Italia!
We (meaning my parents and Daniel and I) got back from our Italy trip late last night. We had a great holiday - a day in Venice, a day in Florence, 5 days in Rome and a couple travelling days in between.
We flew into Treviso airport, and stayed in Treviso the first couple of nights (about a half-hour train ride from Venice). The morning after we arrived, we headed over to Venice, and hopped onto a vaporetto (water bus) to get over to the Piazza di San Marco, where a lot of the main touristy stuff is. We ended up hopping on an off the vaporetto a couple times because we kept thinking it was going in the wrong direction, until we finally realized it went in a circle so it really didn't matter. Venice is, well, unique for the obvious reasons. The main streets aren't streets at all but rather canals, with houses bordering them directly. So when you're walking around town you have to be careful to distinguish the sidewalks from the waterways on the map or you'll end up treading water. When we got to the Piazza, the biggest impression of all was made by the pigeons. Honestly, I thought the pigeons in London were fearless and cheeky, but they are the souls of shy modesty compared to Venice central square pigeons. I fed them some sun-flower seeds and of course they swarmed around like the little flying rats they are. And then when I squatted down with my arm out to get a picture taken, they decided to swarm *on* me instead, with one perching on my head and a bunch on my arms. They didn't peck too hard and their claws aren't all that sharp so it was fun (if somewhat creepy) the first time. But when they did it again a couple of them decided to poop on me too, so that rather soured my enthusiasm for playing with the pigeons thereafter. Anyhow, we went into the Basilica on the square and then wandered around the Doge's palace, and then went for a long walk around the city. It was kind of cool later in the trip seeing 500-year-old paintings showing Venice as still very similar to the way it looks now. There was construction blocking the look-out point that we meant to reach (a recurring theme throughout the rip, actually) but we had a good walk anyhow - and I got ice cream. That was the other recurring theme - it's not a holiday in Italy if I don't get a gelato fix every other day or so :-). Oh yeah, and we saw some really cool street musicians, playing really complex classical pieces on partially filled wine glasses. I was impressed. Also, Venice has apparently been overrun with Russian tourists - I heard far more Russian than English while there.
The next day we took the train to Florence. I got to reaffirm my belief that the most important words to learn first in a foreign language are numbers and how to say the time - very useful for ordering rail tickets. We were a bit more cramped for living space there - one middling size room for the four of us, but we didn't stay long so it didn't really matter. The first evening we went and saw the enormous Duomo (cathedral) and stopped by the Leondardo da Vinci museum where they had a bunch of replicas of his machines. It's amazing what you can do once you come up with the concept of gears and ratchets. I particularly liked this wind-up car thing. The next day we stood in an uber-long line to get into the Galleria di Uffizi, a famous art museum. I guess they had an impressive collection, but I don't know much about art and what they didn't have was any meaningful labels or ordered arrangements or anything than a bunch of paintings randomly thrown onto walls that badly needed a paint-job. But we saw the chick-on-a-clam Birth of Venus painting and a few others that I'd actually seen before, but I forget what they were already. Of even greater cultural importance, we stopped by the place that according to our guidebook sold the world's best gelato. It was indeed quite good We also went to the Santa Croce church, which has Michaelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo and other famous Renaissance folk burried there. Actually, the don't have all of Galileo - his middle finger resides in the history of science museum in Florence instead. The next morning Daniel and Ihad the choice of another uber-long line to see Michaelangelo's original David or the aforementioned history of science museum instead. We went with the predictable choice. And saw Galileo's original telescopes and about a thousand different cool instruments for measuring angles in various ways. I think that museum made me jealous - it must have felt so much cooler to be a 'real' scientist when you got to work with shiny astrolabes and complicated instruments and stuff instead of sitting in front of a computer all day. I think the most interesting instrument we saw was an early 17th century calculator by Samuel Morland with various gears and things to perform multiplication - I couldn't figure out how it works but I think I'm going to have to look it up. Oh, and contrary to our hopes, Galileo's middle finger was not actually set up to point towards the Vatican.
After the museum, we hopped on another 3 hour train to Rome and checked into the apartment we had rented there for a few days. We went to bed fairly early and got up at 6 the next morning to get in the massive line for the Vatican museums. It was only a 1.5 hour wait (thank goodness for not travelling during the height of the tourist season) and then we spent several hours wandering around the museums. There were lots and lots of Renaissance paintings including a whole bunch by Raphael, but they're all sort of a blur now. And, of course, there was the Sistine Chapel. It is indeed impressive, but would have been more so without the sweeping hordes of tourists and the annoyingly loud voice over the intercoming repeating 'Please maintain silence in the chapel' in half a dozen different languages. After the museums, we went over to St. Peter's square and Basilica, which are the defining feature of Vatican City that you see on the news whenever the Pope gives some speech. Swiss Guard uniforms are hilarious - like ancient pyjamas. And according to our guide book, they are the modern form of the vestal virgins (have to start before they're 30 and no marriage until they reach some retirement age). Some of the slightly less funny-dressed troops got to serve as the fashion police at the Basilica entrance, kicking out visitors who didn't have their shoulders and knees covered. The Basilica was, well, a basilica - lots of Michaelangelo paintings, and we learned later that a lot of the materials to build it had been scavenged from various Roman ruins in the area. We also climbed up some rather claustrophobic stairs to get a nice view of the Vatican and of Rome from on top of the cupola.
The following day we spent in Rome, visiting the Colosseum and the Forums where the various government functions were performed and the Palatino where the emperors lived (apparently the source of the word "palace"). Waiting in line to get into the Colosseum, we were entertained by a large Communist Party parade marching by, complete with drums beating and hammer-and-sickle flags flying (I kid ye not). I think it made my parents almost nostalgic. The Colosseum was colossal (duh) - it really is amazing to think of something like that being built without modern technology. Especially given that in 64 AD it was a lake on the grounds of Nero's palace and by 80 AD it was opened. Compare that with one or two hundred years required to complete the various big Christian churches started up in the middle ages and shortly afterwards. It was pretty much the size of a modern colosseum, complete with niches for the snack-sellers. The forum was a good deal less impressive - there's not that much left of it, and absolutely nothing is labelled, so it was just a case of wandering around among some mostly broken-up structures for a couple of hours in blazing sun. But the next day we took a day trip to Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman sea-port, and saw the ruins of pretty much an entire city. Pompeii ended up being too far away to be worth a day trip, but I really think Ostia was just as good. Instead of being overrun by lava, the whole city got covered up with mud due to flooding, and so it was quite well preserved. We walked along the original cobbled road, with still visible indentations in the rocks where the ancient chariots and wagons had rolled; saw some very well preserved mosaics on the floors of various bath houses; visited an amphitheater, a capitolium in the middle of a public square, and some very social looking ancient latrines (nicely hooked up to a running water sanitation system in Roman times). We also saw what is believed to be the remains of the oldest known synagogue in the ancient world, on the outskirts of the town. In the evening, we went to a nearby beach and dipped our feet in the Mediterranean. The water was warm enough to swim in, but it was windy and getting chilly so we decided against it.
The next day, we wandered around the Jewish ghetto area of Rome, stopping by the big central synagogue and the associated museum. Point of amusement - when the pope set up the ghetto in the 16th century, he allowed only one building to be used as a synagogue; predicably enough, the Jewish community set up 5 different synagogues within the one building to satisfy the various sects. We then walked over the Piazza Venezia, which mostly just had modern Italy patriotic stuff. That walk also reiterated how much I hate Roman roads (the modern kind). The concept of pedestrian crosswalks in reasonable places really seems foreign to them. And I hate playing the dodging-cars game, but what can you do. Afterwards we went to the Pantheon. Again, it was really amazing to think how that massive and mathematically perfect a structure could have been built so long ago. But one thing really galled me. The entire bottom half of it was covered up with murals and Christian images of various sorts. And there were signs all over the place asking visitors to please respect it as a place of worship and not talk too loudly, etc, etc. Now, I have no problem with that in an actual Christian monument - but how do they have the chutzpah to put that up in the Pantheon? I mean, honestly, if we're going to respect it as a place of worship how about we put back all the Roman god statues you looted from it and worship those, since that's what the place was intended for? Anyhow, I suppose we ought to be grateful since the fact that it was converted into a church is preobably the only reason it's still intact and standing, but the idea of the Pantheon as a Christian monument still irritates me.
Finally, on the last day, we went to the Villa di Borghese and sat around in the park for half the day, relaxing and watching pigeons glom each other. So the pigeons in the rest of Italy weren't as impudent as the once in Venice, but we did seem to be there right in the middle of their mating season. And the majority of the males spent their time behaving like the worst of the Caltech frosh. The males would spread out their tails and ruffle up their feathers to look twice their size, and chase after the females, bobbling their heads and shouting "coooor-cooor" while the later inevitably fled in terror. It was both sad and amusing to watch. Well, mostly amusing. Anyhow, we also ran across an Italian equivalent of a country fair, complete with costumed people playing drums and wine and cheese and olive samples from little booths. After wandering around the fair a while, we got back on the metro and headed to the airport for the flight home.
So that was the trip. Lot's of things to see, a decent amount of R&R - a nice holiday overall. Nice, heh, I suppose that sounds like I'm getting rather blase about the coolness of being in Europe and having all these awesome places to visit close at hand. It's just hard to cram so many new impressions into such a short time without it all blurring out into a general memory of one awesome year.
And as of tomorrow, it's back to work with the realization that I have about a month left to actually get new results before I have to start writing up the horrible looming creature known as the Thesis.
We flew into Treviso airport, and stayed in Treviso the first couple of nights (about a half-hour train ride from Venice). The morning after we arrived, we headed over to Venice, and hopped onto a vaporetto (water bus) to get over to the Piazza di San Marco, where a lot of the main touristy stuff is. We ended up hopping on an off the vaporetto a couple times because we kept thinking it was going in the wrong direction, until we finally realized it went in a circle so it really didn't matter. Venice is, well, unique for the obvious reasons. The main streets aren't streets at all but rather canals, with houses bordering them directly. So when you're walking around town you have to be careful to distinguish the sidewalks from the waterways on the map or you'll end up treading water. When we got to the Piazza, the biggest impression of all was made by the pigeons. Honestly, I thought the pigeons in London were fearless and cheeky, but they are the souls of shy modesty compared to Venice central square pigeons. I fed them some sun-flower seeds and of course they swarmed around like the little flying rats they are. And then when I squatted down with my arm out to get a picture taken, they decided to swarm *on* me instead, with one perching on my head and a bunch on my arms. They didn't peck too hard and their claws aren't all that sharp so it was fun (if somewhat creepy) the first time. But when they did it again a couple of them decided to poop on me too, so that rather soured my enthusiasm for playing with the pigeons thereafter. Anyhow, we went into the Basilica on the square and then wandered around the Doge's palace, and then went for a long walk around the city. It was kind of cool later in the trip seeing 500-year-old paintings showing Venice as still very similar to the way it looks now. There was construction blocking the look-out point that we meant to reach (a recurring theme throughout the rip, actually) but we had a good walk anyhow - and I got ice cream. That was the other recurring theme - it's not a holiday in Italy if I don't get a gelato fix every other day or so :-). Oh yeah, and we saw some really cool street musicians, playing really complex classical pieces on partially filled wine glasses. I was impressed. Also, Venice has apparently been overrun with Russian tourists - I heard far more Russian than English while there.
The next day we took the train to Florence. I got to reaffirm my belief that the most important words to learn first in a foreign language are numbers and how to say the time - very useful for ordering rail tickets. We were a bit more cramped for living space there - one middling size room for the four of us, but we didn't stay long so it didn't really matter. The first evening we went and saw the enormous Duomo (cathedral) and stopped by the Leondardo da Vinci museum where they had a bunch of replicas of his machines. It's amazing what you can do once you come up with the concept of gears and ratchets. I particularly liked this wind-up car thing. The next day we stood in an uber-long line to get into the Galleria di Uffizi, a famous art museum. I guess they had an impressive collection, but I don't know much about art and what they didn't have was any meaningful labels or ordered arrangements or anything than a bunch of paintings randomly thrown onto walls that badly needed a paint-job. But we saw the chick-on-a-clam Birth of Venus painting and a few others that I'd actually seen before, but I forget what they were already. Of even greater cultural importance, we stopped by the place that according to our guidebook sold the world's best gelato. It was indeed quite good We also went to the Santa Croce church, which has Michaelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo and other famous Renaissance folk burried there. Actually, the don't have all of Galileo - his middle finger resides in the history of science museum in Florence instead. The next morning Daniel and Ihad the choice of another uber-long line to see Michaelangelo's original David or the aforementioned history of science museum instead. We went with the predictable choice. And saw Galileo's original telescopes and about a thousand different cool instruments for measuring angles in various ways. I think that museum made me jealous - it must have felt so much cooler to be a 'real' scientist when you got to work with shiny astrolabes and complicated instruments and stuff instead of sitting in front of a computer all day. I think the most interesting instrument we saw was an early 17th century calculator by Samuel Morland with various gears and things to perform multiplication - I couldn't figure out how it works but I think I'm going to have to look it up. Oh, and contrary to our hopes, Galileo's middle finger was not actually set up to point towards the Vatican.
After the museum, we hopped on another 3 hour train to Rome and checked into the apartment we had rented there for a few days. We went to bed fairly early and got up at 6 the next morning to get in the massive line for the Vatican museums. It was only a 1.5 hour wait (thank goodness for not travelling during the height of the tourist season) and then we spent several hours wandering around the museums. There were lots and lots of Renaissance paintings including a whole bunch by Raphael, but they're all sort of a blur now. And, of course, there was the Sistine Chapel. It is indeed impressive, but would have been more so without the sweeping hordes of tourists and the annoyingly loud voice over the intercoming repeating 'Please maintain silence in the chapel' in half a dozen different languages. After the museums, we went over to St. Peter's square and Basilica, which are the defining feature of Vatican City that you see on the news whenever the Pope gives some speech. Swiss Guard uniforms are hilarious - like ancient pyjamas. And according to our guide book, they are the modern form of the vestal virgins (have to start before they're 30 and no marriage until they reach some retirement age). Some of the slightly less funny-dressed troops got to serve as the fashion police at the Basilica entrance, kicking out visitors who didn't have their shoulders and knees covered. The Basilica was, well, a basilica - lots of Michaelangelo paintings, and we learned later that a lot of the materials to build it had been scavenged from various Roman ruins in the area. We also climbed up some rather claustrophobic stairs to get a nice view of the Vatican and of Rome from on top of the cupola.
The following day we spent in Rome, visiting the Colosseum and the Forums where the various government functions were performed and the Palatino where the emperors lived (apparently the source of the word "palace"). Waiting in line to get into the Colosseum, we were entertained by a large Communist Party parade marching by, complete with drums beating and hammer-and-sickle flags flying (I kid ye not). I think it made my parents almost nostalgic. The Colosseum was colossal (duh) - it really is amazing to think of something like that being built without modern technology. Especially given that in 64 AD it was a lake on the grounds of Nero's palace and by 80 AD it was opened. Compare that with one or two hundred years required to complete the various big Christian churches started up in the middle ages and shortly afterwards. It was pretty much the size of a modern colosseum, complete with niches for the snack-sellers. The forum was a good deal less impressive - there's not that much left of it, and absolutely nothing is labelled, so it was just a case of wandering around among some mostly broken-up structures for a couple of hours in blazing sun. But the next day we took a day trip to Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman sea-port, and saw the ruins of pretty much an entire city. Pompeii ended up being too far away to be worth a day trip, but I really think Ostia was just as good. Instead of being overrun by lava, the whole city got covered up with mud due to flooding, and so it was quite well preserved. We walked along the original cobbled road, with still visible indentations in the rocks where the ancient chariots and wagons had rolled; saw some very well preserved mosaics on the floors of various bath houses; visited an amphitheater, a capitolium in the middle of a public square, and some very social looking ancient latrines (nicely hooked up to a running water sanitation system in Roman times). We also saw what is believed to be the remains of the oldest known synagogue in the ancient world, on the outskirts of the town. In the evening, we went to a nearby beach and dipped our feet in the Mediterranean. The water was warm enough to swim in, but it was windy and getting chilly so we decided against it.
The next day, we wandered around the Jewish ghetto area of Rome, stopping by the big central synagogue and the associated museum. Point of amusement - when the pope set up the ghetto in the 16th century, he allowed only one building to be used as a synagogue; predicably enough, the Jewish community set up 5 different synagogues within the one building to satisfy the various sects. We then walked over the Piazza Venezia, which mostly just had modern Italy patriotic stuff. That walk also reiterated how much I hate Roman roads (the modern kind). The concept of pedestrian crosswalks in reasonable places really seems foreign to them. And I hate playing the dodging-cars game, but what can you do. Afterwards we went to the Pantheon. Again, it was really amazing to think how that massive and mathematically perfect a structure could have been built so long ago. But one thing really galled me. The entire bottom half of it was covered up with murals and Christian images of various sorts. And there were signs all over the place asking visitors to please respect it as a place of worship and not talk too loudly, etc, etc. Now, I have no problem with that in an actual Christian monument - but how do they have the chutzpah to put that up in the Pantheon? I mean, honestly, if we're going to respect it as a place of worship how about we put back all the Roman god statues you looted from it and worship those, since that's what the place was intended for? Anyhow, I suppose we ought to be grateful since the fact that it was converted into a church is preobably the only reason it's still intact and standing, but the idea of the Pantheon as a Christian monument still irritates me.
Finally, on the last day, we went to the Villa di Borghese and sat around in the park for half the day, relaxing and watching pigeons glom each other. So the pigeons in the rest of Italy weren't as impudent as the once in Venice, but we did seem to be there right in the middle of their mating season. And the majority of the males spent their time behaving like the worst of the Caltech frosh. The males would spread out their tails and ruffle up their feathers to look twice their size, and chase after the females, bobbling their heads and shouting "coooor-cooor" while the later inevitably fled in terror. It was both sad and amusing to watch. Well, mostly amusing. Anyhow, we also ran across an Italian equivalent of a country fair, complete with costumed people playing drums and wine and cheese and olive samples from little booths. After wandering around the fair a while, we got back on the metro and headed to the airport for the flight home.
So that was the trip. Lot's of things to see, a decent amount of R&R - a nice holiday overall. Nice, heh, I suppose that sounds like I'm getting rather blase about the coolness of being in Europe and having all these awesome places to visit close at hand. It's just hard to cram so many new impressions into such a short time without it all blurring out into a general memory of one awesome year.
And as of tomorrow, it's back to work with the realization that I have about a month left to actually get new results before I have to start writing up the horrible looming creature known as the Thesis.