The Italian holiday! (Part I)

The Italian Holiday (Part I)

It’s been sometime since I have blogged, and I blame the heat! It’s the month of June in Mumbai, India and the sub continent is basically a hot bed at this time, with every breath waiting for the rain God’s blessing. It is also vacation time for schools and colleges. Vacation se yaad aya, when was the last time I took a couple of days off and enjoyed? When was the last time I traveled? Many times I wonder if my dream job would be a travel show host. Just imagine, living your dream and getting paid for it!

So this blog is on my recent trip to Italy. But before we head there, here are some simple tips for all you travel enthusiasts:

1)    Plan in advance – a ten day holiday is a long time spent out of your house and in a foreign country, which means you will have to plan for your visas, tickets, stay et al. Also if possible remember that off-season travel is a good option as it means fewer crowds, inexpensive services and tickets and more time to see your favourite tourist spots.

2)      Stay - Choose hotels or stay options that are light on your wallet yet heavy on comfort and location. Remember you will be travelling and exploring the cities/towns you stay in the entire day, so ideally you will be using the hotel room only for a good night’s rest.

A hotel situated closer to the central railway station (in Europe everything is well connected by rail and the central station is well connected by bus, trams, metros to all the attractions and the airports) will help you save on time in asking for directions and money in reaching your place.

Book your stay before you reach the city. Check for the details mentioned on the website in advance. Ideally go for a place with breakfast included.

3)      Tickets – book your flights in advance for cheaper rates and better deals.

4)      Visa – Indian passport holders require visas in most countries. Please check the visa requirements on the respective country embassy websites and keep all the documents ready at least 15-20 days in advance of your travel.

5)  Travel insurance – now a days it’s almost mandatory to carry a valid travel insurance with you. Connect with well know insurance houses such as Cholamandalam, HDFC, and their likes. Travel insurance policies are generally inexpensive, only for the stipulated travel time and are quick to apply for.  

6)      Packing – the most important activity. Remember pack only the essentials. You do not have to carry your entire wardrobe! Pack light and pack tight.

7)      Currency – carry an average of 30 euro/USD per day and calculate accordingly. Majority of the European cities operate on plastic money, so an international credit card will make life easier. Another option is to carry a pre-paid Borderless debit card (available at all Thomas Cook branches). Do not carry traveller cheques, that is a pain and there is a transaction cost attached on exchange for money.

8)      International driver license – get one, so life will be easier in case you decide on an impromptu trip.

Now back to Italy...

Italy is the magical and mystical land of the Roman civilisation, of gladiators, and the leaning tower of Pisa, of the Vatican and Venice, of beautiful wine estates and sun-kissed beaches, of art, frescoes, sculptures, cuisines and fashion. I and my husband had dreamt of backpacking across Italy way back in 2011, when we had gone back packing in Europe. Yet even back then I felt we would not be giving enough time to this country and its sights. So we decided, we’ll set a separate vacation time for Italy. And that time was now. We were ready! Ready to traverse the roads that led to Rome, explore and get lost in the beautiful churches and vineyards. Explore the country side and its fashion capital.

With gusto in our wings we started on our 2 week sojourn. Our first leg of the journey took us to Rome via Abu Dhabi. With a slight delay in our flight time, we reached Rome and were cold! Literally cold, it was March and it’s cold and chilly in Europe during this season! So we pulled out the woollens and headed for a bus that would take us to the city centre. Do you remember the old adage – “When in Rome, do as the Romans”? Well do not do as the Romans, for you will be utterly confused, and in all probability duped! Do as you would in your country. Find a city map first, buy tickets at the ticket window, talk to people in English (these guys aren’t as rude as their French counterparts!), ask for directions without hesitation. The capital is generally a safe place with police doing rounds of all the crowded places. And yes, trust your sixth sense.

The sky was a beautiful clear blue as we landed in Rome and made our way to the Central train station. From here we were to catch a metro to Fontana Trevi where we had booked a studio apartment on rent. It was inexpensive, and located within a minutes’ walk from the Trevi fountain. Being our first day in Rome, we were struggling a bit with the language, and the big bags (uff, I really do not understand why we cannot travel light?!) on the cobbled streets of Rome. After about 40 minutes of direction struggle and hating the fact that we did not have data on our mobiles, we finally reached our apartment.

We had booked this beautiful little nook just 10 days ago through Air BnB – this is an international website for renting houses/apartments/studios across the world for a stipulated time. We met the owner of this studio, he let us in, showed us around the necessary stuff. A beautiful small place in a bustling city. And so began our Roman Holiday! We started with all the touristy stuff. We had all the days planned for exploring the sights and places in Rome, in fact all of Italy. We had chosen this place mainly on account of its proximity to all the touristy spots. We would just walk around the entire city. While the weather was beautiful for the first 2 days, bight and sunny but chilly, perfect for walking, it was wet, chilly and soggy the remaining 3 days.  We spent our first evening in Rome sitting on the Spanish steps, enjoying the beautiful weather and street food.  Rome as a city doesn’t have a lot of open spaces or grounds but has lots of open squares. These are all the major tourist spots too. They are called Piazzas in Italian, and generally have either a church or a fountain or a famous tourist spot on one side. The remaining three sides are surrounded by open cafes and shops and market. It makes for a pleasant scene, to sit at one of these cafes and generally enjoy the local life.

We spent the entire day two understanding and enjoying the beautiful Vatican. Rome is a magical city. It literally breathes art – you have from frescoes, huge column architectures, beautiful churches and streets and to top it all up – The Vatican! We spent a day exploring this country; yup Vatican is a sovereign within Italy, it has its own bank, its own army and police (The Swiss Guards) and its own government (The Pope and his council) and it is rich in art, culture, history and of course if you did not know the word bank has its roots in the word bascilica! Since we were touring in the off-season, we did not have to wait in long queues or get pushed around. Vatican is best understood if you have a guide with you. You can either book a tour online (but that is a bit costly) or just land up there and talk to guides to be included in their groups. We did the later, got good English speaking guide and explored the Vatican with a group of 40 other English speaking tourists.

Saint Peter’s Basilica floored us. It is huge and beautiful. Sculptures and art surrounding the building and inside the cathedral. The Pope’s famous balcony and the Vatican Museums, especially Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling at the Sistine Chapel. It’s beautiful.   

The next big thing on our agenda was of course the Colosseum! This magnificent structure is loaded with history. Tip: We had downloaded English audio guides on our mobiles so we could enjoy the colosseum and its history. The Roman history is dominated by blood and religion. This also extended to the games they played. The gladiator games and the human fights were enjoyed by both genders. The gladiators were either PoW, slaves or criminals. Their fate would be decided by the crowd yelling either “live” or “die” or gesturing the same through a thumbs up or down!

But Rome’s history is not just limited to Ceaser and other Roman generals. It goes well beyond that. The Roman civilisation has given the world marvels in architecture and engineering besides religion and art. Before Christianity became the order of the day in Rome, Romans used to worship Gods. Just as the Indians worship the Gods of Water, Fire, Land and Sky, the Romans worshipped the planets and the solar system. Today’s churches were earlier temples of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, Sun and the Moon.  These temples were typical structures dominated by huge columns and domes. They were architectural marvels, rich in geometry and allowing for natural light to enlighten the mind and space!  This is the picture of the famous Pantheon church, an erstwhile temple of God Jupiter. Its huge and beautiful inside. the center of the dome opens up to the sky to let natural light illuminate the entire space from within. Since it's open at the top, one might think that rain water could accumulate inside the structure, but just imagine the architectural genius, there is an inclined slope (very slight and not noticeable to the naked eye) just underneath the opening from where water flows out of the Pantheon. Beyond this slope were located the statues of the Gods and the space around of course would remain dry all the time! 

We were to stay for 4N/5D in Rome then travel to Florence. Florence was our hub for another 4 days while we would make day trips to Pisa, Venice and explore the Italian country side.

But more of the Firenze experience in part II of this blog...