First of all, apologies for our relative absence from the blog. December brought with it a slew of final papers, exams and perhaps the most important of all, our much-anticipated Christmas trip to Italy. We decided to head to the central part of the country, visiting Rome and Florence.
I've been to Rome once before, but that was just for a day and hence it barely counts as a proper visit. This time around, however, Cody and I walked around the city like no other. We yet didn't manage to see everything the city had on offer, but I think we'd need a month or so to cover all that. Furthermore, Italy around Christmas is far more subdued, and a lot of the places we did want to visit were closed.
During our various promenades around the city, we discovered that Rome is decentralized, not the easiest to navigate and imbued with far more history than it can handle. That said, highlights from our Roman sojourn include : Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at the Vatican City — beautifully lit up with a massive Christmas tree in the middle of St. Peter's Square; the Parco Borghese — while we didn't get to visit the Villa Borghese, it was easily one of the nicer parks I've walked around; the Trevi fountain — impressive and larger than life; and Santa Maria della Vittoria —a tiny church near the main station with two stunning sculptures by Bernini as well as an impressive church organ.
My experience at the Parco Borghese merits a side-note: Cody decides that we need to enter the park from another entrance, not knowing that said entrance actually exists. Therefore, getting into the Parco Borghese required us to cross a freeway, jump over two sets of dividers, jump over another wall, climb up a flight of stairs, and walk through a hippodrome and back.
That little adventure aside, Rome disappointed me a little. I think my expectations for the Eternal City were higher than they should have been. Even the food wasn't outstanding. It was good, yes, but nothing to write home about. It also didn't help that every restaurant that was recommended to us was shut for the holidays. And lastly, I have to say the Tiber was one the most pathetic city-rivers I've laid my eyes on — slow, muggy and utterly unexciting. Check out pictures below, and read about Florence in the next post.
By the Tiber (l) and a statue on one of the bridges crossing it (r).
Parco Borghese (l) and St. Peter's at night (r).
In front of the Trevi (l) and in Santa Maria della Vittoria (r)
Monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II (l) and the Parco Borghese (r).
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (l) and Cody in Piazza della Repubblica (r).
2 comments:
The street directly behind Cody in Piazza della Repubblica leads to the hostel where Natalie and I stayed when we were there. It's like two or three blocks down. And I was a little disappointed by Rome, too. I hope Florence made up for it for you like it did for me.
I think lots of people must be disappointed by Rome sometime or another, because everyone has grand expectations!
I can't see how your trip would be disappointing though, as your adventure sounds so exciting. :X
The Tiber river is probably dammed, and I learned in my IR class last semester that dams are evil and responsible for making all of the world's rivers sluggish and dirty. So perhaps that's why it was so unimpressive?
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