Italy & Greece Tour Part I: Rome
My Journey: Rome
Last year, my partner decided to take me and his parents on an oversees trip. There was a long list of possible destinations but the winner location was Italy, as that was the place his mom always wanted to go. The game became to find a tour that would squeak as much into two weeks as we could. The tour he settled on was through Cosmos. This tour would take us to both Italy and Greece, hitting multiple sites in both countries. My one request was that we go to Venice and Murano so that I could do my glass thing.
Vatican Map Room
3/25/2023 Saturday Mead and Metal
One last event before we leave. The Saturday before the flight, my partner and I went to the Mead and Metal Quarterly Market at Viking Alchemy in Smyrna, GA. We had a great day at the event enjoying good mead and nice folk. There was a black smith there and one of the things he had was a hand forged pick that would work well in my period tool set for lampworking.
Day Before Our Flight at Mead and Metal
3/26/2023 Sunday-Atlanta International Airport
Before heading out, last minute packing and a store run. Among the things my partner wanted was an old school Polaroid Camera. My partner had spent months planning for this trip and one of his absolute successes was finding good parking for our time away. We used a company called Fast Park and Relax. They had covered parking with transportation to the international terminal. We arrived at gate at 4:00 PM for our 6:55 flight. This flight would take us from Atlanta to Rome over the course of the night and the lights of New York City before crossing the Atlantic. There would not be much more to see until morning. In the morning, I woke to see the Alps out of my window.
3/27/2023 Monday-Rome, Italy
Navigating out of the Airport in Rome was rather easy, and there was a bus, provided my the tour company, to to take us to our hotel on the out skirts of Rome. We settled into the hotel and then were on our own for the day until a scheduled meeting with the guide and other people on the tour that evening at 6pm. Our plan was to hit up the Capital Museum, the Capuchin Crypt, and find food before heading back to the hotel for the group meeting. For me, going to the Musei Capitalini was all about seeing one of my favorite works of art from the ancient Roman world, the bronze statue of Romulus and Remus with the wolf and a statue of Marcus Aurelius, however, there was a lot here to see.
The building is one of a collection on the top of Capitol Hill. The museum houses a modest collection of Egyptian and Greek objects. The closest thing to beads I found were these spinal whirls. The real show here are the statues and other sculptures. It took some hunting to find the room with the Lupa Capitolina but it was well worth the hunt.
The room also has a bronze Marcus Aurelius on horseback. Lupa is one of my favorite statues and it was a joy to see her in person. She was one of my highlights of the day.
Then, we were all back in a cab and off to the Capuchin Crypts. My partner had chosen this place to visit for his dad to see. The crypts have an attached museum about the Capuchin Friars. Once we finished with the crypts, we were all hungry so we stopped at a restaurant across the way. I had the only good pizza I had while in Italy. From the restaurant, we took another exciting taxi ride through the streets of Rome back to the hotel for the scheduled meeting with the tour leader and group.
The group leader had us walk to a nearby restaurant for dinner, however, we had all just eaten so we just had desserts and walked back to the hotel. Then, my partner and I took a taxi back to town to the Column of Marcus Aurelius. By the time we got there, it was dark. We took our pictures and walked the city streets to the Pantheon. The street was full of shops and restaurants. We started the walk by having some gelato at what would be our favorite gelato place of the trip, Venchi’s. We ended the walk by going into a small meat market where we got some dried meats to take home.
Then, the last taxi ride home. The ride back to the hotel cost almost twice what we thought I should. From this point forward, we only took taxis that had a visible meter. Also, we learned to not tip the drivers as the tip is already included in the price of the ride.
Piazza della Rotonda
3/28/2023 Rome, Italy
The day began with a ride by bus to Vatican City were we were left in the hands of a local guide. The guide was able to get us past the lines to get into the Vatican Museum. We got our tickets and just after passing the gates, we learned that someone in the group had lost the ticket and we had to wait for them to get a new ticket. I left my partner, his parents and the group to go looking for the Roman glass I knew they should have. It helped to know when and where we were to meet at the end of the tour. It took a minute to locate the Greek and Roman section of the museum. They had a fair amount of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman stuff with a few Egyptian items. There was a lot of gold to look at, too.
I did ultimately find some Roman glass. First, I came across some plain beads but then there was a very colorful necklace of glass and stone. Based on the dates of the items it was displayed with, it was from the time period around 1700 and 300 BCE.
600s BCE Grave Goods
Glass and Personal Adornments. Two necklaces composed of glass paste (modern arrangement?); Two Minaturistic Jugs, black glass with glass decorations; ring blue glass paste. Necklace composed of pseudo-scarabs light blue paste. (1550 - 300 BCE) [Note: I am suspect of the categorization of paste glass for some of these beads.
Then, I found a case of Roman glass vessels, including some excellent examples of Mosaic glass.
My favorite find here was an iridescent glass bowl. Unlike my visit to the Corning Museum of Glass, the glass vessels here could be seen from multiple directions with more dynamic lighting. I, however, missed getting some of the museum labels on film.
Hemispherical Iridescent Glass 1st to 2nd Centry CE
At this point, I could hear the tour dude talking on the ear piece they give us. I knew they must be close, and from what they were saying, that they where about to go into the Sistine Chapel so I worked my way to the map room where they were. They will not let you take pictures in the chapel as the people who restored the artwork own now own the rights to the artwork. After visiting the chapel, we made our way to St Peter’s Basilica.
The tour of the Vatican ended with a cafeteria style restaurant and none of the food looked appetizing, so my partner and I ran off to buy the family hot dogs from around the corner and then rushed to get back in time to meet the tour guide for the next part of the day which consisted of a driving tour of the city that ended at the Colosseum.
The Colosseum was definitely a highlight of our second day in Rome.
Colosseum
The tour continued to the Trevi Fountain and then the Spanish steps where there happened to be an air show going on.
The tour guide then took us to Papa Rex for dinner to close out this optional excursion. It was not a very satisfying meal to end our time in Rome on, so after finishing dinner, we told our guide that we would find our way back to the hotel. We then took Dez’s parents to the same street we had walked the night before for more gelato.
The next day would see us headed for Florence.
Tips and Lessons Learned:
When with a tour guide: Get a clear idea of what is and is not on the tour, and how free you will be to self guide.
Check Your receipts for over charges.
Taxis: Make sure you see the meter, day charge starts at 3-4 Euro and the night charge starts at around 7 Euro.
Be sure to look down, too, particularly inside buildings. Glass floors often indicate ruins below.
Consistently take pictures of signs and labels so you can better remember what you have seen.
PS: the meat we got turned out to have problems one was poorly packaged and spoiled. The other was sold to us past its best by date.
Ring I made that was inspired by one in Vatican Museum.