Vatican City and Rome

Early on the morning of July 13, the Roe family arrived in Rome and promptly ran as fast as we could to catch a 9 am tour of Vatican City. Vatican City, as my well-educated and enlightened readers are sure to know, is the world’s smallest independent state, with a population of under 1,000. This low population and the nature of the state leads to a few other interesting facts, that are not particularly surprising in and of themselves, but which make for good trivia: Vatican City is the richest country in the world per capita, and also has the least balanced gender ratio (of the 1,000 inhabitants, the only women are the 300 or so nuns). Interestingly, Vatican City’s status as an independent nation is much newer than I originally thought – it was only officially established in 1929. Another little-known fact about the Vatican is that the state (Vatican City) and the Holy See actually issue different passports, although both are very difficult to come by. Vatican City is a walled country, and I learned all these facts during the half hour or so wait to get inside, during which time I also developed a hearty appreciation of my own sweat glands and a hearty dislike for other peoples'. After this time had elapsed, we were pushed through security and entered the smallest sovereign state in the world.

One of the first things we saw upon entering the country was this rather large sculpture, prominently featured in the center of the courtyard. It was made by a rather well-known modern sculptor whose name I have since forgotten. I personally know about as much about sculptures as your typical slime mold, but apparently it represents the Vatican’s ability to connect to the world even in turbulent modern times.

It was easy to spot St. Peter’s Basilica, because it is the tallest building in the Vatican and also the largest cathedral in the world. It is built upon St. Peter’s death spot, and is the reason that Vatican City is located here instead of on some other square mile in Italy. On a slightly more personal note, St. Peter has inspired me to add Founding a Country to the list of things I do before after I die.

The interior was even more imposing than the exterior. The number of statues like these went far to convince me that Vatican City is, in fact, the richest city in the world.

To give you a sense of scale, the letters you can see in this photograph are 12 feet high. I am the shortest person in my family, and as you can imagine, this building gave me even more of a height-related inferiority complex.
Having seen all these sights, we left Vatican City. Because all roads lead to Rome, we shortly found ourselves there. Fortunately we took a road that also led to lunch, which was fairly delicious. Unfortunately, by the time we finished our lunch, we were almost out of time in Rome. We did, however, manage to stop by the Colosseum, which is, of course, one of the major tourist attractions in Rome.

The Colosseum, which hosted many of the famed gladiator fights of ancient Rome, is actually really interesting because, like the Parthenon, it is right in the middle of a bustling city. Having been raised in the relatively new cities of the United States, I found it a bit... different to have ruins rising only a few meters from traffic and sidewalks. However, I shortly got used to the juxtaposition, and am now heartily disappointed that Boston doesn't have an ancient monument to Russell Crowe in the middle of Beacon Hill.

Unfortunately, we had to leave Rome before exploring any more than just the Colosseum, but it's definitely on the To Re-Visit List next time I'm in Italy. Now Mum just has to win another contest for another free vacation...

Vatican City and Rome

Early on the morning of July 13, the Roe family arrived in Rome and promptly ran as fast as we could to catch a 9 am tour of Vatican City. Vatican City, as my well-educated and enlightened readers are sure to know, is the world’s smallest independent state, with a population of under 1,000. This low population and the nature of the state leads to a few other interesting facts, that are not particularly surprising in and of themselves, but which make for good trivia: Vatican City is the richest country in the world per capita, and also has the least balanced gender ratio (of the 1,000 inhabitants, the only women are the 300 or so nuns). Interestingly, Vatican City’s status as an independent nation is much newer than I originally thought – it was only officially established in 1929. Another little-known fact about the Vatican is that the state (Vatican City) and the Holy See actually issue different passports, although both are very difficult to come by. Vatican City is a walled country, and I learned all these facts during the half hour or so wait to get inside. After this time had elapsed, we were pushed through security and entered the smallest sovereign state in the world.

One of the first things we saw upon entering the country was this rather large sculpture, prominently featured in the center of the courtyard. It was made by a rather well-known modern sculptor whose name I have since forgotten. Apparently it represents the Vatican’s ability to connect to the world even in turbulent modern times.

It was easy to spot St. Peter’s Basilica, because it is the tallest building in the Vatican and also the largest cathedral in the world. It is built upon St. Peter’s death spot, and is the reason that Vatican City is located here instead of on some other square mile in Italy.

The interior was even more imposing than the exterior. The number of statues like these went far to convince me that Vatican City is, in fact, the richest city in the world.

To give you a sense of scale, the letters you can see in this photograph are 12 feet high. No, they didn’t seem that big in person either… but they were high up, and our tour guide pinky swore that it was so, so I believe her.

Having seen all these sights, we left Vatican City. Because all roads lead to Rome, we shortly found ourselves there. Fortunately we took a road that also led to lunch, which was fairly delicious. Unfortunately, by the time we finished our lunch, we were almost out of time in Rome. We did, however, manage to stop by the Colosseum, which is, of course, one of the major tourist attractions in Rome.

The Colosseum, which hosted many of the famed gladiator fights of ancient Rome, is actually really interesting because, like the Parthenon, it is right in the middle of a bustling city. Having been raised in the relatively new cities of the United States, I found it a bit disconcerting to have ruins rising only a few meters from traffic and sidewalks.

Mykonos and Naples

Having left Turkey in our wake, the next stop on the Roe Mediterranean Cruise Extravaganza was Mykonos, a little Greek island. Unfortunately, we only had a total of about half a day in Mykonos (are you detecting a theme here?), but we still got a chance to wander the island, see vacationing Greeks and a few native Mykonans, and see the delightful Greek quaintness.

Here is a beautiful little seaside church. As you can tell somewhat from the photograph, this church is incredibly tiny – I would say that it could fit a maximum of about fifteen people, and that would be rather crowded. The white walls and colored roof are very characteristic of architecture in Mykonos, and probably elsewhere in Greece as well. The buildings are apparently painted white because ants tend not to crawl on white things, and Mykonos is a major producer of ants.

Mykonos is also relatively famous for its windmills, which are several centuries old and are all aligned along the coast. They’re quite a bit different in their construction from your typical quixotic windmill, in that they have quite a bit more spokes and have removable sails (in this picture, the sails are down). You can see a little bit of the thatched roof here, as well.

Shortly before lunch, the Roe family had the honor of meeting Petros III, a local denizen. Petros’ grandfather, Petros I, was apparently discovered injured in Mykonos by locals, who took him in and nurtured him back to health back around World War II. Petros then founded a dynasty of pelicans that have had their run of the island, enjoying the choicest of scraps from the local restaurants and mating with only the most beautiful local pelicans.

After lunch, we wandered around the narrow little streets of Mykonos for a few hours before returning back to the ship and embarking for…

Naples!

OK, I’ll admit that I’m being a wee bit misleading here. The Roe family didn’t actually spend very much time at all in Naples the city. Instead, we piled onto a bus that traversed some alarmingly narrow mountain roads and, after about an hour, arrived at a beautiful little organic farm only about a mile from the sea. At one point, the bus stopped to allow photographs of the coast, as shown below:

Woefully, my camera died at this point, so I have no more photos of Naples. Here is a condensed version of what happened in Naples:

Farm = Beautiful

Sorrento = Crowded

Gelato = Delicious

Venice

Now, my dear reader, the next half dozen or so posts are going to chronicle a Mediterranean cruise I took with my family from July 4 to 16, courtesy of More Magazine (my lovely and talented mother won a contest that they sponsored… well done, Mum!).


The ship, which carried over 3000 (!!) passengers and probably caused the world’s ocean levels to rise several inches when it was constructed in 2008, embarked from Venice, giving me the chance to see the city for the first time. But before exploring Venice, I got to see a very special celebrity, here seen posing as a Greek goddess with a ‘tude:

It’s OK if you don’t recognize this particular celebrity. She hasn’t yet made her debut, but I’m pretty sure she’s going to be the Next Big Thing. This is Elizabeth Roe, my 11-year-old sister whom I have not seen for six months and at least two inches. When she gets famous and changes her surname to something less reminiscent of fish eggs, remember you saw her here first.

After unpacking and having a quick nap in the hotel, Mum, Dad, Elizabeth, and I ventured out into Venice in search of dinner. After a bit of wandering, we stumbled upon one of Venice’s major landmarks: the beautiful St. Mark’s Basilica, displayed in Figure 2 below:

Figure 2: St. Mark’s Basilica

Unfortunately, the Basilica was under construction. Nevertheless, the square was teeming with life, full of young couples, musicians, and a few entrepreneurial spirits attempting to sell innocent passers-by anything under the sun. Fortunately, we managed to escape from the square without buying anything and continued on our quest for a tasty Venetian dinner. After wandering through more twisted streets than I could hope to remember and asking for directions approximately 213 times, we managed to find a lovely restaurant, tucked far away from the main waterways, cathedrals, street signs, and any other imaginable landmarks to help us find our way home. Dinner was delicious, and consumed far too quickly to be photographed.

The next morning, my family woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a tour to see the famous Murano glass being made. However, despite being armed with a map, a compass, and a GPS device*, we managed to get on a water taxi headed in the wrong direction. By the time we realized our error, we had missed the tour and were on the other side of Venice. Undaunted, we set forth on a self-guided walking tour of Venice.

*My father is an orienteer in the tradition of Columbus – very well equipped and often, but not always, able to determine correctly which continent he is on.

One of the first areas we stumbled upon was Venice’s historical Jewish ghetto, pictured above. According to a sign in a window, the ghetto is the oldest in Europe, founded in 1516. (Prior to 1516, Jews were not allowed to live anywhere in the city). It remained the only place Jews were allowed to reside legally until Napoleon conquered Venice in 1797. Unsurprisingly, the ghetto still has a very high concentration of synagogues and traditional Jewish shops, restaurants, and costume. I hadn’t been expecting to stumble upon such an oasis of Jewish culture in Venice, and it was interesting to see how those two cultures mixed.

On an interesting but unrelated architectural note, the black diagonal bolts you can see above some of the windows actually are attached to iron rods spanning the whole width of the building, bolting the walls parallel to each other. Buildings as old as these need a little bit of assistance in the battle against gravity.

After a lovely lunch at an Italian restaurant overlooking a canal and a bit more wandering, the Roes decided to go for a gondola ride, the local means of transport used by everyone except for locals. Here is a photo of Venice, as seen from a gondola:

I was so inspired by the gondola ride that I decided to write an entire musical devoted to gondoliers. It would be full of choral numbers, plot intrigue, and goofy puns, and would be creatively entitled “The Gondoliers”. Sadly, I discovered shortly thereafter that a couple of fellows by the name of Gilbert and Sullivan had already beaten me by a couple of centuries with that idea. Not to worry, though – I was inspired by my May trip to London to write a musical about a barber who kills his customers and makes them into pies. It’s a brilliant concept, and so sick that I’m quite certain no one could have scooped me on it.

Lovely as Venice was, we did eventually have to make our way to the ship, which was Huge. Seriously, I have never seen such a monstrosity. Nevertheless, it was a monstrosity I was prepared to love, because it had a tasty dinner and a cozy bed, as well as overnight transportation to Athens, Greece.

Back in Boston!

Hello!

I haven't had internet for the past three weeks, as I have been traveling around Europe. Anyway, the long and short of this post is that this blog is no longer accurately titled. Although I like to flatter myself by thinking that this blog is still a delight, it is no longer based in Stockholm.

Over the next few days, I will write a number of entries about my recent adventures. In the meantime, here's a spoiler! (Hint: It ends with my arriving safely in Boston).

June 30: End of work
July 3: Fly down to Venice, meet up with family
July 4: Cruise with family: Venice, Athens, Kusadasi (Turkey), Istanbul, Mykonos (Greece), Naples, Rome, Florence, Monaco, Barcelona
July 17: Fly back to Stockholm, final goodbyes and shindig
July 19: Boston!