Tue, 23 Sep 2003

author Tim	location Firenze, Tuscany, Italia
posted 09:01 CEST 26/09/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Italia ( all photos )

Roma IV - Pantheon then Pisa ( 17 photos )
There were just a few things remaining for us to look at in Roma, then it was time to head onwards.
We had to get our bags out of our rooms, so saddling up the big pack, we walked a little way down the road to a place where we could store it for the day, a pokey little back room underneath a very dodgy internet café.
As you have to do with these places, I inquired whether we could plug our laptop in there. The answer we got back was a little confusing - yes, but only after 4pm when his boss was there to supervise.
Not too worried by that, we chose to push on to see our site for the morning - the Pantheon. This strange round building hidden in the wonderful way of ancient monuments tucked away in the middle of busy urban streets, we were suprised to find actually didn't have an entrance charge. In fact, there's not a lot to it at all. It's just one massive room, the top half of which is a large dome with a hole in the top. I read that you could fit a perfect sphere with a diameter of the height of the building inside.
The Christian church have chosen a different path, turning it into a religeos building by the addition of small chapels and frescoes around the sides, but it is amazing the way that your eyes almost skip over them. The focus of it all is surely looking ever upward at that hole. There is a couple of big signs in many languages saying "Yes, there is a big hole in the middle of the roof. Yes, rain does come in. No, it doesn't flood because there is a drainage system in the floor". I guess that answers those questions then.
We sat in the entrance veranda part on the bases of some of the massive marble columns, overlooking Piazza della Rotonda. Continuing our trick of picnicing our way around the world, we munched away and watched the drunks with dogs trade beer and chicken for their dogs to eat with each other. More entertaining than looking the other way, which would have let us see the people in period dress trying to sell horribly over-priced Opera tickets to hapless tourists.
Originally we had intended to see a couple more things around the place and then get going, but to be honest our legs were not interested. We managed to convince them to take us back to get our pack via a shop or two in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore for a couple of last touristy goodies, a café for amazingly cheap amazingly good coffee (because it was not where tourists typically walk), and a couple more attempts at internet cafés.
When we returned to where our pack was, I noted that there was now two people on duty there, surely enough for me to be able to plug the laptop in. But no, the excuse had changed to "It is not possible!" Fine, we walked away to take our business elsewhere.
Finding the ticket office at Roma Termini proved a little challenging, but having learnt from our previous mistakes, we just assumed they spoke English, purchased two singles to Pisa Central and found our platform. We topped up our water bottles with more of that great free Roman water, grabbed an expensive copy of The Times from London and jumped on our train.
Sure, there was more to do in Roma, but there is just so much to do in Roma that there's no way we could have done it all anyway. Besides, now we have a reason to return, as throwing the coin over our shoulders into the fountain means we will. A great city which we are extremely glad to have made it to.

The country-side flew by in a blur as the train got itself moving, for what turned out to be a fairly un-eventful journey. For a while we were following the water, something we hadn't seen for a long time, but then we ducked inland for a bit of a wiggle through some hills before making it back to the coast on the way into Pisa.
The station information office told the story of what this place was all about - huge signs with maps everywhere saying "You are here. Here is the tower. Walk 15 minutes this way or else catch bus number 3". It really is a one-attraction town. Once inside the information office, the lady was happy to show us on a map where the youth hostel was - a bit out of town on the far side. Famous bus number three would get us there also.
After eventually de-cyphering where the bus went from, we stood for quite a while as every other numbered bus stopped then left. Finally bus 3 limped in, and we got on along with a few other backpackers, all obviously doing exactly the same thing we were. We struck up a conversation with one of them, a girl from Nottingham (England) called Katherine. Between the three of us we managed to work out where to get off for the hostel, although to be honest her Italian asking the bus driver was what did it in the end.
The hostel was a strange one - in an old church or maybe covent which had been fitted out quite well with little rooms everywhere, and some extra buildings on the back. Since it was the only place in town within our budget, and we had talked to a guy at the information office who had spent two hours wandering around every hotel in town with no success, we were a bit anxious about whether we would get a room there. It turns out that we were saved by the fact that the hostel only opened at 6pm, a little before we arrived and waited for a long while in the queue.
No problems getting beds, Liz in a big dorm with lots of other girls including Katherine, and me in a four-bed dorm with three other stinky blokes. Note that I did include myself in the stinky bit :)
After settling in a little, we went back out to the road to catch a bus, and luckily there were some Deutsch girls there who pointed out that we had to get the bus from the same side of the road we had been dropped off on - it does a big loop back to town.
So, we got off at the central square of town, and wandered towards probably the most over-marketed tourist attraction in the world. You couldn't miss it if you were deaf, dumb and blind - a really big leaning tower which admittedly leans lots more than we had expected. Just feel your way there past the fifty or so touristy shops in a row all selling exactly the same crap - leaning tower lighters, cups, mugs, statues, lights, t-shirts, you get the idea.
We were actually suprised by the surrounds of the area - there's quite a bit more to see besides the tower itself, including the huge neighboring cathedral, but our time and budget wasn't going to include them.
We grabbed some shots in the ailing light, before turning our attention to our stomachs. We stumbled across Katherine again (it's not a very big place), whos budget was in the very low range with ours. We found a back-street place with no cover charge and small but filling and good portions, washed down with a bottle of that great cheap Italian vino.
It was good to chat to someone else for a change (not just me saying that, Liz also!), especially since Katherine turned out to be a medical student. Liz and her traded horror stories in the way that only those used to doing hideous things to human bodies can, while I just enjoyed the atmosphere of our table on the street.
Eventually time to head home for the night, we managed to just miss a bus. Between the three of us, we picked out the road home and walked it, dodging vespas and cars with no intention of following the speed limit along the road to the hostel.
I resigned myself to falling into a slumber in the stinky room, while Liz and Katherine found people playing board games with no intention of sleeping and chatted awake for quite some time.
A huge lightning storm was right over the building, the first we had heard in a long time. It made me miss the storms you get in Sydney pretty much every night in summer, something we will enjoy seeing again very soon now.

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