More Amazing Art in Rome

Avery, Tom and Sara in St. Peter's Square

Stefano, our Roman guide, and Avery

The Coliseum

St. Peter's and the Piazza

This is Rafael's fresco,The School of Athens. After the Rafael Room, we entered the Sistine Chapel but no pictures are allowed and in fact Stefano had to leave us and instruct us where to meet him after we spent fifteen minutes in the chapel.  They stopped allowing guides to accompany groups some time ago because of the irreverence caused by the talking, and also because people were lingering too long.  Logistics demands that people be encouraged to move along.  Silence was strictly enforced and absolutely no pictures were allowed.  It is of course very beautiful, but after all we had already seen I would have to be a Vatican scholar to see how it was better.  One simply has to drink it in.

This, and the following pictures are from inside St. Peter's, the largest church in the world. According to Stefano, one doesn't really "get" the immensity of the church because one loses all sense of scale inside.  I saw what he meant when we contemplated the actual size of certain aspects.

Michelangelo's Pieta is behind glass inside St. Peter's.

This altarpiece is the equivalent of a six-story building. Notice the letters inscribed on the gold  panels on either side--each letter is about six feet tall. 

Standing on the steps just outside the entrance to St. Peter's

Further down the steps.  The Dome of St. Peter's is not yet visible at the rear.

Avery, our friend from Cannes, France, joined us in Rome and here we are in front of St. Peter's, with the Dome now almost visible.

St. Peter's from the center of the Piazza with the Obelisk

Looking out to the other side of the Piazza.  A cute little family looking a bit exhausted to me.   Ah, the joys of traveling with children.

Our day at the Vatican with Stefano, a wonderful guide

Stefano, a wonderful Roman guide recommended by Gwenna Brush, met us at the hotel and we went first to the Vatican Museum.  I can't possibly describe the wonders there--do Google it for better pictures.  This is one of the many "salas" or rooms, which are long galleries filled with marble statuary and ceilings embellished with scenes from the Bible or antiquity.  

I can only surmise that the ceilings were so elaborate because the noble Romans spent so much time reclining on couches whilst nibbling peeled grapes.

Yet another...

This is a huge basin made of porphyry a wonderful deep red marble but the main thing is the magnificent mosaic floor.  Note the size of the basin compared to the people.

Part of the  mosaic floor.  This one is cordoned off so that people can't walk on it but many of the mosaics are just part of the normal pathway.

And if you don't like mosaic, try marble--so many different types of marble inlay.

This corridor, or gallery, or sala, is composed of huge and magnificent tapestries mostly done in the 16th century.

The ceiling of the Tapestry Room

Rome in Pictures

The posh Via Veneto.   Our hotel, Parco dei Principi sits on the edge of the Borghese Gardens, so after a rest, we walked through the gardens and down the Via Veneto, one of the poshest streets in Rome.  This is a view of Via Veneto.

This is a picture of the All Blacks, New Zealand's renowned Rugby team who were in Rome to play Italy.  The story behind the name of the team is this:  A sportscaster some years ago was praising the team and said they ran like "all backs."  This was mis-printed in the paper as All-Blacks and the name stuck.  So funny since we had just come from New Zealand where we had heard that story and where the team is revered.  We saw them all over the hotel--big strapping athletes who seemed somewhat out of place in the very formal Baroque-style hotel.  They won the game which was on Saturday.  Revenge is sweet.

We took our usual bus tour the next day to get our bearings and this was our first view of the huge, and very white, Victoria Emanuel Monument, nicknamed by the American GIs "the wedding cake."  It's hard to convey how huge this building is but it dominates the area.

And the famous Trevi Fountain.  Can you believe we didn't throw a coin? We couldn't get close enough without lobbing it over hundreds of heads.

    

Sweet kind Mickey

By the second day we had realized that our greatest resource was Mickey, the head concierge at the Harbour Grand.  The first day we ate at his recommended restaurant in the neighborhood and then walked back to the hotel to catch a taxi for the city center.  The second day we decided to eat at the same restaurant because of the excellent pork dumplings but also because some dishes would be available that were not available the day before. We asked Mickey what he would recommend we do after and he said to take the MTR, the Metro, to Kowloon.  Oh no, we said, we're only here for a short time and we don't want to try to learn the metro.  Easy! he said.  You can do it!  So....after lunch, with a bit of fear and trep, we entered the incredible underground that is the Hong Kong subway system.  As instructed by Mickey, we found the ticket machines, followed the screen directions, and (with a little help from one of our many angels in the city) purchased our one-way tickets to the Buddhist temple in Kowloon.  Negotiating the actual train was a whole new experience--follow the signs, hope for the best, and magically we were on the correct train.  We actually had to change trains in a couple of stops and we managed it, and within 20 minutes we were emerging from the underground into the daylight and there was the temple!  This would have taken at least an hour by taxi and cost god-knows-what.

You have no idea of the sense of accomplishment this small achievement created!  We spent the next two days transferring ourselves from place to place via this amazing system of transportation.  If you ever go to Hong Kong, don't hesitate to give it a try.

When we got back to the hotel we told Mickey about our day and he said "I knew you could do it.  I wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but I knew you could do it."  He is a beautiful man.  Thank you Mickey although you will never read this.

Webbed duck's feet.  A delicacy that we didn't get around to.  I'm not so put off by it though...

Mickey recommended that we visit Hong Kong Park and we were astounded by its serene beauty, right in the middle of the madness that is Hong Kong.  This picture says it all.

Turtles and koi living under skyscrapers.

Near the park was the tram to Victoria Peak.  We had been there with Mary and Neil in 2007 but it was so hazy that we couldn't see much.  This time the view was magnificent. This picture is from the tram riding up to the highest point in Hong Kong.  Once again, the transportation system proved amazing.  A constant stream of people is transported efficiently and quickly.  

Another view from Victoria Peak

A Buddhist Temple in Kowloon

This temple is probably the same one that we visited with Mary and Neil in 2007 but we saw it with new eyes anyway.  It is smack dab in the middle of the city, the Kowlook section, and again we were practically the only white people.  Everyone was paying homage, shaking joss sticks, making food offerings to the gods, or just kneeling and praying.

On one side of the temple was this sign so we walked through to see what was going on.

We saw row after row of these "fortune telling stalls" each one a small office with perhaps a  shrine, a shelf of books, a computer and always a man or woman waiting for a client whose fate could be revealed.  A few were marked "English Spoken Here."  Some of the fortune tellers did in fact have clients sitting on the stools in front and were engaged in animated conversation, but I didn't want to intrude by taking their pictures.  Hopefully this picture will convey the general atmosphere of the stalls.

Back on the street, Tom is standing in front of the Lien Yuen Hourly Hotel.  It's hard to read the sign in the picture, but that's what it said.  I guess if one is in need of a quick nap or a short lie-down...

Getting Around Hong Kong

But survive we did.  The first morning we asked the concierge whose name was Mickey Lan where we could get some good dim sum.  He directed us to a restaurant about ten minutes walk called Choi Fook, an enormous cavernous room on the third floor of an office building with the potential to feed hundreds of diners.  This seems to be the norm for Honk Kong restaurants.  If you want small and intimate you must eat standing up in one of the thousands of tiny little holes-in-the-wall which have the food on display in the window or in small deli counters. Otherwise the restaurants tend not to be on the ground level and often comprise two or more floors of a large building.  Luckily Choi Fook wasn't packed since it was only about ten in the morning and we were seated immediately.  We chose several items from the picture menu and all were delicious.  We were the only non-Chinese in the place.

Then we took a taxi to the Central area of the city--this was before our new friend Mickey was able to educate us about the Metro--and found a Hop On Hop Off sightseeing bus which we have begun using to get our initial bearings in cities.  We sat on the top deck and several times had to crouch down to avoid having our heads removed by tree branches that the bus drove under.  We saw some green patches amid the concrete--lots of concrete--and the ever-present teeming humanity.  In general though we didn't find the buildings especially inspiring.  

 After that we walked and walked looking for an area called the Lanes--two narrow streets loaded with shops selling all kinds of wares--the usual junk purses, luggage, electronics, cheap clothing, Asian souvenirs, toys, keychains.  We found the Lanes but we weren't tempted to buy anything.  

One of the interesting things about walking in Hong Kong is that while you have a map in hand, the streets don't always correspond to it because there will be a pedestrian walkway which goes above the street, or an undergound passage which cuts through the car traffic, or sometimes you simply have to pass through a huge building to reach the other side.  It all works seamlessly if you know how to do it.  At one point we were in a huge building full of shops, offices, restaurants, escalators thinking we could just walk on through to the opposite street entrance, but it was so huge that one is immediately turned around with no idea which way is which.  We quickly learned that if we just stood there looking puzzled, mere seconds would pass before someone would approach to ask if they could help.  These would mostly be English speaking Chinese or sometimes a Western ex-pat living in Hong Kong.  One old gentleman walked us to the exit we needed and while chatting him up we found that he was a Brit who had come to Hong Kong 22 years ago and never left.  But still, the Caucasians are a very small minority from what we could see.

One lady in the building directed us to a "tea house" where we could have lunch.  It sounded charming and we followed her directions, past the Coach store, the Mandarin Oriental, the McDonalds, etc. but still couldn't find it.  Finally we asked at a different restaurant and they pointed directly across the street.  We had been looking for our Americanized version of what a tea house should look like, but the recommended place was just another huge restaurant with picture menus and hundreds of tables.  Still, we ate there and had a pretty good meal.

Adjusting to Hong Kong

Our first impression of Hong Kong was not good.  The airport scene was unbelievable--teeming hordes of people, vast spaces.  We walked (and I'm not exaggerating because I noted the time) for thirty minutes at breakneck speed, just to avoid being trampled.  This included walking on the whatever-ya-call-em speeded up walkways as well as just regular walking, just to get to the immigration queue where we stood in an interminable line of humanity hellbent on getting into a city where they would be further crushed by the enormous numbers of people.  All very frightening, and frankly, not very fun after beautiful and, relatively speaking, very relaxed New Zealand and Sydney.  We emerged from the baggage collection into daylight, and found a taxi which drove crazily for 45 minutes before finally reaching our Harbour Grand Hotel.  Try as I may I couldn't get the seat belt to fasten and I prayed for God's forgiveness for my sins as I surely was not going to survive another day.

Scale: Large Scale vs. Small Scale

I'm not sure if I can make the point here, but so many things in Hong Kong illustrate the extremes.  Either huge....or microscopic.  Here is just one illustration.  We walked through the Goldfish Market, a short street which is a succession of small shops selling mostly aquarium fish, turtles and other unknown aquatic creatures. Teeny tiny fish which could be scooped out in some unknown quantities, itty bitty turtles as big as your thumbnail, plastic bags hanging from ceiling hooks holding swimming larvae which I assume grow into something resembling fish.  Because there are so many people crammed into small spaces, aquariums are big business and we watched as the locals bought the little fish to take home to their tiny apartments to lend some feng shui.  I couldn't capture these tiny beings very well in pictures, but hopefully the following will convey the sense of scale in Hong Kong.

Large Scale:  The size of the lobby at the Harbour Grand Hotel. That black and white small rectangle to the right of the center is a bellboy.

The Reception Desk at the Harbour Grand.  Large scale.

Small Scale:  Tomato plants at the Flower Market

Teeny tiny tomatoes.