Cameron writes...
On December 4 we began our first trip to Italy. We had been planning it for a long time, and our dreams were about to be realized!
We left very early in the morning (train was bumping along at about 7:20) and after a long TER (slow train) ride to Basel, Switzerland, we were feeling almost normal. We had about a 30 minute layover in Basel and then got on a Swiss train for the first time in our lives. We ended up sitting next to a Canadian guy who lives in Kitchener-Waterloo and owns a St Louis bar and grill there. Also his daughter plays for the Lugano women’s team, and he says that Todd Bertuzzi has a house three doors down from his. (For all fellow hockey fans, remember that the men’s team there just took on David Aebischer).
We got to Venice at about 6 p.m., and were obligated to buy a vaporetto ticket that cost 24?! as we had no other means of transport. When we got to our apartment there we had a very one sided Italian conversation with the person upstairs who was the go-between, as the owner was away. The next few days we spent walking through the narrow streets, but also visited the Basilica San Marco, and piazza. One day we bought 12-hour passes and visited the island of Murano where all the famous glass is made.
Venice is such an amazing and beautiful city. On the street that looked over a huge “canal” off the south end of Venice, there were a lot of portable “shops”; which were wheeled away by people at the end of the day and brought back again the next morning. We enjoyed looking at them and some of us actually ended up buying some things from them.
The day after we went to Murano we left for Rome on an Italian Eurostar train. It was one of the most modern looking trains we’ve been on so far. We got to Rome very late that night and ended up walking A LOT from the train station to our rented apartment, so we were very glad (and tired) when we finally got there. Over the next few days we went to the Vatican (including the Sistine Chapel and Piazza san Pietro), the Coliseum, the Vittorio Emanuele monument, Trajan’s Column, Trajan’s Forum, and the pyramid.
The Sistine Chapel was totally PACKED; there were hardly any times when you were not smothered by a crowd. Truthfully I much prefer “structurally-beautiful” monuments. They were also putting up a giant Christmas tree in the center of Saint Peter’s Square with a huge crane. (And don’t ask, we didn’t see the pope.) We had lunch by the Vittorio Emanuele monument, but didn’t really go inside or anything of the like. We admired Trajan’s Column and forum which were truly stunning and amazingly intact.
At the Coliseum we walked around inside which was cool, but to truly understand it you need to get an audioguide. It started raining when we were there and didn’t stop until later that day. Also, beside the Coliseum is the Ludus Magnus, the training ground for gladiators. They actually constructed a secret underground passageway between it and the Coliseum so the gladiators weren’t seen on their way to the fights. Of all of the sites that we saw in Rome, my two favourites were the Coliseum and Trajan’s Column/Forum.
On our way back to Strasbourg we took a night train and slept in couchettes. It was actually very fun sleeping in that tiny compartment with the ladder in the middle. We spent most of the evening just reading our books and eventually fell asleep. When we got back we were a little tired, so we didn’t get out much that day.
Overall, though, we were extremely happy to be back home safe and sound after a good two months of much travelling. Now we can just sit down and relax….
