Rome and Vilnius

Thursday 7 January – Rome

Today we continued our ‘on foot’ journey through Rome. Walked towards the Colosseum via lots of beautiful laneways and piazzas including the amazing Piazza Venezia. Admired many ruins on the way, then explored – in depth – the Palatino, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.

The Emperors Forums - on the way to the Colosseum

The Palatino is a huge area absolutely covered in fantastic ruins, including the residence of the Emperor Augustus and a private stadium for the imperial family.

The Palatino

The Forums were equally as exciting to visit, with their ancient temples and piazzas.

At the Forums

At 2000 years old, the Colosseum is an amazing sight. If you close your eyes, you can imagine the roar of the crowd when gladiators fought and prisoners came face to face with wild animals.

We then walked to the Bocca Della Verita. This is a ‘face’ made of marble which was, in ancient times, used as a manhole cover. It is now one of Rome’s icons and hangs on the wall in the portico of a beautiful 12^th century church – the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Legend has it that if you put your right hand inside the mouth of the Bocca Della Verita and tell a lie, your right hand will be cut off. Thankfully – we both survived with hand and digits intact!

Heading back towards the historical centre of Rome, we visited the world’s smallest inhabited island, the Isola Tiberina (which is in the middle of Rome’s Tiber River). To reach the island, we walked across the Ponte Cestio (a beautiful bridge built in 46 BC) and then exited the island via the Ponte Fabrico – Rome’s oldest standing bridge, built in 62 BC.

Walked through the Jewish part of Rome back towards the Pantheon for that look inside that we promised ourselves last night. This is an absolutely amazing building. The fact that it is still standing after 2000 years is testament to its brilliant design. Apparently the reason the dome (the largest masonry vault every built) is still standing and hasn’t collapsed under its own weight by now is that the concrete was designed to be thicker at the bottom of the dome, gradually becoming thinner at the top. An incredible piece of architecture.

Raphael's tomb - inside the Pantheon. The latin inscription across the top of the tomb reads: "Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die."

The underside of the dome. The five bands you can see are also part of the design to support the weight. The window at the top lets in a beautiful amount of light.

After all that walking we were on the lookout for a fabulous pizza – and we found it – at Lo Zozzone – a fantastic pizzeria tucked away at the end of a cobbled laneway not far from our hotel. Thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of our host before calling it a (very long) day!

The most amazing mushroom pizza ever tasted!

Friday 8 January – Rome

Didn’t get enough walking yesterday, so decided we needed more today!

Started off with a visit to our local Piazza Navona. We hadn’t really explored this area properly – sometimes that happens when something is right under your nose. Piazza Navona is a busy square boasting beautiful fountains and surrounded by fantastic buildings. Spent ages admiring the fountains – particularly Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) before exploring the gorgeous church - Chiesa di Sant’Agnese in Agone.

Bernini's fountain - Piazza Navona

From here we made our way back to the Vatican Museums, which we were sure would be open today. Spent hours enjoying the fabulous art housed in the various museums, finishing with a visit to the Sistine Chapel.

Headed to St Peter’s Basilica (a little quieter today than when we were here a couple of days ago on Epiphany – when the Pope was saying Mass) for a look inside the basilica, a walk through the Vatican Grottoes (where numerous popes are buried) and – the highlight of the day – a walk up the 350ish steps (that’s after the lift ride to the half way point) to the top of the dome. What a fantastic view of Rome.

Finished off our day with some last minute shopping (these sales are brilliant!) and a meal at our favourite pizzeria.

This is our last night in Rome – tomorrow we head to Lithuania!

Saturday 9 January – Rome to Vilnius

Today was essentially a traveling day.

Made our way to Rome’s Fiumicino airport for our Air Baltic flight to Vilnius, Lithuania.

To fly to Vilnius we had to go via Riga, Latvia. Even though we’re making our way to Riga in a few days, our plan was always to commence our trek through the Baltics in Lithuania, even though that meant going the long way ‘round.

On landing in Riga, it very quickly became obvious that we needed to leave the plane not via a little walkway that connects with the door of the plane, but via the steps and straight down onto the icy, snowy runway! Probably don’t need to say how cold this was. Let’s just say – we knew we were in the Baltics!

Completed the air journey and landed in Vilnius at around 8:30pm – very dark and very, very snowy!!

Made our way to our hotel which is, without a doubt, the nicest place we’ve ever stayed – extremely comfortable.

Sunday 10 January – Vilnius

Had an early morning wander around the old town of Vilnius – our first daylight view of the city. It certainly is beautiful. It’s obviously been snowing quite heavily here for a while (and there was certainly more while we were wandering). Vilnius is covered in churches. Lithuania was the last pagan country in Europe – not accepting Catholicism until 1413 – but then it seems multiple churches sprang up everywhere during the following years! We’ll spend some more time exploring tomorrow, because today we’re making our way to Trakai – a village about 30km outside of Vilnius.

Trakai was once the capital of Lithuania (about 700 years ago) and has two beautiful castles from which kings defended their lands. It is also dotted with beautiful little wooden houses. The road to Trakai passes through thick forests – all snow covered at this time of the year. Most of Trakai is on a 2km long peninsula, surrounded by lakes – all obviously frozen at the moment. We saw some people ice fishing – however we resisted the urge to walk across the lakes!

Approaching the castle

Inside the castle grounds

View of the castle across the lake

Made our way back to Vilnius and spent the afternoon wandering through the Vilnius Picture Gallery which houses Lithuanian art from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries. The gallery currently has a special exhibition displaying works by Lithuanian artist Vytautas Kasiulis who lived from 1918 – 1995. His work is also on display in galleries in Paris and New York, but this was a fabulous opportunity to see over 150 pieces in one place.

Finished the day with a visit to the Lithuanian Opera House to see the ballet Zorba the Greek. This was an absolutely brilliant performance – so much fun. And who were the two Australians seen dancing Zorba in the snow on the way home? Whatever it takes to keep warm…

Monday 11 January – Vilnius

Spent today wandering around Vilnius. All museums seemed to be closed on a Monday so we had to be content with looking at many sights from the outside. Most of the churches were open, though, so we did have a look inside many of those (at least as much of a look as you can comfortably have under the watchful eye of the ladies who stand around monitoring all visitors). You feel as though you’re going to get into trouble for not kneeling down and saying the Rosary! Given that there are over 60 churches in Vilnius, however, we decided to limit our visits to admiring the beautiful baroque interiors instead.

It’s just lovely to be here and to have the opportunity to wander through the laneways looking at all the beautiful buildings covered in snow. It’s a nice time of year to visit, too – haven’t come across any other tourists (very different from Paris and Rome!). We really feel as though it’s just us and the locals.

Tomorrow is another traveling day – a bus to a new city and country – Riga, Latvia.