Winding down

Today was our second last full day in Italy. It also marks 4 weeks since we left Sydney. We still have a few things to do and today we wanted to see the Victor Emmanuel II Memorial up close.

We bought the tickets online and headed off to see what we could see.

This memorial was built between 1885 and 1935 to commemorate Victor Emmanuel II the first King when Italy unified in 1861. It is commonly known as the Wedding Cake or the Typewriter as it is a bit of an unusual shape. That said it is a very important monument to the Italians and hosts their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WW1.

First stop was the roof where you get panoramic views across Rome. There aren’t many tall buildings in Rome so it is difficult to get above and see it from a high point. The photos show you what the view is like. It was just after 9.30 when we arrived so it wasn’t too crowded and being a bit hazy it wasn’t too hot.

The Memorial also contains the Central Museum of the Risorgimento which is a Museum covering the unification of Italy in 1861. Really interesting, Europe at that time was a bit of a mess with lots of wars happening and Italy was made up of a number of separate states. Garibaldi and a few others managed to pull them all together to make the Italy we know today.

After the memorial our ticket included access to the National Museum of the Palazzo di Venezia which was across the road from the Memorial.

This building became the seat of the facist government in the first half of the 20th century. It was a beautiful building with enclosed gardens and porticos. It was originally built as a Papal Residence in the 1400s but never completely finished as Popes came and went.

Anyway it was a nice place to look around as well as being a bit disconcerting to know Hitler and Mussolini walked the same halls.

Afterwards we went to the supermarket to organise some lunch - a reasonably decent salad. Am looking forward to some veges when I get home, haven’t had much on this holiday!

We then had the obligatory afternoon drinks on the rooftop followed by dinner at a local restaurant.Meer informatie