Tuesday 14th September

 14/09/04 Day 73    (a day of walking)

Our breakfast was a very pleasant affair on the rooftops of Rome - and Kelloggs Cornflakes as well!

Our route was long, about 8k, and was chiefly Roman sites. There was an obscene amount of information to organise and I spent a lot of time scribbling on corners of our map.x Another point close to my heart - restoration. The colosseum only made me more mad about restoration principles. They are preserving the effects of time, the history of the middle-age leaders, the impact of major earthquakes and NOT, the a city scape whatsoever, the genius, imagination and vision of the Romans.

Admittedly its deteriorated state gave me plenty of entertainment trying to work out how it was meant to fit together, but I would rather have just marvelled at its brilliance.

And to those people who think it would be less interesting if in perfect condition: look at St. Peters. It would seem that for a building to survive, the institution must too - caring for previous, long dead institutions' legacies is a very recent phenomenon, and the damage done in between is devastating.

On a side note - the best preserved part of the entire structure was being used for an exhibition which, although flashy technology, was censuring and uninformative and not worth the effort. All it did was block up the archways, ruining the effect of the only intact section.

But don't get me wrong, I loved the building. In a way it was the complete opposite of the Parthenon: awesome but in a very different way.

x The Pantheon was also awesome (Rome- greatest achievement of Roman architecture). It was huge, and deserved a photo, but it wouldn't have come out well, so we didn't bother.

x The Forum was another un-photographable masterpiece (as was the awesome oversized monument). There were too many layers and it was all too jumbled up and crazy to capture on film. Also far too complicated to understand what it was to look like - all info about bustling with people - Oh well - But we saw the supposed tomb of Romanus and the senate room of Rome, sand the pillars and arches were as big as they should have been - all was well.

x [forum, roma/turismo, com/visul/images/t-ore.leo/romangb96.ore-A.htm]

x Rome 'looks' Naples what the horrid bits: Rosy + manic in a dear lady and organised way. The frantic policemen don't scream, shout and jump up and down, they conduct with graceful hand movements. And the punians are 'molto bene'.

Woon, donkey, backwards:

x Had an Italian Bloomoneady-type biscuit ('orach') thingx Pompei - from this I conclude that I like Italian biscuits and need to spend a whole holiday devoted to the investigation of Italian delicacies.

• The second trip around Naples wasn't we thought it wasn't quite as bad after all - but still very gey. (Did I mention Gallerie Umberto-Vincent building)

• The metro wasn't bad - bar like, one lane and unvaried walking a long way inside the station to get A to platform. I cannot believe I ran through Naples train station. I can't really remember any of the train journey, I was so tired, so it can't have been that exciting.

• I thought we'd arrive in Rome in the light but the brain somehow arrived late and I was dragging the search for a hostel. Although our prices weren't up to Rome standards, trying to eat out each night may have just killed us. However, our 'dorm' room? more like your average bedroom for 4 persons but with 6 crammed in. the people are all very friendly - I think they were a bit shocked at how quickly we wolfed our dinner.

I have been instructed to give a more detailed account of our first evening day in Rome, which began at 10am and ended at 6:30 with a 1/2 hour lunch break. I had croissants (from a supermarket) for breakfast and I must say there is something different about Italian croissants (or cornetti?) - they taste like hot cross buns but without all the bits that get stuck in your teeth. It was lazy we set off from our hostel to Santa Maria Maggior Piazza and Church (Complete with a column to - looks-likily in the middle of the piazza, not the church, obvious - see pictures) jet to me into! The square was grand enough, the age being down to the 18th century (very) baroque finale (very Italian looking). Inside was really grand - and picture it now exactly but remember a wonderfully painted ceiling and gold bits - definitely set the pace for the rest of the churches and was better than a lot we'd seen in other countries. We walked passed Piazza de Esqualino, which had lots of busy (building?) round it. from there we found the tourist info (very handy for free booklets, up-comes) Romero water fountains (!) and government building. We wandered past more mighty Baroque buildings and water fountains including the four fountains.One on each corner of 4 different buildings at crossroads, which were pretty groovy (see fountain booklet). We also passed the national art gallery (I think!), which was in a palace building. Then we took a trip down via del quirinale, not really knowing it would be that exciting until we saw lots of guards outside building (turns out there are a lot of government buildings down that road (inc. main police state building)). The gardens within the "courtyard" of buildings looked lovely but we only caught a glimpse of them. Theatre only open to the public at Italy (Re)unification Day. The piazza at the end of the street (with long same name) and with an Egyptian (spike, proper name per usual! They all have Roman) bed-reign steps and passed the Quirinale Palace Museum (oh yes, I'll be back to visit that one.) We took some side streets which seemed a bit quieter but still there were hoards of people (we had to clamber over a stack of from to reach the cool machine!). The road shop in our tour was the pantheon. I had a quick look at cafe prices outside it ... phew! The square outside was complete with a very classy fountain. The pantheon itself was an amazing building and excavations looked like the lithium happening out front (well-preserved though!) Inside consisted of though (couldn't see the greatest achievement of Roman architecture because it is huge) - has a earth does a way up? It was converted to a church in some year or other. Inside were the tombs of Vittorio Emmanuele II and Umberto I (which we didn't find) and also Raphael which we did find. This that for quite frankly though, there were too many people worth to properly appreciate it. The main Corso Umberto I road (has pure every Italian city has one of these) from is to Piazzan Venezein and the war (a the size of a palace) monument he wear. This Italian monument erected for the unification of Italy - it was pretty fantastic, especially for a monument! We had to take a photo but didnt feel we could quite get into it in the ignae there was also an official residence surprisingly not very good. On our way to the Roman forum and the stumbled upon another forum from Troi de Traiano'. We thought it another from 'Troie de Traine'. We thought it was impressive enough and we hadnt even hitthe proper forum yet, and it was at this point that I realised there was a lot of still-intact roman ruins just looking around in that city which I thought only had the colosseum left from the Roman days. Admittedly the Roman Forum was rather dusty so I have decided I'm never going to be an archaeologist, primarily because I dislike the dust on my best too ariel (considered most famous one in Italy) are good and we also saw temple of Saturn and Temple of Castor and Pollux where Romulus (founded Rome) is buried. Cool stuff, but I think we had enough of the famous and well-standing archaeological sights. We also went to one particular well in colosseum in Rome and had my first cappuccino in Italy (but that will do hell!) The Colosseum, did we love! The ground was pretty much non existent (and not, the LIS man was not very helpful either). Entrance 14. It looked great from the outside but from the inside not that I had expected as many of the seats were bare and it was pretty much fallen apart. We managed an ear to the tour guide man, then walked round it (across) badly.

I loved the Shape - with which passages etc. It was so easy to envisage. They really did know their job.

by it as most is blocked off.) The stage was very cool as you could see how technical it was, not just a flat ground. The height from the tunnel exit was most informative about how it was built, the history of it and the gladiators. The view from one of the higher tiers was better to understand not what I was expecting. (I would have liked to have seen it in its original form) but well worth the visit. By this time it was getting on for late afternoon, not the time to be going up hills in search of more Roman sites (Palantino hill) basically another big site - good to see but I have no idea what any of it are about. I have decided to buy a guide book of Italy, or just Rome! Conveniently it just started to rain so we entered Basilica de San Giovanni in Laterano - Roma cathedral, which was magnificent and impressive but I think it was in a bad to get enough detail as to do real sightseeing, Supposing a lot. We did some supersonic shopping atthe way back and Keen cooked a wonderful Aubergine delight with rice. Oh, vegetables...

After serious sugery to my ankle (bright bite blister) we went to bed.