Exlporing Italy
Dear All,
How many of you have counted the money in millions ?? Not likely, unless you are born with silver spoon in your mouth or you are a cashier in a busy bank. But, the thrill of my Italy Tour started the very moment when I was counting the currency - Italian Lira - in millions at the American Express Beuro De Change!! For once, I was a millionaire! One GBP (Sterling Pound) is about 3000 Italian Lire. We converted about 800 GBP in all and I had about 2.4 Million Italian Lire. Thus began the tour of this wonderful and historical land, land of beauty, wine, mafia, handsome men, world-class designers...
Christmas and the New Year were on Tuesday and we didn't have a holiday on Monday - the eves of these holidays - so we had prepared to take a day off the office work. Another day off to make it two long weekend would have been difficult for me as I'd recently taken a 2-Week leave. And it would have been humiliating to stay in the UK on either of these long weekends. Since it was winter, we'd decided our destination as either Italy or Spain. Italy got the major votes and we started arranging tickets and accommodations.
While all the major airlines are having a tough time running the business, ticketless Web Airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet are flourishing and comparatively cheap tickets is the reason. Ryanair was the only choice since that's the only cheapest airline servicing various destinations in Italy. After a lots of permutation and combination, we decided on some itinerary for dates from 22nd to 26th of Dec. Unfortunately, we could not book immediately and when next day, we tried to book the air tickets, they were dearer by about 25-30 Pounds!! We decided on the fallback itinerary for dates from 29th Dec. 2001 to 1st Jan. 2002. And this time, we booked immediately.
We'd be flying from London Stanstead (It's about 80 Miles from our place in London!!) to Genoa, North West of Italy. Travelling down the south, we'd cover Pisa and Rome and then travelling back north to Florence and to north-east to Venice, we'd be flying from Brescia, Verona back to London Stanstead. We had to hire a special cab to catch the early morning flight to Genoa.
The team-members were Myself, Sandeep Suryavanshi, Atul Ohol, Aparna Walavalkar and Sangeeta Soman.
Everything was happening just the way we'd planned it! No delays anywhere since we left our homes and we felt just great while landing on the beautiful Genoa Airport. It's so much close the the sea that for a moment we thought we are landing on the sea itself, since the runway wasn't visible at all !! Back in London, everybody had intimidated us by telling toll stories of the cold in Italy and we had prepared for figures like -2, -5 deg. but Genoa - to our biggest surprise - was plesantly warm at 12 deg.
The city bus quickly took us to the heart of Genoa City and the Rail Terminus. We booked for the next train to Rome en route Pisa where we'd take a halt of around 2 hours at the most. The train pulling in at 12:27 PM sharp and I started appreciating the Italian punctuality. Little did I know that I'd have to repent a lot for doing so. The track was very adjcent to the greenish-blue sea and I started imagining the journey. At one particular station, about an hour since we started the journey, the train stopped like it was a scheduled halt. And when it next started, it was 3:30 PM. For about 2 and half hours, the train refused to move even by an inch and we could not but help curse the same punctuality (?) which I'd praising a couple of hours ago !
Finally, when we reached Pisa, it was almost pitch dark and the entire city started looking leaned to me, out of frustration. So much was the frustration, that we didn't buy the tickets to the Tower of Pisa on the bus ! Incidentallyy, in Italy, one has to purchase a ticket at the local Tobacco shops before boarding the bus and being oblivious to this, we had travelled free of charge from Genoa Airport to City and now from Pisa Railway Station to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We couldn't enjoy the site very much because of the odd hours we reached there but I kept marvelling how come the tower doesn't fall! This Famous Tower Started leaning from the very day it was completed - somewhere in the mid 12th century and now it has deviated from normal by a distance of about 6 metres !! When one takes a circle around this tower, at a particular point, it looks like the entire tower is collapse on us. But, it hasn't ! At least for 8 centuries.
Half content, half dismayed we travelled back to the Railway station to catch the next train to Rome. Language was a problem really since hardly anyone knows English. In the mean while, I called up our hostel at Rome and the lady confirmed our reservation (which we'd done on Internet). When we were informed that the next train to Rome would leave any moment from Platform 3, all of us started running towards the platform. Adament as she was, the train left the platform without taking us in! We'd missed this by a cat's whisker. Again our heard returned back to the station, stood in the Queue, got the tickets changed to be able to board the next train which is fully reserved a priori. The same story repeated this time too. I was fuming with rage and frustration and it knew no bounds when were kindly informed in Italicised English that the next train is at 8:00 PM and it doesn't go Rome Termini but Tiburtina. Somewhat like, CST and Dadar in Mumbai. Not all roads lead to Rome; at least not all tracks... :((
Finally, when we reached Rome, it was almost 1:00 AM after the midnight. Exhausted, frustrated as we were, we just accepted the places the person allotted us and re'tired' to bed. By the way, I was deprived of the little pleasure which I expected when I was allotted a girl's dormitory, when I entered the room, It was all empty and the girls were touring the Rome at Midnight !
Making a fresh start the next day morning, we headed towards Vatican City though a bit late at about 1000 hours. The Metro Platform was overflowing with people wanting to go to the same destination as we'd decided. When in Rome, behave like Romans do, the proverb goes. We decided to be like Indian for a change and we went back one station in the opposite direction and returned back to the same station and we'd avoided the crowed successfully ! A simple trick which many Mubaites use everyday !
Pizza, Pasta, Spaghetti and capuccino are the would famous culinary inventions of the Italians. Where else would we get the best of these, but in Italy ? Right ? Wrong !! The pizza that we tasted outside Vatican City was very cheap (in price and in taste as well) But Capuccino lived up to its expectation. It was the best we had.
Vatican city - as many of you would know - is the smallest country in the world with about 250 citizens and the Pope is the Monarch of this nation. It has hired the military from Switzerland with about 90 odd soldiers. I didn't understand this. Why would they require so many soldiers in the first place ? Wouldn't the Rome Police Department be sufficient ? Anyway, we entered the St. Peter's Square of Vatican and were just aghast at the site of this grandeur of this structure! This Square (oxymoron here, it's circular!!) is about 70-80 meters in radius and along its perphery is a great wall protecting and isolating the Vatican from rest of the Rome. The floor inside is cobbled and huge, gigantic yet beautiful pillars are standing on the boundry with beautiful sculptures carved on them! To one end is the famous St. Peter's Cathedral - one of the biggest cathedrals in the world.
We went inside the church and stood mesmerised at the very first site of it. Like all churches it was dark from inside and there were large paintings of the Rennaisance (I suppose) on either side of the church! The glass-panes of the windows are painted with scenes from the Bible in vivid colours and conspicuous sculptures steal our attention immediately. And believe me, it's Huge from inside ! So much so, that I got lost from the rest of the group and we saw the church from inside while searching each other!
Finally, when we were out, the Pop had already delivered his speech (every Sunday and Wednesday) and we missed this event.
Thus spending the half day in Rome, we'd seen only one thing - Vatican city. Next destination was Piazza Venezia, the most famous and glamourous Square in Rome. It's right in the heart of Rome. This is very interesting thing. As pointed out by one of out group members, it's a fascinating fact that these old historical structures dating back to 5th-6th century and modern, sophisticated inventions like Tube Railway and automobiles live together in Rome ! Piazza Venezzia has a emblemical structure which I think is in memory of those who died in the first world war. Again, a grand display of Gothic and Roman Architecture. But, by the time, we went on the top and were just looking at the traffic flowing down at leisure we were driven out since it was time to close this monument. It was 4:00 PM already !
We rushed towards colloseum as we desperately wanted to see it from inside but bad luck wasn't ready to part away from us. It was closed for any new entries and people were just coming out of it. We had to be content by looking at it from outside. Colloseum is perhaps the most famous landmark of Rome. Built in the 6th century, this stadium was used as a battlefield of various games for entertainment. Those of you, who've scene the movie Gladiator would come to know how this looks like from inside. By looks, its no different than today's huge stadiums. Circular in shape, there are seats for spectators to sit and right at the center, were the games being played. At times, the cetre-space which has a depth of quite a few feet would be flooded with water to have sea-sports. About 5000 different animals were killed at the inauguration ceremony. And remnants of this colossus structure are enough to imagine how mammoth the original structure would have been !
We didn't have any accommodation reserved on this night and were just contemplating on this problem. But very luckily, the very first hotel agent whom we contacted gave us a reasonably good place to stay in for that night and we happily had a delicious dinner in "Little India" in Rome. The amazing thing was we were greeted in impeccable Hindi in this hotel ! The day turned out to be quite a good day, thus.
Again, we had planned on getting up very early in the morning but couldn't do so for obvious reasons. Everybody took his own time and when we left the hotel, it was 10:00 AM in the morning already ! In Europe, in winter it starts getting dark very early at about 3:00 PM and hence the sunlight of morning hours is very important if you want to see as many places as possible. Anyway, since Railway Terminus was nearby, we first booked our tickets to Florence on the superfast and luxurious Eurostar and then just made a dash for the Famous Trevi Fountains.
Trevi Fountains is again one of the great sculputres of Rome and myth (or Mythology?) has it that, if you drop a coin here, then you return back to this place again. I drop a 1 Penny Coin here since 500 Lire seemed too much. Besides, the myth doesn't specify any specific currency, either !! Let's see when am I touring Rome again.
On the way back to the Railway station, I was just thinking to myself.. I've spend almost 36 hours in Rome..And all I saw was Vatican City, Colloseum from outside and Travi Fountain ? I didn't see Pantheon, I didn't see Roman Forum, I didn't see, Piazza Nuvona, I didn't see any of the museums and god knows how many more sights.. Indeed, Rome wasn't built in one day. How am I expected to see it in 36 hours ?
At the Rome station, the train to Florence was about to leave. We took our seats and this was our first journey aboard Eurostar ETR 500, with the top speed of 300 Km/Hour !! But the wonderful thing is, you don't feel this speed at all except for occasional funny sensation inside the ears. It's that comforatable. To translate what we call in Marathi, even the water in the stomach wouldn't get stirred. But, you seldom have water in stomach in Italy anyway.
The main and only attraction in Florence that we intended to cover was the famous Duomo Cathedral. One of my australian colleagues had already told me not to miss it ever. So, we headed for this, once in Florence but we had all our luggage on our backs. Once in cathedral, you have to climb about 480 steps to go on top and it was impossible to do so with the amount and size of luggage we had. We made two groups, one to look after the luggage while other goes up the summit of cathedral.
The flight of 480 steps was a sheer calamity. I am a bit claustrophobic. I get scared of enclosed spaces. And these 480 steps were a sheer fatigue. Firstly, they were deeper than normal steps, about 1.5 feet and quite narrow as well. Secondly, it was a helical staircase and the gradient was too much. Not enough light. And by continusously climbing these steps we got a bit numb and feeling of unconsciousness rapidly gripped us. And the worst thing was you couldn't go back or rest aside catching your breath, since there wasn't enough room available...
Those 15-20 min. seemed eternal but once we went inside, my god !! The inverted hemisphere of the dome was all painted in vivid colours depicting Jesus Christ and various catholic saints as well as some stories from Bible! And in the dim light, it all seemed celestial ! Had the person there not asked us to move ahead, we'd have remained there glued. The summit had not yet been conquered and some height was still remaining. Now the path was narrower and at times, we needed to bend sideways to climb up. It wouldn't have been possible for an obese person to climb this one. And eventually, we reached the summit.
The first thing I welcomed is the cool wind and free world outside !! And the panoramic view of entire Florence City ! One could see the Alpine mountain range as well ! The sun was about to set but we had to go down to relieve the other members and hence we hurried back to the cathedral. But, the ecstacy to see this beautiful Dome from inside after reckless ascent of 480 steps is hard to put in words.
It was getting dark and we retreated to the Florence Station to catch the next Eurostar waiting to take us to Venice.
To call the chain of events that happened after reaching Venice train Station would be a misnomer. No sooner we reached Venice station than I went to the public telephone to confirm our Internet Booking and was promptly answered that it's very unlikely, we have any reservation since all the rooms were occupied. He added a suggestion to stay at some hotel near the station itself. To cut the long story short, I put all my frustration and anger down the telephone line and he told that somehow he'd look into this.
We reached for the waterbus 1 which would take us to St. Zaccaria where we'd our accommodation but... the last ferry had already left (it was 31st Dec.) Not a single soul was ready to speak English and the only thing that didn't require English is Maps... It was hard time, we got alternative waterbus reached St. Zaccaria, followed the direction as mentioned on the Internet Site of the Hotel we were going to stay in, got lost a couple of times to reach the hostel eventually at 11:45 PM on 31st Dec. Night 2001.
The owner talked to us over phone to wait outside till he comes. He wasn't staying where we were waiting. He'd come from some distant place. We waited for what seemed to be eternity in -2 deg. cold of Venice, devoid of New Year Celebration Spirit. Eventually the owner came in, apologised but also told that it wasn't his mistake either and he'd have to put us in a small room and wouldn't be charging us for that night. Hell.... We saw a nightmare...
Venice ! One of the cities in the world made unique by its canals. There are about 140 odd islets and 400 bridges connecting them which all make this small city of Venice. The water is green in colour and the canals - mostly not more than about 3-4 meters in breadth - are nothing but the sea in between these islets. Of course, there is this grand canal rightly called Grand Canal in which the famous Hindi song "Do lafzon kee hai dil kee kahaani" from the film "The Great Gambler" was picturised. And there are islands like Murano far off from yet a part of Venice. But, very few. The major chunk is these small canals and islets in the heart of Venice.
As some of you might be aware, Venice is very famous for its Glass Works and craftsmanship (or craftspersonship ??) in Glass. And Murano - an Island about 20 min. away from main Venice city - is the place where this work takes place in various factories. We went to visit such a factory and next 2 hours were a sheer joy to eyes !
First, The journey itself was so pleasant ! We'd hired a water boat all by ourselves. There were only 6 person - 5 of us and the driver ! By the way, I forgot to tell you that like other cities have buses, Venice has Water buses. And to complement the private Taxis, it has Water Taxis. And of course the unique Gondola. These are the only vehicles in Venice. I didn't see any car or bike. In fact there are no motorable roads at all. It's so funny. Imagine, we leave your house to reach work in small boats ! You go out for shopping in small boats! So, we had hired this Taxi - Chartered Boat to visit Murano. We visited the famous glass factory here and the master was ready in his studio to show us his skills with the glass.
The Maestro first picked some molten mass of Silica (about 1100 deg. Celsius) at one end of a hollow tube about a metre in length. He was demonstrating the famous blowing technique of the glass. The delicasy and skills with which he does this is inexplicable. He started blowing this molten mass of glass carefully, twisting and turning the pipe from time to time and this mass metamorphosised into a beautiful Vase ! Withing 2 min. !
The next, he prepared a puma and a horse for us and I just can't describe how! Different oxides of Metals are used to add colours to the glass. The costliest are ones which use pure 24 ct. Gold ! We left the master in his studio and ushered by a manager into the show-rooms... Hundreds of different colored glasses, different shaped... different purposed.. Chandeliers, Sculptures, Utensils, Vases, Show Pieces and what not ! Unfortunately, we had to return to Venice and reluctantly boarded the Taxi..
The next was the famous Gondola tour. Gondola is uniqueness of Venice, these small 4-5 sitter, flat bottomed boats are pedaled by the Gondolia with just single oar. It's mainly for couples and families sometimes but our Gondolia accommodated all 5 of us. He took us on a half-an hour tour of Inside Venice and showed houses of Famous personalities like Marco Polo and Vivaldi... But language was a problem so he couldn't talk much though he wanted to..
It was almost 4:00 PM and we had to collect our bags from the Hotel (?) and return back to Venice Railway Station to finish the last leg of our journey..
Again aboard Intercity Express Train from Venice to Brescia and another episode of sign languages at Brescia Railway Station. It so happened that on our return ticket (Printout, there wasn't any ticket) it was mentioned as Brescia, Verona airport but there are two different airports. Verona and Brescia. Which one would be ours ? Some people said there isn't any airport in Brescia while some just waved off... some even suggested to go back to Verona !
There were two black tall guys loitering around us who read the question mark on our face (this doesn't require any language!) and asked us something in Italian. We didn't understand a word. Time was running at it's own pace and we were getting late. Out of sheer helplessness, I began talking to the guys in Italian English by attaching the letter O to all the words.. Like Airporto etc. etc. They disappered somewhere... and then when they came back, they brought someone with them, pointed at him and said, "Indiano" We understood this and asked that person, "Indian ?" He started talking in Hindi with us and in Italian with the black guys.. Eventually, it was decided that they would take us to Brescia Airport in two taxis. It was a deal made.
On our way back, these guys left the city and came out on the open plane! No sign of Airport. Normally on the roads towards airports, there are ample signs but not this one... and these guys were speeding like anything. Many things came to my mind. Like, they would mug us... We were all alone and these guys were from here...what would happen...? At last, there was a sign of aiport. But, the sword of fear kept looming on my head as to, is this the correct airport ? That horrendous period of 15-20 min. soon got over and we reached the airport. I leaped out of taxi to see whether we were at correct place and to my greatest relief, we indeed were.
Suddenly, life seemed enjoyable, worth living ! Bright with several lights... like airports look in the night!
The journey back was not much eventful... and when I relaxed on my bed at home, the clock was stricking two in the midnight.
Now when I sit back and think about it, I cannot help laugh... What a fun it was... That sign-language out of frustration, that appending 'O' to every word in English to make others understand us... That haste to catch trains...
With all those moments of desperateness and despair on one side and the sheer ecstacy, joy of visiting the world famous landmarks and sculptures, cities one other.. the choice is obvious. I have already started missing Italy again..
4 days, 3 nights, 6 Cities, hundreds of people, Millions of Lira.. All in a country which I had never dreamt of visiting, a country in which I was only for a stint of 100-odd hours has given me a lot.. and beckons me to give a lot more... there is lot more yet to be seen in Italy.
I pray, the myth of Trevi Fountain is not a myth but proven fact.
PS: Some chosen Snaps are here. in album "Exploring Italy".