Travelling in the 90s: Last days in Rome and Perugia

And so we come to the final post of this epic series featuring extracts of my 1993-1994 travel journal…

We’ve just come from Pompeii and Naples to spend our last couple of days in Rome, including a day trip to Perugia.

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[Monday 21 February, 1994] Today we went to the Vatican. It was really funny, but as we got off the metro someone tapped me on the shoulder. It turned out to be this (very cute) Dutch guy and his friend who we’d hung out with at the hostel in Naples. They were also headed for the Vatican museums, so we spent the morning with them.

We all stopped for a breakfast coffee before entering the vast museums. They are certainly very ornate. The entrance was a huge spiral staircase leading up to the ticket office… and there was a student discount!

The museums contained all kinds of artwork, but galleries that stood out were the tapestry gallery, the map gallery, the Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo’s masterpiece, but also works by my main man Botticelli and others), and the paintings (particularly some woks by Raphael).

Being Dutch, A&J understood five out of the six languages issuing instructions about the Sistine Chapel: English, German, Italian, French and Spanish. The other language was Japanese – and I couldn’t even understand that, despite having a degree in the language. (It made me feel very inadequate.)

After the museums, A&J left us to our hambon jambons (our nickname for ham rolls) and St Peters Square and Basilica. The Square is very large and quite spectacular, while the Church is quite different from others we’ve seen. It was very “marbly”. Coloured marbles (green, red, ochre, white, black, pink etc) were used to create elaborate patterns on the walls and floor. I really like this effect. There were also lots of statues, including one by Michelangelo happily living behind bullet-proof glass. The ceilings were also very decorative.

After St Peters, we more or less retired for the day (I think we are getting a little tired!).

[Wednesday 23 February, 1994] Well, right now I am somewhat lacking in enthusiasm, as today was our last full day in Rome, and tomorrow we begin the journey home.

Yesterday we took a day-trip from Rome to Perugia, which we wanted to see because it was an Etruscan town. We were there by 12:30pm, daringly caught a bus to the top of the hill, and emerged to a wonderful view.

The “city centre” of Perugia is camped on the top of a rather steep-sided hill. In fact, there are immense escalators which connect the top to various piazzas further down. We spent the afternoon just wandering the streets – picking out a few sights from a very long list of churches.

There was an Etruscan well, an Etruscan arch connected to an Etruscan wall, a fountain decorated with relief panels (depicting fables, Roman history, sciences), and a fort known as Rocco Paolina. This last appeared to have been hollowed out under the cliff on the side of the hill and fortified – it now appears to exist solely for the pleasure of housing one of the escalators.

We waited for our 6:30pm train on the steps of the cathedral which appeared to be the local student hangout, amused for a while by the antics of a German Shepherd pup chasing the pigeons.

Today, our last day in Rome, we went “shopping” in the streets around Piazza del Spagna – mainly fashion boutiques, shoe shops and jewellery stores. Rome was a bit wearing today – especially the men on their stupid scooters amongst multitudes of cars and people.

We said goodbye to the Trevvi fountain and threw another coin in since we’d already used up the last one, then headed back to our room to relax and pack. Thrilling stuff for our last day…

[Friday 25 February, 1994] The journey home… (extract)

Then we had to queue to check in (in Athens). We were momentarily unnerved when it seemed we couldn’t get seats together in the non-smoking section, but it turned out our seats were already reserved because we had come through from Rome. Relief! Either of the alternatives would not have been pleasant, but I think we were both prepared to sit apart to get away from that awful incessant smoking that the Greeks seem to prefer.

[note: Most of the journey home content in my original journal is dull and boring, but I’ve included the above excerpt, because, yep, we were on a flight where smoking was permitted! Only in the 90s…]

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So there we have it. Finished!

It only took 22 posts and 4.5 years to work my way through. I’ve really enjoyed reliving the trip after all these years. Thanks for coming along on the retro journey.

All the posts can be found (in reverse order) under the category Travelling in the 90s… I also intend to put a page together with links to all posts in order.