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Bella Italia

Photos: AFP and Parvathi Nayar

All art The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The never-ending line snakes right across Piazza San Pietro, the massive square outside St. Peter’s Basilica, then continues around buildings, streets and stairs — thousands of people queuing patiently in the drizzle, with umbrella touts doing brisk business.

The pot of gold at the end of this rainbow-coloured human chain: the Vatican museum. I don’t believe I’d ever seen a queue of such awe-inspiring numbers in support of art — or anything else for that matter. Every extra dollar spent online, pre-booking entrance tickets that let you skip the queue, suddenly feels worth it. A feeling, happily, that only intensifies once inside the Musei Vaticani.

You know that you’re just a tourist, not some intrepid explorer discovering Italy for the first time. Still, the country inspires a sense of wonderment and discovery that lasts all through my flaneur-like journey from Rome to Tuscany and Florence, whether nibbling a perfect slice of Pecorino or goggling the jewel in its artistic crown — the Musei Vaticani’s Sistine Chapel.

Walking through the Museum and its collection of great works of art, such as the Greek statue of the Laocoon, you can’t help feeling it’s all scattered around rather casually.

A metaphor, perhaps, for the way one stumbles across art in Italy, on the street, in hidden corners, or tucked away in little churches.

In Rome, therefore, it is a real pleasure to get lost early one morning, among atmospheric cobbled streets and graceful fountains one can’t quite put a name to.

And then, to come face to face with the most recognisable of them all, the Trevi fountain (best viewed at this time of day, before the hordes).

Walking on down to the Piazza della Rotunda, for a cappuccino and croissant, it is a nice wait for the Pantheon to open its doors. Inside, it is a magical contrast to the somewhat drab exterior. The dome — the largest freestanding one till 1960 — soars to a circular opening on the top, which lets in a dramatic shaft of sunlight on a sunny day.

Always mindful that it is heresy to order cappuccinos past midday, I make time to quaff a quick one before setting off to the magnificent ruins of the Coliseum.

With Rome’s must-see list of sights running to several pages, it is a wise choice to pick a few and do them leisurely. I also throw in a few of the slightly less high-profile ones, such as the gorgeous Galleria Borghese, set in beautiful parklands and boasting some completely over-the-top baroque Bernini sculptures.

This is a double guilty pleasure: reading material on this Italian holiday included Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, because it is set in Rome and accords Bernini’s works with more outrageously coded meanings than the great Italian master could have imagined.

Pausing by the eccentric Bernini-designed fountain at the Spanish steps and (window) shopping down the oddly named baboon street — Via Del Babuino — offers expensive eye-candy, as well as excellent coffee at the trendy café La Buvette.

As for gelato, the best of the lot has to be Gelateria San Crispino (close to Trevi), where you can mix scoops of such scrumptious flavours as ginger or fig. Dinnertime inevitably leads to the colourful quarter of Trastevere — literally, “over the Tiber” – to yummy pasta and pizza joints tucked into and around a rabbit warren of streets.

Overfed and overwhelmed by Rome, there is all of Tuscany yet to be discovered. Lucky to have friends living in Italy, we drive to many of the towns, elegantly perched on hilltops with vertiginous climbs into the city centres.

Since every Tuscan hilltown has something to recommend it — whether a Michelin star restaurant or historically significant frescoes — you’ve got to be firm about your picks and know that you are just going to have to come back for the others. Driving through the Tuscan countryside offers one picture-perfect-postcard view after the other: the gentle dip and curve of hill and valley, acres of perfectly planted fields of slightly varying tones, vineyards promising bottles of trapped sunlight, teardrop shaped cedars, scarlet slashes of poppy and flowering golden-yellow brum.

One can, and I did take ones pick of tiny towns such as wine-producing Montalcino (famous for its red) as well as the bigger ones such as Siena, a textbook example of a medieval Italian town with a unique scallop shaped Campo — the central public piazza. Pisa is another stop with the Leaning Tower looking like a multi-tiered cake at a very debauched wedding.

Close to Pisa is the delightful town of Lucca with another over-the-top building — the San Michele in Foro, whose façade has a little bit of every kind of imaginable decoration. And then there is Assisi, where Giotto’s pastel frescoes were worth an entire morning.

Florence merits a couple of days though the country’s top Renaissance city can easily keep you occupied for a couple of weeks without breaking a sweat. You can even do “themes”. For instance, follow the literal and metaphorical larger-than-life experience of Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell’Accademia by racing over to the Bargello for the effeminate version of Goliath’s slayer by Donatello.

As for the Uffizi, it is a great museum — and a glorious tribute to Botticelli. But what makes it fun is that it’s not overwhelming, like, say, the Met in New York, but a very do-able size.

Such top-notch art labels has to be followed by a visit to appropriate designer labels. In other words, a trip to The Mall — it needs no other moniker — that’s a short drive from Florence. It is a chain of discounted factory outlet stores for the big brand names from Bottega Veneta to Yohji Yamamoto — a shopper’s heaven, with a nice restaurant thrown in, to chase away shoppers’ fatigue.

In terms of traveller’s tips, staying at bed-and-breakfast places located in the heart of the cities is a great decision —they are affordable, fill the stomach with great breakfasts and allow one to walk to most places.

Driving is a preferred way to get to the towns, but since all the sightseeing within is done on foot, the frequent and very convenient trains are often a good alternative.

Giuseppe Verdi is said to have generously offered: “You may have the universe if I may have Italy”.

At the end of a sparkling holiday, you know he definitely picked the better end of the bargain.

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