Europe Weekender - Italy2 - Pisa

We started with our walk to Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), which consists of the Duomo (Cathedral), the Campanile (the free standing Bell tower of the Cathedral), the Baptistery (of St.John) and the Campo Santo (meaning holy field). It looks nothing special for any other town centre, except for the fact that the free standing bell tower is a bit tilted. And, it is interesting because it is still standing with the tilt for last 800 years!

The walk was pretty eventless, except for a few observations. One, we felt as if we are walking through a University campus! We knew that it is student-dominated town, but not to the extent that we only see teenagers in groups or as couples. Then, we noticed the diversity in the small food shops selling cheaper. I was joking to Krithi that it won’t be a surprise if we find a biriyani shop… almost to even my surprise we saw one within less than ten seconds I made this remark

!It was clubbed with a Pita Shop, serving biriyani. We ordered for a falafel and a biriyani, as Krithi was pretty sure that we won’t get a biriyani even close to our taste or quality. She was right!

We continued our walk after lunch crossing the bridge across Arno.

It was more of an empty place afterwards, till we reached Piazza dei Miracoli. We also took a turn away from the straight route, walked through some empty areas, cross a fort, walked through some meadows and then back in to the main street leading to the world famous square, our destination for the day.

With the Sun shining, clear sky, the whole place looks marvelous! The famous Tower was covered from all angles, I was enjoying the architecture and works on the Baptistery as well. Then, the place was crowded as well, ironic to the empty streets we saw on our way! There was lot of Chinese groups, taking photos of holding the Tower, eating the tower, etc. One of them helped us to get a ‘normal’ picture of us three…

We spent a couple of hours there, and then took a bus back to the rail station. Collected our luggage from cloak room, and bought tickets for Florence from the counter. The clerk at the counter specifically told us to validate the tickets near the machine. It is a little odd practice. In Italy, all train tickets bought from the counter (not the ones booked in net with seat number and date on it) should be validated before entering the platform. If you are spotted in the train or even at the platform with out a validated ticket, you would be fined for ticket less travel.

I remembered an incident occurred to some of our colleagues caught and they were not aware of the validating tickets, were fined 60 Euros each (about 10 people). There, they ‘settled’ the ticket examiner for a 100 Euros ;).

We took train starting at 3:54.The train journey was a nice experience. In to the countryside of Italy, we quietly passed Navacchio, Cascina, Pontedera, San Ramano, San Miniato, Empoli, Montelupo, and Signa to reach a much-bigger-than-expected station, Florence SMN (Firenze Santa Maria Novella). Some aspects similar to traveling in India - small stations with dusty roads, the beggar with a card distributed to every passenger depicting his/her ‘misery’, ticket less travelers coming in and getting out. It was not crowded, again I would say there are many train journeys in India which are not crowded. We were passing through plains, then some hilly areas, reached Florence SMN (Firenze Santa Maria Novella) station around 5:15.

Out of the station, we walked to the hotel. It is a much bigger city than I thought. SMN station has bullet trains going to national/international destinations, has a reasonable good set of shops in the station building itself. A three-four lane bus bay in front of the station, and our hotel was 5 mins walk across the road just in front.

Europe Weekender - Italy1 - Pisa

We were done with the Rome trip, what followed was a horrible winter with a lot of snow pouring down unexpectedly in this part of Europe. It followed a white Christmas for people who managed to be back at home, but it was a ‘black’ Christmas for people who planned their flights to and fro Europe during this time. Lot of airports in Europe closed down due to the runways filled with snow… And this was because it was unusual and unexpected in these parts of the World to have so much snow in winter!

 I had no choice to travel anywhere till the winter ends…except looking at the Southern Europe, which will not be so bad in winter. Moreover Krithi and Pranav gone to US for 4 weeks left me with a lot of time to research and plan the trips.

I was browsing through the Ryan air rates for January, found 7 Euros tickets for Pisa and Venice! That means, another 5 Euros added for tax, three of us can fly both ways for 60 Euros! Even with the overhead of airport transfers on both ends, it will be 150 Euros… not very bad. I didn’t think too much, went ahead and blocked the tickets.

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There were three places planned – Pisa, Florence and Venice. One of the main reasons to choose this combination was, the first two are close by and Venice is reachable by bullet train in 2 hours from Florence.

Pisa is a place which is known for its Leaning Tower, and other than that there is nothing very special about it. It is like any other small town in Italy, with a huge student population. So it is not worth to just go all the way to just see the leaning tower and come back. You sit in a local train for an hour, you are in Florence.

Florence (Firenze in Italian), located on the banks of the River Arno, is famous for its history and especially its importance in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, its art and architecture and, more generally, for its cultural heritage.

And Venice, don’t need introduction.

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Our Pisa flight was at 10:30 from Charleroi Airport, which is 60kms away from Brussels. We started around 6:45, and got Charleroi shuttle bus from Brussels-Midi (maybe I would have mentioned before - Midi means South) railway station. It was the first time I was trying this option, location the place where the bus stops was a bit tricky. We missed the 7:30 bus by 2 mins. Then, we waited for 8 AM bus, to reach the airport by 8:45.

The airport was not crowded, even after being a Saturday! So we cleared the hurdles of air travel more quickly, but the airport staff used their extra time to do the checking twice or thrice to keep them busy, we just lost one moisturiser bottle saying the bottle can hold 150ml.

As usual, Pranav started asking for things (as usual) like he has been starving for many days, once we crossed the security check :). The flight took off on time at 10:30. It was a clear sky, and we could see Swiss from the flight, snowy mountains and trains moving like a worm in between them...

We landed in Pisa on time too, at 12pm. I was wondering how they flew us across charging 15 Euros for 3 people, all happening well on time !

There was police standing at the arrivals randomly (though it is not just ‘random’) checking the passports. A bus then to Pisa’s rail station, and kept our luggage in the cloak room there. It is rare to see a man-operated cloak room in Europe. In most of the places, I have seen unmanned cloak lockers with a simple automatic paying mechanism.

Rome Weekender 7

Day4 : It was a normal morning after an eventful night ! At breakfast in the hotel terrace, the maids were worried with Pranav’s situation. A couple of them spoke English – one was from Philippines talking about her son of the same age she had left behind for her to work in Rome. Pranav just like a hero sat between them explaining how it all happened in his ‘English’.

We walked to Republican square through some residential looking areas. We walked through some random streets, enjoying the Sun. Pranav was happy sitting on our shoulders and walking at times. After a 90 min walk, almost till Trevi fountain, we took a metro back to be back in hotel by 11:45.

Checked out around 12 and thought the same Brussels ‘jump’ principle will work in Roman metros, which allows you to travel one hour unlimited in metros, trams or buses for a jump. The Roman jump allows it only from metro to bus, not taking two metros once you have broken the journey and come out. So we ended up taking another ticket to otherwise walk-able Termini.

We took the airport bus to Ciampino at 12:30 and reached the small airport by 1:30. It was hot inside the bus, we were sweating! The trip till it crossed the city looked like India, with crowded roads, and a lot of people and the heat too!

We had lunch in the airport restaurant; there were couple of good pasta vegetarian choice. Then waited in the lobby after the security check. The queue for boarding started building up by 2:15 itself.

We also joined one of the ‘branches’ of what looked like a single queue! We waited in the ‘crowd-cum-queue’ till 3:30, no information of the flight getting delayed! The twist came when the flight was ready to board – they opened another boarding check desk, and half the crowd from back ran to the new desk! It was typical Indian situation that you will get a lucky entry!

Again, getting in as early as possible is important here as there is no seat number allotted. We were not prepared for that twist, but still managed to get three continuous seats.

The flight took off by 3:40, only a few minutes late. After all chaos, still I appreciate Ryanair for the things getting done quickly, still perfectly safe! We landed in Brussels Charleroi around 5:45. It was -4, and in the middle of heavy snow. It was another wrong decision to try a bus to Charleroi South railway station, and then get the train. The trains were late; we had to wait in the waiting rooms in the station for more than an hour. The train then took more time than usual to reach Brussels Central by 7:50. Our bus 63, then, to our home didn’t stop (he didn’t notice the stop-request button pressed or may be intentional?) in our stop. We ended up walking more than 400 metres back, in snow to end our journey!

Rome Weekender 6

We were in a dilemma. I know it is not fatal – Pranav cried, he is conscious, and fine. But the wound is big, and open, infection can prove dangerous. On the other side, we are in a place where we don’t know the language, no idea on where or how we can reach a medical centre. We need to find a doctor who can analyse the situation and stitch the wound.

Another fear also was that if we were asked to stay back for taking some tests, scans, and get admitted; I could surely expect if this had happened in Chennai for a tourist and he goes to one of the big hospitals. It may be necessary, or may be just a way to make a little quick money.

Both of us lost our appetite and were thinking over and over. I think I should appreciate Krithi for her maturity and for her trust in me to think through the problem we would get in to than just screaming out to save ‘her’ child! I would expect that from a normal Indian mother, not to blame!

We decided to check at the reception what to do. Already two hours past the incident, it is 10 pm now. I went down to the reception leaving Krithi with Pranav who was still fast asleep. My biggest challenge at reception was to tell the gentleman at reception, a very approachable man in his early 50s. He couldn’t understand a single word, except blood and I hope he understood it is for my little son, and the blood is from back of his head.

He took me to the pub next door, pulled out the barman there and asked me to explain to him the situation. And then, it was easy. Once he got the story, he told me to not to panic and just bring Pranav down.

I thought he is planning to have some first aid, and the way he told also looked like ‘I will take care’. But I was surprised to see an ambulance with lights blinking waiting for us!

We both were prepared to surrender myself to face any situation now. Pranav was cool; he was excited to enter the blue rolling light and siren, proudly sitting inside it! The journey to the hospital was around 5-6 kms. I was calculating the maximum I could pay with my debit and credit cards… and what to do if the bill crosses these limits…!

It went in to a small hospital, they call it poly clinic. None of the ambulance staff spoke English, none in the polyclinic too. At the reception, the ambulance staff explained something. The lady at the reception asked for Pranav’s passport, then checked ours.

‘Tourist?’ she asked.

‘Yes’.

Our conversation ended. Then, she was asking some questions to the person (in his early 50s) who was in the ambulance gang. She made entries in her system from the passport, and asked us to wait. There was another family who got a less than a year old baby who fell from the bed. There were only them waiting with us, who had to come with their baby at this late hour of a Monday. They spoke English. Pranav was sitting with half-sleep, and I could see the agony of uncertainty in his face also.

A 5-10 minutes wait, we were called in. A senior doctor and two post graduate junior doctors, all three females, welcomed us. We thought we will get an English response there at least, but no luck! They saw the wound, the senior doctor instructed something to the two, possibly post graduate students. They asked us to hold Pranav firm. With Krithi holding his legs, one of the students holding his hands, the other did the stitching, while I was holding his head firm. I was wondering why there is no local anesthesia. Krithi started crying seeing Pranav crying loudlyL. The students consoled her saying it will be fine quickly (this too is a translation I assume). Once it was done, Pranav was not anymore crying. He was happily up and was thanking the doctorsJ, my little brave boy! The senior doctor gave me a paper which detailed/proved about the treatment done. I asked them on why there is no local anesthesia used. They told some reason why they didn’t give anesthesia. She also told that the stitches will be absorbed, no more attention needed (But that too was my pick from her body language as she spoke in Italian). I didn’t understand a thing, but I nodded with a thankful smile as if I understood it all.

Then I was checking the papers of the treatment given, the bill was missing! I went to the reception asking where to pay! She didn’t understand, and on the contrary, seeing me looking for something, the lady suddenly ‘discovered’ that I am worried as to how to go back and she said (in English) ‘will call taxi for you’ and went in!! I was just stuck…not sure what to do!

Luckily met the English speaking family again and I put my question to him. He told me with a smile, ‘It is all free, no money’!

It is Free?! I can’t believe it! At an odd hour of night, you call ambulance, go to the hospital, and get your kid’s head stitched… all for Free!!! It is not so in any country I know!

The taxi was ready for us in less than ten minutes, and we were in our hotel in another 5-10 minutes. Actually, the taxi driver spoke better English. And all I paid was the 10 Euros for Taxi! We had a peaceful sleep back in hotel.

Thank you, Rome! I will never forget this night!

Rome Weekender 5

Day 3 : Vatican and Trevi fountain

It was tough to get up in the morning. All our legs were paining. Started our day’s errand after breakfast, around 10!

Took Metro to Termini from Pretorio and changed to line A towards Battistini to get down at Ottaviano. The weather was cloudy, and had started looking like it could drizzle anytime. Rome, we had heard, will have rains during mid Nov till mid Dec.

The Skip-the-line teams caught us out of the metro station itself. Their theory was simple: normal route takes 1-1.5 hours for the queue for ticket for entry, 15 Euros goes for the fees, and then you are on your own. Now you skip the long lines (there was the catch, still there was a shorter line which was 15-20 mins long), a guide to take you through the history of history and importance of each part, and it costs 45 per person.

I had already planned to go with them as it had that knowledge with value for money. My only concern was if they will charge for Pranav too… but he was free.

The person who ‘got’ us took us to their office, we paid the money, and then another person took over as we joined a group, and we walked to the centre of Vatican. We crossed the ‘border’ in less than a minute walk, with no immigration checks.

The real guide was waiting for our group to join a group already there. So now, it was some 10-15 people in the group. She talked about the St.Peters, the pillars around the centre forming two semi circles. It looked huge and grand ! A huge Christmas tree was getting ready in front of us, with cranes around it doing the decorations !

After a briefing there, with all of us having an earpiece to tune in to the mic of our guide, took us to a souvenir shop and ‘gave’ us time for 15 mins to shop there.

Now, it started looking like going to an agent in front of RTO office for a learners licence in India J.

The guide started the tour again at 11:20. We walked outside of the border wall (now actually in Italy), walked around for entry through a side entrance. There was a queue there as well, it was drizzling now.

We waited in rain for some 20-25 minutes there and the guide had vanished. It was not as bad as I thought. This entrance is officially for groups. But the officials let the guides come with ‘groups’ take little more freedom than the normal groups.

At last we got our tickets and entered around 12. She took us to the top floor, and a lobby there used by guides to explain with some paper slides in a white board. There was a 30 minutes session on what is inside, how Michelangelo became a favorite for the Popes as he was very religious ad did all those works without asking for money. And Da Vinci was money minded, as he asked to be paid for the works.

But to leave the lighter side, there were a lot of things explained on how the Popes used to build their own part in Vatican, and trying to make it unique to become memorable themselves. Sistine Chapel was one of the examples. Again, she explained on what we will see inside Sistine Chapel, she took us through the Central painting, and the ceiling ones (many of them are famous).

Then, it was a fast walk through the museum corridors, the painting on carpets/ old canvas, the paintings on the ceiling looking like a 3D picture. She also explained the technique used by Michelangelo to paint one layer and let it dry to paint another layer on it, which may be the reason for the 3D feel.

Photos were not banned anywhere except the Sistine chapel. But in many places flash was banned (thanks to the ISO technology). But, people were using flashes to the frustration of the guards who sometime caught one or two and shouting,’ who is his guide?’ J.

The guide reminded of the instructions she had told for Sistine Chapel in her lecture, and left us in front of it. We entered, a small chapel with little high ceiling. It was crowded and most of the people were flashing through photography was banned. I also broke the law to take snaps, but without flash, if flash hurting the paints is the concern.

To come out of it, there is a door through which the crowd exits, but we were instructed to spot another tricky door on the opposite corner. The password for the security to open that door was to tell him the guide’s name or some mark of her (luckily, or unluckily for her, our guide had a fracture in her nose which helped us). Out of it, many of the group were there, but not the guide ! Some of us started even seaching her inside the corridors.

As earlier, she appeared after sometime. And she appeared to just tell us the way to enter St.Peter’s. She also gave us a brief of the three chapels inside, and spot the ceiling painted by Michelangelo.

Spotted a door, wonderfully depicting Jesus’s story, but there was a twist after his resurrection on the third day! The next one showed Pope standing with two juniors around one bowing with a candle!

St.Peter’s was massive, as big as looked from outside! We walked inside, snaps, it was a memorable experience inside the Sistine Chapel as well as inside the St.Peter’s.

The guards in Vatican still wear the uniform which was designed by Michelangelo in 15^th century! A colourful dress, beautifully simple!

We were done, by 2:45. Pranav was already gone crossing his limits of tolerance. We left the country of Vatican, looking for some food. An old man tried to invite us offering for ‘hot pizzas’. We ignored him and went ahead. Got a small shop which gave us some pasta, and Pranav picked some gelato as well. Later we saw the old man sitting in a panini cart, with the same ‘pizza’ which spoiled our lunch on the first day! Lucky we said No...

We walked out of the little country of Vatican, through the main entrance. An important thing I noticed was the simplicity inside the premises. Though the buildings were all grand and lavishly sculptured/painted, people were all down-to-Earth and simple. The sisters (probably the visiting nuns) also waiting in the long queue for entry tickets. The priests, nuns, inside the different areas we visited also were very humble and soft-spoken. This is inspite of the provocations of people breaking the rules to be followed in a Spiritual place. At the end of the day, I really appreciate the warmth and welcome Vatican provided.

Out of Vatican, we crossed the river over the bridge facing St.Angelo( the bridge is also named ‘Ponte St.Angelo’). It started getting dark slowly. Walked through some areas which has some museums, and around a place which the map said ‘Augustus Caesar’s Tomb’. But we could see nothing noticeable there than an unmaintained premises, with a broken gate! And none seems to take notice of the same as well. Almost the same state as the Domus Aurea...

After more than an hour walk, we reach Trevi Fountain. One of the most famous fountains in the World, Trevi’s water source was an aqueduct from as early as 19 BC. And it was just a source of water for the city, not a fountain. The current 26 metres high and 20 metres wide design is built in late 18^th century.

We had a gelato near Trevi, a wonderful small shop with so many varieties of ice creams! There also most of the employees were Bangladeshis with an Italian boss.

The fountain was pretty crowded, with tourists. There were couple of photographers too, who would take a digital snap and make a print with a small- battery operated printer. Then there was another old man, who was walking here and there with a thin-long stick. In the crowd, he was trying to get the coins people threw in to the fountain with that stick! He is little less stupid than I first thought, he had put some chewing gum at the dipping end J. And, he was wondering why the coins are not sticking to the gum when the gum is sticky outside water! Only if he knew chewing gum loses it sticky nature when wet J.

We, then, walked to Barberini metro station. It was Monday and only now realized that Rome is not a museum city, but a modern metro city too. The trains were very crowded and packed that we couldn’t even enter a couple of them. But I was amazed to see the next one coming in as one just left the platform, with just a few seconds gap! Took the third metro, which was a little less crowded. We could just move in with the crowd and stand, to Termini and walked back to the hotel around 6:30.

We were all so tired, except Pranav ! He was so much troubling while walking, saying his legs are paining. But back in hotel, he was happily jumping in the spring bed ! The bed was in a corner, and the French window had a marble slab. Pranav at one point lost control and fell down with the back of his head hitting the slab !

We kept the bleeding head under water stream… the cut was about 5 cm long, and deep enough that I could see the flesh. The bleeding stopped, Pranav also was back to normal, and slept as well in a few minutes.

Rome Weekender 4

Day2 :

The day started around 9, we had our breakfast at the terrace of our hotel. From the terrace on top of the 8^th floor, I could see half finished, un-plastered constructs on the terraces, another small house itself made on the terrace with a portico, the dish TV / normal TV antennas, the clothes put for drying in the ropes, concrete water tanks, metal water tanks, split AC outdoor units and I couldn’t believe it was not India!

We started the day out by 10, walked to the nearest metro station, took two day tickets from the vending machine. Pranav was cribbing for a ticket so gave the previous day’s ticket to him. We walked to the entrance and were to just put our tickets for validation, the clerk sitting in the enquiry rushed to us telling, ’No ticket for kids’!

We told him it is not a valid ticket and then he gave a smile and went back to his seat. Pranav was not happy, to hear that he is not worth a ticket :). It was impressive; to see someone caring to make sure I don’t lose money!

We got down at Colosseo changing at Termini to line A from line B, that itself is confusion :) . I at least twice landed up in front of a safety freak, who will look in to my eyes and say ‘Hello !’ in a rude tone in a mix of fear and acting courage holding his suitcase more tight which is already held in embrace mode :)…! Second instance, Krithi noticed it and she started pulling my leg of my ‘thief looks’:)!

As usual, there was a very long queue in front of Colosseum for entry… and I had the best tip to jump this line… thanks to my colleague Bala! Actually, the ticket for colosseum is clubbed with Forum and Palatine Hill…and the other two also has counters. All the three counters issue the same ticket and the ticket allows one entry in all these three places within two days of issue.

Yes, you got the trick! The other counters are empty or just 2-3 people in the queue compared to Colosseum where there are at least 75 people! We walked in to the Palatine Hill counter, took tickets and seeing Pranav they said he don’t need a ticket. I had read in the site that 1meter above high kids need a full ticket. This guy has just touched 1m, and it was a surprise they said no tickets for him. I think the fat jacket and his looks would have given them a feel that he is shorter. Anyway, that then became a problem at the three entry gates to explain to the guy that we checked at the counter, she said no ticket…. Blah blah…Again, the adhoc ways worked here as well, similar to India. If it was rest of Europe, I would have been asked to go back and take a ticket for Pranav. But for Pranav, he was again angry for not taking tickets for him :) !

We took solid 3 hours walking through the old Rome, initially walking in between some ruins, and the major labeled ruins include the temple of Venus and Roma ( this is the first monument we noticed which is taken over by the Catholic Church and renamed as S.Francesca Romana), Basilica of Marcellus, Porticus Octaviae, Temple of Saturn, the Curia Iulia( the regular meeting place of Roman Senate), Palatine Hill, ruins of a huge stadium in Palatine Hill and the huge cricket stump-like (with bails) remaining three pillars of Roman Forum.

It was an interesting fact to notice that the cella (I would contextually translate this Latin word meaning ‘small chamber’ as Shrine) of the temple of Venus faces the East like all the Hindu temples!!! Pranav was more annoyed, he started asking us to take him back home and in the bargain he got the deal to be carried on shoulders… ! Oh God, not again!

We were done with the Forum and Palatine Hill around 1:30. We were exiting from the old Rome part through Forum gates to go to Collosseum. Pranav who was happy to hear we are finishing with this, ran ahead and lost from our sight ! We missed the turn for exit as well, eventually got lost ourselves! A little panic to find Pranav, we were not sure which way he went, and there were lot of people too. Pranav had actually taken the turn for exit and was stopped at the exit by the security lady. As we found him standing there and ran towards him, he was explaining to the security to not to get worried, as his parents are just coming behind ! Colosseum will close around 4:30, so decided go in before taking lunch.

Colosseum was much huge and sophisticated structure than I thought…multi level, multiple sections in each level, leading to a gallery… the seats used to be numbered with a combination of section of the gallery! The viewers can come in and go out freely like the current stadiums through the nearest exit…an underground level for the ‘entertainers’ (beasts, convicts, gladiators etc) which is also made in a sophisticated way. The underground level looks like a maze now when the top layer (the layer which was the entertainment ground) is gone ! Sadly, I saw the ‘cross’ had come in to the Colosseum as well, surely not there during its construction in 80 AD.

There were pulley mechanisms to bring the beasts to the arena level…there are too many things executed pretty well ! I think it may have been picturised well in the film ‘Gladiator’. We finished with Colosseum by 3. Pranav is having regular biscuits, but I think he was getting sleepy and so cranky too :( . I wont blame him, it was a bit hectic on him!

We walked to the standing restaurant annexed with the Colosseo metro station. We all had a gelato and Pranav was very happy to see that ‘lunch’!

Started walking again towards Piazza Venezia, which is around a km from Collosseum. This road was blocked for traffic so we could walk in peace. This walk was through a modern broad road with both sides full of ruins, columns and statues.

Had a view of the marvelous and huge Victor Emmanuel II monument from Piazza Venezia, took a bus to get down somewhere near Pantheon and then walked to it through the narrow streets. It was 4 PM.

It was high time that we should get some food, there was a McD in front of Pantheon, and we walked in for the one and only bad treatment in Rome! I was asking after ordering for finger chips and milk shake, for anything veggie is available in burgers or as salads… the response was a yell from the middle aged waitress, “McD DO NOT have anything veggie…!”

We were tired, and hungry, and not in a shape to reply; I paid for the rest and waited for her to serve the same. But I think, it was a punishment for me that I got carried away by the comments in net that Italians are rude and its advice look for McD! I got really a wonderful experience wherever I went in Rome except this multi-national!

We finished with our ‘lunch’, walked to enter pantheon; the entry to inside Pantheon was blocked for some reason. So took some snaps from outside. This is one of the oldest monuments of Rome which is still in good shape. The most interesting part of Pantheon is, its dome is still the World’s largest unreinforced concrete dome, after almost two thousand years it was built ! It is now nothing more than a converted church, from being the temple of Roman Gods!

Continued the walk, to Piazza Novona, it is getting dark already. Another grand piazza(square) with 2 huge, old fountains with a lot of artwork and it was in full festive mood - a lot of shops, balloons, toys, and Pranav is back with all energy, and fully confused as to what NOT to buy. But as he knows he will have to choose one, got away with a Winnie-the-Pooh hydrogen balloon J .

There were ‘performers’ as well, and one of them was very interesting. He, an old man, had a microphone and a sound system. He was ‘singing’ wonderfully with the sound system with karoke giving the musical support. I grew suspicious and went near him, to realize that this fraud oldie was just moving his lips … lol… ! His lip movements were not matching the high pitch song coming out of the sound system, which was my reason for suspicion.

Walked till Castel Sant’Angelo. It is dark already. This was built on the right bank of the Tiber in about 139 AD, by and as a mausoleum for Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family. But the building was later used by the Popes as a fortress and castle. The Papal state has also used it as a prison. Now it serves as a museum.

We then took a bus to Colosseum around 5:30. It was crowded and took a long time to reach; it took a real roundabout way for sure. We both were standing, Pranav got a seat. As usual, soon he started counting the number of people around him who is looking at him, and then try smiling at them. There was one old lady who was with her daughter and grand daughter (of Pranav’s age). She started the conversation with Pranav playfully asking if he can give away the balloon to her grand daughter, in Italian. A new country, a stranger, and a foreign language! I would have thought Pranav will look at me and then say a big No to her, and if she asks again, he will cry.

But, to my surprise, he softly said, ‘Speak in English!!!’ and the below conversation followed:

Old lady: ‘You …are in Roma… speak Roman’

P: ‘I don’t speak Roma, I only speak English. You don’t speak English ?’

Pranav’s job is done. He got enough spectators around, to enjoy his entertainment! The old lady was also nice enough to keep the conversation going, in spite of the fact that she couldn’t understand English. The only other part I remember is:

Old lady: ‘ See, this is my grand daughter…’

P: ‘Ya, she is beautiful’ !!!( * And, I was like …you know… :O !*)

Old lady:’ and she likes your balloon…’

P: ’Buy her one… ’

And it went on….the people around were enjoying the show…

We got down near colosseum, and the drama came to an end J . Now, there was only one item left for me to finish the day… taking a night shot of Colosseum with the lights on…Time was around 6:15.

I went on looking for some spots, and found some steps on the opposite side of Colosseum to get a good view of it. Found a platform to keep the camera still for a few seconds, and took some pictures. Krithi and Pranav were tired and sitting in the metro station steps when I came back. We took the metro to Termini, walked back to the room by 7:15, after a long, tiring day…!

Pranav was insisting to have dinner at the same restaurant we had dinner yesterday. We tried some grilled vegetables too, along with Penne Arabiatta and vegetarian Pizza. The grilled vegetables with mozzarella melted on it, was very tasty! With another tasty dinner, a very tiring, hectic second day came to an end.

Rome Weekender 3

So my instinct was pushing me to explore more crowd-free Rome. I had the other side of an unexplored area in mind, Nero’s Palace…( Domus Aurea)! It was something I have not heard of anyone visiting in. We started walking in that opposite direction, entered the compound, climbed the hill, it was a beautiful, peaceful place to walk in. There was no tourist, some old people here and there, just in 200 meters of Colosseum’s crowd, there is absolute calmness!
I realized that it means there is no access the ‘palace’, and the compound belongs to the palace, is open for public…enjoying the evening Sun from that hill top…crossed over to the other gate of Domus Aurea…. lonely narrow streets, with walls of stone bricks on one side…it resembled to walking in the downtown areas of old Trivandrum( which is around the Padmanabha Swami temple), which will have either the high stone wall of the temple on one side, or the old wall made for the fortification of the downtown district itself…!
We got in to a main road, after another 10-15 mins of walk, now enough of peaceful streets… tried to see if we can get back to ‘site seeing’. Walked to the nearest bus stop, and saw two Indian faces…it is not only Indian…it is more specific…two priests(in ‘mufti’) from Kottayam…! Just said a Hi, and they were also happy to meet a mallu…they directed me to walk a little more to reach one of the three important Basilicas in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore . We decided to take their direction, and passing through the big Basilica, we walked to Termini.
We were pretty tired, it was around 5, the walking tour at 5 also is ruled out ! We went in to the mall incorporated with the Termini station, and had cappuccinos, and Gelato for Pranav. That resembled the bakeries with a small serving area, and a few table + 2 chair setup, in India, it was good and the rates were same as anywhere else in the city. Took a metro to Flaminio… to come out of the station and see Piazza del Popolo. It was already dark… and darkness was something my old cameras didn’t like…Now I think I am in a better position to click as usual increasing its ISO. Then walked through narrow crowded ‘Via del Babuino’ to Piazza de Spagna where you can see the Spanish Steps. This is said to be the widest staircase in Europe, built in warly 18th century, a century after the Fontana della Barcaccia ( Fountain of the Old Boat), seen at the bottom of the steps, was built !
Imagine a square and a fountain in 1627… and then a French diplomat building a broad step from it to the church above, in 1724! If it sounds interesting, you would like Rome. And 1724 is something very recent, comparing to the structures made dating to BC… so for Italians, for them, it is modern Rome!
Climbed the steps, up to the church on the top, went in, I wouldn’t say anything amazing, the structures are made long back, the place existed centuries ago, and most important, the crowd was appreciating it! The same thing as Mona Lisa J, either it is so, or I don’t have enough sense or knowledge to appreciate it.
Climbed down, after taking some pictures of the view from the top, started walking a bit through much more crowded ‘Via Condotti’; it was too much a crowd, so came back and decided to walk through Via Due Marcelli (meaning Marcelli 2nd Street) to Fontana del Tritone( Tritone Fountain) situated in Piazza Barberini.
This fountain was executed in travertine in 1642–43. At its centre rises an larger than lifesize muscular Triton, a minor sea god of ancient Greco-Roman legend, depicted as a merman kneeling on the sum of four dolphin tailfins. His head is thrown back and his arms raise a conch to his lips; from it a jet of water spurts, formerly rising dramatically higher than it does today. The Tritone, was erected to provide water from the Acqua Felice aqueduct( one of the springs which brough water to Rome) which Urban had restored, in a dramatic celebration. So the purpose was different; public fountains in the city of Rome had been passive basins for the reception of public water.
So, the water coming out of all these fountains are (still) drinkable…and it is not something which goes to be pumped again….
Time was nearing 7 PM, we had started this walk around 1:30! And, except for a small coffee break at Termini, we have not sat anywhere. The lunch was also that junk pizza, in standing mode. We decided to take metro from Barberini station to
Termini and walked back to the hotel around 7:30.
I was still in thrill to go to Colosseum and try a night shot with long exposure… asked Krithi about the idea…she looked at me and asked, ‘don’t you have a conscience!’ I got my message and immediately dropped the plan. She had been a patient companion for my voyages (I remember even my classmates never use to come with me if I say ‘for a walk’). She, even while 4 months pregnant, had dared to come sitting in overnight train, and two full days of mountain drives and then return journey also overnight sitting… in Australia !
An hour of rest, we found a small restaurant around the corner for dinner… it was a very good pick, though random. We enjoyed a wonderful Penne Arabiatta, grilled vegetables seasoned with morzerella, and Pranav also quickly became a pet for the two servers… we really enjoyed the meal, and ended our first day in Rome.

Rome Weekender 2

Day 1: The condition in Brussels was bad, with all roads full of snow…the traffic was moving slow… the snow still falling down… I called up the taxi guy and preponed the booking by an hour. So, we were to leave by 4:30.
I was already excited because it was 9-14˚C in Rome, compared to my -4˚ to -6˚ and full of snow ! But I was still visualizing me stuck in the middle of the trip with my wallet gone… and still working out how to minimize the risk! Anyway, looked at my debit card, credit card (like I may not see them again) ! Believe me, that is the impression I have got about Rome from the time I am seeing people who visited it and even what , website, and therefore most of the people as well say....
So, our day started at 3:30. The airport is 60 kms from here. The driver promptly rang our bell at 4:15. And we were off…
He dropped us at the Charleroi Airport around 5:30… and he was speaking English !
The airport was crowded… 6 long queues( I would compare it to same as Chennai central station general ticket queue), we were just wondering how to fit in….and then, an announcement came saying the systems are down and move to counters 1-12, which were already crowded. Everyone pushed to crowd around that…. Good that I didn’t understand the announcement, went near to check what is happening … the system came back to normal again and we skipped the lines …. !!!
So I, who feared would miss the flight due to this crowd, got almost the security seal on my boarding pass almost immediately.
The security check gave us the first surprise – they asked us to remove the small water bottle, Pranav’s sipper, our moisturizer creams, all to be dumped as no liquids allowed ! I knew this law, but overlooked unopened Nivea pack going to dump ! Atlast they agreed to return the sipper after emptying it !
Then there was another queue to board the flight, and as no seats reserved on boarding pass, it is the same run to catch our intercity-interstate buses… it is a run because from the gate to the flight, there is about 100 metres in the open! And in the cold, we ran to get in to the flight and got a window seat. Now, it was a bus! Everyone trying to put the luggage in the top rack, push everyone else to get a better seat… holding seats with handkerchiefs … and shouting from one end to another!
The stewards, patiently watching, and at times loosing their temper trying to not show it in their words…
The boarding pass, which we have to print 10 days before doing an online checkin, said that the gates will close at 8:30… but I think it just opened at 8:30 ! But the packing in to the flight was quick… The good part was we got one window seat, and obviously Pranav took it over... only to just continue his sleep as soon as the flight took off !
It took off on time, and landed as well on time! I think for 20 Euros, I should not ask for more! The flight was not peaceful – the stewards were selling breakfast, some books, and were making sure no one sleeps, whether people buy or not!
Rome was proving easy… the desk at the exit was selling the ticket for the bus to termini, and the metro passes too. Pranav was free (unlike Paris), he was not happy with the situation though ! He was insisting on having a ticket…complaining ‘you are not even buying a ticket for me’ J!
The one hour journey to Termini gave me the same feel as being in Malaysia or Mexico… and at times somewhere in North India… - the moist air, non-photogenic scenaries (mainly because the greenery is covered with dust), old buildings here and there, rusted-and-dusted Hotel boards… an overall the real tropical feel!
We got down in front of the Termini station, walked a little here and there to figure out with my map where we are and then go the road, to walk to our hotel, a 10 mins walk away. I could see old pieces of broken walls all around….between the new buildings. The road which I have to take itself was covered with a huge wall and I thought that it is some old premises, where the wall ended around the corner!
It was 10:40. The hotel checkin time was 2PM. We were planning to leave the luggage there and go. But the hotel was fine we checking in after 15 mins. So we left the luggage, and walked back to a park which we saw on our way. Krithi had made idlis and packed at 3:30! We sat on the bench and had the breakfast :) ! First thing to do in Rome(picture)!
After checking in, we proceeded to take the first metro to Colosseo( the station for Colosseum). I was extra cautious inside the metro area, it was crowded, and Termini metro station was confusing as well! There were only 2 lines( A and B), but still the confusion is because of a lot of temporary structures made for repair work or reconstruction.
To get out of the station and see Colosseum just in front was stunning! The Sun was also playing hide-and-seek, and giving a good challenge for me to click when He is on…
We walked through the crowd in to the ‘what-I-thought-would-be’ centre of tourist Rome! But except the long queue for the Colosseum entry, some postcard-sovenir shops, and a couple of mobile pizza-panini-other junks shops, I couldn’t find anything(picture).
Pranav immediately sensed that it is all old junk around, and he has nothing to enjoy in it. He started putting his demands, from the pop corn packets to the balloons and whatever he could see!
We walked along the road in between the Old Rome ruins, and Colosseum, to what is shown in map as Circus Maximus …It took almost 15-20 mins walk to reach there and it was like a plain ground covered around with tin sheets so that none sees it! I could not see a single human being also around. I looked at the map, it matches the place! And as in the map, there is the metro station as well, ‘Circus Maximus’( Picture)! I think it was me who overestimated Circus Maximus… Astrix influence :) ! (Later back home, I realized that it is now a ground just used occasionally for some concerts)
I was a bit upset with my expectations shattered…took metro back to Colosseo from Circus Maximus. It was 3 PM already. We have started feeling hungry… The station had a couple of shops, and just outside that station there was another ‘small restaurant’( the Italian version of our thattu kada/kayyendi bhavan)… but I (wrongly) chose to try the mobile shop pizza. They cost 3 Euros each, a sheet of cheese sandwiched between two semi-circular bread bases with a splash of tomato sauce. He warmed it and gave…served by a Bengladeshi (obviously acting as if he met his lost Indian brother and eagerly trying to convey that he is also from India J to sell this damn piece of…..), an Italian lady (owner) sitting supervising ! It is a wonder how the little van is accommodating all this! I would just say that the ‘pizza’ lunch was a mistake… would suggest none ever try it !
Now my stomach also joined Pranav rejecting whatever I give, and asking for something I can’t.
In the plan, I had put 3 walking tours to be taken up on day 1. Now, we have missed the two walking tours at 11AM and 2PM. The 11’s one was tough arriving at 10:30. And the 2PM’s, we missed with my Maximus ‘Circus’( translated as maximum goof-up). Now, we finishing the lunch by 4, we could have rushed up for 5PM ’s walking tour.
But as always for me… all plans, strategies stop the moment the actual journey begins, and then I follow my instincts :)( that means I do whatever I like at that time according to what we feel). That makes any trip more exciting and with a lot of surprises (all preparations and homework is to make sure some of the obvious unpleasant surprises are avoided)…..

Rome Weekender 1

Rome needs no introduction…. the influence of Latin words, proverbs, quotes…in our daily life … whether we realize it or not. From the broad gauge’s width, to the radius of some of the payloads, will you believe if I say are influenced by size of ass of ancient Roman horses ?

I will start with what I went through before the trip,

Fix the Duration: It was much more than a site seeing trip for me, to just see colosseum, a couple of important spots…the Vatican… and it will not take more than a day or maximum two. And you have all your lifetime to go through your photos back home J.
I wanted to feel Rome, walk through the streets, the non tourists streets especially. I wanted to give a try to get a feel of an Italian…though I know Rome will be different with its cosmopolitan nature, from Italy. And provided I loose all my money pick pocketed on the first day, I wanted to do it as good as possible.
To fix your durations for a quick tour, check this suggestions by national geographic:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/rome-walking-tour-1/

Book the Flight: Ryan air – it worked out cheap…
Ryan gave me a very good deal for a morning flight (7 am) which I later realized, was because reaching there by public transport from my place at time is impossible. There are shuttles from Midi station, but till Midi station I can’t reach before 6…So only choice, get a taxi for that 60kms… at 4-5 AM ! Still it was cheaper…
Book the Hotel: Booking.com – I could pick a few hotels, looking for near the Central station ‘ Termini’, and looking for reasonably good reviews. Ratings lie sometimes… for example, I will ignore a ‘the hotel staff was rude’ if it was written by an American. So, it depends….
There are many more sites as well to book hotels… I am just telling what I did… need not be the best way…
Climate: It is winter start in Italy( Dec first week), and it will be dark by 5:30. But the temperature ( 12-16 C)compared to Belgium(-4 to -6 C) is much higher… it was a good reason to choose this time.


Risks/ Mitigations:
Pick pocketers and bag snatchers: This was a very high risk as told to me. I had a lot of colleagues who had such experiences atleast one in their gang. And a quick fix from me; if you keep your purse in the front pocket and the pants is tight enough that you can feel it, your risk is reduced by 70% or more…Then comes the cellphones, laptops etc. But you don’t go with them for siteseeing. If the camera is always in your hands or around your neck, it is tough to take it out without you knowing it.

Preparation: I got some very good maps and books, from my colleagues. The best site I would suggest if you are going to explore Rome: http://www.enjoyrome.com/tourist/cityguide/main.html
Else, just take a Hop on hop off bus and enjoy 2 days… he will tell and show whatever you need to know as a tourist. It is safe too… hardly pick pocketers get in to them…
http://www.viator.com/Rome-tours/Tours-and-Sightseeing/d511-g12
If you are alone, or with no restriction to walk and walk fast…. Use this: http://www.romefreetour.com/

Budget Estimate: My budget estimate came to 1000 Euros, for 3 people, 4 days and 3 nights – including airport transits, flights, accommodation, food, siteseeing… everything… but atlast we finished it with 750 Euros… so for me it was cheaper than I estimated…

4 day Itinerary: I was to reach there on a Saturday morning 10:30 and fly back on Tuesday afternoon flight. It was a derivative from a lot of info from web, books, and then some discussions with colleagues:
Day 1: See if I can walk around, see if old Rome can be finished. Go for two of the three freewalking tours.

Day2 : As it is a Sunday, Vatican is not possible( they are closed except the last Sunday of the month). So if Saturday was fruitful, and Rome proves so small as I hear, and we could finish everything except Spanish Steps, trevi area and Vatican, then I was planning to take a bus day trip to one of the nearby places – Florence, Pisa, Naples, Capri…
Else, keep old Rome, for this day, as this was the day predicted with least chance of rain.

Day3 : Obvious choice… Vatican… and then walk to Trevi fountain… see the areas spotted so that though we take a little longer route… see much more….

Day4 : Don’t keep anything for this day… use it to go to the place where we feel like going once again, or somewhere we had to rush back.

Belgium Weekender 8

I am walking through the red light district! I think, may be, it is the first time in my life I am doing this. Time is around 4PM on a Saturday. It is canal on my one side(snap), and the street consists of ‘tools’ shops, ‘CD’ shops, houses and hotels on the other side.

I had one instance of a little difference – one middle aged female chasing another one, both nude except for the ornaments pierced all over the body; all I had to do was to just ignore them.
Otherwise, most of the people walking with me are tourists; just finishing their city visits with the red light district walk. As for the part of the ‘red’, all I could see now will be the old or outdated ones; the main characters will be sleeping after their regular night shifts. So it is much safer and better to walk through these streets in the early evenings. But it may be a little tough if you are unaware where you are, and take a room in one of the small hotels here. Prostitution is legal here and so you may not end up in Police station, but you may have to see a lot of sights in your life, which you are not used to and not sure how to react to.

I am in a city, which is represented by black ‘xxx’ in red background in its flag – the boats with ‘xxx’ flag, the bridge having embossed-shield written ‘xxx’ on it (snap) (I think the x ratings got termed from here)! A city, where the visit is incomplete unless you get the ‘feel’ walking through the red light district! The red light district is, just opposite to the Central railway station!

The city otherwise, is known as the capital of the country of the Tulips and Windmills, I am in Amsterdam!

I am very sure that this city of canals and museums will never be known to many of us by its famous (or we say infamous) reddish tint.

* * * * * * *
Once Paris was done, Amsterdam was the next most accessible destination in terms of another European capital, which needs no reservation, and close enough to be reached in 3 hours (actually it is closer than Paris, but as there is no high speed lane, the train can’t go faster than 150kmph. Again the slowing down for stops, picking up, all kills time. So it takes 3 hours to cover the 230kms.

I was of two minds, whether to plan a stay or not. Due to budgetary constraints, I decided that unless I am too much impressed with the city, I would not stay back. Now, if I start early I will get a full day there. There lies the problem. I didn’t have the thrill of going to Paris and so have to negotiate with my Saturday sleep.

And as always, the sleep won. I got up around 8:30. The only way I can make it up is by skipping the breakfast. That gave me enough time to take a shower and take the 66 bus to the city, at 9:01. There is one train per hour, at all 39 minutes of the hour.

The bus takes 30 minutes during a weekend to the city. I got down at Central Metro stop at 9:30. It was a dash then, thru the tunnel to the Central station. It was 9:34 when I reached the International tickets queue. I was at the counter in another two minutes. The lady at the desk realised the moment I told ‘Amsterdam weekend return’ that I am rushing for the 9:39 train. She quickly finished filling the details and it was 9:37 when I got the ticket. Ran piercing the crowd, down the steps, I was inside the train at 9:39. The doors just closed behind me!

It was settling down, the train was not crowded though not empty either. Through Antwerpes, it was crossed the Dutch border, stopped at Rotterdam (after Antwerpes), it reached Amsterdam by 12:30. Except the bottle opening incident (see the tailpiece), it was a pleasant journey : ).

It was bad news immediately, the sky is fully cloudy and it started raining too! It was pretty cold compared to Brussels, and I had to take my sweater out.

Half the day is lost in sleep and travel, and the rain seems to spoil the rest! At least, why to keep hungry :)! Looked for food inside the Central station food court, and found a New York Pizza shop, which had a couple of veggie pizzas and one ‘tandoori pizza’ also, to my surprise! I quickly realised that English works well in Holland than Belgium; I mean it works well in Amsterdam better than Brussels : ).

Things were better once I finished the brunch and came out. It was still cloudy and dark, little bit of drizzle too. The first thing I noticed was the cycles; the three-floor parking lot for cycles, packed with cycles was a real surprise (snap)! The next thing was, as I expected, there was a canal just in front. I spotted one office, which offers a hop-on-hop -off boat service and it costs some 18 € per day. I took a day ticket, which is valid till next day noon. That means, even if I chose to stay I can use the boat tomorrow also.

Here also, there were three routes defined for the boat –red line, green line and blue line. They are start from almost the same area, the first available was the green line. The frequency is less, once in 20-30 minutes and they take 90 minutes to complete the loop. So I was sure that I would have to skip one route.

Greenline started at 1:50. It went under a couple of small arch bridges and it was the outer harbour area. It moved in to the canals again. The buildings on both sides, a narrow road on both sides separating the houses from the canal, and there was one more important thing – the boathouses(snap)! I could call them houseboats too, but feared it may convey a different meaning. These are boats turned in to houses, and registered to the local municipality paying tax for mooring. So the place for a given boat is stationary, they are all homes floating on water. It is estimated that there are 2500 boathouses in Amsterdam across all the canals, and the government has stopped giving permission to ‘park’ any more ‘houses’. Imagine, people living their whole life with all their assets floating on water!

I got down at one stop after the Museum stop, to see it later. A little walk around taking pictures, the most surprising ones were seeing the same sight as in Chennai – husband and wife going in a cycle (snap)!

Back in to catching the next Green line boat and got down at the Town Hall stop and walked through a flea market to only realise that the souvenirs are much costly than I could ever imagine. I just made sure I am not overspending, and took the next Greenline to Central to finish the red light district walk.

It was 5:25 when I took the redline boat, which also goes to the Museum. It reached the same by 6, by which they had closed down. Anyway, roaming around in a museum was not in my plan, including the Van Gogh museum. I walked around the area taking pictures of the buildings, and had a snap done with myself in front of Van Gogh museum (snap).

It was another Aussie surprise while I was taking pictures in front of the Museum; this time it was a familiar face coming towards me smiling! It was Chris Nicoles, a business analyst in Woolworths! He had left the firm before I left Sydney.

I got the 6:30 Greenline to reach the Central by 7:20. It was another run to cross the road and run to the station. Got the 7:29 train to be back in Brussels by 10:30. It was mere coincidence that while nearing the Brussels Nord station, the red streets of Brussels was to my right. I could see a lot of houses having glass walls, lighted inside with neon lamps where 'Live' models were trying to tempt the 'window-shopping' customers. Later only I knew that prostitution is legal in Belgium as well. Anyway, I got down at Brussels Central, and took a bus to Evere, reaching home by 11:25.

Tailpiece: (1) You know the difference between ‘Eau de source Bronwater (plat)’ and ‘Eau de source Bronwater (Bruis)’. If you are planning to come to this part of the World, better you should know. The first is mineral water, and the second is soda! Both look the same. Imagine you picking up soda for mineral water from a vending machine during run for the train, and opening the bottle after your run sitting in the train! I don’t have to imagine, it took two hours for my dress to dry from the mess!

(2) You want to know about the auctioning of bicycles and boats sunk in the canals. You know what an owner or a boat did when he found that his boat is sunk and someone else have moored his boat in that place. Check out this site: http://gezonken.wordpress.com/ . I was looking for some information in google and bumped in to this site. I have to really appreciate this guy for picking the lighter side of Amsterdam so sensibly.