Walking the Camino in Portugal

We took a fast train from Rome to Milan yesterday – 3.5 hours, average speed 270kph. Lovely green countryside.

We’re staying a few Metro stops from the city centre and after checking in, we headed straight back into the city to try and get in to see The Last Supper. No luck either yesterday or today, and it’s closed tomorrow. But we tried.

Milan is much more prosperous than Rome – we walked along the main shopping street to the Basilica and La Scala, and there were people everywhere carrying fancy shopping bags … at 7.30pm! And a lot of the shops were still open.

We’re going back to see the inside of the Basilica – it was very  impressive from the outside with its stained glass all lit up. And we’ll go to the Museum of Science and Technology. I suspect Leonardo is the museum’s poster boy, but will report back!

Screenshot of the live gps mapping and speed of the train with onboard wifi

Milan Cathedral at dusk

Milan Galleria (click for a larger image)

Yesterday, Friday, we spent the day being tourists. Proper tourists in an open-roof tour bus, with earphones connected to the English language tour commentary. There weren’t many fellow tourists, probably because it was raining and all the seats were wet, but it was our best chance of getting to the Catacombs, AND we got to travel on the Appian Way. I still can’t quite believe that we drove on a road on which construction began in 312BC!

Our friend Sally suggested that we visit the Catacombs a few days ago, and I’m very grateful that she did (grazie, Sal!). We might not have made the journey out to see them otherwise, but it was great to see a bit of the countryside just outside Rome, and yes I do mean ‘countryside’ – we saw several flocks of sheep, large vegetable gardens and houses on very big blocks of land.

We caught the ArcheoBus from the Piazza della Repubblica near Termini and drove through Ancient Rome past places we had visited – Piazza Venezia, the Colosseum, Palatino, Circus Maximus … and then some we hadn’t – Terme di Caracalla (Baths of Caracalla), Porta di San Sebastian (the Gate of San Sebastian in the City Wall of Imperial Rome) and the Via Appia Antica (the Appian Way).

The Catacombs run guided tours in several languages. We only had to wait 20 minutes or so for an English language tour. There were around 26 of us, including a group of 20 people who were all dressed  very conservatively in dark blue and black. The 2 women wore long skirts to their ankles and had their hair up in buns. Many of the men had Abraham Lincoln-type beards. They were from the US, Canada, Mexico and several European countries. I think they were Mennonites.

near

We took the Metro (underground) to Vatican City. The Metro is somewhat of a disappointment after the efficient, clean Singapore system, but it got us there.  The crowds were enormous. Last visit had been in January some years ago when the crowds were large, but compared to today, they were tiny. The queue for Saint Peter’s Basilica was so long we could not see the end. There was St Johns ambulance person patrolling in a golf cart with a stretcher to collect people who had collapsed.

Side note from Judy: When I walked into St Peter’s Square, my first thought was ‘Oh, it’s just like Caesar’s Palace at Las Vegas’. Gosh, I’m classy sometimes, aren’t I?

We walked to Castel Saint Angelo which was built by Hadrian. It was very interesting, and we climbed to the top to get a good view of the Vatican and the Tiber River. Then it was a walk to Piazza Novona also full of tourists and people selling paintings, as well as a couple of nice fountains, including the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. Then a walk east to the Pantheon, another building job by Hadrian.

We headed south to Largo di Torre Argentina which was where Caesar was killed on the Ides of March. Further south we headed to the Jewish Ghetto for some late lunch. We crossed the Tiber River a couple of times before walking over Circus Maximus and catching the Metro back to the hotel.

Part of the nearly 1 kilometre long queue to get into Saint Peters at Vatican City

Lane in the Jewish Ghetto Rome

It took us a day to get from Singapore to Paris to Rome, then another half a day to recover. The AirFrance flight to Paris was … squeezy. But then, it was cheap, so we got what we paid for.

We had a bit of heart-stopping excitement when Greg dropped his phone onto the railway tracks as we were boarding the train from Rome airport into the city. He managed to get it with one of his walking poles, so that was a better outcome than the time he dropped his 2-week  old iPhone and I accidentally ran over it. I think he should stop using belt clips for his mobile phones.

We got to our hotel early yesterday afternoon, settled in and went to find some late lunch. We’re staying near Termini, the main railway station in Rome and there are plenty of places to eat and drink close by. For lunch yesterday Greg had lasagne, I had risotto with prawns and we shared half a litre of vino blanco – white wine. We did have very good intentions of staying up until 6pm, but by 4 o’clock I could barely see straight, let alone walk straight, so I collapsed into bed and slept for most of the night. Greg went walking but came back an hour or so later and also fell asleep.

Today we each had a list of what we wanted to do.

Greg – See the Colliseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Me – Eat pizza, prosciutto and gelato.

Do you see a pattern to our travelling styles in the above lists? Maybe that’s why we travel so well together. Anyway, we ticked off everything on both our lists, and saw the Palatino AND ate pasta for dinner as well. A wonderful first day in Rome.

the crowds at Fontana de Trevi Fountain in Rome - click on the image for a larger version

trying to find somewhere to sit on the Spanish Steps Rome

Poppy growing outside the Colosseum

Colosseum