Hot tips on the Colosseum

 

It is a well known fact that no-one (except the English) enjoy lining up. But when touristing around Europe, waiting in lines is the unfortunate downside to ticking off must see items in many countries. If you are in the know then there are often ways of jumping the queue and just recently I discovered one for getting in to the Colosseum in Rome in just a few minutes.

Myself, Laura and Tobin were heading in to the city early in order to get a place in the subterranean Colosseum tour which we had heard often sells out early. We were in by 10am and already the queue was wrapping around the outside of the building as well as deep inside it's bowls to the ticket office. We groaned when we saw it, but figured that there had to be an easier way, especially as it was a specific tour that we were looking for. We approached the guy who was obviously in charge of organizing the line where we might go for the subterranean guided tours and he directed us down the empty space that said it was for groups only. We passed hundreds of people waiting in line for the regular entry tickets for the Colosseum and lined up behind 6 other people who were booking the guided tour. For an extra 9 euro (bringing the total to 21 euro) we had skipped hours of waiting and had a guided tour. The ticket also includes entry to the Roman Forum next door and the Palatine museum within it AND all of this is valid for two days. Amazing!

Arch of Tito in the Forum

A few other tricks for entry into the Colosseum that I have heard (but not tested) is to join the much shorter line for an audio guide, it will cost you 5 euro more but cuts most of the wait. Or if you really just want the 12 euro normal ticket, you can buy it from the Roman Forum entry where there is usually less people waiting than at the Colosseum.

Whilst we waited for our 12:20 tour, Laura and I wandered in the Roman forum. The area is about half a kilometer squared and is PACKED with ruins. A whole day could be spent in there but we were just killing a few hours. We met up with our guide and about 15 other people back at the Colosseum and the first place we went to was the underground section. Basically when the Colosseum was operating 2000 years ago, gladiators and wild animals were kept and trained in various schools in the surrounding area, many of which connected directly to the Colosseum via underground tunnels. They would then be in the bowels of the arena, surrounded by up to 80 man operated lifts (and the slaves operating them) which would hoist the various animals and men up through wooden trapdoors and into the view of the spectators. The wooden floor of the arena has all rotted away now and so what you are left seeing from above is the maze of small tunnels and shafts of elevators. We were down amongst this with our guide in the damp and the shadows and it was very impressive to see the tall stone walls stretch above us with nothing but the forces of gravity holding them together.

Down in the bowels of the Colosseum

 

Hallways where the gladiators used to walk

The guided tour also took us up above where the normal ticket gives you entry. Up in our birds eye viewing spot we could see on one side of us the collapsed and pillaged but still grand remains of the Colosseum and on the other side was the Palatine hill and roman forum with collapsed temples and villas for as far as we could see. Blocking out all the tourists you could very easily imagine what it would have been like to be an ancient Roman sitting in that seat and checking out the view around him.

 

Colosseum from the highest point

 

Tobin at the Colosseum

 

In the Forum

 

In the Forum

 

In the Forum

 

In the Forum

 

In the Forum

 

View of the Forum from the highest point of the Colosseum

 

View of the Forum and Palatine Hill

 

Looking at the surroundings of the Colosseum

*On a side note, the spelling of Coliseum/Colosseum has been brought to my attention, I did some research and you might be interested to know that although both spellings are correct, Colosseum is unofficially used exclusively to describe the ancient arena in Rome whilst Coliseum is used to describe all the other 'Colosseums'! This page gives some reasons why http://grammarist.com/spelling/colosseum-coliseum/

Roads (and train lines) to Rome

Where can you find gypsy children busking, a Chaplain to His Holiness, and beautiful couples draped over one and other breathing deeply, asleep? On Italian public transport of course.

This weekend I took a trip from Rome, down the coast to Naples and Sorrento. A trip that was expected to take two - three hours. It took 6. Myself and Laura were already aware that Italians have no love for timetables, the bus that runs from outside our campsite to the station's timetable reads 'operating between 0500 - 2300'. There is not even any indication of how many times within that bracket it will pass by. So what I'm saying is that when our train from Rome to Naples did not depart on time, we shouldn't have been surprised. However I was surprised when for half of this 3 hour train ride (the website said it would be 2 hours) we were standing with about half the other passengers of the train. I've never done the trip but I don't think that Sydney rail oversells its tickets from Sydney to Canberra, which I think would be equivalent.

We did have some enlightenment on our trip as to why Italy has no timetables. Why put them in place when your transport is never going to run to them? We caught a hop-on hop-off bus between Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi on our free day. It's timetable was very comprehensive and we even ran to catch the first bus, thinking that we might miss it. No worries there it seems, it was half an hour late in leaving. The drive itself was stunning enough to make you not worry about the standstill traffic all around the coast and we arrived at Amalfi only an hour after the brochure said we would. From there we worried less, just turning up at the bus stop when we were ready rather than reading the timetable.

Despite all this we were somehow still surprised by our last bus of the day. The lady at the stop had said it should be there in an hour and so we went off into Positano for a look around. When we came back she apologized profusely and said that due to the traffic the bus hadn't actually left Amalfi yet and would be another 45 minutes or so, then another hour from there to Sorrento. We had booked dinner and couldn't really be that late so we hopped on the next public bus/ cattle car that came through to get home. Again a crazy squash of people, I sat on a step underneath someone's chair for the whole journey.  

It is lucky that the public transport attracts the sorts of characters that I mentioned at the start. Priests and Nuns, tourists, businessmen, students, families, buskers, lovers and drunks all use the buses and trains and lead to some wonderful people watching. I really wanted to be an Italian fly on the wall of the conversation that happened when a young priest in plain cassock went up and introduced himself to the priest wearing a cassock with fuchsia trimmings and hat whilst on the bus ride to our campsite.

I cannot recommend Italian public transport at all, I haven't even mentioned how dirty it is, but there really isn't any other option. I certainly wouldn't want to be driving myself in their crazy traffic! It needs to be approached with a positive attitude, the realization that possibly nothing will go right, and I would not recommend making your travel plans on a tight time schedule. Get on Italian time. I hesitate to say 'bring back Mussolini!' but it seems he did have some positives....

What we've been cooking

It came to the end of the season last year and my boss asked if anyone had photos of the meals they had been cooking. I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of my meals at all, which I think shows a mix of a lack of time and a lack of pride.

This season I made the aim to take a lot more pictures to prove to people at home that I am actually working, so far I'm doing pretty well with that aim. The first 2 weeks of this season I have been working at the Venice campsite. We have a menu there of two meals which rotate every other day. I didn't manage to take any pictures of the main meals that we serve as it was always too busy by the time we were plating them up. One night it is a Pumpkin and Radicchio Gnocchi with Amatriciana Pasta and with that we serve a pair of starters.

Antipasto Plates

 Salami, Coppa, Proscuitto, Olives, Sundried Tomatoes and Grissini sticks on a bed of rocket. At the same time on the table the caprese has a mix of tomatoes marinated in a tapenade then scattered with buffalo mozerella cheese and fresh basil.

Caprese Salads

 On the other day the main course is chicken marinated in a tomato and garlic pesto and served with a fresh potato salad mixed with oil, lemon, green beans, sun dried tomatoes and olives. For dessert we let the passengers act like children, providing them with all the trimmings for make your own sundaes.

 

Potato Salad

Make Your Own Sundaes

 Just a few quick pictures to show you what I've been up to. I'm in Rome now for another month or so now with a few days coming up soon. I plan to become a Rome expert!

Table Settings in Venice

Burano and Torcello

The islands of Murano and Burano have been on my 'to do' list of Venice for years now. Somehow I have never been organized enough to make it to them and stories of how long it took scared me off as well. However the realization at the end of last season that I had spent 10 weeks here and I STILL hadn't seen them kicked me into gear and I made it a priority to get out to them as soon as possible.

Burano

Tuesday loomed free and I did some research to make my trip in smooth. Lucky I did because Burano (the furthest out) took a few hours and several modes of transport to get to. It is in the north of the lagoon and is a tiny island famed for it's lace making and colourful houses (what I was there to see).

The grocery store in Burano

Colours of Burano

The weather here has been lovely and so the vaporetto ride across the lagoon was smooth and scenic. Stepping off the vaporetto I was hit straight away by the wafts of pastry coming from a bakery. There weren't so many streets to choose from like there are in Venice and so I followed the main one along and it was only a few houses before the bright paint began popping out and flowers were decorating window sills. They like to choose one colour and stick with it for decorating their entire house, shutters, doors, curtains and handles, all in varying shades of green, or orange or yellow or blue. The whole place was like a movie set it was so perfect. There were men selling vegetables out of boats on the canals and of course the delicate lace shops dotted around with old women inside sitting on high backed chairs making lace and chatting together. I bought one of the delicious smelling cakes and was in raptures of delight at the soft lemony custard that was inside it.

Lace in Burano

Just another picture perfect scene in Burano

I still had some time left and so I caught the vaporetto to the next island along called Torcello. Torcello had it's heyday back in the 10th century with around 10,000 people living on it (I don't know how, the island looked kinda small to me) and in the 12th century it went into a rapid decline due to it's surrounding lagoon becoming swampy and hard to navigate. It also became a dangerous place to be because of growing cases of malaria and the population fled to Burano, Murano and Venice. It now has a population of about 20 people.

The main street in Torcello

The path less travelled

The church at Torcello

The main sight on the island is a cluster of buildings including a cathedral built in 630 and a church built over the 11th and 12th centuries as well as two 14th century palaces, once the seat of the communal government. But what I loved most was the nature of the place! It was so quiet compared to Venice, it has one main pathway following a canal leading from the vaporetto stop to the old buildings which most of the tourists follow. I crossed a few bridges and took the path less travelled and found blossoms on trees, daisies in the lawn, butterflies in the air and everywhere a smell of freshly mown grass. It was beautiful and serene and I followed a few canals this way, spotting a few of the inhabited houses. There were a few restaurants I could have eaten at but instead I chose to take a seat under a tree and listen to the lone busker until I was out of time and had to begin my journey back to the campsite.

Inside the church in Torcello

Next time I will be visiting Murano to see what makes it different and maybe I can slot in Venic's cemetery island. If you go to Venice, don't miss either of these places, the outer islands are just as special as the main one!

Burano

 

Burano

 

Burano

 

Burano

 

Burano

 


Even the boats are colourful!

Drinking water in Burano

Burano, notice the rooftop balconies they add on?

The leaning tower of Burano

Glass animals for sale

Casa Blu

Torcello

Quiet canals, almost no boats were spotted here

Islands across the lagoon

Ruins in the lagoon

Torcello



A café in Torcello

Torcello

Torcello

Torcello

Torcello

Torcello, and the obligatory scaffolding in the background