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Exploring the known and unknown
2014-09-02
When in Rome do as the Romans do...???
I have used this expression often myself but... I think I refrain from using it from now on. Having been in Rome now for two days I had to deal with and observed others dealing with people at several different levels. I won't be doing as the Romans do as I would turn into a rude unhelpful person. Perhaps it is the harsh sounding language, I don’t know but this lot is not all that friendly towards foreigners. Behaviour in traffic is... let’s say, weird. On the minor roads there are lots of speed cameras. If it the speed limit is 50km an hour many people slow down before the camera of course and then immediately speed up to more than 100 km per hour while still being in a 50 km zone. I have never been cut of so many times as I have been in this country. People ride and drive like maniacs in the city as well, even the police. Being cut off is the rule rather than an exception. Add to that worn tiled roads with marble ridges and some rain and you are in for a treat. On and off ramps are no longer than 10 meters, so they just cut in. 50 % of the drivers are on the phone or texting and some have a child on their lap! The mind boggles.
Riding in Vietnam is a very easy task compared to here.
Anyway- enough of that. I love staying in hostels as there are always nice people to talk to and at times if you have the same destination you can share the day with them. I wanted to get a bus ticket to town and then work out how to get to different places. While getting the ticket at the hostel office two 21 y.o German girls were standing in front of me making enquiries about the "Roma Card’.
10 minutes later I saw them at the bus stop where they explained that it was a card for which you pay one price for all needed expenses. This included bus, metro and all museums plus with the card you don’t have to wait in line anywhere as you will have priority passage whenever you enter a museum. They knew where to get this card so I tagged along. We decided that I would be the guide for them and they me my guide so between us we could work out where to go. In the centre of Rome is the Roman Forum or part of the original Roman buildings dating at least 2000 years old. One of the interesting centre pieces is a column in which is chiselled a detailed history of a time line of one of the emperors. You can’t get close up and even if you use a good camera you can only take pictures of a few details as the timeline goes around the column. Near the column they have placed a frame with life size photographs of the entire story on the column- I have included some of them. It pays to know a lot of Roman history to make it a very interesting experience to be here. I don’t as I favoured Greek history instead. The old Roman forum is very large and you could easily spend a day just there. We moved on to the Colosseum. I had been in a similar size Colosseum in Pula last year but had not gathered much information as Pula as not all that well known and attracts relatively few visitors compared to Rome. The Roman Colosseum is very large, it is hard to imagine what took place for over 500 years or more as they specialised in fighting with animals. Originally these arenas’s had wooden floors covered in sand. A new part had been constructed in order to feed the imagination. Under the floor are many oblong chambers. I always took them for the places where the fighters/slaves were kept. In this case it was the place where the animals (lions, bears, boars, bulls etc) were held. Via a series of lifts and ramps the animals would be lead to the fighting area to kill and be killed for “entertainment’. Inside the long galleries along the top of the arena are displays about the workings of all this and how buildings were planned. The city’s planners used marble slabs to edge out the position and diameters of building after which the scratches and indents where copied on paper. Another interesting fact is that the floor of the area could be made waterproof. The area would be filled with water and ships placed in the arena were then used to stage mock battles.
Last month I saw much more of Singapore than I had seen before; this was because I met a fellow traveller which resulted in walking a different path (literally)Visiting the Vatican was not on my list but was on the list of my two “guides", so I ended up there as well. The place is amazing; the works of art, the buildings and the sculptures are very beautiful. Having studied church history I could not help that I was thinking how all this money was obtained and what was done to the millions who protested against all this wealth and waste. Nevertheless the buildings and what’s in them is magnificent.
When in Rome do as the Romans do...???
I have used this expression often myself but... I think I refrain from using it from now on. Having been in Rome now for two days I had to deal with and observed others dealing with people at several different levels. I won't be doing as the Romans do as I would turn into a rude unhelpful person. Perhaps it is the harsh sounding language, I don’t know but this lot is not all that friendly towards foreigners. Behaviour in traffic is... let’s say, weird. On the minor roads there are lots of speed cameras. If it the speed limit is 50km an hour many people slow down before the camera of course and then immediately speed up to more than 100 km per hour while still being in a 50 km zone. I have never been cut of so many times as I have been in this country. People ride and drive like maniacs in the city as well, even the police. Being cut off is the rule rather than an exception. Add to that worn tiled roads with marble ridges and some rain and you are in for a treat. On and off ramps are no longer than 10 meters, so they just cut in. 50 % of the drivers are on the phone or texting and some have a child on their lap! The mind boggles.
Riding in Vietnam is a very easy task compared to here.
Anyway- enough of that. I love staying in hostels as there are always nice people to talk to and at times if you have the same destination you can share the day with them. I wanted to get a bus ticket to town and then work out how to get to different places. While getting the ticket at the hostel office two 21 y.o German girls were standing in front of me making enquiries about the "Roma Card’.
10 minutes later I saw them at the bus stop where they explained that it was a card for which you pay one price for all needed expenses. This included bus, metro and all museums plus with the card you don’t have to wait in line anywhere as you will have priority passage whenever you enter a museum. They knew where to get this card so I tagged along. We decided that I would be the guide for them and they me my guide so between us we could work out where to go. In the centre of Rome is the Roman Forum or part of the original Roman buildings dating at least 2000 years old. One of the interesting centre pieces is a column in which is chiselled a detailed history of a time line of one of the emperors. You can’t get close up and even if you use a good camera you can only take pictures of a few details as the timeline goes around the column. Near the column they have placed a frame with life size photographs of the entire story on the column- I have included some of them. It pays to know a lot of Roman history to make it a very interesting experience to be here. I don’t as I favoured Greek history instead. The old Roman forum is very large and you could easily spend a day just there. We moved on to the Colosseum. I had been in a similar size Colosseum in Pula last year but had not gathered much information as Pula as not all that well known and attracts relatively few visitors compared to Rome. The Roman Colosseum is very large, it is hard to imagine what took place for over 500 years or more as they specialised in fighting with animals. Originally these arenas’s had wooden floors covered in sand. A new part had been constructed in order to feed the imagination. Under the floor are many oblong chambers. I always took them for the places where the fighters/slaves were kept. In this case it was the place where the animals (lions, bears, boars, bulls etc) were held. Via a series of lifts and ramps the animals would be lead to the fighting area to kill and be killed for “entertainment’. Inside the long galleries along the top of the arena are displays about the workings of all this and how buildings were planned. The city’s planners used marble slabs to edge out the position and diameters of building after which the scratches and indents where copied on paper. Another interesting fact is that the floor of the area could be made waterproof. The area would be filled with water and ships placed in the arena were then used to stage mock battles.
Last month I saw much more of Singapore than I had seen before; this was because I met a fellow traveller which resulted in walking a different path (literally)Visiting the Vatican was not on my list but was on the list of my two “guides", so I ended up there as well. The place is amazing; the works of art, the buildings and the sculptures are very beautiful. Having studied church history I could not help that I was thinking how all this money was obtained and what was done to the millions who protested against all this wealth and waste. Nevertheless the buildings and what’s in them is magnificent.
- comments
Rob Must be even more impressive if parts were reconstructed with the wooden roofs, tiles etc.
Rob Nice.....I like (voice of Borat), like my sister
Rob Bedankt foer die blumen
Suzanna Wat prachtig al die details!!! Geweldig :)
Suzannaq Hoi Richard, Wat een vervelend gedrag van die Italianen. Maar nu je er zo over schrijft (nee niet overdrijft hahah) herinner ik me mijn oude buurman. Hij is Italiaan in hart en nieren en weigert pertinent om ook maar met iets van wielen door Italie te reizen... Vliegen is wat hij doet...
jerome Plenty of nice things to be seen there ! Take care and don't forget to pop in anytime. See you soon