Twenty- five Seven

How to make your trip to Rome truly wonderful – Part 1

October 21, 2013

Solo in Rome

Last week I had the opportunity of visiting Italy although I had to do it on my own. I am quite used to sight seeing on my own since I always tag along with Hubby Dear like accompanied baggage on his business trips. And while he is busy doing business, I am busy discovering different cities. But this time it was different: I was travelling solo.

[bctt tweet=”Travelling alone is a great experience especially when you’ve been forewarned by anyone who’s ever been abroad to keep looking over your shoulder to see what is happening or likely to happen.” username=”via unishta”]

The end result is that you land up becoming completely paranoid and look upon every person as a potential threat/thug or thief and keep feeling you’ve forgotten something but can’t quite remember what it is!

Arriverdici Mumbai

I actually felt like Christopher Columbus embarking on his epic voyage as I wheeled my trolley into Mumbai’s Chattrapati International Airport. Getting into Munich the flight was empty and after a relaxing half hour at Mumbai Airport’s Clipper lounge (run by the Oberoi’s) I was looking forward to a good night’s rest on the plane. Unfortunately this was not really possible because the passenger in the seat in front tilted his seat back into my nose so that I had to slip in and out with a 45 degree back bend each time I visited the toilet. This inconvenience and the bad food, awful in flight entertainment and the general fear of the unknown that seemed to loom larger and larger with each passing mile, made the 7 1/2 hour flight intolerable and I was glad when the plane landed at Munich half an hour earlier than scheduled.

I made a quick dash through Passport Control and after a hurried pit stop ran to the boarding gate only to find that my flight was three hours later!! So I sat at a Breakfast bar and nibbled on some sandwiches and coffee only because I wanted to charge my mobile phone which needed to be fully ready to take on the new SIM card which I had to load the moment I arrived in Roma.

Each experience makes you wiser and from my last experience I not only became wiser but poorer as well as I had to pay a whopping bill as I had activated my International Data Roaming. This I realised was a complete con game and a major source of revenue for the service providers because even though my phone use was minimal, my phone bill was astronomical because the applications that ran in the background kept downloading or looking for data to download whether I wanted it or not! So this time round, much much wiser, I decided to use a local SIM.

The onward flight to Rome was thankfully uneventful and I was glad I had re-fuelled at the Airport since the snack we got looked suspiciously like regurgitated porridge as it was a Yoghurt Muesli with pear and apple bits.

BenvenutoRoma

I wanted to travel into Roma by the superfast Leonardo Express and couldn’t help grinning as I crossed the first hurdle of operating a self service kiosk and getting into a train full of passengers with luggage.

Though we reached Roma Termini 8 minutes later than scheduled, there was enough time for me to get to my hotel, dump my bag and visit the Vatican. So like every other tourist I got off the train and began dragging my strolley down the cobbled street. The hotel was not really far from the station but as I had to read street names, follow the map, look over my shoulder for potential thieves and thugs,

it took longer than I expected and I was shocked to find myself in front of an imposing wooden door with a knocker as big as my face. I looked up and found a sign which said I had to ring the bell to go to the hotel. I rang the bell not once but twice, and even spoke to the door which didn’t speak back till I realised that when I rang the bell, there was a slight click of the door opening…. So I pushed it open and found myself inside a passageway which led to a run down staircase and a lift which announced that it could only be used by one person taking up one bag at a time! The hotel, if it could be called that, was a bit of a let down considering that it had won an award on Trip Advisor. But its location was excellent and its staff could speak English. They also were extremely helpful in terms of travel tips.

But the Giuliana is not an establishment I would really recommend especially since Anna Shetty had stayed at a spotlessly clean equally well located place for half the price even in high tourist season.

In search of the Vatican City

Rome is truly the eternal city for it is inundated with tourists all the year round as I found during my visit to the Vatican. Even though October is not high season, there were tourists surging around. Luckily, I had pre-booked my visit to the Vatican and could avoid the long queues and go straight inside.

Since the underground is the fastest way to get anywhere, I took the Metro from Republicca and got off at Cipro, the stop closest to the Vatican Museum. Once there, I realised that ground reality is quite different from map reading and with no idea at all of how the land lies, I landed up walking much more than I’d bargained for. Inside the Vatican Museum though, things were better organised. But I’d recommend a guided tour to get because I got quite lost with all the exhibits. I ended up going down endless corridors and staircases in search of the Capella Sistine which was at the end of a labyrinthian queue.

There were hundreds and thousands of people walking slowly shoulder to shoulder, a stream of humanity going through a clogged pipe line. Some were pure tourists, some art afficionados and some ardent devotees. There were old people shuffling, some muttering prayers others slowly taking in all the beauty that abounded , transported to another plane of spiritual ecstasy as we passed painting after painting of religious significance. While the Sistine Chapel was glorious and magnificent it seemed disappointingly small and what really took my breath away was the Basilica of St. Peter across the courtyard. Now that was truly breathtaking and simply fabulous.

Getting back to the Hotel via underground ( this time catching the train at Ottavio) was another crazy maze of wrong turns and my feet were ready to fall off when I got off at Roma Termini.

A Pizza in Rome

Ideally I would have loved to go back to the hotel and sleep but not before I had an operational SIM card and since Anna Shetty had specifically warned me to get one from WIND , I had to make sure it was WIND only that I fitted onto my phone. When I finally got the card I went down to a local pizzeria just across the street from the Hotel. This tiny hole in the wall also sported a Trip Advisor recommendation. However, what really drew me to the place was the fact that only locals patronised it, unlike the other pizzerias which have a distinct ” Tourists only” vibe. I couldn’t hoist myself on the tall stools at the counters but munched away on the yummiest pizza ever ……..

And so on Day 1 I made several discoveries:
– Trip Advisor recommendations are not always reliable
– always take a guided tour of the Vatican to truly appreciate all the masterpieces that abound. Rick Steves does not always work.
– only eat at a local pizzeria if you can sit on the stools
– travelling by Metro is easy but be prepared to walk lots
Operation Clean Up

October 6, 2013

No matter how clean a house is, there’s always more to clean up! And when the house has been through a major maintenance programme like ours was the last three weeks, the clean up becomes a major operation.

So began yesterday morning’s Operation Clean Up which was meticulously planned by General M o’ H all through the week, the culmination of scouting and recce operations which were conducted by chief side kick ( hereinafter referred to as CSK ) or yours truly. After blow by blow accounts of how Operation Polish was progressing, the battle plan was being drawn up. Operation Clean Up was slightly delayed due to the illness of the contractor who luckily didn’t have a heart attack as we had imagined but actually had a congestion in his lungs ( because of over exhaustion as he claims) and had swollen up to twice his size. So he was kept in the ICU and injected with Lasix and discharged yesterday when he was completely drained out.

Anyway, this little side incursion made a mere dent in the battle plan and operations which were scheduled to start on Friday were shifted to Saturday. After sounding the troop alert late the night before, the infantry barged in at 8.30 in the morning. By the time the General Staff had had their breakfast, the Field Marshal declared that our kitchen and store room was disgustingly dirty with foul smells emanating from the drain. CSK was naturally affronted and defended herself by saying that foul smell was entirely due to the general drainage system of the building hence entirely out of her purview. So when the first battalion of the infantry showed up ( Mr. K the office clerk), he was put on the job. Taking affront at this action which undermined her capacity, Sergeant Major Bayda Bai rolled up her sleeves and got out her foghorn to direct operations amid distinct jibes and taunts. In the meanwhile the 2nd Battalion (consisting of the driver) which doubled up as the Artillery with the trusty vacuum cleaner substituting for the heavy mortar, swung into action with operation clean up and every dust bunny was mercilessly chased out of hiding and all undercover dirt and grime was completely eradicated.

CSK was busy polishing furniture that wasn’t polished under the tautologous war cry “if you clean your house every day will your house be clean” by the UN Observer,the beauteous Jyoti, famous for her 30 sec broom flick cleaning of each room. This only spurred CSK to rub harder wishing desperately that it was the chief scout’s neck rather than the twisted legs of the Jacobean chairs that she was so vigorously polishing,

With the troops generally employed and the campaign going as per plan, one would have thought that the General would have gone to sleep ( this has special reference to an anecdote that Gen Montgomery was once disturbed from his sleep by his 2 IC who told him that things were not going exactly as anticipated. The Gen asked if the plan was being followed diligently. When answered in the affirmative, the General said – Don’t worry it will happen the way it is meant to and went back to sleep) but no – he actually began overseeing the operations and called the Sergeant Major and the DGMO to watch him direct the troops. Special instructions were being regularly given by the DGMO office who would pipe up from time to time volunteering special services.

The entire operation took at least four hours after which the last post was sounded and the troops withdrew completely exhausted, with only one casualty – a crystal glass.
Spit and Polish

September 29, 2013

It all began like this :

Ever since we bade farewell to Ganpati, we welcomed six strange men into our home. We called them home to fix the lock. We had to fix the lock because we had to break open the door to let the guest out. M is one of those easy guests who is always welcome. Actually all guests are welcome at our home which often leads me to believe I’m running a guest house of the “Boarding, Lodging Type” clean, basic and functional.

This time round we found that our lodging was far from functioning when M got stuck in the room and began banging on the door. It was around mid-night when this happened and the watchmen had to be called to kick the door open, which they did.

But after M left, we had to get things functioning again so we had to change the lock. Since we had to change the lock and three other locks as well, we decided to change all the locks.

And since we had always wanted to get our doors polished but always said that we’d polish the doors when we painted the house and when we painted the house we’d always said : Oh it’s too much now, let’s get the doors polished the next time we paint the house and the next time we painted the house, we said exactly the same thing – let’s polish the doors the next time instead!

But this time we weren’t going to paint the house so we decided to polish the doors. And then when we polished the doors we found other things to polish like the desk which was used by the children for years and was worn down to the last veneer…..the tiles which kept popping and needed to be fixed, the bathroom which needed tiling thanks to the building repair work ……. and the tail of Hanuman went on getting longer and longer till our ten day job extended for another ten and may be more….

Finally today, after scraping and cleaning and sanding the doors down the end seems in sight.

The bathroom is functioning once again, the locks are fitted, the doors are polished and I hope by the end of the coming week, I’ll have reclaimed the house. May be now, with a slightly more updated look I can change my boarding and lodging to a B & B instead!