Tuesday, July 31, 2001: Michelangelo - Sabaudai to Roma (by hitchhiking, bus and train)

Frank here…

It was tricky getting to Roma today. You must have noticed now that I often swap Roma and Rome. They are the same place in different languages. Anyway, I got up early to meet my 7:40am bus to take me to the center of Sabaudia. I was getting anxious because I did not want to miss the long distance bus which was leaving at 8:10. At 7:45, when I was about to give up hope, I saw the bus round the corner 100 metres away. "Whew!" I thought, but the bus just stayed there. I waited for a few more minutes until 7:50. It was still stopped at the corner. So I walked to the bus and found out from the two passengers that there was a little accident. I talked to the bus driver at 7:55 who told me that he will not be able to get me into Sabaudia by 8:05 because he needed at least 15 more minutes to fill out the paper work for the accident. Goodness! I then rushed to the camp and asked Sildi if she could get me into town. No luck. I had two more choices, go left and hitchhike the short route, or go right and hitchhike a further distance. If I took the further distance then I could catch the local bus, should the driver get the bus going soon.

I decided to start walking and hitchhiking the shorter route. When I got 200 metres down the road, the local bus that got in the accident started moving. BUMMER! I should have gone the other way! To my luck, a young fellow who was marshalling the parking along the road, flagged down a vehicle and got me a ride to the bus station. I got there five minutes late! So, I had to think fast and ended up finding a bus that would take me to the train station with trains leaving every ½ hour for Roma.

I got to bustling Rome in several hours and immediately headed to the Metro to take a subway to the Colesseo (Colosseum). When I surfaced at the Colosseum subway stop I was in awe of the first-read outdoor site that I saw of Rome. The famed (or infamous depending on your viewpoint) Colosseum stood out like what seemed like a mountain across the street! The construction of this 80,000 seat structure (originally known as Flavian Amphitheatre) began in 72 AD. Literally thousands of animals and people were slaughtered at this site, all for entertainment and gambling! Many of the gladiators were prisoners of war, slaves or volunteers. They were often equiped differently when pitted against each other. Some had heavy swords and shields while others were scantily dressed and had a net and trident as their weapons. The downfall of Rome and the trend towards Christianity helped end the senseless slaughters.

From there I found my way to Piazza (Plaza or Square) Navona with a student who knew the way. She sure saved me a lot of time. The streets were rather busy, some narrow, some wide. I passed by one building that had a lot of men standing mostly at attention outside the entrance and other men guarding the place with automatic guns. I guess it was a high security area. I did not feel very comfortable there, so I walked quickly.

When I got to the piazza (which was built on top of Domitian's stadium), it was a very lively place. It was teaming with bustling outdoor cafes, some buskers, people of all walks of life, and three spectacular fountains. One busker was painted all green and stood motionless in the garb of the Statue of Liberty. I often saw people posing with the living statue for memorable photo opportunities.

In the centre of the piazza was the spectacular Fontana dei Fiumi (The Fountain of Rivers). Created by Bernini in 1651, it has four giant statues surrounding the centre. Each one represents the four quarters of the earth with the Nile, Danube, Ganges and Rio della Plata rivers.

I hung around until my classical piano playing friend, Patrizia, emerged from the Brazilian Embassy. She was preparing for travelling to Brazil to play and teach piano. We visited for a few hours and had pranza (lunch). The price for lunch (a refreshing drink and pesto pasta) was surprisingly low - and this was the centre of Rome! I do not understand why Rome is given the reputation of being the most expensive place to travel to. It is expensive if you want it to be, but there are also quite low cost alternatives.

Patrizia just released a new CD - Bach Goldberg Variations for Two Pianos. She told me where to buy it. I would have loved to have had it signed by her, but I still had to buy it. I wished her good travels and music as she drove me to Vatican City.

I stood in awe in the Piazza San Pietro while looking at Saint Peters Basilica. In 1929 Mussolini gave the Pope full sovereignty over the Vatican. Even though it is totally surrounded by Rome, it has its own currency, postal service, newspaper, radio station and even an army of Swiss Guards.

I went for a tour in the basilica but had to put on long pants before entering. Fortunately I had my zipper convertible pants and was ready to go in after a minute of finding my pant legs and zipping them on.

The inside was fantastic with many treasures of art such as Michelangelo's Pieta (The Pity), which he sculpted at the young age of 25. This sculpture, which is now protected by bulletproof glass (because a vandal attacked it in 1972, is the only one with Michelangelo's signature. Also by the same artist (who considered himself mostly a sculptor) is the dome which is 119m high. Other artifacts include the lance of San Longino which was used to peirce Christ's side, and the cloth of Santa Veronica, which carries the image of Christ.

As I walked around Vatican City I found out that the Pope was scheduled to deliver his weekly public speech. Wow! I had no idea. So I found out whatever I needed to know to get to the event!

I found a hostel for only 35,000 lire/night - not bad for Rome. The place was not too fancy an the rooms were jam packed, but who cares. I was a bit nervous about the neighbourhood (near the train station), but several people told me it was safe. One of my fellow roommates at the hostel started talking to me very quickly in Spanish. He surmised that I was from Peru because I was wearing a t-shirt from there. I asked him to slow down his speech because I found Spanish confusing because I was now learning Italian. He slowed down about half his speed of talking which still was too fast! Ha, anyway he was from Peru too. Cool!

I had fun at a nearby Chinese restaurant with Lita. She and her husband were running the shop and once I said "Ni Hao" (hello in Manderin, Chinese language) to her, she opened up. She asked me how to say a lot of different words in Italian (and some English). We had a lot of fun joking back and forth. Lita then asked if I could come every day for a month and teach her words in Italian and English in exchange for dinner. Boy that idea sure sounded good to me, but I was set to only stay a few more days in Italy. I then met two patrons from Ghana, Africa. Mary and her 14 year old daughter, Mummy, were over for business. We had a great conversation before I headed back to the hostel to sleep.

-All roads lead to Rome

-Frank Pollari