would be a remarkable undertaking, and I struggle to believe it would have anywhere near the beauty. Given it was free, adds to the appeal for me, it was far more suited to the large number of people - so we could easily move around and take photos without being squished against walls and people. The final part of St. Peter's Basilica was another tour of the dome. Stef was in a rush at this point to get to her flight, so we got to avoid half of the steps by paying an extra 2 euro and use the elevator (10 euro total). This meant we only had 300 instead of 550. The best part of this was seeing the inside of the Basicilca but from the top looking down. A good photo was hard to get through the fence, though, unfortunately. It put into perspective the size, as people looked more like ants from the top. It also gave me an opportunity to see the details of the mosaics that line the walls. When you get up close and see how many tiny pieces of colour make up an enourmas roof of art, it blows your mind. Even though it was mostly designed to be seen from far below, they did not shy on the details. But eventually, we made it to the top and got to look over the city. This put into perspective the size of Rome and the amount of monolithic buildings they have spread across the city. Each direction you look, you can spot 5 or 6 buildings that stand out as historical and cultural artefacts. We also got to see the gardens that exist within the Vatican. Although I was originally very keen to go through there. Seeing them from above gave you a better idea of what's around anyway. Although it looked cool from above, I think it would be disappointing to walk through as it was mostly just hedges. Stef then had to run to make her train, I had to collect my bag and get to my accommodation, and so the day finally came to an end. It was hard to believe after several incredibly busy days, but I had nothing planned for tomorrow and was very keen to spend it doing nothing.

    Although the final fuck around of the day included getting to my hostel, that actually seemed nice, only to be told that there were works going on and I would be required to go to a different "building". I later learnt it was a completely different hostel, but it was much quieter, so I wasn't complaining too much.

    I unfortunately could not do the day justice with 20 photos so there will be some things I speak about in the entry that did not make it into the photos - apologies.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 8

    State Of Origin

    June 21, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    Because I have had too many busy days during my journey, I am having to retrospectively complete a lot of these entries. As such, I am a week behind and using a 6 hour train journey to complete all the ones to date. But it is hard and they do take a lot of time to complete, if you want to do them well. I may have to begin shortening them to ensure that I can do them for each day, but we will see how that goes given how much I seem to be doing on a day to day basis.

    Given that I had an incredibly busy few days travelling and wandering with Stef, today was a completely empty day where I did incredibly little. I slept in, laid in bed for a few hours, called the folks, and tried to make my way to a Scottish pub to watch the state of origin. My dad had luckily found the perfect spot to watch it. Although a 20-minute walk, it was guaranteed to play the game, and so I made my way there. I had hoped for a few other Aussies to be there to make some friends, but when I arrived, the place was packed with people from all over Australia, but mostly QLD and NSW, obviously. At first it was far too busy to get a seat but a nice family invited me to sit down with them. They were supporting Queensland, and we were some of the few in that section of the pub. Luckily, it didn't stop us from getting really into the game. Of course, the highlight was Queensland taking the series in a very convincing win and being able to celebrate in a pub across the other side of the world. After this, another nice family invited me to sit down with them for a few drinks. I happily joined them, and we sat and chatted for a few hours. After buying me a few beers - in which they were 6 and 7% - they eventually went on their way, and I was left to wander home. At this point, I was quite drunk and only getting more drunk. It is interesting to walk home from the pub and still stumbled across monuments hundreds of years old, hidden in tiny streets. I'm more used to stumbling through nothing but boring streets of Australia.

    Eventually, I did make it home. And although I just laid in bed to recover from the walk, I fell asleep. I woke up at some point later and wandered to find some dinner. By the time I found a nice restaurant and ate, I realised I was near the trevi Fountain. Curious to see it at night, I took the long way home, only to discover it was somehow busier at night. Although I could see why, it looked really nice under the lights. But once again, I didn't stick around for too long before heading home for bed. And that was my whole day, much shorter than previous, but it was mostly a recovery day anyway, one that was very needed.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 9

    Max Relax

    June 22, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    Even after a huge rest day yesterday, I still felt as though I needed a day or so to fully recover. The news that Jack may be joining me sooner and getting to Rome tonight only encouraged me need to rest. The days will likely get longer and busier when he joins me. As a result, I chose to just wander through Rome again, this time going through the Villa Borghese gardens. This was quite nice but very big. And given i was trying to rest, it was a bit difficult to walk through. It was slightly interesting, but given it is mostly a park, there is limited opportunity to learn about what you are looking at. A part from this I did nothing all day. I went back to my apartment and waited for Jack to arrive via train. I collected him from the station and walked him to the hostel. Although we were booked into the same place, he got put in the actual hostel we booked rather than getting transferred, like I did. And although I thought I got the shit hand in that deal, turns out the original hotel is far worse and much busier.Read more

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