Week 3 began much the same... do at least one interesting thing each day.
Sunday we decided to take advantage of the "no vehicles" day on the Appian Way. Apparently, as with most other things in Italy, "no vehicles" or "area pedonale" rules are only there to deter the really unambitious. Just outside the old city walls, where the "no vehicles" rule started, it was not particularly pleasant to try to walk along the very narrow road with tall walls on each side with numerous vehicles whizzing by at regular intervals.
We went as far as the Catacombs of San Callisto. I, Brian, went into the catacombs while Kris and Marian wandered around outside and found interesting subjects to draw and paint. Upon emergence from the catacombs I described the experience..."... well there's 8 euro and 45 minutes of my life I won't get back". It is pretty cool to see what was done there but being in a crowd of 50 or more people crushed into very small spaces waiting for the previous crowd to move on then basically being tramped through about a half kilometer of very narrow tunnels with old burial cavities carved out on each side was not all that exciting... I couldn't help but start to hum to myself "...bring out your dead, bring out your dead...". It was, I'll admit, interesting to see the spot where Santa Cecilia was buried after being martyred, but all in all...
Anyway, been there, done that. I think if you were an ardent student of the subject and doing research it would be way cool.
The area around the catacombs was very beautiful parkland with a pedestrian walkway which was almost, but not quite, devoid of vehicles. We only had to step to the side a couple of times over a several hundred meter stroll.
After leaving the catacombs we grabbed a bite to eat at the Porto San Sebastian gate of the old wall then jumped a bus back as far as the Baths of Caracalla which happened to be free to enter (since it was Sunday and part of the national cultural week). That is quite an amazing place. It must have been absolutely spectacular in it's day.
Later that day we ran afoul of what appeared to be another meaningless rule. We stopped at a sidewalk winebar to sit outside and enjoy the weather. The cafe was on a street corner and the street side on which we were sitting was quite windy. There were no empty tables around the corner but there was a largish open spot so we took matters into our own hands and moved our table and chairs around the corner. Well, didn't that just set off a lot of hand waving gestures and shouting from the cafe staff about how this is not possible, it is illegal and the policia will have problems. Nothing is allowed to be placed in this spot. We argued that there had been a table in that very spot the previous afternoon but that got us nowhere so back around to the windy side we went. About 5 minutes later a guy drives his car half way up onto the sidewalk taking up part of the "illegal space where nothing is allowed to be placed" as well as blocking the sidewalk itself, gets out and buggers of down the sidewalk. A couple of minutes later three of Rome's finest walk by and have to step out onto the street to get around the car. They kept walking without taking notice. HAH...some problem. We had a good laugh ... aaaah Italy... ya gotta love it.
Monday was more of a metropolitan day. We took a morning metro ride to Piazza Barberini where we started a stroll down Via del Tritone, looking in a variety of shops and ending at Via del Corso where we stopped for a coffee rest in the Galleria Alberto Sordi. After that we continued on towards the Pantheon which is a place you never get tired of even if there are throngs of people about.
We were there around noon and the place teemed with school and tour groups. Just off the piazza on Via del Seminario is another of our favorites La Sagrestia Ristorante Pizzeria where we had a fabulous lunch. After lunch we joined the crowd going into the Pantheon where it was really cool to see the sun beam streaming in through the oculus and hitting high on the opposite wall...
Just behind the Pantheon is the beautiful Santa Maria sopra Minerva church with it's Bernini elephant sculpture with obelisk in it's piazza...
... and just behind the church is a great artist supply store where we bought more supplies for our budding careers...
By that time it was getting a bit late so we passed on one last palazzo and headed for the bus stop on Piazza Venezia where we waited patiently for about a half hour before our bus came by on which we headed home for a rest followed by a bit of a walk out, sit at a sidewalk winebar, dinner at home and that's it...
Tuesday was our final pre-scheduled tour. It was called the "Rome Market Walk" and covered several square blocks in Testaccio including the massive old slaughter house (now like a fairground), the old marketplace with it's stalls of all types where we sampled a variety of food items...
...and several of our guide's favorite local little stores. A butcher store she took us into has been in that one family for 9 generations. A pasta maker store was really neat as we were taken into the back to watch two older guys making a variety of pasta types. They were keen to have their pictures taken with one of us and also pleased to show us bags of flour from Manitoba after Kris told them we were from Canada and asked if they did use flour from Canada.
Probably the coolest store was a deli (Volpetti) on Via Marmorata where they provided us with several most delicious samples which prompted us to return to the store after the tour and make some purchases. After the tour we wandered along Via Marmorata (the main drag through Testaccio), sat for a most fancy cafelatte...
... then Marian went off to catch a bus home while we walked over the river into Trastevere for a look around and a Kris purchase of a nice little denim jacket at the Oviesse store. Very stylish ....zipper pull fell of during the first wearing ;-0 .Then to home to call it a day.
Wednesday we decided it was time to visit the museum on the Capitoline hill. Jumping on the #81 bus we were there in no time at all. Walking up Michaelangelo's famous steps we found ourselves on the Piazza Campidoglio looking at the great statue of Marcus Aurelius. The Capitoline Museums are simply not to be missed. The collection of fabulous sculptures is mind boggling to say the least and you can get a cool view over the Forum grounds from the Tabularium.
After becoming a bit "museumed out" we walked up the back steps to the nearby Santa Maria in Aracoeli church which is just another one of those must see churches. We had to wait about 40 minutes for the church doors to open so sat on the steps and pulled out our drawing books to see what we could conjure up in the form of recognizable renderings. Good, fun way to spend the extra time waiting, otherwise we would likely have just called it a day right then and there.
Turns out that Wednesday was basically it for the week. I, Brian picked up a head and chest cold that laid me low for the rest of the week. I think the Rome authorities might have sent divers into the Tiber river to see if they could find what must have been a wayward harbor seal (or whatever type of seal they might have in this part of the world) because, yes, I was barking that long and that loud day and night. Kris said she thought there might also have been moose stirring in the Palatine hill since I was also making many very loud snorting noises that could have attracted them.
Leaving me to waste away in bed, Kris and Marian went out on mini adventures in the local area.
This theme unfortunately continued for the rest of our time in Rome. I was able to get out and about but that just meant there was a lot of mobile hacking and coughing and having to stop for many sit down rests.
As week 4 started and the Rome portion of our trip was ending we salvaged what energy we had left to see the museums on the Palatine hill (these are about the best ones yet) as well as two churches Santa Maria della Vittoria with it's Bernini masterpiece the Ecstasy of St Teresa and Santa Maria Maggiore wherein lies Bernini himself.
Mid week it was time for Marian to head home and us to head to Florence. We had decided to stay in Florence for 2 nights then take the night train to Munich on the third night. We arrived in Florence late morning and our hotel room was not going to be available for a few hours so we decided to get in some of the shopping we had planned to do. Frankly both of us felt like total crap as we walked across downtown Florence to our personal favorite, the School of Leather located behind the Santa Croce church. Arriving there was a bit of a cheer up and we felt even better after Kris ordered a new handbag which will be custom made and sent home to arrive sometime around the time we get home. After that we went back to the hotel where our room was ready and our bags had already been taken up to the room. How nice was that! We both laid down and fell into the deepest sleep for several hours. How nice it was to be in a totally quiet room after the apartment in Rome which, although being a very nice apartment, was probably one of the noisiest places we have ever stayed, including our travels in India... and believe me, most places in India were noisy!!!!
Later we wandered up around the Duomo. The crowds and lineups to get into the Duomo were incredible. An interesting crowd is always the one around the doors of the bapistry. These doors are beautiful but are not the real ones, they are only replicas...
The real ones are in the Duomo museum situated right behind the Duomo where we have never seen a lineup to get in. Every time we have been in the Duomo museum there have been virtually no other people there....and... they let you take pics of the real/original doors which you can see closeup.
We had reserved the hotel room for only two nights with the anticipation that we would just wander and enjoy Florence the whole of the 3rd day before catching the night train to Munich. However since we were both somewhat under the weather, we asked the hotel if we could check out really really late or even just pay for the 3rd night as we thought it would be good to have a place we could crash for a few hours mid day. Unfortunately, being Easter weekend, the hotel was fully booked but the staff said they would try to arrange something. Later that evening when we returned they informed us that they could give us a small room and would not charge us the full fee if we left by 8:00 pm.... this was fine with us as our train was at 10:00 pm anyway.
Day two in Florence was a tour trip out to the Prada outlet and The Mall (outlets for numerous other big names). For me, it was mostly a rest day in the country while Kris did most of the shopping coming away with a very nice small Prada handbag.
After two nights of great sleeps in Florence we were feeling much better for our last day of wandering in Florence (although still somewhat slowly). The main morning activity was going to our second favorite leather shop, Infinity which is a small family owned place not far from the main tourist area. There we each picked up a new leather bag... duh...what else would you expect?
We spent most of the afternoon resting in the hotel room (and very glad to have been able to get it too). This room was on the top floor and had a fabulous view of the top of the Duomo.
When we made our night train reservation from Florence to Munich we did it as far in advance as we could. Doing so, enabled us to snare a double compartment with it's own bathroom including shower.
TIP... there was no extra charge for this. It appears that there are a few of these compartments on each train and the early bird gets the worm.
Having our own bathroom turned out to be a real blessing as, to add insult to other injuries, Kris picked up a mild case of food poisoning, likely in our last meal in Florence. Having the bathroom right there saved her from to having to haul herself down the corridor to a public bathroom at the end of the train car...numerous times... in the night.
We arrived in Munich in the early hours (6:30 am) with our rented apartment not being available until 9:30. The Munich train station has numerous food outlets and we were able to grab a Starbuck's coffee at 7:00 and followed that with a bit of breakfast at another restaurant. After that it was a bit of sit and wait. We took a taxi to the apartment and the owner was waiting there for us. It was nice to be able to take possession that early in the day as nobody had stayed there the night before.
It turns out we arrived in Munich on Easter Sunday and being a very Catholic area everything was closed both Sunday and Monday... well not all restaurants at least so we did survive with a nice little bar just down the street from our apartment. Talking advantage of the very slow days we got lots of sleep and began to feel much better. The rest of week 5 was just low key in Munich. We bought a couple of week transit passes so that we didn't have to worry about fishing out change every time we boarded a bus, tram or subway car. The public transit system in Munich is very good. We found the trams the best as they were all on street level so you got a good view of the surrounding areas.
We saw some of the sights in central Munich including Marienplatz, the Viktualienmarkt and the pedestrian walkway from there all the way past Karlsplatz to the main train station. We took in a couple of the major beer houses where we had great lunches. We tried to get tickets to a FC Bayern Munich football game but they are all sold out and the secondary market demands a heavy price so we opted to watch the game with the crowd at the local bar. We did decide to go look at the stadium though and although it is a bit of a hike from the closest U-Bahn (subway) stop, it is a beautiful thing to behold...
One day we decided to use one of the extra days we had on our Eurail pass and went to Salzburg Austria for the day. Very nice tourist town which reminded us a lot of Banff just west of Calgary where we live in Canada.
Later that day after we had returned to Munich we were in the little bar down the street from our apartment. We told the bartender that we had been to Salzburg for the day and he said... " do you know what the best thing about Salzburg is?"... hmmm.. not sure so we said "no what?" where upon he replied "... getting back on the train to come back to Munich!!!"... ha ha ha. I guess every city has a similar joke about one of it's neighbouring cities.
All in all, the first week in Munich was very restful and we both improved in health and outlook considerably.
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