Italy… It was always on my wanna-visit list. For me it was associated with football, pasta/spaghetti, pizza, fashion. If I was to visit it, the first place to go would be football game of one of the famous Italian clubs. But this trip gave me totally different view and opinion about Italy. I always ignored the fact that Italy was the heart of one of the greatest and cruelest empires of our history, the fact that heart of Catholic Christianity beats here in
Vatican and it hosts thousands of precious historical art works, that many famous artists and scientists lived here leaving remarkable works behind them, I was astonished to see the
Rome being a home for architecture and art from different centuries being spread around every corner of the city and giving an image of a huge museum itself, and it was unbelievable feeling just to wander around in the streets and on the bridges of
Venice, and
Milan being more like a disappointment not meeting my big expectations about it.
Well, for
6 days, me,
Cedric(Belgian)
and
Alp(Turk) toured around Italy
starting from Rome, then Venice and ending up in Milan. Your travel partners are also decisive factors in overall flow of the trip. Better to share common interests and priorities in a trip, otherwise clashes of choices/itineraries are unavoidable. I am not a fan of a big group trips actually, usually such trips always end up waiting for or looking for others, long discussions of what to do next and some unhappy faces as a result. I believe that everyone has a right to enjoy the trip as everyone contributes money, time, off-days for it. I am not an easy travel partner anyway, and I enjoyed mostly the trips that I made either myself or with some rare friends with whom we had more similar choices. Well, I can think of
Triin or
Michal being such travel mates. In this trip, three of us were of different kinds of travelers with different choices, and one example of different interests is that while one of us was telling that fountain was built by Bernini, and the other one asking
“Who is Bernini?” :))). But in overall I am grateful to the dudes for making this trip really fun! I guess I was the one sometimes slowing them down by my newly born interest in arts, thoroughly examining works of
Bernini, Raphael and Michelangelo, taking photos of all kind of sculptures, paintings, symbols, and looking for the
Path of Illumination, and sometimes rushing them in order to visit as many places as possible.
Small note on pre-arrangements; this
Schengen visa thing drove me up to a point that I started to regret I got this cheap ticket deal from
SkyEurope. Collecting so many proofs of being “acceptable” for a tourist visit may be a necessary process for these states, but for me it was just frustrating and unfair treatment and it always is. This frustration reached almost the top level when the official at the immigration check in Rome
asked many unnecessary and annoying questions with an annoying voice tone like where was my hotel booking proof for all days or why I came to Rome (?!) although such process is already done during visa issue process. Anyways, at least they didn’t investigate my passport with zoom lenses there, as it happened when I was entering Taiwan 2 years ago with my old-type hand-filled passport. :)) Also, due to busy schedules I couldn’t read about the places to visit in Rome. I had some print-outs for Venice and Milan. Anyway, during whole trip I benefited pretty much from
Wikipedia, and as well as while writing this travel blog!
So, finally in Rome! It took about 30 minutes to reach
Roma Termini train station from the airport by
Leonardo Express train.
Finally at Roma Termini train station
First thing I noticed was the mix of races and colors of people there. I’d never think that Italy would be invaded by
Indians! Maybe north-Africans or Africans, but definitely not Indians.
Indians and Africans seem to own whole illegal street business. So many of them selling illegally fake
Gucci bags or
Armani glasses, almost all souvenir booths are owned by them, working in
McDonalds shops, etc. Besides them, you can basicly see people from all races and ethnicities there, and
you don’t feel like you are in Italy. Also it reminded me of
Istanbul coz of the traffic, crowded streets, tourists and historical buildings/ruins popping up almost on every corner. What was interesting that there were many small size cars (Mini Cooper, etc.) and motorcycles on the streets. There it was, ancient and modern, pre-Christian and Catholic signed, filled with tourists even in winter time, rested along the
River Tiber –
Rome!
Italian choice of auto-motoAnd before that, small vocabulary here;
Via – Street
Piazza – Square
Fontana – Fountain
Capella – Chapel
Castel – Castle
Basilica – big church
Chiesa - Church
Fiume - River
Ponte - Bridge
Palazzo – PalaceDay 1 – Arrival, Piazza Navona, PantheonWe stayed all 3 nights in
BellaRoma hostel near the
Piazza Clodio not too far from the
Vatican. After we left our baggage, despite the rain and dark, we started our journey from
Piazza Navona. It has Bernini’s famous
Fountain of Four Rivers sculpture fountain in the middle. Unfortunately, it was under restoration and had no water. Although I couldn’t enjoy the sculpture much due to darkness, rain and restoration fence, yet it was obvious that it was carved by the hands of a master. The fountain has sculptures of 4 men representing 4 rivers and an Egyptian obelisk on top of them. Rome has many Egyptian obelisks spread around city. If I am not wrong, they were left from
Pagan religions before
Christianity came to Rome. Also there were 2 other smaller fountains on the square, and one of them has
Neptune’s sculpture.
Smaller fountain in Piazza Navona
Next destination was
Pantheon. Pantheon is the only building that was built in ancient Rome and still preserved well. It was built in 27 B.C. by
Marcus Agrippa as it is written in front of the building it is written
“M AGRIPPA L F COS TERTIVM FECIT” which means “M Agrippa, Consul for the third time, built this”, it was a temple to practice
Pantheism, the religion that worships pagan gods. Its name comes from there. Later it was turned into a church. It has round architecture inside, built in a symmetrical way. Now it is a tourist attraction, and also
Raphael’s tomb lies inside there. It has very big circular opening called “
oculus” on its roof. As I read, it meant “
the eye of the gods” watching people in Pantheon from above. It was closed on our first visit, so we just watched from outside near the fountain.
Night view of the once temple of the all Gods - Pantheon
As we were hungry, we started looking for a place to eat, and ended up in Piazza Navona again, and decided to try one of the restaurants there. I ordered pizza, and being in Italy I wanted to eat as much pizza as my stomach and budget permits. And it was a dinner with a view of Bernini’s works! ;)
Day 2 – V. Emanuelle Monument, Fontana di Trevi, Roman Forum, Coliseum, Spanish Steps
Second day started with typical
Italian style breakfast in a shop where you order and eat your breakfast on foot at the place.
Italian style quick-breakfast in a shopWe took bus towards the Roman Forum, and started tour at
Vittorio Emmanuele Monument. It is a huge white building complex, like outdoor museum, with many parts full of statues.
Its main portico has 16 columns and above them there are 16 statues of the regions of Italy represented by female personifications. Also there is a big
statue of Vittorio Emmanuele II, and there is a
tomb of the Unknown Soldier below that. Above the sides of portico there are
chariots of Unity and Liberty. From there, you can have wide view of the leftovers of ancient Rome, Roman Forum, and Coliseum.
Vittorio Emmanuelle II Monument
Vittorio Emmanuelle II Monument
View of the some ancient part of Rome
Female wolf feeding little children, Roman legend and symbol of the Rome
Statue of the knight, one of the thousands of statues spread all over the RomeNext was
Roman Forum, big area full of ruins of buildings, columns, gates, grey stones and brown bricks. There are still some columns standing tall and making people think that once upon a time ago it was civilized and modern city of its time, the heart of Roman Empire, a place where the emperors lived, the place full of big white marble buildings. And now only an attraction for tourists which may not be aware of this place’s glorious past.
Roman Forum
These columns have been standing there for hundreds of years. Roman ForumFrom there we climbed to
Palatino Hill.
The ticket to Palatino Hill + Coliseum was 9 euros for non-EU and 5 euros for EU citizens. Damn it, I can not understand this level of discrimination even in such places. This hill over
Tiber valley and
Roman Forum has most ancient ruins of Rome.
Romulus founded the city here in
754 BC. Then it used to be residential area for upper class families during republican period. Then it was transformed into official residence by
Augustus and his successors. Today, it is a hill with only ruins of those palaces and green gardens with orange trees. On the other side of the hill, you can view an open area that once used to be some kind of
hippodrome where the horse races were organized. Once Roman princesses and friends were playing here, now it is full of tourists. There’s a nice view of Roman Forum, and Coliseum from here as well.
On the Palatino Hill
View of Roman Forum and the Colosseum on the far end
Orange trees on the Palatino HillThen we climbed down and in front of us rose the ancient amphitheater -
Coliseum. People say that it looks smaller than it seems, I don’t understand based on what they assume it.
For me it was as grand, appealing, and mythical as I thought. It was hard to believe that I was in front of this ancient arena, where the horrible death and blood were the things crowds enjoyed to see.
We are standing close to less damaged part of the amphitheatre - ColosseumAs it says,
it symbolized the power, the glory and the cruelty of Roman emperors. It was started to build in
72 A.D It was given name “
Flavio”, but it was more known as “
Colosseum”
due to huge bronze statue that once stood beside it.
Later gladiator fights were stopped by Catholic Church. Unfortunately, it was abandoned in Middle Ages and brown and grey walls is what is left from the arena now, and
almost all the marble were stolen and also Coliseum’s marble was used to construct other buildings like St. Peter’s Basilica and Square in Vatican. Yet you can still see original look of outside walls only partly. When you go inside it, you need to try hard to picture how it looked like because nothing is left from tribune part, only the underlying walls that held the tribune. And in the middle of arena, instead of sandy ground stage, you can see the small cells/rooms and halls which used to be under the stage and where were the prisoners-gladiators and wild animals were kept. At those times, there was wooden planking over them, and this wooden floor was covered with sand. Now, small part of this wooden stage is restored to give an idea how it used to look like.
Some facts about it;
it has elliptical shape, diameters are 188 and 156 meters, height is 50 meters, it had a capacity for 50000 people, and due its efficient entry passages it could be filled or emptied in 15 minutes. Its restoration began during Napoleonic times. Emperor and upper class people sit closer to stages, and then knights and lower class people were the ones sitting on the upper part of tribune. Entry for gladiator fights was free.
Inside view of the Colosseum; rooms, cells and corridors under the wooden floor once stood in the center of the arena and partly restorated wooden floor, skeleton of the tribune part and partly restorated tribune on the left side of the restored wooden tribuneAfter that we climbed to
Domus Area, but didn’t find anything much interesting there. Then we gave short break, and traditional having food with a view of smth interesting, this time – Colosseum!
Short sandwiich break in front of the Colosseum
Man with ancient Roman soldier uniform, taking a photo with him would cost 5 eurosThen we decided to have a look at
Piazza della Republicca, wide open square with another fountain in the middle, and then continued towards
Fontana di Trevi. On the way, I decided to find the
Church of St.Maria della Vittoria (because of my fantasy of finding altars of science in the
Path of Illumination that is mentioned in Dan Brown’s book “
Angels&Demons”, but I’ll write about it in my next post). We checked one church, although it was not the one I was looking for, it had something that attracted Alp’s attention – “
trinacria” symbols inside the church.
Trinacria symbol is an eye inside a triangle and it is emblonized on Masonic lodges (also it is drawn on the top of pyramid in 1 US dollar currency, more about it in next posts).
The church where I saw trinacria inside
Trinacria (eye in a triangle), I took this picture in that church.Then we passed through
Piazza Barberini and there was another fountain built by Bernini and
Bernini Hotel facing the square.
Then it was
Fontana di Trevi. Best time to visit it at night, and it was full of tourists. Big fountain built with large pool and huge sculptures,
another Bernini masterpiece.
Tradition is to throw 2 coins to the pool and make 2 wishes (another stupid tourist trick);
one is to come back to Rome again, and second one is to get married in Rome…Have a nice day! :) I did throw though, but 2 Czech krons :)). It is a nice place just to sit and rest after long day walk and just people-watch.
Our legs were numb, yet we decided to make final move and complete day at
Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna). And if you check Rome map, it is visible that we almost walked half of Rome that day! After all, Rome is not that big. Spanish Steps is just long stairs in front of the square. It is nearby the shopping area where all those Gucci, L.Vutton shops are. We climbed up the stairs, and there was another surprise for me.
There was a church on the top - Trinita dei Monti. We were examining it, and what got my attention was the thing they brought and put in the center part of church – Egyptian crucifix! Not the typical crucifix, but the one with round head. And above there was Jewish hexagon and in the center of it there was a triangle or pyramid. I am not sure if it was trinacria or not. I never saw this Egyptian crucifix in other churches before.
Was it a Masonic church or the church related to the templar knights?! Another thing was the way people praying there were kneeling towards the crucifix on one knee like the knights before leaving the church. And there was
beautiful singing there (watch the video below). I stayed there for some time listening to this singing and trying to understand the symbols I just had seen…
The Spanish Steps (Scalla di Spagna)
The church at the top of the Spanish Steps - Trinita dei Monti, with the Egyptian cross, the sign of triange in a hexagonal star, and people kneeling like th knights...Day 3 - Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica and Square, Castel S’Angelo, PantheonThe next morning, after typical breakfast at the breakfast shop near our hotel, we headed towards
Vatican – heart of Catholic Christianity. High walls are surrounding the city, but no borders or checkpoints. You can enter Vatican only from St.Peter’s square.
St.Peter’s square represents the form of a keyhole when you look from above. It has a wide open circular or oval part and the rectangular part just in front of the
St.Peter’s Basilica.
Amazing collection of art is located here; surrounding high columns with roof and statues of saints and angels on the roof decorates the borders of the square. There are some more of these statues on the roof of the other buildings surrounding the square and on the roof of the basilica. In total,
140 statues of angels, saints and martyrs. In the middle there’s high
Egyptian obelisk, and two symmetrically settled fountains decorates the inner area. Around the obelisk, there are elliptical stones carved on the ground, and image of an angel blowing an air. There are eight of them around the obelisk, each showing its direction (north, north-west, west, etc.).
St.Peter’s square was designed by Bernini himself.
At the St.Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro)There was a big crowd already, and the long queue to enter
St.Peter’s Basilica. Main attraction places were the inner part of it where also is located the so believed
tomb of St.Peter,
the cupola with its long way up and fantastic view of the square, Vatican and Rome from there, and also the
Popes’ Tombs that are located under the basilica. And of course high security checks at the entrance. Vatican has always been under possible threat from many different groups.
The front view of St Peter's BasilicaFirst we decided to go to the top of it, to
the Cupola. You have an option to use elevator and pay more for entrance, or just to walk up in a spiral corridor. At the end of the corridor you reach the base of the cupola, from there you can go to the roof of the Basilica, or continue up the narrow corridor to reach the top of the cupola. There is a round balcony there. Inside of the base of cupola, there’s nice view of inner section of the basilica. The ceiling, the bottom part of cupola, is decorated with paintings of the saints, angels, etc., and on the top of the ceiling it is written
“S.PETRI GLORIAE SIXTVS.PP.V.A.M.D.XC.PONTIF.V.” (should check what it means). From the base of cupola, you can see other parts of the basilica and
St.Peter’s tomb in the center. I read that it was designed by
Michelangelo as well, but I don’t know which parts of the basilica.
View of inside of St.Peter's basilica from the cupola baseThen we went up the narrow stairs to reach the top of the cupola.
Narrow stairs to the cupolaFirst impression was “
Wow!!!”. With its perfectly symmetrical view in front of me stood the
St.Peter’s square. You appreciate it even more from the look above. And view of the river Tiber,
Castel S’Angelo and then it was covered with Rome. And once you walk around, you can see other parts of the smallest country in the world. Not crowded streets, green gardens and beautiful buildings.
Vatican Museum laid on the left. And the surrounding high brown walls. Maybe for the first time my binoculars were in good use, I enjoyed looking closer to Vatican and the square and the city from the point of a bird view.
We spent some time on the roof of the cupola, and then on the roof of the basilica. It was surprising to see food and souvenir shops on the roof :). Cedric kept saying that
Vatican means business. We could see many shops later inside the Vatican museum as well.
Fantastic view of St.Peter's Basilica from the cupola
View of Vatican Museums from the cupola
Vatican City
On the roof of St.Peter's basilica, near the cupola
Next was the basilica itself. You go down directly inside it. I read somewhere that it was the biggest cathedral in the world. True or not, but it was indeed huge. Every part of it breathed with art and history. And, so many people of different race and ethnicity who came all the way there to visit and pray signified its importance and value for anyone. No matter he is Christian or not. It has different atmosphere. You could feel the heaviness of the place due to its significance, its history, its importance all over the world, its value for so many people, its political and religious power. It was heart of Vatican.
Inside St.Peter's basilica
Inside St.Peter's basilicaAnd in the center of it, there stood the tomb of St.Peter’s, the person who built the first Church and who was the first Pope. There is no proof that St.Peter’s bonds were indeed found there, but the stone was found with “
Peter lies here” written on it.
St.Peter's Tomb
St.Peter's tombSt.Peter’s square, basilica, and the Vatican Museum are the only parts open to public. It is not possible to go to other parts of the city-state without special permission. And Vatican is protected by the
Swiss guards. They wear funny looking orange-blue dress and dark coat in cool weather. I read that these dresses were designed by Michelangelo. And behind this funny look, there is a highly trained by Swiss army special force guards. They have to be Swiss males between 19 and 30 years old, at least 5 feet 6 inches tall, unmarried, and belong to one Switzerland’s 4 Catholic cantons.
That's the Swiss Guard of Vatican
After the basilica, we went for pizza lunch, and then headed back to the square and spend some time there. Next was the
Tombs of Popes. On the basement of the basilica, it is a lighted room with a passage between the tombs of the popes who were buried here. I could also see
Jean Paul II’s tomb and some people were praying there.
One of the pope's tomb
West Ponente - West Wind. One of the "Illuminati Altars of Science"After that, we left Vatican and walked to nearby standing castle -
Castel S’Angelo. It was built on the riverside and with
the Bridge of Angels in front of it. It had circular shape with the balcony overlooking to the river and the bronze statue of angel on the roof. It was open for visitors, but we decided to stick with its outside view after learning entrance fee. The castle was used as a residency for the some Popes, and there is an
underground secret passages that connect castle to Vatican. Bridge of Angels reminded me of the Charles Bridge in Prague, and it had statues of angels instead of the saints. And it was invaded by the African or Indian illegal traders of fake
Gucci/Armani/Prada glasses, belts, bags or souvenirs. It totally spoilt the view of the bridge and the castle.
On the Bridge of Angels, Castel S'Angelo sits on the background
Another view of illegal fake goods traders that fills streets and squares in RomeAs we were done with the daily plan, we decided to re-visit
Pantheon as we missed the interior view on the first time. During the day, it was more majestic. The things that caught my attention inside the Pantheon were
Raphael Santi’s tomb and
the oculus – circular opening on the roof. It was the oldest undamaged building in Rome. Once temple of the pantheism it was turned into Church. As we had time we went to
Fontain di Trevi again. Alp tried to throw coins to the pool as well hoping to come to Rome again and to get married there :).
Alp throwing "the luck coin" to the pool of Fountain di TreviThen we went back to hotel, and then for dinner in the nearby
Trattoria. Then with Cedric we went to Vatican again to catch the night view there. It was beautiful although not that lighted up. I was expecting more lights and crowd there, but it was dark and almost deserted. Yet using camera’s advanced night shot features I managed to catch some shots. But video shot was not that successful.
Day 4 – Vatican Museum, Illuminati Path – getting "illuminated", Train to VeniceThere was a long queue in front of
Vatican Museum in the morning, and after 1 hour of waiting we got our tickets and entered maybe the most richest museum in the world. Many sections, and I just randomly decided to follow the sign saying "
Sistine Chapel". But it was not that near. First I found myself in the
Room of Maps (Gallery of Maps). It was something worth to see. Beside the maps of Italy and its regions, there were hundreds of frescoes all over the walls and ceilings. Gallery was 120 m long.
Long queue for Vatican Museums
Room of the Maps, Vatican Museum
Painting on the ceilings and walls of Vatican Museum
Halls of Vatican Museum
in Vatican Museum
Then were the
Raphael Rooms. These rooms are famous for the paintings on their walls painted by Raphael or his students.
First I passed through
Hall of Constantine, the frescoes in this room were completed by Raphael's students after his death. The room was dedicated to the victory of Christianity over paganism. Its frescoes depict this struggle from the life of the Roman Emperor Constantine. The main paintings here are; The Battle of Milvian Bridge, The Baptism of Constantine , The Vision of the Cross and The Donation of Constantine.
Hall of ConstantineThe Battle of Milvian Bridge ( shows the battle that took place on October 28, 312, following Constantine's vision) and
The Baptism of Constantine (shows the emperor on his deathbed)
Next Raphael's Room was
Room of Heliodorus. It also had 4 paintings on the walls; The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple, The Deliverance of Saint Peter, The Meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila and The Mass at Bolsena.
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (biblical episode from II Maccabees (3:21-28) about Heliodorus, who was sent to seize the treasure preserved in the Temple in Jerusalem, but was trampled by a horse)
The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the TempleThe Deliverance of Saint Peter (how Saint Peter was liberated from prison by an angel)
The Deliverance of Saint PeterThe Meeting of Pope Leo I and Attila (depicts the storied parley between the Pope and the Hun conqueror, and includes the legendary images of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the sky bearing swords. Interestingly, Raphael first depicted Leo I with the face of Pope Julius II but after Julius' death, Raphael changed the painting to resemble the new pope, Leo X)
The Meeting of Pope Leo I and AttilaThen came
Room of Signatura, this room was the council chamber for the Apostolic Signatura, where most of the important papal documents were signed and sealed.
The ceiling of Room of Signatura
First painting was Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, image of the church, which is presented as spanning both heaven and earth.
Disputation of the Holy Sacrament
Then there was one of the best works of Raphael (and I liked it the most!); The School of Athens, and it represents the truth acquired through reason. There pictured most famous people - the greatest philosophers, scientists and mathematicians like Pythagoras, Alexander the Great, Socrates, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle holding the Ethics, Euclid, Archimedes and Raphael himself.
The School of Athens
Part of The School of Athens where Raphael drew his self-portrait (second from the right)
The other fresco is The Parnassus, and it shows Apollo and the Muses are surrounded by poets from antiquity and Raphael's own time.
The Parnassus
And last room was The Room of the Fire in Borgo. Its main fresco Fire in the Borgo shows Pope Leo IV making the sign of the cross to extinguish a raging fire in the Borgo district of Rome near the Vatican.
Fire in the Borgo
Another painting is The Coronation of Charlemagne, it shows how Charlemagne was crowned Imperator Romanorum on Christmas Day, 800.
The Coronation of Charlemagne
The other painting is The Battle of Ostia and it shows the naval victory of Leo IV over the Saracens at Ostia.
The Battle of Ostia
After spending more than an hour in these 4 rooms, I followed the crowd which was most probably going to Sistine Chapel. Sistine Chapel is where the cardinals elect the new Pope, and it has been of the key parts of Vatican. But it also hosted tons of art pieces, and that is what made my steps quicker and quicker. And after going through some corridors, I found myself inside the big long and high room, very crowded. But I knew I was there when I saw the ceiling. And my eyes started to look for the main attraction - fresco The Creation of Adam.
Sistine Chapel
There were security guards among the people who were trying hard to prevent people from using their cameras and shouting "No photo!! No photo!". But here and there, people were managing to steal a second to get a shot of the ceiling or the wall with the huge fresco painted on it - The Last Judgement. And some idiots were even using flashes of their cameras, thus ruining more these precious pieces of work of the great painter - Michelangelo. I spent there more than 30 minutes just watching the huuuuge fresco on the wall, The Last Judgement, and the frescoes on the ceiling beside The Creation of Adam. I had a binocular, thus enjoyed closer look of every part of them, and my interest and respect in these paintings and Michelangelo growing every second.
The Last Judgement was interesting fresco to observe. It was huge covering whole wall behind the altar. Michelangelo completed it in 6 years. It shows the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse and the souls of humans are being judged by Christ. Souls of humans are shown as naked body. It says that originally Michelangelo drew them with genitals exposed, but there was some reaction by cardinals. Later genitals were covered by another painter with Pope's order as a censorship.
And The Creation of Adam shows shows "God" creating Adam, with Eve in His arm, and their hands are stretched out to reach each others fingers.
The Creation of Adam (in the centre)
Despite the feeling that I was committing art crime, I managed to take few shots and small video of the room. May Michelangelo forgive me for this sin! ;))
The rest of the museum offered some halls with treasures and some souvenir shops ("Vatican is Buisness!" by Cedric), and after seeing main places, it didn't attract me much either. Also, museum was soon to be closed.
As we had almost half a day to spend, we decided to spend it everyone on its own. I needed it, as now it was time to complete my small fantasy - Path of Illumination :).
Earlier I managed to visit 2 of 4 altars of science (acc. to D.Brown's novel) where 4 great Bernini's works were located. And in "Angels&Demons" these Bernini works were used as the four "markers" leading to an ancient Illuminati lair in the Castel Sant'Angelo.
First was the Fountain of Four Rivers in Piazza Navona.
The second one was the West Ponente in St.Peter's Square.
There were still 2 more spots. So I hopped on the metro to go to Piazza del Popolo.
Metro in Rome
Piazza del Popolo
There should be one of the altars of science - Chigi Chapel with the statue of Habakkuk and the Angel inside. I had some problem in finding the Chigi Chapel as I didn't clearly know that chapels are located inside the churches, but at the end I found out that Chigi Chapel was inside the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. As it was to be opened in 1 hour, I decided to explore another altar of science - The Ecstasy of St Teresa sculpture at the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. According to book, it should be facing the square Piazza Barberini, it turned out that it was about 100-130 meters away upwards the Via Barberini street. The church was open, and soon I was staring at the statue, another great work of Bernini.
Piazza Barberini (Square), fountain by Bernini and Bernini Hotel at the background
the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria
in front of The Ecstasy of St Teresa sculpture
Then I went back to Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, it was open. 
Church of Santa Maria del Popolo
Chigi Chapel was on the left side. And there it was, the last altar of science, end of my journey. There was statue of Habakkuk and the Angel - last of the four "markers". Also the floor mosaique that was described as "demon's hole entrance" in the book.
statue of Habakkuk and the Angel
the floor mosaique
pyramids in Chigi Chapel
And finally I decided to re-visit Castel S'Angelo, the final destination of Illuminati Path. It was already getting dark, and I tried to catch its night view, and after that to re-visit St.Peter's square for the last time as it was close to there. Castel SAngelo and St.Peter's Basilica looked gorgeous on the reflection of Tiber river in the dawn time, and thus providing some mythical view from their glorious medieval years.
S.Peter's basilica reflected on Tiber River
Castel S'Angelo reflected on Tiber River
It was done, I officially completed whole Illuminati path and got "illuminated".
Castel S'Angelo - "Church of Illumination"
Road that leads to Vatican from Castel S'Angelo
Night view of St.Peter's square and basilica
Then we said good-bye to people in hostel, they were helpful and friendly, especially Hernan from Argentina. It seemed like people came to Italy and stayed in this hostel for free and doing some tasks like dealing with customers, cleaning etc., and thus provide free accommodation while they spent time in Rome. So if you are planning to go to Rome and stay there for long-time, and short of money, then you have such options at the hostels.
At BellaRoma with Hernan
Train adventure
Then we went to train station to catch our train at midnight. But due to the strike, train was cancelled at all, and that means that tickets were burnt automatically. It was just announced, but no ticket or information booths were open. After some panic we managed to talk to some policemen who was saying with typical Italian accent "Striiiike, striiike! Nooooo train! Tomoooorrrroww!". But somehow we figured out that we could take night train to Bologna and then switch there to go to Venice. We had to wait for couple of hours in cold station. One thing about train tickets in Italy is that you can buy ticket and no time is indicated on them, so that means you can hop on any train any time that goes between these cities. Well, as we sat talking, it was past midnight, and Cedric felt tired and fell asleep on the bench. Me and Alp as usually started talking loudly in Turkish and debating on all possible issues or criticising the work environment in our company :))). That became our discussion topic for whole trip:). And suddenly a guy came to us and greeted us in Turkish! He more looked like an Italian, but he introduced himself, and was a student from Azerbaijan. He was studying in Italy, had been to Turkey before and was traveling around Italy. And Azerbaijani and turkish are very similar languages. He just arrived to Rome, and had no place to go, so he decided to sit with us for a while. And as three of us were sitting and talking, another guy approached us and tried to talk in broken Turkish asking for some help with train information. He turned out to be a Russian guy who knew a little bit turkish, and he couldn't speak Italian. He was also planning to go to Venice, but didn't know that train was cancelled due to strike, so was just walking around with confused look. I like surprising people by suddenly starting to speak in Russian with newly met Russians, or Turkish with newly met Turks who dont know that I speak their language. This guy was touring Italy before leaving to France, but somehow he was already frustrated with Rome and Italy that he kept blaming and complaining about this "damn" country although he just spent 1 day in Rome. That usually happens to unexperienced or unprepared travellers. Also he was alone, and couldn't manage to turn his stay in Rome into pleasant sightseeing. I think Cedric was surprised to see 2 other unfamiliar faces speaking with us in different language! So when train came we ran to the platform, and to our surprise Azerbaijani guy suddenly decided to come with us, earlier he told that he just came to Rome. Actually I suspected that he wanted to ask smth from us, but couldn't do it somehow. And we somehow lost him in the panic of looking for our carriages. Other russian guy was basicly running after us trying not to be left behind. Another funny thing happened as we got on the carriages and started to look for empty seats in the rooms. 6-seat rooms were occuppied by 1 or 2 or 3 people who connected 2 opposite seats to turn them into bed and were sleeping on them, but the funny thing was that they tied the door handles with the curtains and other things to keep others away from disturbing them, pulled the curtains and turned off the lights. :))) Seemed like there was no hope to find an empty seat. Almost all of the rooms were in that way. We finally found one where one African guy was sleeping on 2 seats. It was smelly, but the tiredness took over other things and we fell asleep for a while. We woke up in the middle of the night as train was approaching Bologna. Now that in information board it was written to use Platform 10 (if i remember correctly) to go to Venice, but there was no sign of a platform #10?!! What the heck again?! I was preparing to swear whole train system in Italy, but luckily we found our way to the platform, and got on the train to the desired destination - Venice!
Day 5 – Venice
After the whole night tiring train journey, we arrived to Venice in early morning. There it was the sinking city, "Queen of the Adriatic" and "City of Water". The city of famous people like Vivaldi, Casanova and Marco Polo. The weather that morning was not welcoming; the sky was cloudy, and it was cold outside. After waving goodbye to our Russian journey partner, we looked for our hotel. Despite Alp’s claim that it was somewhere far from the train station, I was sure that it was close by, and it proved so. Aloggi Agli Artisti was a decent hotel with nice rooms for the price we paid. It was in Cannaregio district of Venice.
As this trip was not well planned in advance in terms of things to do and places to see, we actually missed the famous Venice Mask Festival by few days. Had we booked our tickets a week earlier, we’d manage to catch it. But we realized it only after the tickets were bought and arrangements were made. This was one of the trips when I was less prepared, and both of my travel mates as well. Also, Venice seemed to be a little more expensive than Rome, but for 1-2 day you don’t need a big budget.
One thing famous about Venice is the mask. Or the masks, as there are many different kinds. Shops and boutiques are full of masks of different colors, types, patterns and prices. There were some even with jewelry stuck on them.
All kind of masks in Venice mask shops
Just before leaving Venice, I bought classical white-goldfish bauta mask for 8 euros as a souvenir from this beautiful town. It is the mask that covers only the upper part of the face from the forehead to the nose and upper cheeks, thereby concealing identity but enabling the wearer to talk and eat or drink easily.
As Wikipedia says; “Venetian masks have a long history of protecting their wearer's identity during promiscuous or decadent activities. Made for centuries in Venice, these distinctive masks were formed from papier-mâché and wildly decorated with fur, fabric, gems, or ribbons. Eventually, Venetian masks re-emerged as the emblem of Carnevale, a pageant and street fair celebrating hedonism.
Another mask shop view
Additionally, the masks served an important social purpose of keeping every citizen on an equal playing field. Masked, a servant could be mistaken for a nobleman - or vice versa. Spape ijqqisitors and spies could question citizens without fear of their true identity being discovered (and citizens could answer without fear of retribution). The morale of the people was maintained through the use of masks - for with no faces, everyone had voices.
Welcome to Venice!
As a result of the concealment of identity, however, people naturally found themselves taking advantage of the situation. The society grew ever more decadent. The immense amount of travelers coming through the city meant that sexual promiscuity was commonplace and acceptable. Gambling went on all day and night in the streets and houses, even in convents. Women's clothing became more revealing; homosexuality, while publicly condemned, was embraced by the populace. Even the nuns and monks of the clergy, bejeweled and dressed in the latest imported creations, wore masks and engaged in the same acts as the majority of their fellow citizens. Rome turned a blind eye, as long as the Republic continued to make generous donations.
The Venetian Republic was a major sea power and a staging area for the Crusades, as well as a very important centre of commerce (especially the spice trade) and art in the Renaissance.”
We started our tour by following the main tourist itinerary indicated in a tourist map. It would take us through all popular tourist spots. This time we followed the sign “Per Rialto” to reach the famous Rialto Bridge. It was a pleasant walk through streets full of mask shops, some people dressed in costumes and masks and standing as statues (thus asking for “donation” to take picture of/with them), and small bridges crossing smaller canals with gondolas.
Canals of Venice
Another thing was the food shops with shelves full of pizza and pizzetta types, foccacia, strundel, and other bread products. They didn’t look fresh, but still very appetizing. The best thing to do, as we did later on the whole day, was to buy some pieces of pizza or foccacia or I-don’t-remember-what and fill your stomach along the way at many different shops.
Foot shop vitrins
Finally, we reached Rialto Bridge. It is the oldest bridge across the canal. First it was built as pontoon bridge in 12th century, and then it was replaced by wooden bridge. It was partly burnt during some revolt, and it collapsed down twice; once when the crowd was watching the boat parade on Grand Canal. The present stone bridge, a single span designed by Antonio da Ponte, was completed in 1591. It is remarkably similar to the wooden bridge it succeeded.
Rialto Bridge
From the bridge you could see many gondolas and vaporetti (ferry) floating on the Grand Canal. Everything here was picturistique; the bridge itself, view of Grand Canal from the bridge, gondolas floating under the bridge and the view of beautiful buildings along the banks of the canal.
Grand Canal view from Rialto Bridge
Grand Canal view from Rialto Bridge
We spent some time just absorbing the surrounding atmosphere and the feeling of being in Venice with its streets and canals and seeing only gondolas and ferries instead of cars and normal buses. That is how Venice looks like, City Of Water.
And in the crowd we lost Cedric, who assumed that we continued our way to St.Mark’s square and went that way. Later we met there. Meanwhile I was reading my printout notes from Wikipedia about Rialto bridge and telling them to Alp. Later these notes benefited to learn more about other main spots around St.Mark’s square and I did some sort of tour guide job to Alp and Cedric as I did in some parts of our Rome journey. Also, we raahly sajtad to tour Venice by gondola, but it seems like locals got spoilt by tourists and were asking for prices like 70 euro for 20 minutes of ride! Bon giorno!
Next stop was Piazza San Marco (St.Mark’s square), top attraction of Venice.
Piazza San Marco (St.Mark’s square)
It was not only the square, but St.Mark’s Cathedral, Doge’s (Duke’s) Palace, Bridge of Sighs, St.Mark’s Clocktower, Biblioteca Marciana, Procuratie buildings, Piazetta (small square next to it) and other attractions in this place. Also there are two columns nearby Grand Canal on Piazzetta that indicate the main gateway to the city, and both columns have statues on top of them; St.Marks Lion statue and statue of Saint Teodoro of Amasea standing on the sacred crocodile of Egypt.
Gate of Venice - St.Marks Lion statue and statue of Saint Teodoro of Amasea
Facing St.Mark’s square lies St.Mark’s Basilica. It has Byzantine architecture.
St.Mark’s Basilica
One important building there was gothic Doge’s Palace which lies adjacent to the basilica. It was the residence of the Doge of Venice and contained the offices of a number of political institutions like lawyers offices, the Chancellery, the Censors, the Naval Offices, the Grand Council chamber, the Ballot chamber, the Doge's apartments and the rooms where foreign ambassadors were received. At the rear of the palace is the Bridge of Sighs, connecting to the prison.
Doge’s Palace
The Bridge of Sighs is an enclosed bridge and is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built.
Bridge of Sighs
St.Mark’s Square was crowded with visitors, but maybe it was more overcrowded by some other creatures – pigeons! I just hope that this bird flu never reaches Venice, otherwise it would totally destroy Venice’s attractiveness. For 1 euro I bought small bag of grains. And once you put some in your palms, you will be immediately covered by pigeons. I really enjoyed playing with them and they showed no fear in landing on my hands, arms, and even the head. Well, I am aware that they are less hygienic and fortunately didn’t feel any itchiness in my hands or head later on :).
After some time there, Cedric went home and me and Alp spent more time wandering around and then continuing our way to explore more of Venice. Some other attractions we encountered were the Ponte Accademia (Accademia bridge) again with some illegal fake goods sellers there, the exhibition of interactive machines from the codics of Leonardo da Vinci, S.Maria gloriosa del Fiari church. Then we spent some time waiting for Cedric in a coffee shop. Later Alp went back to hotel as it started to rain slightly, and I followed him. After some rest, I went out and it was already dark and rain stopped. Then we agreed to meet with Cedric at Rialto Bridge. The evening walk through the same streets gave different pleasure, at night Venice is beautiful in a different way. Streets are lighted, and the view of night Grand Canal is great. We just walked in randomly selected streets and tried pizzas from few different shops.
Grand Canal at night
Small canal joining Grand Canal
Afterwards we wanted to sit and have proper dinner, but to our surprise most of raspaqranps and food shops were closed by 9-10 pm. And shops were closed even earlier. I’d expect honger hours of availability of such things in such touristic places.
Empty Venice streets
One funny thing that happened was that we were charged 1,5 euros each for just sitting and eating our pizzas inside the pizza shop. Nothing special, it was just a pizza shop typical to those in fast food courts, but we were only told when we were paying after the meal (not even a meal, but a slice of pizza with Coke). We went back to hotel as it was getting cold and streets were getting empty. It was true that many visitors gave to Venice only 1 day to come early in the morning and leave on a late evening train. At the end of the day, I enjoyed Venice, and maybe I’d like to come here one day again, maybe with my wife.
Day 6 – Train to Milan, Milano (El Duomo, Castle, The Last Supper place, Fashion streets, Departure
As I wrote at the beginning,
Milan was more disappointing as I had huge expectations from it. It turned out to be nothing much special. Of course, it has those few fashion streets where all the fashion brand stores are located, and people in these areas dressed with good taste. One should live and feel the city, so probably this first impression shouldn't be set as a point anyway. At the end of the day, it is Italy's wealthiest city!
We reached
Milano Train station around noon. It was a pleasant ride, I was napping part of it. Also we got quick glances at some cities (towns) like Verona and other northern cities. Once we got out of the train, I was impressed by the Main Train station. Main building itself was a quite of a view. As the buses to all three airports leave from the main station, best is to buy bus tickets in advance (buses usually leave in every 30 minutes). We had only 5-6 hours to spend, so we rushed to
Duomo first.
Milano Train StationIl Duomo is a big white Gothic cathedral in Duomo Square. When you come out of Metro Station, that's the first thing you see, definitely followed by a sincere "Wow!!!". Bad luck is that part of it was covered by reconstruction panel, so we missed the full view. Although we didn't have time to explore it more, that's what I learned about it; 500 years in the making, work began on this wondrous place of worship in 1386 and wasn’t finished until 1837.
Today, it is the world’s largest Gothic Cathedral.
Duomo CathedralDuomo Square is a typical people watch area. of Vittorio Emanuele II statue is the central decoration here. On a less tight schedule, I'd love to hang around this area, but we had to move on further. From the right of the cathedral stands the entrance to
Galleria Vittorio Emmanulle. It is occupied by shops, cafes, and restaurants (even McDonald's?! I stat to hate this yellow-red brand).
1- Alp in Duomo Square. 2- Galleria Vittorio EmanueleWhen you exit the gallery, this time you will be greeted by thoughtful look of
Leonardo Da Vinci... His statue is centered in
Piazza della Scala, and there stands te famous
Theater La Scala as well. Respect to the Master...
The master Da Vinci's Statue near Il Duomo
Milan streetsAfter the square we took long walk towards
Castle Sforza. Normally it is recommended to go through Via Dante street, but we decided to follow the parallel side streets full of fashionably dressed Italians rushing to/from lunch. Castle was nicely preserved and under further restorations. If I lived in Milan, I would love to visit this place at weekends. Quick tour of a castle, few pizza bites in pizzerias around, and then we parted with others as I wanted to go and see Da Vinci's damous fresco "
The Last Supper". It was 10 minute walk from the castle.
the Sforza Castle 
Football jerseys booth near Sforza Castle
Pizza shopI found Santa Maria della Grazie Church very quickly. My expectation was that painting was inside it. There were indeed frescoes on the walls, but not the one with Christ and his apostoles behind the table. It turned out that the frescoe is located in the section attached near to the church, and it was closed on Mondays!!! What a luck... Anyway, it was also written there that advance booking is strongly suggested. Truly not my day. I said to myself "Next time..." and moved towards the fashion district of Milan.
Church Santa Maria delle Grazie, Leonardo Da Vinci's famous The Last Supper is painted hereWhen you say fashion, you mean Milan. When you say fashion in Milan, they say "
Quadrilateral" which is formed by
Via Montenapoleone, Via Sant’Andrea, Via Monzani and
Via della Spiga streets. If you plan to go there for shopping, then here are the basic rules; dress well and bring bag of money. Make a list of all fashion brands you know, and you will find big shops for every single of them. I spent almost an hour just touring 3-storey Armani store. There I felt the urgent need to get rich asap ;)). Jackets starting from 500 euros, shirts from 150 euros, sunglasses from 127 euros... although most of them looked ridicilously expensive and not worthy of its price.
Armani store from inside
Armani store from outsideThen I had only enough time to walk through MonteNapoleone street. I was already fulfilled with the view of fashion stuff, so didn't bother myself to check the stores. I recommend guys not to bring their girlfriends there if they are ever will be visiting Milan. Girls will want to spend there days, but what is more dangerous is that they may start to feel the need of getting rich husband/boyfriend afterwards... Feed them with pizza & pasta, tour the Duomo, and skip these streets ;).
Montanapoleone Street in Milan - heart of fashion district in Milan
Church in Milan, I stopped remembering their names after seeing so many of themWe met back in train station, and took bus to the airport. But due to traffic, we reached the airport just before the flight time. Especially Alp got very stressed because of it. But fortunately or unfortunately, our flight was delayed for 2 hours...
We reached Prague safe and tired. Great trip! Thanks to Alp and Cedric.
Videos;
March 28, 2007 
