Photo Link:
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Steve and I flew from Thessaloniki to Rome and met up with Martin and his LBS friend, Aash, who both got in at the same time but from the other Rome airport. I had been to Rome for a week with my family back in 10th grade, so I sort of treated this as a first visit even though I vaguely remembered some stuff. On the whole, Rome was awesome. The ruins were probably a tad overrated (considering all that I have seen), but the clear and obvious highlight were the numerous gorgeous Baroque churches littered throughout the city. And honestly, church is almost an insult – these were all beyond magnificent buildings. Food was obviously great, though honestly not standout phenomenal. Like Italy is still so far (unless the North blows me away) the 4th best food country I’ve been in after India/Mexico/China, but still. You can get similar quality Italian food in New York. Martin and Aash flew back to London after 5 days in Rome (they are MBA students after all), and then Steve and I went to Naples for 3 days, which was the highlight of the trip for the daytrips from there.
Anyways, Rome. The tourist infestation here was crazy. I really do think I would have hated Rome if I went during a summer before COVID. Though I do guess that it is a good sign that things are getting back to normal. Just a crazy amount of tourists everywhere, it really feels like COVID is over. My clear cut top 3 churches were St. Peter’s at the Vatican, Santa Maria Maggiore, and Sant Andrea. Saint Peter’s needs no introduction. An absolutely obnoxious spectacle in the best way possible. I can’t imagine ever praying in a place like this, there’s just way too much going on. I guess that sort of was the point, to make the commoner gasp in awe, and it still achieves just that. My neck lowkey hurt after our hour+ here from craning up the entire walk around to get all the details in. Really just an all round incredible place. Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the 4 Papal churches of Rome – along with St Peter, St Paul Outside the Walls (which had excellent, excellent mosaics), and San Giovanni Laterano – and while not quite at St Peter’s level (nothing is), it was still an ornately decorate Baroque church. And the fact that this was one of the later churches I saw and it still impressed shows just how grand it really was. Sant Andrea was right off Piazza Navona and was the second church we saw, but I think a big reason I loved it beyond the typical Baroque artwork and majestic size was the fact that they had recorded hymns playing. I’m a sucker for Church music and it really enhanced the experience of walking around. Also, it being the second church meant I wasn’t quite “Church’d out” yet, so I am curious what I would have thought if there wasn’t music and I saw it at the end of my stay in Rome. Other church highlights include the one right off Piazza Navona, which had some excellent giant marble wall sculptures, St Pauls Outside The Walls (for the mosaics), and Santa Maria in Vallicella (also in a sidestreet by Piazza Navona), which had some Raphael paintings (my favorite Renaissance painter) and cool sculpted archeways. But every single one we walked into was incredible in its’ own way.
Before visiting St. Peter’s Cathedral we spent a few hours roaming around the Vatican Museum. Obviously just a world class space. Tons of amazing stuff there, but I think the clear highlight for me were the Raphael Rooms. I think I spent like 15 minutes looking at The School of Athens alone. Not sure if I can put my finger on it, but I just really like his style. Another cool painting he did was this giant rooftop scene of a cross on a pedestal, with a broken Roman pagan statue below it. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. And on the way to the Sistine Chapel, there was this awesome modern art composition. It was 3 video screens creating a box, and on each screen was black and white footage of people just walking around an empty room. If you held your hand on one of the humans, they would walk up, start doing some interpretative “dance” – but really just movements while staying still – while some cool sounds started playing. Not sure if this was the intent at all, but it really reminded me a ton of a jungle setting. It’s the sort of thing you would see at Burning Man and that also played a part in it, but it was just really easy for me to get lost in the whole scene as random other guests were creating different sounds the same time I was by interacting with the piece.
Soon after this was the Sistine Chapel, which was obviously amazing. One highlight here that Martin, Aash and I could not get enough of (much to the chagrin of Steve, who is religious), was Michelangelo prominently painting God’s bare ass. Two panels below the one of Adam and God touching fingers is a panel with God mightily pointing to his left – this is the image the Onion uses of “God” whenever they post an article about him. On the same panel is God drifting (if that is the word?) with his robes covering his entire backside, save his buttocks. The added context of Michelangelo being gay made it that much funnier – that he had a lover in mind while drawing God’s backside in the holiest spot of Catholicism. To me this was far funnier than any sort of erotic artwork in Hindu temples because of the prudish nature of Christianity compared to ancient Hinduism. But it really shows how humans will always be human, and that nothing is “too” sacred – apparently Michelangelo did not get along well with the Pope who commissioned this, and he drew God’s butt directly above where the Pope would be standing for services. Kind of just puts in perspective for me how history is filled with people who I know right now. Beyond that, the other main highlight of the Vatican museums for me were the Roman statues, especially some of the statues and busts of the emperors, like Augustus and Hadrian in particular. Especially seeing these after Greece, it really drove in how impressive the Greeks were in their artistic achievements.
The other big thing to see in Rome is obviously the ruins. The Colosseum for me squarely falls in the “worth seeing but wildly overrated” category. It’s just a giant theater that is filled with far too many tourists. Like it’s definitely cool, but the outrageous price (24 euros), the crowds, and the “just OK” nature of the ruin itself meant I was almost going through the motions while walking through. Honestly the best part about this area was Constantine’s Arch, which was in shockingly great shape where you could make out a lot of the scenes that were carved into it. Ditto for the Roman Forum – the ruins were obviously pretty neat, but even Greece was more impressive for me, let alone Turkey or Jerash in Jordan. While the historic significance of the site would normally elevate the experience for me, Rome is just soaked in history – quite literally every street has some ancient or Baroque masterpiece – so this didn’t stand out that much more. One super interesting historic anecdote that I did not know was that the Colosseum was built to celebrate the Romans victory over the rebelling Jews. There was also a gate by Titus in the Forum that had a still-present depiction of the storming of the Temple in Jerusalem, where you can see the Roman troops with a menorah in the background. The Roman ruin highlight for sure was Trajan’s column, which is a magnificent pillar that has one giant scene carved into it, wrapping around all the way to the top. This was in great condition, and the sunlight just hitting it as we saw it was quite the sight. Speaking of Jews…somehow during the course of this trip, the fact that my alma mater, Northwestern, has a tenured electrical engineering professor by the name of Arthur Butz, who is one of the preeminent Holocaust deniers around, became a recurring inside joke. He published a book called “The Hoax of the 20th Century” a year after getting tenure back in the 70s, At the very least, gotta admire the balls for doing that right after tenure.
Another cool thing we did in Rome was the catacombs. We saw the San Callisto one – unfortunately no photos allowed – but it was really cool to see a just-under 2000 year old tomb that was used by the early Christians when they were persecuted. Not quite as macabre as I thought it would be since it was and is a religious site, so not a skeleton around. The catacomb was also this ridiculous maze – would have been so easy to get lost there but all tourists get assigned to a guided group. It was also where 5 ancient Popes were buried (this was obviously while Christianity was still being persecuted).
Rome just has so much that it’s impossible to see everything. We saw tons of awesome churches but I’m sure we missed a few more notable ones. Saw the Spanish Steps which was one of the dumber tourist sights I’ve ever seen (plenty of more scenic spots in Rome) but didn’t have time to do things like day trips to Ostia Antica or Tivoli, or see some of the smaller museums and art galleries. Not to mention all the “old world” narrow cobblestone alleys and photogenic trattorias and ivy leaf covered, 300+ year old buildings that line these alleyways that we walked by. But it really is an amazing city – I would say one notch above Istanbul, which is very high praise for me…I think Rome might be my second favorite tourist city I have ever been to, after Delhi. Food wise, the floor is really high but very few flat out AMAZING dishes – the standouts for me would be the truffle lasagna at a place called Old Bear, some weird yet amazing broccoli and anchovy biscuit-like contortion that was an appetizer at a small spot on the same alley as our AirBnB, the carbonara at a restaurant named, of course, La Carbonara (Paul Simon, among other celebrities, has been here!), and an orange-zested ravioli at this Jewish-Roman restaurant that Anthony Bourdain had visited. Martin and Aash stayed with us, but there were like 100 other LBS kids in town for some intermural sports tournament so we went out with a bunch of them one night which was sort of fun but also pointlessly funny as they tried to organize this giant group to figure out a bar plan. Not quite as crazy as when I met his friends in Tulum, but business school really does seem like a blast. And we also went to an Irish pub to watch the Eagles beat the Broncos which was a good time. It was also amusing for me that the bar right around the corner of our AirBnB was the study abroad bar – the American flag was a dead giveaway but we only heard English when walking by this bar every night, while every single other bar in the area seemed to have just locals. I guess those bars liked having this one “sponge” bar to absorb all the Americanos.
Martin and Aash flew out the final night and then the next morning Steve and I took a train down south to Naples. We checked into our hotel by the train station and then took a day trip to the ruins of Herculaneum. Like Pompeii, this city was blanketed in ash following the Mount Vesuvius explosion like 2000 years ago. It’s a very small town with just a few blocks, but it is so well preserved and I spent a few hours literally checking out every possible open building (a lot is closed for continued work). These houses were in amazing shape – multiple stories surviving, stairs, full walls, mosaic floors. The mosaic floors were not quite to the level of some of the Roman houses that are in Ephesus or Pergamon in Turkey, but otherwise…this legit is one of the best ruin sites I have seen. It was amazing to walk down the ancient roads and peek into all of these houses, and most importantly see all the vibrant colors that have survived. So many bright red and blue walls with ornate paintings on them, some that were in shockingly amazing state. And there were bits and pieces of colorful glazed marble still on the walls, and some incredible fully preserved mosaic artwork left standing on walls and fountains. Really just amazing to see colorful, 2000 year old ruins in situ, since almost all antiquities you see have lost color long ago and are now just white marble.
The next day, we took a day trip out to see Pompeii. Pompeii was obviously much larger than Herculaneum, but not quite as well preserved (pretty much no buildings had their second floor survive the explosion), and annoyingly a lot more shut off so it left less room for wandering around as the vast majority of buildings were roped off. Regardless, there were still tons of colorful paintings and mosaics in situ to observe, much like Herculaneum. Before this trip, I honestly wasn’t aware of Roman paintings being a thing. The best one by far was in the far off “Villa de Misteri”, which was way removed from the rest of the site. But it had an almost perfectly preserved wall painting, and it honestly looked just like a Renaissance piece with the brightness of the colors, the forced perspective, and the realism of the figures. Overall, Pompeii was definitely awesome, and I would go far as to say that Pompeii and Herculaneum combined are up there with Luxor in Egypt and the Angkor ruins of Cambodia as the “grandest” ruins I have ever seen. 100% worth the price of admission (unlike the Colosseum).
On the final day here, while Steve stayed back, I went out to Baia, to the west of Naples, to scuba dive and see some underwater ruins. This was another absolutely incredible experience. Unfortunately, their rental cameras were broken so I couldn’t take any pictures. But basically, Baia was an ancient retreat that the Roman elites had, to spend time in their villas. It sunk over 1500 years ago due to geological shifting from volcanic activity. There were a few statues underwater but sadly these were replicas…the originals were moved to museums. However, there were original mosaics underwater which were so so cool – the divemaster and a 2nd guide would have to move the sand out to show me the mosaic, and they would then cover it up again to help preserve it. My favorite mosaic by far was one which had two Roman lads wrestling each other. Each of the figures here was a few meters tall, so it was giant. Honestly, if the statues were real and not fake, this would have been an all-time experience for me, but it was still ridiculously cool. Lost city scuba diving is an amazing experience (despite the 19 degree Celsius water…I had to wear two wet suits and was still shivering after my second dive).
Naples itself was a city that definitely grew on me. It’s an incredibly grimy and bustling place that honestly would not be out of place in a developing country, so I obviously loved it. But I can see why the typical tourist wouldn’t like Naples, as it definitely feels out of place compared to the refined cities you typically find in Europe, so I guess it is a matter of expectations. In a way, Naples is sort of like what I expected Athens to be like, given the reputation Athens has among Greek Americans. On our first night here after Herculaneum, while walking to dinner, we stumbled into a massive service for some patron saint at the Chiesa del Gesu Nuovo Cathedral. It was a stunning place that honestly would be a top-tier church in Rome, just a magnificent baroque piece adorned with paintings and frescoes. Didn’t snap any pics as it was a jam packed house (and this is a giant cathedral), but it was awesome to hear the choir singing. My live-singing-in-a-church highlights are in Notre Dame in Paris with my family back in 2014 and with them in St. Basil’s in Moscow in 2016, and on my own in the Berliner Dom for a weekend trip during study abroad in 2012 (time flies…), but this was definitely right behind those 3.
Another cool sightseeing spot we saw was the Archaeological Museum, which honestly rivals any in terms of their antiquity collection. They had a ton of really cool well preserved Roman statues and mosaics (a lot taken from Pompeii and Herculaneum), as well as a giant wing dedicated solely to Roman art found in those sites as well. Going off what I said earlier, there were tons of really cool 2000 year old Roman paintings here that I had no idea about prior to this trip. Unfortunately, the wing of the museum that had a large goddess statue from India found in Pompeii was closed, which would have been amazing to see. Also, the famous mosaic of Alexander the Great battling Darius III was also not there as it was being restored. So after this museum, we went to the Capella Sansavero, which had a dumb no photo rule that was strictly enforced. But this ex-Church had what are possibly the coolest marble sculptures I have ever seen. The famous one is a veiled Christ where the marble veil over the figure looks incredibly realistic…it’s actually really impressive how the dude sculpted this. The other one I really liked here was one of a figure draped in a giant net. The net itself looked super realistic, and to sculpt all of that with marble was, to me, an incredible achievment.
The food in Naples…our first night we ate at the place that invented the pizza, Pizzeria Brandi. They served a pizza to Queen Margharita back in the late 1800s, she loved it, and the chef named the pizza in her honor. Just an absolutely amazing pizza. The dough was top notch and you could taste how fresh the ingredients were on it. I also got an eggplant parm on the side which might have been the best eggplant parm I have ever eaten. I think it’s easily a top 2 pizza I have had along with the one from Salvatore’s in Port Washington, right by my hometown of Manhasset. On the whole, I think the food here was slightly better than Rome.
Overall, southern Italy was a wonderful time. Great cultural sights and great food, really could have spent more time here to be honest but this was a good slice to not get too burned out. We’re headed to Florence for a few days next, and then Steve is flying out. My plan after that is to see Bologna/Ravenna/Milan/Venice, and then fly to France for a few weeks to see eastern France and then the area around Paris. Will be meeting my sister for a week in Paris where she is going to be “working from home”, but from 4pm-midnight Monday to Friday that week.