August 11, 2002
11/8/2002 Venice, Italy (Phill)
11/8/2002 Venice, Italy (Phill)
Well the last few days in Rome went like this: I hung out with Fieke and Anouk until they left. I realy had a great time with them and will definately be visiting them in The Netherlands. Hopefully Fieke is meeting back up with me tomorrow somewhere near here also. I was most impressed by the Colloseum. Quite honestly I was impressed with all the Romans managed to build. The buildings not only were stupendous for the day, but have managed to survive 2,000 years of Italian drivers crashing into them! Quite an acheivement, I promise you.
After rome I headed to Naples to see Pompeii. Pompeii, of course, is the most perfectly preserved Roman village anywhere. It was a major port around 100BC but in the late first century Vesuvius erupted freezing the village with hot ash. Now that it has been excavated you can walk around the place exactly as it looked 2000 years ago (well it probably had less tourists with cameras...). Around 2000 people died that day and many of their bodies were also frozen in time and have been reconstructed using plaster exactly as they died. It's chilling but fascinating stuff. The village had a massive stadium for the games and music halls. Although considering all the brothel remains I saw, I couldn't find the remains of an ancient Roman Internet cafe. They can't have been too much fun!
Okay, I spent all day yesterday travelling from one end of the country to the other. I arrived in Venice late last night after a terrible day. The whole country is packed with tourists and its really hard to find places to stay. While stuck in Florence yesterday trying to get to Pisa I called hostels in Florence, Pisa and Venice trying to get a dorm bed; Unfortunately to no avail... Anyway, I did manage to get a bed in venice so I bought a ticket to Venice. Again, crappily, the ticket I was sold was for a train that left the minute before. Italian customer service, I tell you! I had to cash it back in (losing $10) and buy another ticket.
Arriving in Venice is pretty fabulous. Just to get from the train station to my hotel I took a waterbus. Travelling down the Grand Canal at night made the day much better. It certainly looked like the Venice of the travel brochures, georgous buildings lining the water, gently lit from inside. Very impressive. When I found my hotel (in the pouring rain) my little room was lovely. I think I'm so used to sleeping in squalour that I forgot how the rest of the world lives. My room even came with towels and soap! I like it, I might even splash out and stay there again tonight.
Today I'm heading to the Basillica and maybe just to a park to chill out. I just ate a massive breakfast (came with the room so I had to eat my moneys worth!) so I need to go digest somewhere :)
Posted by Admin at August 11, 2002 01:22 AM