Rome Holidays - 4 Trevi Fountain

After Spanish Steps, we again followed the flow of tourists, walking through the winding small alleys of Rome, and at an expected moment, the wishing well of the world, the famous Trevi Fountain appeared.

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain was made famous in the 1953 movie of Roman Holidays.  It has become a kind of 'holy' place that every visitor to Rome must visit, otherwise you can't say you have been to Rome.  

Everybody comes here, but nobody seems to care to understand better about this fountain.  The location of this fountain in ancient times was the terminal point for three different man-made waterways created by the Romans to bring water supply to the city.  Behind the beautiful facade, it is the Poli Palace, a building that has its own day to day functions.  

Now, let me explain to you the scene at the Trevi Fountain.  

The grand theme of the fountain is  Taming of the Waters.  The main character here is mark #1, his name is Ocean, or Oceanus.  He is the ancient Greek & Roman god for water.  Well, you know, the Greek & Roman deities are quite complicated, their stories can fill piles of books, so I will not go into details of his story, what you need to know is that he is a god for water.

Oceanus standing on his shell chariot, mark #2 in the picture above.  Oceanus is being guided by the handsome young man called Triton (mark #3), which is the messenger of the sea, a Greek god too.  Oceanus and Tritons are taming the hippocamp (mark #4).

On the two sides of Oceanus stands two goddess, one is called Abundance, the other is Health.  I think humans, old and new, have similar thinking.  Abundance & Health are two most precious qualities for a human.  

The fountain is designed in Baroque style.  How do you tell?  Do you see that dome behind Oceanus, that is a very typical Baroque style of architecture.  

When you are at Trevi Fountain, how can you not throw a coin into the fountain to ensure you will return to Rome one day?  

Trevi Fountain is confined is a relative small space, surrounded by buildings on all four sides.  It gets crowded easily, so you should plan your visit carefully.  In general, summer months are high seasons.

Nearby at Piazza Colonna (which means Column Square), it stands Emperor Marcus Aurelius' victory column.  

Column of Marcus Aurelius

The column is about 30 meters high, and it is covered from base to top spiral relief, telling the victory story of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  

Details of Column of Marcus Aurelius

Look at the delicate details of the bas relief.  Human figures are so vivid.  I don't know whether Emperor Marcus Aurelius really had such great victory, but the craft men who created this bas relief are definitely masters of their trade.  

Ok, enough for one blog post.  Stay tuned for more...

You can find all my Rome Holidays blog posts here.  

Rome Holidays - 3 Spanish Steps

As we couldn't visit Vatican Museum, we took the Metro back to Spagna Station, where the famous Spanish Steps are.  Out of the Metro station, we just followed the flow of tourists, and we arrived at the Spanish Steps.

Overview of Spanish Steps, with Fountain of the Old Boat in the foreground

This is one famous place for pick-pockets, so watch out for your valuables.  Take note that no food or drink is allowed on the steps, and you are not even allowed to sit there.

This is a place which is very rich in culture.  On one side, you have the residence of British poet John Keating, which is now a museum dedicated to the poet.

At the bottom, it is the Fountain of the Old Boat, a masterpiece by one of the Bernini's, commissioned by Pope Urban VIII.

Fountain of the Old Boat

If you walk up the steps to the top, you have a nice view of Rome.

A View of Rome

And you get to see one of the surviving obelisks right in front of the Church of Trinita dei Monti.

Obelisk of Trinita dei Monti

Rome has the largest number of surviving obelisks in the world, some are from Egypt, some were made in ancient Roman Empire era.  The obelisk now standing in front of the Church of Trinita dei Monti is one of the ancient Roman obelisks.  Don't be fooled by the Egyptian wordings on the obelisk, as it was just a copy of the original Egyptian obelisk.

The Church of Trinita dei Monti is a beautiful church too.  No effort has been spared to make it look splendid.

Fresco at Church of Trinita dei Monti

Why is this place called the Spanish Steps?  It is actually named after the nearby Spanish Embassy.

Spanish Embassy

Why is the Spanish Embassy so important that a nearby staircase has to be named after it?  I will let you find out the truth yourself :), but rumor has it that because someone needed money from the rich Spaniards...

Standing in front of the Spanish Embassy is the column of Immaculate Conception, a 19th century monument.

Column of Immaculate Conception

The usual problem of traveling in Italy is that it is a country full of history & culture, but there is nothing to tell you what is what.  My friend and I stood in front of this beautiful column, but there is no sign or anything that tells me what it is.  And most of the tourists don't know what it is, I think.  People just walk by, ah it is a beautiful column and that is it.  If you are interested, you can find out more information about this column here.

Rome is so rich in history that sometimes you may feel it is too much for you.  Just look at the Spanish Steps, there is so much to see and so much to learn, so much to appreciate.  And it is just one small little part of Rome.  You might get information overload.  Then it is time for you to slow down, enjoy a cup of beautiful Italian coffee.


You can find all my Rome Holidays blog entries here.

Rome Holidays - 2 Vantican Museum

Once we left our luggage at the hotel, we went back to Roma Termini for breakfast.  Roma Termini is a modern station, no hint of ancient or old. There are plenty of shops and eating places around.

Roma Termini

Roma Termini McDonald's

Out of the many choices, my friend chose McDonald's breakfast.  The reason?  Because we could sit down quietly to have our breakfast, looking at this beautiful lady :)

Ok, our first stop:  Vatican Museum.  We took the Metro and alighted at Ottaviano Station.  Be careful, this Metro line is said to have been infected by pick-pockets!  Watch out for your valuables.  Ones we were out of the station, we walked following the flow of tourists.  There were lots of tour guides asking whether you would like to take the Vatican Museum tour.  The cost is roughly 40 euros.  I have no idea whether they were genuine or fake or scam or whatever.  It is too difficult for me to tell what is genuine what is fake these days.

Vatican from Afar

Vatican is a walled city state, the whole place is behind high walls.

Signs of Vatican Museum

High Walls of Vatican

How high are Vatican's walls?  Take a look yourself.  That's what you will see standing right below the Vatican walls.  They are high, and they built Vatican very much as a fortress, with military defense capabilities.

Before I came for this Rome trip, my Italian colleague advised me to buy Vatican Museum's tickets online before hand.  However, I decided to take a chance.  When I was close to Vatican Museum, not even reaching its entrance, I came to know that I had no chance.  The road leading to the museum has a wide pavement enough for two cars, and the distance is miles.  Guess what?  The road was filled with tourists queuing up to buy tickets.  Thinking it completely hopeless, we changed our plan, and headed to the Spanish Steps!  That will come in my next blog post :)


You can find all my Rome Holidays blog entries here.

Rome Holidays - 1 Over-Night Train to Rome

We set off at almost midnight from Milan's central station, taking an over-night intercity train (Train #1911) to Rome.  In the middle of the night, Central Station was desolate, but in the train, it was full of life.  My friend and I settled in our seats in the cabin.  There are six seats to a cabin.  There was one old Chinese man, and opposite me, a foreign looking black man.  Obviously this guy didn't pay for his ticket, let alone his seat.  He just took whichever seat available.

It was all quiet and peaceful until the ticket inspectors went around the train to check tickets.  The inspector was accompanied with 4 armed police officers.  Safer in numbers!  The guy sitting opposite me went into a big commotion with the police and ticket inspector, they all shouted in Italian, which I had no idea what all that was about, but can guess it was about the ticket evasion.  Then when the train stopped at Bologna, the rail police threw the guy off the train.  Funny thing was that they threw him off the train at one cart, he would attempt to get on the train from another.  And he was not alone!  A couple of other guys did the same thing.  An interesting cat & mouse game started, and it was really noisy.  Many passengers were waken up from their sleep.

Anyway, we arrived in Rome safely the next morning.  We didn't arrive at Roma Termini directly, instead, we had to take the metro to reach Roma Termini, the central train station in Rome.

Once we arrived there, we went to our hotel, Lucky Hotel.  70 Euros per night.  The hotel is hidden in an apartment building, there is hardly any sign for people to find it.  We found it because the owner happened to be at the gate!  We went through two gates, then took a tiny lift, those you will frequently see in old European buildings to the 4th floor, I think.  Then another door, finally reached the 'hotel'.  There is no reception desk, nothing.  It looks like somebody's home.  As we were there, some Italian teenagers also just came in to stay for the night.

Ok, enough for the this first entry.  Stay tuned.


You can find all the blog posts here.

Rome Holidays

I will use this blog post for the collection of blog posts I am going to write about my weekend holiday expedition to Rome in June this year.

1. Rome Holidays - 1 Over-Night Train to Rome
2. Rome Holidays - 2 Vantican Museum
3. Rome Holidays - 3 Spanish Steps
4. Rome Holidays - 4 Trevi Fountain
5. Rome Holidays - 5 Pantheon
6. Rome Holidays - 6 Piazza Navona
7. Rome Holidays - 7 Castle St Angelo
8. Rome Holidays - 8 St Peter's Basilica
9. Rome Holidays - 9 The Papal Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore
10. Rome Holidays - 10 Roman Forums
11. Rome Holidays - 11 Victor Emmanuel Monument and Capitoline Hill
12. Rome Holidays - 12 Theater of Marcellus and Mouth of Truth
13. Rome Holidays - Finale: Colosseum

The Purpose of Photography

It has been a question in my mind for many many years:  What is purpose of photography?  To make money?  To make yourself an artist?  To make yourself look like a professional?  I have always been searching for the elusive answer.

Today, after I have reached the age Confucius said is the age of no doubts, I can confidently answer that question of 'What is the purpose of photography?'.

Photography is nothing but a pulse stretcher, described in a digital designer's terminology.  What does a pulse stretcher do?  If you a small pulse which will last from sub nano seconds, to a couple of nano seconds, a pulse stretcher will elongate that small pulse to make it last maybe tens of nano seconds or even micro seconds, which is almost like permanent in digital world.

You see a beautiful girl in the train, you don't know her at all, you may not see her again after today.  You secretly snap a photo of her in your phone.  Her beautiful image will then remain in your phone for days, months or even years.  But her photo will not be forever.  When your phone dies, or when you want to change your old phone to a new one, probably her photo will be gone with your phone too.

Your brief encounter is that small pulse, her photo lingering in your phone is that pulse stretcher, but then eventually the pulse will still go down and nothing is left behind.  It is just a way humans fooling themselves to think that they have made something transient into eternity.  

Annoying Alarm Clock

Recently, one of my neighbours set his/her alarm clock to ring at 6am.  That's pretty fine if the alarm clock can wake up its owner in time.  Unfortunately in my case, that alarm clock can ring so loud that the whole block can hear it, but its owner.  On Monday, the alarm went off at 6am sharp, and kept ringing and ringing until 6.23am.  It is still not that bad, at least it only rang for 23 minutes, long, but still tolerable.

Then today, that same alarm clock went off at 6am again, as it has been programmed to.  But then can you guess how long that it rang?  From 6am till 8.30am!!!  Two and a half hours!!!

I was waken up by the alarm, and tried to find the source to no avail.  The alarm just kept ringing and ringing and ringing, never a minute of silence.  Out of frustration, I called our friendly neighbourhood police at around 8am.  They sent someone down at around 8.15am.  The officer said the sound sounds like an alarm clock, they could only see what they could do, but it was difficult to locate the source.

At 8.30am, the alarm finally stopped.  I don't know whether the alarm clock woke up its owner eventually or our police officers managed to locate the alarm clock.

I hope this will not repeat in the coming days.  

It Pays to Do Your Price Comparison

I must say I am not a very price sensitive guy.  If I want to buy something, I will just buy the item when I see it, as long as the price is within reasonable range.  Never did I realize even for small items, the price difference can still be quite a lot.

For example, I like the Nin Jiom herbal candy (original).  The small can at Watson's goes for $3.30 as its normal price.  In the period of discount, it is $3.00, as 10% discount.  Just a few steps across Watson's, at Unity, you can buy the same can for $2.95, as its normal price!

The absolute difference is very small, just 5 cents in one case, and 35 cents in the worst case, but still it shows how prices can vary on some minor items that you thought the price was universal!

It really pays to do some price comparisons, even though the amount can be small, let alone the big items who may cost you thousands of dollars.