In August I had a chance to go to Italy with Dan. It was an exciting trip for me, still fresh after my previous trip last year I was able to show Dan the best of Italy. We settled on a traditional loop Milan-Rome-Florence-Venice with some minor twists (Naples, Pompeii, and Ravenna) traveling by train. We spent the first day in Milan mostly trying to acclimate ourselves with Italy.
The next day we had an early train to Rome, checked in in the hotel there and went to Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Trip to Rome in August are not advised by most of the guidebooks and I agree with them. It was freaking hot there with temperature reaching 90 F (+32 C)! Colosseum was impressive, but totally overcrowded. The Roman Forum seemed to be smaller than 7 years ago when I was in Rome with Dima, though I realize that it likely did not change.
On our second day in Rome we went to the Vatican Museum to see Sistine Chapel and Rafael Rooms. We got some food in the area around Vatican (another "No" from the guidebooks). It was like to be transported to the Middle East - one waiter tried to get Dan's attention by shouting "Hey, California". We stopped in St.Peter, another impressive Vatican sight.
In the evening we went for another walk, this time to Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Funny enough, two Russian girls stopped us and asked for directions (in English). I made a serious face and started telling them the directions, but couldn't keep the straight face for a long. Once I told them that the Russian language is the language of international communication, they realized something was funny and I had to switch to Russian to continue. Dan was laughing for a long time after that encounter. In any case, we liked Trevi Fountain so much that we returned to see it again the next morning.
Last day in Rome was a short one - we roamed around for a while going from a church to a church (Dan's old dream), visited Pantheon
and took a couple of pictures on Piazza Navona. In the afternoon we took a train to Naples.
On our second day in Rome we went to the Vatican Museum to see Sistine Chapel and Rafael Rooms. We got some food in the area around Vatican (another "No" from the guidebooks). It was like to be transported to the Middle East - one waiter tried to get Dan's attention by shouting "Hey, California". We stopped in St.Peter, another impressive Vatican sight.
Last day in Rome was a short one - we roamed around for a while going from a church to a church (Dan's old dream), visited Pantheon
No comments:
Post a Comment