In Rome!

[oyceter]

Man, it's hard finding the time to stop in internet cafes when one is with one's parents. Only have about ten or so minutes this time...

Anyhow, we've finished the tour of Florence and are currently in Rome. I had thought that Florence had a lot of tourists; now that I'm in Rome, I realize that really, nothing compares to the sheer amount of people here. I think I may have heard more English than Italian in my entire time here.

Today was the Vatican and St. Peter's. Very, very, very cool. It's sort of hard imagining being there after having heard so much about it over the years... I spent a great deal of time ogling at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and now my neck really hurts. It sounds stupid, but it's just so large. Ditto with St. Peter's. It was also very neat coming across Raphael's painting of the philosophers (I forgot the name already, sigh) in the Vatican, because I had no idea where it was located. Alas, I am entirely uncultured.

Yesterday was the Forum, along with various other sights, and mostly I just felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. Being vaguely nauseous from the train ride here probably didn't help much either. But I loved just standing in the Forum and trying to get my mind across the fact that it was two thousand some years old; that all the Romans I've read about have walked there... well, not all, but you know. I also took a picture next to the shrine of the Vestal Virgins because I thought it was rather amusing.

Maybe more later, depending on the parents' schedule. Apparently my dad is already sick of looking at assorted paintings and sculptures (we saw A LOT in Florence as well) and wants to instead enjoy the scenery. Me, I want to see more museums ;).

Comments

cathedrals!

[(Anonymous)]

go see the cathedrals! and all the cool street stuff.
(anlee)

Re: cathedrals!

[oyceter]

Oh I did ^_^. Very cool.

And we ended up shopping a lot because we were with my mom after all ;).

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Art is all very well, but I hope you're getting to enjoy the *really* important things in Italy: Hosterias, trattorias, and gelaterias.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yeah! Write about the food!

[oyceter]

Oh my god I ate SO MUCH!

It was so good! But I don't think I'm going to have Italian for another month or so now.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm still trying to lose the weight I gained there in June. But, as with many other cuisines, the American version of Italian is not the same as the Italian version, so I'm not too tempted here. But pizza...I seem to like that wherever, as long as it's good.

[oyceter]

Yeah, it really is very different! I like the Italian version better (less marinara sauce!).

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I was only in northern Italy, and there were very few tomato based dishes, aside from the ever present and ever wonderful Ensalada Caprese--I have that here, but the mozzarella is rarely as delicate. We loved cingale (wild boar) with a wonderful lemony sauce in Tuscany (finally dawned on me that the name Tuscany refers to Etruscans) and I fell in love with octopus (polpi) in many different dishes. I was so excited to see it at Whole Foods when I got back, and so sad to taste it. The lovely mellow richness of polpi had been replaced by this very fishy, anchovy-like taste. And the limoncello here tastes like cough syrup.

I suspect San Francisco has places that comes closer to the real thing, but it's never the same.

[oyceter]

Oh, that's interesting! I ended up eating a lot of the "typical" Italian dishes -- pizza and pasta and the like, with tomato sauce. I am very jealous of your octopus-eating experiences ;). I love octopus when cooked right, mmm. We had some really good tripe there though. And mushrooms! Apparently it was porcini mushroom season, and oh, the goodness of freshly grilled mushroom!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Borghese gardens! or take a trip out to Tivoli (there are statues, as I recall, but among greenery, fountains, etc).
I found I got vertigo just standing at the ground level of St Peter's.
There used to be a couple of houses belonging to aristocratic families of the Renaissance period that were opened to the public and were quite interesting: one, as I recall, had a ceiling painting including the podgy patron in a toga along with various rather more notable historical and mythical figures.

[oyceter]

We only got to see a little of the Borghese gardens, but we ended up going to the Villa d'Este in Tivoli (and what felt like the million fountains there). Really pretty. My mind still sort of boggles at the size of some of the houses back then.