The rest of Rome went well! We'd heard that the Vatican museum was free on the last Sunday of the month - which was conveniently when we were in town - hence we excitedly headed over there. We'd read that we should "arrive early to avoid queues" and made it over there about quarter of an hour before the museum's opening time which we thought was pretty good. Surprise! The queue was already around the block, along three angled walls around Vatican City and into the courtyard. It was a rainy morning, straight after the change from daylight savings, and some of these people must have been queueing for a long, long time!
We hopped onto the end of the queue and figured we'd see how it went in half an hour.... then another half an hour.... then we hit that point where we'd been queing for long enough we figured we may as well stick it out. In the end we ended up queing for just under three hours. No reward is worth this!
Actually, it turned out it was - the Vatican Museum was crazily impressive. We couldn't really stop to look at anything too long as it felt like we were constantly being pushed along by a crowd of people, but every room we went into was brilliant. Those Popes ended up with some amazingly good stuff!
This experience pretty much summed up my main impression of Rome by the end of it: crowded and crazy (Marzipan ravioli!).
After Rome we went to Venice which was, surprisingly, less crowded and, even more surprisingly, exactly like it always looks in movies. Ah, Venice!
Being able to celebrate my birthday with Jenny and Ben and Alicia was grand. They surprised me at breakfast with the most Italian of birthday cakes, a chocolatey version of that Italian Christmas cake with Pope candles on it. So good!
Jenny got me a Doctor Who Travelling Companion book, the ultimate combination of Doctor Who and travel which is going to bring me so much fun on the train. Ben and Alicia got me an Italian talking watch which reads the time in Italian and can also make a rooster noise and play music. Be prepared, my watch is definitely coming on Buss for plenty of Italian fun!
To top off my exciting morning of cake and present-opening, my Mum had sent me a package of treats from home: some of my favourite Australian goods to stave off homesickness. Weetbix, Freddo + Caramello, Dilmah tea, ginger nuts and 2 minute noodles. I'm going to be feasting Australia-style!
I spent my birthday wandering around Venice with not too much idea of my bearings, eating more cake, eating icecream, having a pigeon on my head, eating dinner by a canal and going for beers. It was a grand old day!
We spent the rest of our time there seeing some old art (at the Doge's Palace) and some modern art (in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection), generally wandering around town, having good wine with Ben and Alicia and taking water taxis (the poor man's gondola). Ah, Venice!
I have a whole bunch of Italy photos, including a whole bunch of Venice canal photos, now up here!
We took a night train out of Venice and after an early morning change in Dijon and an unexpected change in Lyon (which was one of the towns I went to on French trip - the first European city I've returned to!) are now in Marseille. It's sunny as its south of France reputation would suggest and it smells mysteriously like Vietnam (both Jenny and I concur on this point but we've been completely unable to pin the smell down). Since here we've eaten some great bread and some great Moroccan food and I've been gradually recalling my French, enough to have full conversations in shops even if it's still a bit sketchy. We also finally found a cinema showing The Social Network in English, a quest of ours since Greece, and I really enjoyed it! Another good discovery about France: the trailer quota is amazing (even if all the ones we got were dubbed).
Tomorrow we're going to Toulouse and then to Carcassonne, both of which I'm very excited about. Hooray for France! Liberté, égalité, Orangina.
I'm not 100% sure but I think someone in my hostel could be trying to work out the theme song to The Office on guitar!
I'm glad we saw Nine otherwise you might never have known how to be italian
ReplyDeleteSome quality Venice photos chief.
ReplyDeleteWas a delight to Venice with you.
Hope your travels continue to be excellent.
Ben & Alicia
Sasha: So glad! Though I did manage to have the song stuck in my head for the majority of my time in Rome!
ReplyDeleteBen and Alicia: Thanks! Great Venice times with you too! I hope you guys have mighty travels as well. We've also joined the French bread and cheese club now, and it's a good place to be!