A day of fountains, churches, musical interludes, cats AND at last, the Pantheon is found

Thursday Jan 23, 2014

The grande tour continues.  This time a map is used to help ensure a more successful day.  The "Guide" is determined that she will provide a more productive sightseeing experience.

First stop the Trevi Fountain, after a quick check withe the Tourist Information office that we were on the right track.  It is the fountain of "Three Coins in a Fountain" fame from the movie Roman Holiday.  Legend has it that if you make a wish and toss a coin into the fountain you will return to Rome.  The name comes from "Tre" meaning 3 and "Via" meaning road, three roads meet at the Trevi Fountain.

Trevi Fountain

Coins are tossed!  Will they return??

At the fountain Cheryl and I got caught in the trap of the "complimentary" flower gift - we were both handed a rose "for you lovely lady", then were asked for a donation.  Bill indicated he would pay for both of them.  This prompted the giftor to give Cheryl 2 more roses "We have a live one here".  Cheryl now has 3 roses, Bill gives the giftor 1 Euro.  He apparently did not appreciate this as he promptly took back two of Cheryl's roses!!

Second stop was St Ignatius of Loyola Church, one of the top five churches to see.  It is most famous for it's fresco ceiling.

Third stop the Pantheon - today we found it, thanks to a map, and the excellent preparations of the "Tour Guide"

In front of the Pantheon

The dome showing the occulus

As viewed from the back

Now a little lunch.  We ate lunch on the plaza of the Pantheon.  It was Rheaume and Cheryl's first al fresco meal in Rome, hopefully the weather will improve and we will have more.  We were fortunate to be able to listen to a guitarist who was playing in the square in front of our restaurant.

Al fresco lunch outside the Pantheon

Guitarist adding a musical note to our luncheon

Next stop Santa Marie Sophra in Minerva church.  I love this church for two reasons.  First off, from the outside this does not appear to be a church, only the small sign to the right of the door gives it away.  And secondly, it has the greatest base for an obelisk out front, that I have ever seen.  It's and elephant.

Santa Maria Sophra in Minerva

Ceiling of Santa Maria Sophra

Finally it was time to make our way home, but we had one more stop to make, next to our bus stop.  The Cat Sanctuary.  At the site of an archaeological excavation is a private Cat Sanctuary.  They rescue stray and injured cats in the city.  They currently have about 250 felines in their care,  The animals are nursed back to health, spayed, neutered and generally cared for by a group of volunteers who do all this with donations received.

Site of the Cat Sanctuary

One of the many residents of the Sanctuary

Now it is off to home to make a big pot of soup for supper and then get an early night.  By all accounts it was a good day

Seeing Papa on a three shoe day

Wednesday Jan 22, 2014

Rheaume and Cheryl at the window of the
apartment,  saying  "Ciao, from Roma"

We're off to see the Pope.  Every Wednesday morning the Pope comes out to greet those assembled outside St Peter's Basilica.  He also gives a blessing to all those present.  So we decided we would go and see what happens and then venture on to see the Vatican Museums.  We arrived about 9 AM and were able to get good seats.  We were in the front half of the quadrant of set up chairs, near the center back of that quadrant.

Picture taken from the jumbo tron
showing the crowd gathered.  We are in
there too, can you see us??

Swiss Guards

It was like a big party waiting for the Pope to arrive.  There were visiting choirs singing and drummers, drumming.  Then the Pope appeared in his Pope mobile - it was like a rock star had arrived - people started shouting and clapping, and then everyone, young and old were climbing onto their chairs in hopes of getting a good glimpse of him. (So much for "good" seats) - We couldn't even see the big screens half the time because of people standing on the chairs.  The Pope toured around all four quadrants giving lots of opportunity to see him.  Rheaume was fortunate, he saw the vehicle headed back down the road immediately behind us, and with only one person in front, so he quickly went to the barricade , climbed on a chair and was able to get a good view, from about six feet away.

Rheaume's close encounter 

From the jumbo tron, the Pope addressing the faithful

 Lots of people were handing baby's and small children to be kissed, and someone gave him a Slurpee drink, which he graciously took, had a sip and handed it back to the person.  This act, brought up a cheer in the crowd.  His speech to the crowd referenced Canada a couple of times and he made mention of scandals several times, being obviously upset by what he was talking about.

The weather was beautiful when we started out in the morning, but just about the time the Pope had finished, the rain started, and became quite heavy.  We could not gain entry to the Basilica until 1 PM, so we decided to go and have lunch.  By the time we had finished eating the rain had almost stopped.  The crowds were long waiting to get in the Basilica, so we opted to try for another day.

Christmas creche or presepe as they are
called here, in St Peter's Square

What to do with the rest of our day, well, shoe shopping just might fill the spot.  So off we headed to several shoe stores with both Rheaume and Cheryl having success and ending up with 3 pair between them.

A little grocery shopping on the way home, a light supper of antipasto consisting of tomatoes, cheese, pickled vegetables (giardina), pickled mushrooms, seafood salad and cold cuts, all washed down with several glasses of wine.  Then it was bed time for one and all.

Sign seen in a bathroom

Off to market and the Pantheon

Tuesday Jan 21, 2014

Tuesday dawned with everyone feeling better, ready to tackle what ever the day brought.  First on the agenda was a coffee ( or in our case a caffe latte) and coronetto (sweet pastry).  Then it's off to the market to see what is interesting to buy for provisions.

In our Technocram elevator - no room to move!!

                           

Date palm tree

 fruit hanging on the tree


Little girl and her mother feeding pigeons in the park,
Mother was encouraging her to give her cookie to the birds,
 but she was having none of it!

I love the markets because there is such a cacophony of sound, smells(which sadly I can no longer sense), color, variety and interplay between merchants and buyers.  Here the butchers is chopping his product right before your eyes - you can get specific cuts if you wish, no extra costs.  There are separate butchers for beef, pork, chicken, lamb, etc, as well as butchers who sell only meats that are prepared according to religious standard.   Here they offer the whole animal, so you can get the head and tail and everything in between, even the feet!!  And , of course it goes with out saying the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brains, stomach lining (tripe) are also on offer.  Very little is pre-packaged.

fresh fish on display, just one of many similar
merchants in the market

Spices, beans, grains and lentils

                               
The vegetables are rough and ready, some with the dirt still clinging.  Tomatoes are not uniform in colour and have blemishes, all these would be discarded in North American grocery stores , not worthy of the high price charged.  Celery bunches were 24 inches long with the full stem intact and instead of being plum and full of water as in North America, they were more dry looking.  If you want just two stems they are pulled of and you paid the same price per kilo as the full bunch, where we often pay up to twice the price for the convenience of someone else having performed this task.

The fish mongers, and there were many, all have their product whole and fresh on ice.  The skin are always nice an glistening and the eyes are clear and bight.  Little is frozen.  The prawns, clams, shrimp, snails are all still alive and moving.  I am not sure what Cheryl thought of this.

 A common site is to see beggars on the street, they mostly seem to be Roma or gypsies as we would refer to them, and they often present as having some disability.  We are not sure what the purpose of the box was but what struck us were the pristine white bandages on the legs.  The lady below is a sight you see often, and they will stay in this position for long periods of time.

Next we were off to the see the Spanish steps and other highlights of the Grand Tour.  We hopped on to one of these tiny little buses, believe it or not the capacity for this one is 8 seated, 22 standing and one wheelchair.

Bus 117
First stop was the Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Fountain at Spanish Steps currently under refurbishment

Musical interlude on our way down
the shopping streets

One very happy lady!!  A visit inside
southern Europe's
largest Louis Vuitton store

An even happier  husband, the
cheque book came away unopened
 from this days stroll

TOURIST ALERT!!! 

For the best experience, always ensure that you have a qualified, experienced and 

MOST IMPORTANTLY 

knowledgeable guide

After all this window shopping therapy, we were off to find the Pantheon, which proved to be very elusive.  Try as we may we never did find it, and asking for directions proved the futile and frustrating.  One person would say this way and turn left, the next on would say, that way and turn right, and we finally gave up when we were directed to go back the same way we had just come!!!!!!!  The tourists were having some misgivings about the experience and qualifications of the TOUR GUIDE
that they had hired and she pointed out that they were probably getting what they paid for!

Night time having fallen it was time to find a bus home and get something for supper.  Tonight's supper was pizza to go and arancini's and suppli (deep fried rice balls filled with meats and vegetables).

Variety of fresh pizza on offer that is purchased by slicing
off whatever size you want and paying by weight.
This allows you to have 2 or 3 different samples.

There be pictures

Waiting for our final flight and to quote old song lyrics
 "Smiling on the outside but dying on the inside"

Large bronze entrance doors to San Giovanni,
only used on special occasions

Inside the church San Giovanni en Laterano

In the square to the side of San Giovanni, obelisk behind and
the apartment building (white one) that we are staying in

Inside the Baptistry building at San Giovanni

Small altar in the Baptistry

Dome of the Baptistry

In front of a fresco in the Baptistry

A hands on expierience in the Basillica of Santa Maria Maggiorie,
feeling the texture and joins of the different pieces of marble

 More to come

Let the touring begin

Monday Jan 20, 2014
The first full day in Rome has begun.

Bill fed us his favourite breakfast, fresh buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes with olive oil.

I still have not got over the jet lag and am feeling pretty hung over from it all.  Today we are all just getting our sea legs.  We visited la Scala Santa (the sacred steps) which are just across the street.  These are apparently the steps that Jesus Christ walked up to be taken before Pontius Pilate.  They were brought to Rome from Jerusalem in the 3rd century when Queen Helen of Constantinople and her son Constantine adopted the Christian religion as the belief system of their domain.

Then it was across the street to the basilica of San Giovanni en Laterano, Bill's favourite church in Rome.  This is the main cathedral for the city of Rome.  Next we visited the stand alone Baptistery that is next door.

Then it was off down the street for a little passiagata (stroll) to find a place to have lunch.  Rheaume and Cheryl were introduced to of 2 types of Roman pizza.  I think everyone was still feeling the effects of the flight because we could barely finish our food.

On we went, doing some window shopping, being entertained by store keepers trying to entice us to buy their wears, and offering samples as enticement.  Some we will be back to, others probably not.  Bill and I have noticed this trip that there are definite price changes in certain items, the most notable being the price if an espresso and coronetto.  We saw several signs that were offering them for 1.50 Euros.  Any other time we have been here they have never been below 3.50 Euros.  Not sure if this is a sign of the current economic times or the fact that we are here at a non-tourist time.  This may in fact what the locals normally pay, as when we travelled outside the city last time we were here, we could find espresso for 1 Euro.

Next we stopped at another basilica, Santa Maria Maggiori, another one of the major churches of the city of Rome.  Then a little voyeuristic retail therapy as we made our way to Termini station the main transportation hub in Rome.   Here we purchased our bus tickets for the next week.  Again a bit of sticker shock here.  The last time we were here and still according to the transit systems web site, I was expecting to pay 16 Euros each for them.  Instead they are now 24 Euros.  Daily tickets have risen from 4 Euros to 6 Euros.  They are still a good bargain though at about 3.50 a day, because you can go virtually anywhere in Rome and even to some outlying communities on the one ticket and it’s usable on train, tram, and bus and underground. 

So after about what amounted to a 6 hours, 2 KM long stroll it was time to partake of some Italian gelato.  I am afraid that Bill, Cheryl and I greatly disappointed the server as we did not take any whipped cream on top of our gelato, but, she was very pleased, beaming him a big smile, when Rheaume said "Si, Si" to her offer of the crema.

That little stop was our undoing.  Everyone started to feel somewhat flagged so we hopped a bus and headed for home.  The fellows went out and found some wine, we had a few glasses then went around the corner for supper when the restaurant opened at 7PM - normal time for restaurants to open for supper.  We had the restaurant virtually to ourselves for the first half hour or so, then the locals started coming in about 8 o’clock.  R

Rheaume and Cheryl enjoyed a taste of a few different dishes, moscardini, baby fried squid risotto with seafood, 3 different pastas, and saltimbocca, a veal dish.  And of, course we had wine with our meal.  Then home for an early night.

I will add pictures later.

Off to a Shotgun start

Well I am finally starting to feel human again – jet lag has been taking its’ toll these last 2 trips.  

But this trip had an added little bonus that made it even worse. We were all organized ahead of time and Friday was a nice relaxing day.  Then just as we were preparing for bed a call came at 10:10 PM from our airline.  The first flight leg of our trip was cancelled due to heavy fog.  So was the backup flight I had as a contingency plan.  What to do now.  No sleep tonight!    Our only option was to head to Naniamo, catch the earliest ferry out, and keep our fingers crossed that nothing else comes up.  Fortunately, because we were ready to go, about 3/4 of an hour later we were off.  

We arrived in Naniamo, and because there was only about 3 ½ hours before the ferry left, we decided to just nap in the truck  Good thing we made that decision because when we got to the ferry terminal we found that the 5:15 sailing was no longer running on Saturday morning (recent fiscal cutbacks).  We were fortunate enough to find an employee we was leaving the terminal and he suggested our best option was to go to the other terminal and take the 6:30 sailing to Vancouver.   This still meant that we were not going to make our Vancouver departure flight.  Next was a stop at a local Timmy’s that offered free Wi-Fi and several attempts to contact the airline only resulted in long waits, but no actual human contact.   So, I took the bull by the horns, crossed my fingers, and booked an 11:30 flight out of Vancouver to Calgary to connect with our KLM flight from there.  Now for a little shut eye in the cab of the truck....oh, joy.......   Fingers crossed this is the last of the detractions.

We arrived in Vancouver with no further delays.  I was able to contact the airlines and there are reimbursing our full fare.  That will help because the Vancouver to Calgary leg is a bit more expensive than originally booked AND we now had the added cost of a ferry trip to and from the island PLUS a hefty long term parking fee to pay when we get back!   Hopefully our trip interruption insurance will be able to cover at least some of the added costs.  It will be what it will be!

We met up with Rheaume and Cheryl going thru security at Calgary airport.  The beginning of their trip had also had a couple of hick-ups, delayed departure as they were waiting for replacement crew to arrive.  There apparently had been an incident of a bird strike on that crew plane that needed to be dealt with before they could resume.

Most important thing now was that we were both together and whatever happens next neither party has to be concerned about the other being left behind.

We had little time to spare as we were no sooner processed thru security and found our gate, when they announced boarding for our flight.

We now settled in for our 8 ½ flight to Amsterdam.  Everyone was bearing up well until near the end of this leg of the journey.  Cheryl and I both started feeling the ravages of the length of the journey.  Rheaume and Bill seemed to be bearing up better.  Next stop Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.  We now had a 4 hour wait for our next flight to Rome, but being able to get up and walk around, and you do a lot of it in these big European hub airports, as well as getting a bit of fresh air, helped to rejuvenate us somewhat.  Finally on our last leg, we were both lucky to be 2 people sitting in a 3 seat row so we could spread out a bit as it were.  We arrived in Rome, off loaded onto the tarmac, into busses to the terminal, picked up our bags and out to meet the shuttle we had hired.  From then on it was a pretty quick trip to the apartment, with the driver giving a little brief history as he drove along.

The landlord arrived, we got our business done with him, the boys went out and got some morning provisions, and Cheryl and I settled in for a bit of a nap.  When the guys came back we went for a quick light bite to eat, a walk around the block and back the apartment, in bed by 8PM.  Bonne Notte

All ready to go

12 hours from now we will be on our way.  After about 24 hours of travel we will be settling into our Rome apartment for the next 3 weeks.  I will post again on Monday once we have had a chance to rest and recuperate.