Rome Travelouge

Our Tren italia carrier entered into Roma Termini (Station) around 10:00 in the morning. We had a huge task in hand, having just around 48 hours to see Rome. As they say - Rome is not build in a day. So we assumed that it is not possible to see Rome in a single day. But let me tell you, 48 hours are enough. You must have already come across many travelogue, where it mentioned that you must need 3-5 days to see Rome alone. But people who travel from Asia and around, it is very hard to give that much time in a first world country. On the contrary, if you want to speak with the each stone in Rome, you might need 3-5 months and this article is not for you.

Let me start with how we covered Rome in just little less than 48 hours with spending adequate time where ever necessary.

Our hotel was near to Termini station. We reached hotel sometime around 10:30 AM after spending little time searching the route. Thanks to my wife, we had started pretty early for Rome. First things first. We decided to see Colosseum first and that itself is surrounded by some many other important tourist destinations.

Day:1

Roman Colosseum

You should always expect a queue in Roman Colosseum, but it is fast moving. There is a combined ticket for Colosseum+Roman Forum+ Palantine Hill which costs you 12 Euro. We waited for our turn and entered Colosseum. Rome reminds me many times about my history book. It is something like I am seeing my history book starts speaking. It is an amazing feeling.

Anyway, let me tell you, it is pretty simple inside. It is not Louvre museum, that you need a vast research before entering. You have to live much upon your imagination. Rome is all about that. We have to give kudos to those who had built this 2000 years ago with very limited infrastructure. There is enough video guide and text description available which will help to stimulate your imagination. It is 5 storied building. 3 floors above the ground and 2 floors under ground. Basically first under ground floor was for gladiator and second one for the animal. They used to be brought into the stage using elevator. You have enough evidence of that, elevator still exists. You just need to research that much before entering. It makes things more interesting. But what I found amazing, when you try to feel where you are roaming carelessly today, some has fought for his life against a wildest beast here and 50k people were shouting and cheering around. What you see today is not the earliest Colosseum. There had been enough alterations on that and many emperors used it for multiple reason. We have spent around 2.5 hours inside. I should say my wife is enough tolerate that she allowed me to read all the descriptions and spending so much time there. You can finish it off within an hour also.

Palantine Hill + Roman Forum

Again we came back to the Colosseum entrance . Just opposite side of the road within few meters you will see the entry for palatine hill. Word of caution. Before entering this you should have some food. Again you have to play a stretch of 2-3 hours. With empty stomach those ancient stones will also stop speaking with you. These are basically ruins of ancient Rome. It requires a minimum study to get feel of the place before entering, which I am living up to you. This is the origin of Rome and trace goes back up to BC. There is hardly few places on earth where you can witness such old evidence of human civilization. Every stone depicts the the new height roman civilization had achieved once. Most importantly, you should not miss 2 view points. 1. View of circus maximus 2. View of modern Rome from palatine hill. It is amazing in all sense. From the ruins of ancient Rome seeing the view new modern Rome. Time moves on :) .

 Now Roman Forum is not a different entity. It is attached to Palatine Hill. From Palantine Hill when you move further away to Colosseum end, you will end up in roman forum. Your history book must have the picture of this place in roman emperor chapter. This place has much has concrete evidence and few interesting monuments. Moving forward I will suggest you a much better way of seeing this place, in later part of the story.

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II

Now we end our Roman Forum tour from Campidiglo end. Here you will be on Via del flori imperiali. One of most important road for the tourists. One side this road ends at Colosseum. We took the other side. We had two immediate tourist attractions, Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II and Campidiglo. We went to Rome on June. you have bright sun till 9:00 PM and it was only 4-5 PM . So we skipped Campidiglo for now, as we wanted to see the place in evening. Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II is on the main road itself. The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II  is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. It is a controversial monument in Rome. As it built much latter destroying certain part of medieval Rome.This monument is in the connection of Piazza Venezia, Central part of Rome.



Piazza Venezia
Pizza Venezia is one of the busiest part of Italy. we roamed around here to get the feel of the city. It's full with crowds and lots of shops and restaurants. Even that was the road to Pantheon also. We have taken the another important road on Rome Via Del corso. This the road leads towards Pantheon but you have to take left once leaving the via del corso.It was a amazing walk trail and once of the best place to get the feel of the city and give a break to your eyes from ancient ruins.


Pantheon and Fontana del Pantheon

 Pantheon is one of the oldest and best preserved roman monument. It was built in 126AD. Inside it you have tomb of artist Raphael. This monument is basically a Temple dedicated to all the God. But during 17th century some alteration was made to give christian touch. Most amazing part is the dome. Even today I think it is one of the largest radius dome and central part is open which allows direst sunlight to come. But let me add one myth bluster. As per the myth sunlight enter into the temple but not the rain water, which is a mere myth. In old days they used to have fire below the hole which used to prevent the rain water. So if it is raining don't experiment, having unconditinal faith to the ageold engineering wonder.

By now we were extremely happy with today's performance. We have mostly covered what we targeted for and well deserved a rest here. It's on of the central place in Rome. Local people exhibit their art and always crowded with tourist. I have no phobia with crowd and love to be a part of it. We spent some time here. One more important info here. If you want to refill your water bottle to save couple of euros, you can do it here. I have seen people were drinking from the tap. Even I found in Internet people are claiming these are perfectly safe.


Closing the Day 1
Now the most important part of the days starts which I love most. Roaming  around the city without having any proper destination, spending some time quality time with my wife cracking few useless jokes and laughing unnecessary. We started roaming around. By now we were far away from hotel and we decided to head back. We have seen few other tourist attractions also on the same day . Like Sant'Ignazio: a very old church. We came back to hotel around 10PM and it was just evening by then.



Day : 2


We have started our day pretty early on the next day also and prime focus was Vatican City. From any part of the roam tube rail connects Vatican city very well and we have also chosen tube rail as commute. Compared to few other cities in Europe, Rome is distinctively different. Tube rail was  heavily crowded, mostly reminded me of my hometown kolkata and always be careful about pickpocket.


Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

Once you come out of the Vatican station, there would be many touts surrounded by you who will warn you about the very long queue in Vatican museum and they have a "skip the queue" pass which will allow you to enter without any queue. Now it is up to you and it is true that some time it takes more than hour to enter. People's frustration are well posted in Vatican wall. But somehow it took just about 30 mins for us to reach ticket counter. Entry fee was 15 Euro.

Vatican museum is quite huge. Mainly you have four important sections. 1. Painting 2. Greece and Italian Sculpture 3. Raphael Rooms 4. Egyptian Gallery. After seeing Louvre and Vatican museum I have serious doubt in mind . Is there anything left in Egypt ? What I liked most about Vatican museum is .. it is very hard to get lost there.

Sistine chapel is attached to Vatican museum. It is very hard to get the real feel of Sistine Chapel in crowded day, so be prepared about what you should not miss. Spend some time. It is one of the artistic marvels I have ever witnessed . Must be one of the best works of Michelangelo. But there is no guide text to help you which picture is where and what it's about. It is more like collage on a large canvas. This place has other importance. This is the place where Pope selection takes place.

St Peter's



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 This is the holiest place for catholic. You have dress code and violating that will result in throwing you away from the queue. I have seen real example and it is pointless to argue. Dress code is simple - off shoulder and open knees are not allowed. I have seen people are just wearing a jacket or slacks to avoid the hassle and removing after visiting the basilica. Only God can help their desperation to wear shorts.

Being a non catholic I was mostly interested in artistic part. You have many intresting artifacts to see inside. But once I enter , the size and innumerable artistic marvels automatically gained my respect. Few of the art works you should not miss like

1. The Pietà sculpted by Michelangelo

2. The tomb painted by Michelangelo

3. The bronze statue of Saint Peter and seriously there are many others...

Trevi fountain

We had our lunch at vatican city itself and when we left vatican it was almost 2 PM. We were not much bothered about the time also as you could see we have covered almost all must see. In the morning we had brought the transport pass for the entire day. So now the euqation was very easy. Again we took tube rail and came back to main city. Our first destination was Trevi fountain. When we reached there it was almost 3-4 PM . Let me tell you it was a narrow place and it looks much beatiful in wall paper than with nacked eyes.

"A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. Another reported version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain"... Wiki

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del popolo was next in the list. Among many squares this one is most famous. An Egyptian obelisk of Ramesses II from Heliopolis stands in the centre of the Piazza. By this we were almost at the bottom of the the TO DO list.

Remember I promised you , we will cover Rome in less than 48 hours and it was just 5 PM by then. Next day we had our flight from Ciampino airport whcih is far away from main city. We need to find some airport transfer before the day ends. We knew Terravision is one of the most realiable option but needed to find the starting point. Let me tell you Rome is not a easy city to travel. People are diffrent from rest of the europian city. Definitely they are helpful but there is exception. Mostly it is hard to find a local people among the crowd of tourists. Rome is "famous" for unprcidented incident. Might be not because of the localaite but diverese immigrants. We came back to Roma Termini Station and seriously had to spend good amount of the time before finding the terravision counter. It is almost at the other end of the station. and costs you around 4 euro to tranfer you to Ciampino airport. First we make sure about our next days flight ararngement and went back to hotel for quick refreshment and then start preparing for our grand closing ceremony.

Closing Ceremony

I have always seen a quick refreshement works very well. Even if it is as less as 15 mins. Just quickly change you dress, have a quickbath, have some quick snacks it always brings you additional energy. Those 30 mins break are worth spending.

We have started with Colosseum again. We roamed carelessly around it and then chose the way to circus maximus. In ancient rome it was one of the central place for crowd gathering. It was famous for charoit race. Todays nothing is left except a large ground . Some extravagation is going on. What I found most interesting was few guys were playing cricket. Though it is the primitive form of the game still I left them on their own for normal process of evolution.

Then we started walking keeping palantine hill at the left. But soon we found the road is too much empty and it was foolish to roam around in those road in Rome. Luckily we got the bus stop and took a bus without knowing where it was going. We just wanted to avoid that place. Soon we found it was crossing Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. I have one more promise to keep. I told you we will cover campidiglo at evening time and it was the right time. Campidoglio or Capiltone hill is one of the seven hills in rome. It is just opposite to Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. It also has a museum or some other important monument but my intention was completely something else. This is the best place get the view of Roman Forum and in the evening there is mild light very aesthetically placed in important ruines of roman forum. It was mystic and breath taking. We had a good number company who also came for the similar reason.

 You should see roman forum once at time. Those stones literally tell their history in that mystic light. We were extremely contained and almost ready to drop curtain to our rome tour. We came via Colosseum again. Colosseum also looks amazing at night. We returned to our hotel around 11 PM .

  

Jamaican Farewell

It started with a personal letter to my friend. I was in Stockholm that time and it was almost end of my first (May be last) abroad stays. In childhood days my parents used to travel a lot. At least twice a year. That time while coming back I used to feel heavy hearted with almost having no intention to come back. In those days Kolkata meant school, studies and what I hate most (even today) ; daily routine. Then there was a long gap. Lately I started traveling again- this time with my wife. Now that feeling of coming back has changed. It is almost like a fun to come back also. A weekend trip, change of mood and then come back and start work, plan for next trip again.

But Stockholm was different. I never felt like coming back. I wish I could stay forever. I can echo what my US manager told while attending a call from Stockholm.”Chhandak, enjoy tour trip and I wish each second in your trip you spend like a hour. Have most out of it”. Anyways, that time passed so quickly and almost at the end day of travel I got my childhood feelings back. That time I wrote a letter to one of my very few close friends and still waiting for a reply. So this time it is for much bigger audience.

Have you ever listened to "Jamaica farewell" by Hary Bella Fonte. If not, just listen to it now. You have missed something great in your life. It is very simple song. Someone went to Kingston, Jamaica and now he is coming back to Mexico. But he doesn’t want to come back and is still missing someone in Jamaica. No big deal.. no dictionary cracking words. A simple song -

"But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town"



Now we have a Bengali version of it by Ranjan Prasad. You must have listened that couple of times. It is also a beautiful song. "KON SUDUR SE SWAPNOPUR". But the funny part is, though it is just a Bengali adaptation of original Jamaica Farewell, still the main essence of the song got changed. Here it is more like someone is missing his hometown and someone is waiting eagerly there for him. I always found it very funny. No hard feelings both are equally good and each has full right to have his own interpretation. But I always hunted by the question why he changed the essence. This lyrics is something like

"KON SUDUR SE SWAPNOPUR
MOR MON JE GAI GHARE PHERAR SUR
MOR PATH CHEYE AJO SEI MEYE
SWAPNO JAL BONE GAAN GEYE"



I have grown up with Mujtaba ALi's writing. Later on found some answer there. As per Ali Saheb, Rabindranath has seen snow fall at least 600 times in his life. But never wrote a single song or poem on Snowfall, whereas his songs are dominated by rain. Might be he didn't want to write something which common Bengali people have never witnessed. As per Ali Shaheb it is a calculative move. Now don’t chase me on this. Entire responsibility should be taken by Ali Saheb. Bengalis often feel less secure when someone brings slightest criticism about "Thakur". Though I feel it is not a criticism at all - A sheer observation. And I am the last person to talk about Rabindranath as I know him mostly through by School book or by Ali Saheb. But we have much bigger question here. Did Ranjan Prasad also chose the same line???? He put the song in way common Bengali people would like to appreciate???


Now already you should be enough offended and almost thinking of stop reading it (If not already stopped). What is the point I am trying to bring in ??

I have seen tons of movies where people are desperate to come back to their own nations. Most bollywood flims shot in abroad but never fail to add a hint of "deshprem" sentiment to it. Just remember Kajol’s character in "KKKG". I don't know how close to reality those are. I never had been to abroad for so long.

But this write-up is all about what I have seen when I was there in Stockholm. I have seen a good number of African populations, mostly came from Somalia. I think Sweden has a refugee law or something which allows people to come from those war devasted countries. One afternoon, while walking with my wife we have seen a family on the footpath. It definitely is a very rare picture in Stockholm. They had lots of baggage around. One aged lady was sitting in traditional African dress and young women arranging their stuffs, must be immigrated from some other place recently..just waiting to move local residence. There I have seen 2-3 kids were playing around. How happy they were. Their eyes were glowing. It was an awesome scene. I always believe, when you see other people happy their happiness gets transferred to you. I pray to god a happy peaceful bright future for them.

This is the story all about. If the movie Swadesh is just made on reality then this is the other part of it. Over the centuries people have crossed the boundary just for a better life. I am very weak in history but what I could remember thousands of people broke a wall for a better standard of living. Yes, the great Berlin Wall. You can’t stop people with boundaries. I believe one in every 5 Indian will leave their current obligations for a H1B . That is the hard reality. EU is skeptical about adding Turkey to Schengen VISA because they expect a huge number of migrations from there. Immigration is the biggest problem US and UK, both admit. But in 3% of world land how you can restrict 18% of world population (INDIA) to live. People will try to spread in.

Now-a-days more and more Bengalis are adding in Bangalore. Most of them are construction worker. I met one of them in bus. I just curiously asked “from Bengal ?” A minute of silence and then replied Bangladesh and stopped talking to me realizing he told something unofficial. But before talking to me he has happily chatting with someone over phone.

This write up is all about this happiness. The Happiness I have seen in the face of that African child and this Bangladeshi friend. Can someone translate the “Jamaican farewell” song in Bengali once again, keeping this happiness in mind.

Sunday Sentiment: Sunset

As I spent my early years in Kolkata, during my childhood I hardy got time and opportunity to witness sunset. Sun used to set behind some concrete unknowingly while I was busy in playing. But if I look back my life today there are few sunsets I remember when I spent quality time. Why sunset is special to me? Even I don’t know. Might be because of freedom, it always a come with sense of relief. So when I seriously started appreciating Sunset? I guess it is during my 11-12. I use to go for walk alone in evening. Might that be the time when I first started appreciating it. But in that time hardly I witnessed sunset. I use to walk around a lake alone and that lake was east facing. Thosewere crazy days. Alone walking by the lake had some hidden expectation of seeing someone special walking. So I truly can’t declare that as my first admiration for sunset.

I moved to Bangalore in mid 2008. It was a complete new city. I started living alone for the first time in my life. Fortunately I got a room at top of a building which has extremely good view of west side. From that you clearly can witness all activities happening in Bangalore Old Airport. I can bet it has one the best sunset view. Even after I got married we have stayed there almost a year. Amenity wise that house was no way equipped for married couple but my wife never complained. With few amazing sunsets in background my girlfriend for 10 years turned into my wife. Again I got into my comfort zone, I was no longer alone and she started taking care of everything. Which she complained me about sometime after 2 years of marriage but still handling it.

When I was changing my house and searching for new one, my wife used to check all amenities to match requirements, mine responsibility was to check the terrace and top of the of the building. Somehow we managed house which has reasonably well view of sunset and a amazing view of sunrise which I have hardly ever witnessed

Somewhere I read and I never forget that the day might be as cloudy as possible but before sunset sun always uses to come behind those clouds, may be for few minutes only on top of some buildings sunlight uses to fall for first and last in that day. Believe me , I have observed this multiple times and that gives me a enormous joy inside. For me that is the hope for new day whatever may have happened today. Sun again will rise tomorrow may be I am in bed but normally what I heard it use to be ontime, like most of the cinema hall. If it is written 3 -0 clock mostly it is 3-0 clock.

I think I have crossed half of the sunsets of life . If not very close to that. Even today I spend some time alone during sunset. I feel an urge from inside to come as better person for next day. Often few faces come to my mind whom I lost by life or by my mistake. For all the wrong things I have done and all the wrong words I have uttered I silently pray to God/Nature to forgive and give me strength to come as better person tomorrow, whenever I get up that should not matter.