Italian trip Excerpt 1
Day 3, Roma
Current position: Roma Termini, platform/binario 1. Eurostar departing 10.55am for Venice.
Taking the Eurostar direct to Venice. Though its a direct trip there, it still takes around 4 hours 40minutes to get there. Train would be making a few stops along the way passing by Firenze (Florence, would have stopped here if the trip was longer).
Visted the Vatican City yesterday and spent a day at the Museums. St. Peter's Basilica was magnificent, the carvings, the architecture, the square outside, the statues; all these were just a hint of what to expect inside the museums. Despite the sweltering heat outside, the basilica felt extremely cool (a result of the large amt of marble around?).
Ok enough of the tour guide stuff. Now for a personal touch...
The requirements of the Vatican city insists that visitors (men/ladies) should not bare their shoulders and the area above their knees within the Vatican. The amount of visitors inside made it highly difficult to enforce this, so bare shoulders, shorts, caps, we have it all. The guards... well, they seem to lost control. You can check the visitors when they first enter and the guys can change from long pants to shorts (detachable mah! the wonders of zippers). Hahaa!
Even in areas where photography was not allowed and silence was supposed to be observed; reality was far from it. Flashlights in the Sistine chapel. There was so much people in the there that one literally had to rub shoulders with strangers to get to the other end of the chapel.
For most of the journey, there weren't any seats in sight. So for those planning on a holiday and a visit there. Be prepared to walk, & I really mean walk.
The crowd, the exhaustion of walking for an entire day, I almost came down with asthma at the end of the day.
Went back took a short nap after a bath and almost missed dinner again.
Till them ciow better get some rest, got quite a lot of distance to cover when we reach Venice. I still don't know exactly how to get to the residence. BTW, did you know we drank a lot of spring water. Piping all over Rome carry water from the hills to the city, as long as you see a flowing tap around even on the streets you can drink from it (unless there's a sign that says otherwise).
Current position: Roma Termini, platform/binario 1. Eurostar departing 10.55am for Venice.
Taking the Eurostar direct to Venice. Though its a direct trip there, it still takes around 4 hours 40minutes to get there. Train would be making a few stops along the way passing by Firenze (Florence, would have stopped here if the trip was longer).
Visted the Vatican City yesterday and spent a day at the Museums. St. Peter's Basilica was magnificent, the carvings, the architecture, the square outside, the statues; all these were just a hint of what to expect inside the museums. Despite the sweltering heat outside, the basilica felt extremely cool (a result of the large amt of marble around?).
Ok enough of the tour guide stuff. Now for a personal touch...
The requirements of the Vatican city insists that visitors (men/ladies) should not bare their shoulders and the area above their knees within the Vatican. The amount of visitors inside made it highly difficult to enforce this, so bare shoulders, shorts, caps, we have it all. The guards... well, they seem to lost control. You can check the visitors when they first enter and the guys can change from long pants to shorts (detachable mah! the wonders of zippers). Hahaa!
Even in areas where photography was not allowed and silence was supposed to be observed; reality was far from it. Flashlights in the Sistine chapel. There was so much people in the there that one literally had to rub shoulders with strangers to get to the other end of the chapel.
For most of the journey, there weren't any seats in sight. So for those planning on a holiday and a visit there. Be prepared to walk, & I really mean walk.
The crowd, the exhaustion of walking for an entire day, I almost came down with asthma at the end of the day.
Went back took a short nap after a bath and almost missed dinner again.
Till them ciow better get some rest, got quite a lot of distance to cover when we reach Venice. I still don't know exactly how to get to the residence. BTW, did you know we drank a lot of spring water. Piping all over Rome carry water from the hills to the city, as long as you see a flowing tap around even on the streets you can drink from it (unless there's a sign that says otherwise).
posted by Ah Cat at 11:30 pm
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