An Italian Round-up

What do you think of when you think of Italy? Rome, the historic city containing Vatican? Or Michelangelo's Florence? Or the seductive, enchanting Capri? The wonderful leaning tower of Pisa, anyone? The romantic Venice? With all these in mind, we recently went on a trip to Italy. Some more things that Italy is associated with - Fashion and Football as in Milan or Mafia as in Sicily, but all the football stars, crime lords and fashion maestros were busy with Euro2008, so we left them out of out itinerary.

This tour was once again with Star Tours, London. It was a big risk for me to take, given our previous bad experience (Read the blog on Holland). Fortunately, the tour manager this time was not that bad, though nowhere near the class we experienced on our Stonehenge tour with Golden Tours. The tour groups was quite interesting - a varied mix of young and young-at-heart people. My son Hiranya retained his record of being the youngest on any trip he goes, though another infant, Shuti was just one day older to him. Both of them were the stars of the trip, enchanting everyone with their smiles. A group of people originally from different parts of India and Nepal, now settled in different parts of the world - India, UK, USA, Canada, very interesting. We had a good interaction going on in the bus - one person was a trained Carnatic singer, other had a voice like Talat Mahmood; people had interesting jokes, PJs, Urdu poetry and stories to share and there was a lot of enthusiasm generated in the group, I contributing to some of it as well.

Tuesday, 10 Jun 2008 - Travel
All our trips have to start with an interesting experience, mostly scary. This one was no different. Since the flight was at mid-day, we decided to travel from Ipswich in the morning rather than staying the previous night in a London hotel. Big mistake! We reached Ipswich station at 6:30 and were informed that there is a problem in the train lines to London and trains are running only intermittently. We finally reached Heathrow after 4 hours, a journey which should have taken us 2.5 hours maximum. Good that we had this margin with us, we reached just in time for the flight. Met our tour manager, Mr. Hoshang who handed us our tickets. After landing in Rome and collecting our baggage, he led us to the coach, where we met the rest of our group. There was no sightseeing planned for the day, just travel to Naples by coach and then stay overnight there. However, we were in for an interesting experience in the evening, as the room of our tour manager was broken in and all his money stolen. Nice shocking start to the trip! So I was wrong after all about Italian crime not being on the itinerary ;-). We must give credit to the tour manager that he did not let this affect the tour.

Wednesday, 11 Jun 2008 - Capri
We took a cruise to the island of Capri from the Naples port. The views from the Capri port where we landed were beautiful, as were the views of the port itself as we went up the hill to Anacapri. Capri is a small island with cliffs and provides a lot of beautiful views across. Now when we reached Anacapri, there was an open chairlift (like a ski-lift) to go to the top of the mountain. We got scared that it is too risky to go with Hiranya on that. The locals assured us that it is just a 10-min ride, goes quite slowly and is quite safe, so we decided to brave it. Hiranya was very well-behaved; I held him against my chest tightly and he was quite still through the ride. This marks a sort of record for him - very few people have used so many different modes of transportation in the first year of their lives - car, train (British Rail, Indian Rail and Eurostar), aeroplane, boats (cruises, speedboats, later Gondola in Venice), bus, autorickshaw, pedal rickshaw, tonga, even horseback and now a chairlift. A pat on his back!

I must say going up on the chairlift was a very good decision, because the views from the top are really breathtaking. We could even see Mt. Vesuvius in the background, though not clearly as it was hidden by clouds. After having a lunch at Capri (nice pasta), we moved back to our coach. The latter part of the day was spent travelling to Rome. We dined in an Indian restaurant near Colosseum, superb food. Then to our hotel for a good night sleep, ready for the next day.

Thursday, 12 Jun 2008 - Rome
The historic Rome! The seat of western civilisation! The place where democracy originated! We began our tour of Rome with a visit to the Colosseum. If you have seen the movie Gladiator, you know what I am talking about. The place is now in ruins; in its heyday it was the central attraction in Rome. Colosseum was basically an stadium where the sport played was fights between slaves/ gladiators and beasts onto death. The ground was actually a stage with an elaborate preparation network beneath to allow men or beasts to suddenly come onto the stage from a trapdoor in the ground. Really majestic! We had a very interesting Italian guide for Colosseum, she just kept repeating "Great" and "Big" and "Grand" and words like this in a very excited tone without really telling anything about the place. From Colosseum, we also got a view of the ruins of the ancient temple of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. The only thing remaining now is the pillars of the temple. Rome is full of such ruins and historical buildings, you get a feeling that you are tarnsported back centuries back into history.

The next stop was Vittorio Emmanuel Monument. Vittorio was the first king of United Italy, before him it was all different kingdoms of Rome, Florence, Naples etc. So this is also called the monument to the unification of Italy. Nice building, quite modern by Rome standards. This monument is located in Piazza Venezia, which also contains Mussolini's mansion. His famous balcony, from where he used to give speeches, overlooks the Piazza (square in English).

From here, we walked to Trevi fountain, arguably the most famous fountain in the world. It really is beautiful. Some places in the world do live up to high expectations. There is a tradition of throwing coins in the fountain and making a wish, so we did that dutifully. Then we had the most wonderful pizza and gelati in the world from the pizzeria on the right hand corner of the fountain. Just too good!

Afternoon was dedicated to Vatican. It was a big disappointment for me that Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum was not included in the itinerary. I mean, going all the way to Rome and not seeing Sistine Chapel seems a waste of time. Our visit to the Vatican was limited to the St. Peter's square and St. Peter's Basilica. Now these really are majestic. St. Peter's Square with its pillared sides, its fountainsa and an obelisk at the centre is view in itself. St. Peter's Basilica is amazing. From outside, you admire its overall form and architecture. Once iside, you are amazed with the sheer size of the place and the fact that is still seems crammed, full of paintings and treasures like Pieta, the sculpture of Virgin Mary holding a dying Jesus in her lap, made by Michelangelo. St. Pete's Basilica is huge, the biggest church is the world and is really ornate. Hiranya was getting sick of being constrained in our laps when in bus or in the stroller while outside, so we took this opportunity to let him crawl around the huge floor of the Basilica. He loved it, and almost became an attraction in himself. We really enjoyed St. Peter's and were the last people in our group to exit the place.

Our last stop for the day was a photo-stop at Circus Maximus. Named after Maximus, the most famous galidiator of the Roman Empire (on whose life the movie Gladiator is roughly based), Circus Maximus is a race track where chariot races used to be held. The chariot race in the epic movie Ben Hur was held at Circus Maximus (though not shot at the actual location).

Another dinner of Indian food, a trip to the hotel for a quick recharge, and we were back in coach to do a round of Rome by night. The place is all different at night. The buildings are all illuminated and have a very different look and feel at night. Nice, though I personally prefer to see the detailed architectural beauty during the day.

The day ended on a positive note. In the morning, the eldest of our co-passengers was not feeling well and had to be hospitalized, where they found out that he had a heart blockage and needed to be operated immediately. Thankfully, he was hospitalized in time. In the evening, we came to know that the procedure was successful and he was recovering. Three cheers to two of our co-passengers who accompanied him throughout the day and interfaced with the doctors and the hospital folks to ensure he got appropriate care.

Friday, 13 Jun 2008 - Pisa and Florence
We checked out of our hotel in Rome in the morning and proceeded to the leaning tower of Pisa. It is interesting how an architectural mistake can become so famous! The tower actually leans at about an angle of 30 degrees. Doesn't seem like it is falling or anything, but an interesting tilt. The basilica near to the tower was also impressive. We liked the place, a bit overhyped, but good nevertheless.

From Pisa, we proceeded onto Florence. Both I and Madhu had gone on this trip primarily for Rome and Venice, but it was Florence that we actually liked the best. We fell immediately in love with the place and will definitely go back one day. One look at Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore (Church of Saint Mary of Flower) and the immediate exclamation from both of us was, "This must be one of the best buildings we have seen ever". Amazing architecture, colour, overall structure, carvings, couldn't take our eyes off. There was no way we could capture that beauty in our camera. In front of it were Gates of Heaven, named so not because of any spiritual connection but simply because Michelangelo called them so. Florence is his city after all. These gates are really beautiful. Bronze with gold plating, with the ten stories of old testament carved on the gates, these really are worthy of being the gates of heaven.

We walked up to Ponte Vecchio, a bridge with three floors of shops, mostly rich-looking jewellery shops, so it was in my best interests to move away quickly from there. :-)

Then on to Piazza della Signoria (Signoria Square), which is an open-air museum containing the Neptune fountain, a beautiful marble structure. The square also contained a number of other beautiful sculptures, including a replica of Michelangelo's David, the original being too important to be kept in open-air. David is supposed to be the ultimate representation of manhood. One corner of the square is Palazzo Vecchio, one of the landmarks of Florence. On the entrance of this palace is a self-sketch of Michelangelo carved in stone which he is supposed to have done hilding his hands behind his back. Amazing stuff! Once again, we lamented being on a tour which had a fixed itinerary. Would have loved to visit the museums of Florence and see many more of these masterpieces.

Saturday, 14 Jun 2008 - Venice
Next morning, we drove to Venice. It was raining throughout the journey and even on the boat ride into Venice, so we were all prepared for a really "watery" Venice. Thankfully, the weather improved as the day progressed and we were able to enjoy Venice quite well, though it would have been much better had it been all sunny. We began our Venice sojourn with a Gondola ride along the waterways of Venice. Venice is a set of small islands interconnected by bridges and the primary mode of transportation is boats. The Gondola Ride took us around the thin waterways that separate these islands and into the Grand Canal. All very good, but not as breathtaking as I had expected it to be. Blame it on weather, I say!

After the Gondola ride was a visit to the Murano Glass Factory where we saw how they make these glass artifacts from liquid glass. We wanted to buy Venetian glass and Venetian masks, but anything we liked was so expensive and we didn't want to buy just for the sake of souvenirs, so ended up with nothing.

St. Mark's square, the main square of Venice with St. Marks Basilica on one side is where we spent most of our time in Venice. Hiranya loved chasing the pigeons, we loved the basilica's architecture and the overall feel of the place.

As we were going back to the jetty, we saw the famous Bridge of Sighs. This bridge connects the courtroom situated in the King's palace to the prison, and the windows of this bridge were the last time a prisoner saw light in his life, hence the sighs and the name of the bridge.

Back to mainland for an early dinner, much appreciated by Hiranya as he got some time before his bed time in the hotel room to stretch his muscles, crawl, cruise and generally be his active self.
Sunday, 15 Jun 2008 - Verona and back to UK
The plan of the day was to travel up to Milan airport to catch the flight back to London. Once again, it was a shame not to visit Milan city itself, the fashion and football capital of Italy, but we were told that it is Sunday and the whole town will be closed.

We stopped at Verona instead. Jog your Shakespeare memory, and you will remember that the story of Romeo and Juliet is based in Verona. We visited Juliet's balcony in Verona. Now in case you are wondering whether Romeo and Juliet was just a story or history, well, no one knows for sure, but being as famous as it is, the town of Verona is certainly making a few tourist euros out of it, by putting up a statue of Juliet and making a museum in the mansion that contains the balcony. Interesting experience, with Madhu going on to the Balcony and me shouting like Romeo from below "Oh my Juliet!".

That brings us to the end of our trip. Overall, a good glimpse of Italy, with Florence and Rome both definitely needing further visits. Ciao!