It’s Amore!! Day 1 - Italian Holiday

Like many Software professionals, my interest in Digital Photography started once I started work. My enabler for life with all this is my husband (my then boyfriend) who decided that a DSLR would be the perfect wedding gift and that was how this journey started for me.

When two of my passions - Travel and Photography, crossed roads it gave rise to this wonderful experience. I really started having so much fun with travel and photography, when on 1st December 2011 two very tired people, after having the first hand experience of traditions and customs of Indian wedding, decided to pack their bags and head out on their honeymoon to Italy. And that is how the clicking frenzy began.

Having slept through the entire flight from Delhi to Vienna and Vienna to Rome, we were all set, quite excited I would say, for our 9 days in Italy. After checking into a charming Bed & Breakfast in a century old building called Hotel Modigliani, we decided to get a feel of Rome and orient ourselves to the city and settle in early. Next day was the big plan to conquer the Vatican City.

Travel Tip:

Rome is well connected by the subway system and they have 72 hours and day passes too. 

We had taken the 3-day pass and after a nice heavy breakfast at the Bed & Breakfast we took the metro to Vatican City. You know you are in the vicinity of the Vatican City the minute you step out, not only because of the St Peters Church but because every other person you meet is a guide offering tours of St Peters Church and the Vatican Museum. But after all, it was our honeymoon and isn’t there a saying more than 2 is a crowd? So we decided to depend on our Guidebook and walked on towards the St Peter’s Square!  

As we walked into the Basilica, we were completely awed by the architecture but calling it Majestic is an understatement. The history of the place and the humongous architecture to add to it, would keep you dazed for quite some time. The best part of all this is that, you don’t need to be religious to feel the divinity the basilica imparts.

If I don’t talk about the Sculptures inside the Basilica, then I would not be doing any justice to it. You are bound to stand in front of many sculptures carved artistically and with precision. And not mentioning about “The Pietà” would be a crime. This sculpture would catch your eye the minute you step into the Basilica and turn right. Michelangelo’s masterpiece, this piece of art depicts Lord Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the crucifixion. Note the intricate work on the sculpture, the realistic drapery on Mother Mary and the veins and ribs of Lord Jesus. It took us some time to realize that all this was made from marble and marble alone.

As we walked further into the Basilica, we came to the main altar...

Fun Fact:

There are 3 altars located inside St Peters Basilica. This is the view from the main altar and below this one is located another altar and below that is another.

We were running out of time and had to choose between going down to see the altars or climb up the cupola to get a view of Vatican City\Rome from the top! We decided to go with the latter.

Climbing meant taking the lift 3 floors for 14 EUR each (disclaimer: this was in the year 2011, they might have revised the rates now) and then walking up a narrow spiral stairways and slanted path along the cupola.

And then for the grand finale, the view of the St Peters Square from the very top of St Peters Basilica; a view from the Cupola. You can walk around the cupola and it would give you a bird’s eye view of the entire Vatican City!

One day in the Vatican City is not enough, a lesson well learnt to be told to the others. But since we had planned for only one day at the Vatican, we had to wrap up our tour of the Basilica and get to the Museum before they close. You wouldn’t want to miss the Sistine Chapel now, would you!

We grabbed some quick lunch and made our way to the Vatican Museum. Believe me when I tell you, you would need one full day at the museum. The museum of Maps, the museum of Tapestry, the Egyptian Museum, the Etruscan Museum, the Sistine Chapel, just to name a few.

Photography is prohibited in the Sistine Chapel. But it is one sight you would never forget in your life. It is like walking directly into a painting; all the walls are painted and so is the ceiling. Sitting inside the Sistine Chapel and looking at all those paintings, every minute little detail painted, we felt a little lost. To imagine Michelangelo at that very place, hanging upside down from the ceiling or at the wall painting The Last Judgment is quite an experience; no camera can capture that! But its feeling you will never forget.

We were physically tired after that long day but mentally, we felt quite refreshed. We then walked to the Spanish Steps, on our way back to the hotel, and sat there watching the people and talking about how great the day was and of course about the great question “to whom does the credit go to for planning this awesome honeymoon”… psst… it all goes to me!

Prague in 3 hours...

After our finding-the-right-compartment fiasco and heaving a great sigh of relief on finding our seats, I was really done with all the running around. We settled in our seats (no berths in this train) for the night. The train was O-V-E-R-F-L-O-W-I-N-G with teenagers, students and groups of people who were taking their party from one party land (Budapest) to another (Prague). And our train, which was supposed to reach Prague at 6:30, reached at 4:00am. We now had 5 hours to spend in Prague before we get to the airport to catch our flight, back to Stockholm.

4:00am - 5:00am:
Freshened up and got ourselves a cup of coffee and a croissant. That was basically our proper meal since the night before we couldn't get much to eat on the train. Over coffee, we dug out our worn out Prague map and discussed what to do the next few hours. We had one place which we hadn't covered the last time. it wasn't that we hadn't had the time, it was more to do with the fact that we had gotten lost trying to find the place :D heehee yeah... the last time in Prague, we had started to go to this place, got down at the wrong stop and then took the tram to yet again, get down at the wrong stop, walked around and found nothing. This place had evaded us and so, we put it as a backlog item to be conquered when we came back here! Guess that's enough build up for this place - Vysehrad!

With "what to see?" question out of the way, the next thing to be discussed was how to conquer it! (You might wonder what's the big deal about this place and why am I obsessively using the word conquer but what would you call a place which according to the map is right in front of you but you cannot find it! Vysehrad was like that, we walked in circles trying to find this place without any result.) We decided to lock up our luggage and take the metro this time. There was a metro to Vysehrad from the Central station.

Travel Tip: Most of the railway stations have huge locker rooms with hourly, daily sometimes even monthly rental. Its completely automatic. All we have to do is walk into the locker room, find a free locker (ensure that its fully functional), place your luggage inside and lock it with the key and enter the amount mentioned. 

5:00 - 6:00am:
We had to change some currency, did that and then stored our luggage in a locker and went to get our metro passes. We decided to get the 30 minute pass so that even if we had to switch metros it wouldn't be a problem.

Note: Time based passes are quite convenient. Once validated these passes can be used any number of times within that stipulated time period. Sometimes if its a travel pass, then once validated you can use it, not only in the metro, but also in buses and trams. 

We took the metro around 6:30am and reached Vysehrad station around 6:45am. We felt a sense of accomplishment that we had finally made there. The air so clean and the sun had just started to rise and the day was so clear and beautiful.  

The catch was, we still hadn't found the Citadel of Vysehrad. After capturing a few photographs of the sun rise, we were back on our mission to find this fortress and the citadel. We walked around for quite sometime through lonely parks (was a little creepy without anyone around so early) before, finally getting back on track to find this place.   

Finally, we had reached Vysehrad!

It is an awesome experience to see a place so early in the morning. Very few people around, just a few morning joggers and a couple of them walking their dogs.

As much as I hated the walk trying to find this place, the views from this place really blew it all away! No words to really describe the feeling of walking through a citadel so early in the morning with very few people around with such stunning views all around you.

Church of St Peter and Paul

After capturing some lovely photographs, we decided to walk back. It was around 7:30am and we still had a lot of time, at least an hour and a half. So we thought we could walk down the hill and go back to our favorite spot, the Charles bridge and old town.

From Vysehrad - Charles Bridge - Old Town - Winceslas Square! A complete walking tour of Prague in 3 hours. At around 9:00am, we bought a couple of 90 minute travel passes and took the metro at the Museum, back to the Central Station. We then collected our luggage from the locker, found the next metro to Dejvická and took the bus 119 to the Airport.

By 10:15am on 18th August 2013, our East European Marathon was over and we were totally worn out and ready to get back home! When we started this trip, 9 days back, we didn't know we were going to drink hot wine at the Royal Cafe in Prague, or listen to a concert in Salzburg, or go on a sound of music tour, or watch an opera in Vienna, or cycle from Melk to Krems in Austria, or walk through a labyrinth which dates back millions of years, in Budapest or cover Prague once again in 3 hours!!! All we knew was we wanted to travel together. But this trip like many trips before this taught us a lot, not only about the world but about each other. What a week it had been!

Getting back to Stockholm had the same feeling we always get when we get back, "Home Sweet Home" and then it was all back to normal, cooking, laundry and work!