Rome and the Vatican City

We arrived in Rome, by train from Venice, at the Termini Station. Our hotel, the Hotel Morgana, was a short walk from the train station, which was very convenient (however, Kim thought it was a tad bit seedy to maneuver through.) After settling in at the hotel, which was very nice and charming and also featured two of the smallest elevators we have ever seen, we walked back to Termini to try to buy the Roma Pass, which is apparently the cost-effective and convenient way to get around Rome and see the major sights. Much to our surprise, here and everywhere else that we tried to buy the Roma Pass, we were confronted with signs saying "Roma Pass Sold Out". Presumably there is a strictly controlled ration of these valuable passes and we were unable to get our hands on any of the limited supply.

Wide load not welcome!

On our first evening in Rome, we visited the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. These beautiful sights are spectacular, but are also an interesting testament to the saying that "from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step". This is because it is difficult to enjoy the beauty of your surroundings in these places because of the rag-bag crew of street hawkers, hustlers and other deadbeat types, who repeatedly and insistently harass you to buy roses, trinkets, illuminated toys, and various other items that fit squarely in the "worthless junk" category. It's almost surprising how annoying and irritating the presence of these people makes the experience of sightseeing in Rome, but they are absolutely an integral part of the experience and the local police seem to do little to combat this scourge.

Trevi Fountain by night.

The Spanish Steps

Having adapted, somewhat, to this annoying aspect of sightseeing in Rome, we set out the next day to visit the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. We were able to take the Metro Line A right from Termini station to the Colosseum, so it was easy and convenient to get to where we needed to be. This is a good thing because we spent a very long day walking around the Forum and the Colosseum seeing all the sights and, as in Venice, learning about the history behind what we were seeing from Rick Steves' interesting and entertaining guide book. Being immersed in the history of the Roman Empire in these places is amazing and inside the Colosseum you can't help but visualize what it must have looked like with tens of thousands of Romans baying for blood while watching gladiators engaging in mortal combat and various undesirables being fed to random animals.

Roman Forum Ruins

Colosseum

On our next and final full day in Rome, we went to visit the Vatican City. We trooped dutifully through the Vatican Museum, passing countless spectacular works of art and much priceless treasure that was "acquired" by the Catholic Church over the centuries. This experience is somewhat overwhelming and you find yourself passing without a thought pieces of art that are probably among the greatest ever created, but that are just slightly less significant than the more famous items that you are really here to see. First and foremost (and practically the last stop on this tour) among those is Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This is breathtaking beyond words and your head spins, and neck starts to hurt, trying to imagine how he created this masterpiece, lying on his back on scaffolding beneath the high ceiling and taking a total of four years to complete the project. There is no danger of failing to appreciate the spectacular nature of this work of art and we spent some considerable time there trying to take it all in. Again, Rick Steves' book provided some useful education on the various panels that make up the whole fresco.

The map room (Rob's favorite) in the Vatican City Museum.

After completing our tour of the Vatican Museum, we moved on to St Peter's Basilica. The scale of this church is difficult to imagine, but there are helpful markings on the floor inside that show where other enormous Catholic churches in various cities of the world would fit inside St Peter's. It helps you appreciate the grandeur of the structure when you are standing half-way down the church and the markings on the floor show you that the next fifteen largest churches in the world would only reach from the altar to the point where you are standing. The highlight of our visit was being startled to discover the body of Pope John XXIII lying in a glass box in front of us. At first, we thought this was a statue or a likeness and that he must be buried underneath, but we then realized that this was the actual body of John XXIII, looking remarkably well preserved given that he died in 1963.

Seriously, a bit creepy.

Out front of the Basilica

Finally, we completed our visit by taking an elevator and countless steps to the top of the dome of the basilica, from where you have a beautiful view of the Vatican City, the city of Rome, and the surrounding countryside. The dome itself is a feat of construction engineering that is hard to appreciate, but it is impossible not to appreciate the view, and we (Kim) spent some time there taking pictures and enjoying the warm evening air.

View from the top!

As all good things must come to an end, the next day we took a taxi to the Fiumicino Airport early in the morning, driven there by a very charming and pleasant young Roman man who enthusiastically told us that "America is my dream!" and that it was his life's wish to visit New York, Miami and Las Vegas. Having been a bit unsure about the people in Rome and having had one unpleasant restaurant experience in particular, this guy left us with a very good impression of Rome and Italian people, which was a very nice note on which to end our trip.

To see a more extensive set of photos from our trip to Italy, visit this link:  Photo album from Italy

Venezia!

We boarded a train to head off to Venice bright an early in the morning after our Oktoberfest weekend. Rob was a bit smashed from all the drinking, and Kim was just plain tired! The train ride from Munich to Venice was about 5 hours. Rob surprised Kim by upgrading to first class seats so that we could have a bit more room to stretch out and catch some sleep if we wanted, since the journey was so long. Unfortunately, that train ride would turn out to be THE WORST train ride of both of their lives. There was a family of 4 on the train, with two daughters. One appeared to be about 11 and the other 4. The 4 year old was one of the worst behaved children I have ever encountered and on top of that, her parents were a couple who decided not to discipline their child at any time for anything she did... which was to stomp up and down for a good bit of the train ride and also screech and scream while she talked at all times. I’m not sure how many dirty looks you need to get from strangers before you do something with your child -- even taking her to the dining car to give everyone a little break would have been appreciated. Instead, Dad took pictures for the first three hours straight and mom just sat there.

Dad having a good ole time.

No words to describe.

Luckily, Kim remembered after 2 hours of this nonsense that she had my headphones, but even then the sounds of her voice on the very quiet train would penetrate her skull. Poor Rob was miserable and hungover and not a fan of the experience either. Karma came back around from this bad parental behavior as the family was also going to Venice for vacation -- Kim was wishing and hoping she didn’t end up seeing them there -- and at Verona they boarded a train for Venice which was leaving 10 minutes prior to ours. The father, for whatever reason, got off the train to look at the car... maybe he was checking the car number ... and while he was outside the door closed, locking his family inside and the train pulled away without him. Wonder how mom coped, and I am sure dad was just happy to continue to take pictures on his own.

Stranded-but with camera, so all is not lost for Dad.

We arrived at Venice on time and had about a five-minute walk from the train station to our hotel, dragging and lugging our giant bags behind us. Because Venice is virtually sinking into the sea, the streets and foundations of homes have shifted and moved and nothing is really flat where you walk. Trust me -- I tripped just about a dozen times from what appeared to be virtually nothing. We stayed at the La Locanda di Orsaria hotel, which was very nice and had fabric covering the walls.  The hotel was located in the Cannaregio district, and I was a bit concerned about booking a hotel  “so far away” from the action of Venice at St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto bridge. But I must say that the location was perfectly fine, and just a short and enjoyable ferry ride to the other side of the island for the sights we wanted to see.

Our room in Venice.

Venice fascinates me by how it is laid out. You have the Grand Canal running through it, where everyone from taxis, to garbage trucks (or rather, garbage boats), to the UPS guy, floats down the river. While we were there, we didn’t see one single car, which was so nice and refreshing.  The streets are laid out like a maze laced throughout the city, turning this way and that. You will eventually get to wherever you are going if you just keep moving forward. I enjoyed zig-zagging around and just taking in the architecture everywhere. I don’t think I saw one building I didn’t think was beautiful in some way and from the number of pictures I took of just “ordinary” buildings, I can safely say I loved it.

Making a delivery to a business Venice style.

View of the Grand Canal atop the Rialto bridge by night

The gondolas, however, we were a bit dubious about once looking at them from the street.  There are only 400 gondolas in existence today and are pretty much only used for tourists.  I really wanted to ride in one, but after we had only been there for a day, it came across as cheesy to me. The gondoliers were hustling people from all angles and many where yacking on their cell phones. A very different Venice from what it might have once been, I bet. This didn’t mean, however, that she didn’t want to take pictures of them -- they are iconic of Venice after all, right?

Expensive Water rides!

Frari Chruch

Kim's  favorite place that we visited, which was literally during our very last few hours in Venice, was the Frari Church. (Previously, her favorite church was St. Patrick's Church in Ottawa, Canada.) This church was absolutely, 100% magnificent. It was breathtaking and was really more like an art museum than a church. It completely takes you by surprise by how beautiful it is as the outside is slightly unassuming, but the inside pops with beauty, color, warmth, wood and stone. Every single thing she saw there left her gaping. Needless to say, there was a no photography policy, which left Kim saddened. However, she did end up being able to snap a few from the outside looking in through an open door. Even these pictures pale in comparison to the sheer awesomeness of this church.

Kim's second favorite would have to be the Doge’s Palace. It wasn’t necessarily the top thing we wanted to do in Venice, but the line was short so we tried it out. We had a Rick Steves guidebook with us and there were several self-guided tours, this being one of them. Learning about how this giant pink building came to be the symbol of a self-governed country was very interesting. Where can you actually make policy, live, govern, sentence, torture, imprison and kill all under one roof?

Doge's Palace to the right, Basilica to the left! Separation of church and state wasn't something they believed in!

St Mark's Square. That bell tower it literally leaning to the left!

We also visited St. Mark’s Basilica, which was very impressive as the entire ceiling isn’t painted as you might think, but is actually a mosaic. How long did it take to do these things?!?!?!? Dress code strictly enforced here: No bare shoulders or bare knees. It's pretty stressful to think about these things when you are sightseeing all day and its more than 80 degrees outside. We managed to "pass the test" though.

Last shot on the Scalzi Bridge before we left!

Kim was very sad to leave Venice after their very short stay, but was eager to visit their next stop: ROMA!

Oktoberfest 2011

2011 brought us back to Oktoberfest for Kim’s second time and Rob’s countless number of times! Unlike last year where the weather was completely awful, this trip afforded us almost perfect weather! The sun was shining the entire time and it definitely made the experience of sitting in the rain like a drowned rat, drinking a beer Kim didn’t even like, pale in comparison.

Sometimes even your best laid plans of being prepared can go awry, and this year they went amiss in the shoe department. Kim went out and bought the perfect pair of black flats to wear with her dirndl this year, only to find out after sightseeing in them for several hours, the shoes looked prettier in the box than they felt on her feet. She was in crippling pain from the shoes cutting into the back of her heels and her little toes. Ouch! Those shoes went back in the box with only one other choice -- buy new shoes the next morning!

After a quick Starbucks, Kim went out to find ANOTHER pair of shoes. She found herself back in the same shop she purchased shoes in last year. Unfortunately, the sizing in the US and Europe is different and she didn’t know what size would fit. The shoes felt fine on, but after walking in them for an hour or so, they ended up being too big and she was practically walking out of them. Nothing a little tissue (or a random coffee filter courtesy of Michelle) can’t fix!

Michelle and Kim representing the American contingent

This year Kim actually found a beer she somewhat liked: Paulaner. Sadly this is not the beer that Rob and his friends guzzle by the gallon, but at least it’s a beer – and that’s progress! The beer is a bit (more than a bit) stronger than what we have in the US and taking a crossbow and trying to aim at some targets under the influence isn’t necessarily something which is easy to do. But somehow, some way, Kim was able to snag a hat for her pitiful showing one evening after they visited the Hippodrom before it closed.  Again, like last year, the Hippodrom has the best atmosphere and to Kim is what the Oktoberfest is all about. Maybe next year she will get lucky and get a seat at a table!

Kim with Gabi, our Waitress at the Paulaner Tent

Alan, Barry and Rob enjoying a "few" beers at the Augustiner Braeu!

2011 also marked the year that all three Meehan boys were together under one “tent”, so to speak, to participate in the beer drinking festivities. Alan’s wife, Christine, even managed to make a showing and was definitely liking any of the beers put in front of her. Her mission next year? To get her own dirndl! 

Without the rain turning the Oktoberfest into long, cold, wet and miserable days, the sunshine made it speed up and hurry itself along and it was over before you knew it and we were off to visit our next stop: Venice!