Joyce a Roma - giorno finale

My Rome trip actually marked the first anniversary of my blog! Hoot! I can do this every year! LOL!

The grand finale day started at 5:00am when I woke up. No breakfast for us today as it's not served until 7:00am...poopie. We checked out promptly at 6:00am and got to Termini station a little too early for the 6:52am train to the airport. The train ride this time was actually okay since it was so early the train was practically empty. 23 minutes later we were at the airport. This is it! The end of the trip! OMG, can't believe it ended so quickly. The flight to Montreal was at 9:20am so Tinlop and I wandered around the airport before boarding time.

I saw this nice looking Ferragamo wallet at the airport boutique and came really close to buying it and at 205euro, no tax, it was decently priced. Unfortunately as soon as I handled it, I was so disappointed with the material and workmanship that I reluctantly handed it back to the sales lady as she gave me a dirty look. Oh well, back to Louis Vuitton, LOL!

The flight to Montreal was full so no first class for us and boy did I miss it! I must say I got spoiled with the last 3 flights with Tinlop in Executive First. Little did I know they don't serve cranberry juice in economy!! The washroom was yucky with no toilet paper at one point and the guy sitting in front of me kept bouncing in his seat. He's not even a kid (he can actually be classified as a senior) and he can't sit still! Every time he bounced, the screen on the seat back would slip over my laptop and come down on my panel. Not nice. He almost banged my head a couple of times too! Not nice x2. Our first "meal" was a fish with overcooked sugar snap peas and rice. It was bleh. Not nice x3654. Can you tell I'm spoiled yet? Even the caramel ice cream I had was funny... it was super hard!! Not nice x287423498273246!! and I wanted my cranberry juice! LOL! Okay, it's not that bad.

I couldn't sleep so I watched all of the episodes of Off Pedder that I brought with me and just before we landed (5:12pm Rome time), we had a snack of butternut squash, sweet potato, spinach and ginger pie. Surprisingly enough, it actually tasted okay. Estimated arrival in Montreal 12:30pm EST.

At a sunny 15C, it actually felt cold when I got off the plane in Montreal. The 20C+ difference in temperature does weird things to your body! I'm going to have to get used to TO weather again. The remainder of the day was a blur. By the time we got back to TO at around 3:20pm, Tinlop was so tired that I told him to leave first. I forgot my keys so I waited around at Pearson until 文生 came and picked me up at 7:00pm. First thing I did was go home and shower! Then went out for pho at First Markham. The night was chilly and that's probably how I got sick. =(

Joyce a Roma - giorno quattro

Final Day of our Journey Begins at Piazza del Popolo

In just a matter of a few days, we've pretty much seen all of the touristy attractions of Rome. Funny how time seems to fly right by when you're being baked alive =P. Woke up this morning after just 3 hours of sleep at 9:15am. For some strange reason, I didn't really have an appetite for breakfast today so I only had two plates of cantaloup and some OJ. After printing off our boarding passes at the hotel lobby, we headed out to leave our final footsteps of this trip on more places in Rome.

We took the Metro to check out Piazza del Popolo, which after 4 days in Rome looks pretty much like any other piazza. Since it was almost 11:00am, the heat was starting to get unbearable again. Tinlop and I took a few touristy photos and strolled along the streets and window shopped a bit. We got bored very soon so we decided to head towards our next destination.

Struggling Through the Villa Borghese and Galleria Borghese

Across the road from the Piazza del Popolo is one of the main entrances into the largest slab of green stuff in Rome: the Villa Borghese. If you have spare legs that you can change into, I would recommend you bring them with you as you would need them (or a few pairs for that matter) to walk through the entire vicinity. Alternatively, you can have your Roma pass and take one of the buses for free at your leisure! Guess what we did? No way in hell were we going to walk the entire 148 acres of this largest public park in Rome after days of walking and blister-forming. Since the grass were severely dehydrated like we were and the views were just a bit short of appealing, we decided to bus it to the Galleria Borghese, an art museum situated on the other side of the park. We arrived at the museum at about 12:30pm, wondering if we would get in since we didn't make reservations the day before. We were lucky not to need a reservation today and after whipping out our Roma Passes to save the admission of 10,5euro each, we secured a 2-hour visit for 1:00pm. The sculptures and artwork were really impressive but LOL, we were in and out of there in half an hour! I felt really sick from the heat and lack of food so I forced myself to take in a panini at the Galleria cafe.

By the way, did I mention yet that I was sweating like a pig again and that it was really hot out?

Final Night of People-Watching at Campo de Fiori

After we left the Galleria Borghese, we bused back to the hotel to shower, took a nap until 5:40ish and left again at 7:30pm to head to Termini station to source out our route out of the city for tomorrow morning. After figuring out where to take the train, we took a bus to yet another popular piazza for after-dark festivities - Campo de Fiori. Hardly surprised again, we found it to have yet another fountain in the middle of the piazza! Yes, it looked just like any other one we've visited but like the Piazza Navona, it was bustling with people enjoying dinner or just a drink with their friends. Tinlop and I grabbed a gelato each at a gelateria called Blue Ice and sat ourselves down to people-watch a bit before heading back to the hotel to pack up. Did I mention the gelato we had was awesome? I was greedy and had two flavours, pistachio and pineapple and Tinlop had tiramisu. OMG, it was sooooo good!!

Sucessfully Showered in the Dark

After we got back to the hotel, Tinlop decided to go down to the lobby to get some change for the train fare while I took a shower. As soon as he left the room, pulling the keycard out of the switch that kept the entire room's lights on, I was plunged into total darkness. Struggling to find my shampoo and such, I took my first ever in-the-dark shower. I decided to just take notes for the day's excitement rather to do a complete blog entry and went to bed. (Aug.27.09 12:33am)

Joyce a Roma - giorno tre

Reliving "Angels and Demons" at the Citta del Vaticano

Day 3 of our Roman sweatbox extravaganza started at 8:00am when I woke up. Breakfast was exactly like yesterday's and by 9:30ish we left for Vatican City. We arrived at Piazza San Pietro at 10:20am and the line up was already 3/4 around the square. Seems like the world decided to come at the same time! Surprisingly enough, we didn't have to cook in the sun for very long as we passed through security check and made our way into the Basilica di San Pietro within 40 minutes. Nope, the Roma Pass didn't do us any good here. Once inside the Basilica, we were given the choice to see the Popes' tombs or the Cupola. Not exactly knowing what we were up against, we chose the wise path to the right, only to find out later that it wasn't exactly wise. Mind you, we never got to see the Popes' tombs so we wouldn't know how wise the path would have been if we went to the left. Life is full of surprises and suspense, no?

As we lined up to purchase the ticket to the Cupola, we were faced with another one of life's choices (what did I tell you?) - elevator or stairs. Elevator is 7euro plus 320 steps and stairs is 5euro plus 491 steps. So for the ripoff price of 2 extra euros, we decided to take the elevator. Soon we realized that the best decision we made since we decided to see the Cupola was spending the extra 2 bucks. Damn Michaelangelo for designing this torturous stairclimb for the people of today to have to pay to endure. I guess it wouldn't be half as bad if it wasn't so stuffy in there! The disclaimer at the ticket booth warns the elderly, people with heart disease etc, but what they REALLY need is one saying "You shall be trapped in a staircase no wider than 50cm with no looking back for at least 20 minutes. You will not be able to smell anything but the sweat of the people in front of you and those who are claustrophobic should take the other path and visit the tombs." So Tinlop and I climbed up what is equal to about 1/5 of the stairs at the CN Tower, taking in very much carbon dioxide and l'eau de body odour and finally made it to the top to take in the astounding view of Rome and Vatican City. Although the view is quite breathtaking, I'd hate to be the guard working there. Good thing the trip down wasn't half as excruciating.

The remainder of the time spent at the Basilica involved gawking at the high ceilings, artwork and details; taking photographs left, right and centre; checking out Michaelangelo's Pieta and me trying to figure out what parts of the Basilica I saw in Angels and Demons. It was 1:00pm by the time we left. Where did the morning go?

After a short rest we walked over to the Musei Vaticano to see what known as the museum that holds the most art in the world. There was absolutely no way we were going to walk through all 1,400 rooms so we decided to head straight for Michaelangelo's Capella Sistina. An hour later, we were still walking towards the Sistine Chapel and by the time we got there, both Tinlop and I were too tired to truly appreciate the artwork. I guess the 14euro admission is worth it if you have a spare pair of legs to tack on. We decided to leave after seeing the Sistine Chapel and 20 minutes later, after being sent up and down and up stairs again, we finally made it to the souvenir shop. Just when we thought we were at the exit, we were pleasantly surprised with this:

With my wonderful knowledge of the Italian language, I spotted a sign for the elevators so we hailed one to take us down to the exit. What a nice elevator it was! A porter slid open the gate, unlocked the door and led us in one of the nicest elevators I've ever been in. Equipped with seats along the perimeter of the elevator wall, the wooden interior is quite extravagant. It reminds me of the really old fashioned ones you see in the movies, but it's about the size of my bathroom!

After grabbing a quick pasta in the cafeteria, we left the Vatican Museum and headed back to the hotel for our long awaited shower and afternoon nap. We got back just shortly after 5:00pm and we went out again at 8:00pm to tackle another Roman night!

Roman Version of Lan Kwai Fong at Trastevere and Isola Tiberina

We decided to have dinner in Trastevere so we took the Metro to the closest stop and walked alongside Circo Massimo and then crossed the Tiber River. Just as we were crossing the bridge, we looked down and saw a little island lined with booths, bars, cafes and more. Curious as we were, but more hungry than anything, we decided to come back to visit the island after dinner. Tinlop and I settled for a traditional Italian restaurant and had pasta, pizza (yes, I'm pretty pizza'd out now) and some nice wine. I still can't get over wine costing less than Coke! At 40euro out the door, we were stuffed. By the time we were done dinner and back at Isola Tiberina at around 11:00pm, the island was packed with people and bustling with activities. We took a stroll along both sides and decided it is very similar to the booths found on Temple Street but with the ambiance of Lan Kwai Fong. Grabbing a hand-shaved lemon granita each (at only 2euro), we headed back the way we came towards the Metro station. Just our luck tonight that the trains have stopped running already so we walked all the way back to the hotel and once again, saw the great colosseum at night. We're going to get sick of that stadium very soon LOL!

Now that it's 6:00am, I should really get to sleep!

Joyce a Roma - giorno due

Colosseo inside and out

Day 2 of Rome started off with a wholesome buffet breakfast of bacon, cold cuts, cheese, toast, fruits and blood orange juice at the hotel...mm mm yum! 9:30am rolled along so after finishing breakfast, Tinlop and I headed over to see the Colosseum in its entirety, aka inside out and outside in! Good thing we purchased a Roma Pass that allowed us to bypass the lines at the gate. Whew! After spending a litle over an hour there and taking about a kazillion photos of every single angle and boulder of the place, we finally (but reluctantly) left.

Arco di Costantino in a jiffy

Just outside the Colosseum is the Arch of Contantine. It reminded me of the Arc de Triomphe but as the day went by, I realized all the arcos di whatevers look pretty much the same. Spending our time very wisely, we soaked in the view and snapped a handful of photos and were on our way within 5 minutes.

Taking in Foro Romano, Palatino and Museo Palatino, while baking in the sun

Trekking toward the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, we knew our feet were going to complain just by looking at our map. The place is ginormous!! Not wanting to have our heads squashed by falling tree branches, we quickly scooted toward the entrance to the Palatino as city workers trimmed the branches off the tall trees. Hardly surprised, we were greeted with another long line-up. Out came our Roma passes and in we went! Our eyes were overwhelmed with ruins of a thousand years of Roman history, the entire time being baked in a 35C sun. Not a single cloud was in sight so after about an hour, I started feeling preliminary signs of a heat stroke despite drinking what seem like litres of water. Once again, my body's water supply underwent osmosis as it moved from a higher concentration to a lower concentration (aka sweating buckets again).

The Pantheon as a resting place more than a holy place

After leaving the Roman Forum, we decided to walk to our next destination of our tour of Rome: the Pantheon. Enroute, we took in quite a sight as it seems like every corner you turn leads to a new discovery. We passed by quite a number of picturesque spots before we finally came to the front of the Pantheon. Tired as hell and sweating like crap, we took a little rest inside the Pantheon after peeking at Raphael's tomb and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the architecturals of the building.

Penny toss at the Fontana di Trevi

More walking awaits us as we made our way to the Trevi Fountain which happens to be only a few blocks away so the walk wasn't too bad. Quite a nice looking fountain indeed! Taking another kazillion photos of every angle and projectile of water, we left to do more exciting things: walk some more!

Refused to move at the Scala di Spagna

For some odd reason, the Roman sun seems to make you crave Coke a lot, so Tinlop and I stopped at a Burger King (yes, in Rome) and sipped some Coca Cola. Marked up so much that you can buy 5 cases in TO, we slurped up every last drop of it before walking over to the Spanish Steps. Once there, we took a look at how high the stairs ran and decided we were NOT going to climb them! So being touristy, we took photos of the steps and of the fountain in the Piazza di Spagne and strolled briefly along the street lined with prestigeous shops like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Armani, Ferregamo, Prada etc.

Nappy, Shower and Headache, oh my!

After leaving the Spanish Steps, we took the Metro back to the hotel to take a nice shower and perhaps a nap before enjoying the evening activities of more walking. By the time we got back to the hotel (about 5:45pm) I developed this massive headche. It's probably my brain telling me osmosis shouldn't be working the way it is. So after a shower, I passed out with the help of a Gravol until 8:00pm, when we went out again.

Piazza Navona, Fontana di Trevi and Colloseo at night

We enjoyed a bit of Roman night time goodness as we visited the Trevi Fountain, all lit up this time, and passed by the Pantheon again, enroute to the most beautiful square in Rome: Piazza Navona. There, we saw street performers singing, dancing and all sorts of vendors selling art and portraits. We even saw a MJ impersonator! We didn't spend much time there since we didn't want to "hea" too long before heading to see the Colosseum at night. We had a few slices of pizza again, this time much cheaper at 6.15euro and it was REALLY good! I don't know how I'm going to have pizza again in TO. The Colosseum was almost deserted by the time we got there, shortly after 10:30pm. We didn't "hea" there for very long either so we went back to the hotel to conclude another day in the fabulous city of Rome. (Aug.25.09 3:10am)

Joyce a Roma - giorno uno

August 22, 2009 10:40pm Pearson Int'l Airport
- 多謝劉天立！ 我地又有得坐頭等啦！ 好開心！ kakaka!

10:50pm on plane
- Take off! Glad I brought my watch this time!

1:20am during flight
- Just finished having some nice prosciutto with parmesan and a really fiery pasta with too many peppercorns. Funny that I'm not too tired, but Tinlop looks like he has passed out already.

Earlier, Tinlop wanted to take pics while take off so I passed him the camera since he was sitting at the window. Poopie! The lens cap fell onto the floor and since it was during take off, it must have slid all the way to the back of the chair and now it's gone la! Of course one of the best things with first class is the wonderful spacious seats that move to your desired position, but unfortunately it also means you won't be able to find ANYTHING if you happen to let it slide underneath. Apparently some guy lost his passport that way...yikes...
One of the flight attendants was nice enough to get on her hands and knees to help me look, but to no avail. I guess I will just have to wait until we land to see if it will slide my way again. ai~ excuse for a new lens (just for the lens cap)? LOL~

5:44am during flight
- Almost there la! we're landing in about an hour! Just woke up from quite disturbed sleep. I thought I'd be able to sleep a little better, but I guess the caffeine from the Coke @ dinner got to me =P. Breakfast is now being served. I think I'll go for some OJ...keke!

Recap of the rest of the day
- Hmm, where do I start? We landed at 12:35pm local time, which is basically 6:35am EST and the first thing I tried to do was find that lens cap. We had the gate attendant as well as an Air Canada technician come in and look but we couldn't find it!! -_-" Oh well, new lens :P

Well, we're in Rome! First impression: HOT HOT HOT! Second impression: OLD OLD OLD! We wondered why the airport was so tattered, worn, weathered, old...you get the point. We wondered why there was no AC! We wondered why the majority of the places we visited today had no AC! We wondered why the immigration officer didn't even bother TOUCHING our passports, let alone stamping it. We wondered why there are always two service charges. Our introduction to this great city of Rome starts off with a lot of wonders.

Let's begin our wonderful adventures with the foreign exchange counter. I had to do some exchange at the Osaka airport a few years ago and even though the rate wasn't the greatest, it was reasonable. Well, this is not the case in Rome. They RAPE you before you even know it! To make a long story short, my $300CAD translated into 152Euro and change after two different service charges, making my rate at almost $2CAD to 1EURO!!! Outrageous!

Next in line is our marvelous train ride from the airport. Can you feel the sarcasm yet?? The horrendous train ride into the city was painful. Painful is actually an understatement. Unfortunately, very painful will still be an understatement. First of all, 5 of the 6 ticket validators at the station didn't work, and if you didn't validate your ticket, you weren't allowed on the train. The train attendant was less than helpful and rather rude. The Leonardo Express was supposed to be the fastest way to get into the city stopping at the only destination of Termini station. At a fare of 11Euro, you'd expect to get a seat on a decent air-conditioned train. Not the case here as we were shooed onto a stuffy, old, dirty, non-air-conditioned train full of musty, smelly sweatbuckets known as tourists. Okay, no AC? Fine, but no fresh air?!?! Unbelievable! Now I know why people would pay upwards of 50Euro to take a cab. 30 minutes seem like 3 hours as the train made its way into the Rome with me sweating 5lbs off. I felt trickles of sweat pour down my chest and back and I normally do not sweat easily! The 37C actually felt cool once we stepped off the train.

From the Termini station, Tinlop and I decided to walk to our hotel which was supposed to be 15 minutes away. Not 5 minutes from coming out of the station, I was showered with pigeon poop! You'd think, wah one "plet" of pigeon poop like in TO while driving under a bridge? No, I said I was showered! Meaning this:

I wouldn't have known until I got to the hotel if this kind man didn't offer me some tissue to clean it off. My body was sweating so much I didn't even realize the "extra" wetness. Gross!

Things starting looking better when we arrived at our 4-star Hotel Duca d'Alba. We had no problems finding it and we're quite pleased with our clean, smell-free, buffet breakfast included, free wifi, two-bed, air-conditioned room!! After a quick shower and some clean clothes, I was all smiles. We went out again and walked around the vicinity, heading towards the great Colosseum which we knew is only 10 minutes from our hotel. After walking 1 block, we turned our heads and there it was! Wow, really close.

It was late in the afternoon already and Tinlop and I were really hungry so we stopped for pizza at a local pizzeria near the Colosseum. Wah, I really can't complain since the pizza was big and filling (and good), but needless to say I must give a little rant...$54CAD for two pizzas and a Coke!! Breakdown as follows: Cheese and sauce pizza - 6euro, Cheese and sauce pizza plus funghi (mushrooms) - 7.5euro, large Coke 7euro (yes, 7euro for a freaking Coke) = 20.5 + 20% service (4.1) + tip = 27euro!! So at my ripped off exchange rate, $54CAD!! Outrageous! I was so in awe and hunger that I forgot to take a picture of the two pizzas that were the size of our medium pizzas in TO, which we both managed to finish.

After "linner" we went back to the hotel again and decided to head to a supermarket to stock up on some snacks since we both refused to do $54 pizza again. McD combos happen to be at a low low price of 6.4euro but who knows if tax is included? We ended up buying more drinks than food and trekked back to the hotel and enroute, we grabbed some gelato! Gelato stores are EVERYWHERE! Tinlop had a strawberry one and I had fig flavoured...yum!

We were going to power nap and then head out to see the Colosseum at night, but we are both too tired to go. So after a nice long shower and more hard cleaning of bird poop, I sat down to write my first day in Rome...

Then Blogger decided to be stupid and erase 3 paragraphs so I had to rewrite them. Stupid Blogger. (Aug.24.09 1:31am)