Ciao Everyone!
It has been a while between posts, but we have been pretty busy over the past week or so spending our time between Rome and Southern Italy.
We arrived in Rome to temperatures even hotter than it was in Venice. Although we have temps like these at home, it feels much hotter. I'm not sure whether it is because we are actually out in the sun sightseeing, or if the heat is just different. I feel like I have sweated off half of my body weight in the last week, but I doubt the scales would confirm this....too much gelato and pasta!!
We stayed at Plus Camping Roma, which is a camping village just out of the centre of Rome. We had initially booked in somewhere else, but our tour left from the village so it seemed a lot more convenient. It turned out to be a really good choice. I thought the village would have a real backpacker feel, but although there were heaps of contiki and busabout groups (with a majority being Aussie), there were also many families and Italians having their summer break. The village has its own pool (yay!), supermarket, bar, pool bar and quite a nice restaurant, so it was pretty well equipped. We stayed in a self-contained cabin with air conditioning, which was well worth the extra money.
After arriving, we spent the afternoon looking around the campsite, catching up on the blog and watched a movie being screened on the big screen at the pool that night. It was nice to sit and relax, whilst sobbing uncontrollably during 7 Pounds!!!
We spent the next day visiting St Peters Square, the Basilica and the Vatican Museum. While we were waiting to go into the Basilica, I could hear someone yelling out oi! After a while, I realised that they were speaking to us, and could not believe it when I worked out that it was Damien McMillan, who I have not seen for about 5 or so years. It turned out that he was also staying at the camping village, so it was great to spend some time with him while we were in Rome. Vatican city was pretty impressive and the crowds were huge. We got tickets as part of a tour group so we did not have to wait in queue which was nice. The ceilings in the Sistine Chapel were amazing and it was so funny to see all the security guys yelling “No Photo” and telling people off who were talking. We had a hop on, hop off bus ticket for that day also, but they stopped running in the afternoon because of some thing that was on at the Vatican, so they let us use the ticket for the whole next day.
We were a bit slow getting going the next day, but we finally got moving and started by visiting the Colosseum, Paletine Hill and the Roman Forum, which are ruins from ancient Rome. All of these places were amazing and it is hard to believe that you can be standing inside something that is over 2000 years old. I still can't really get my head around it. It was so hot while we were walking around, and we were extremely thankful for all the drinking water fountains that are scattered around the city. We spent the rest of the day on the bus, and visited many sights including Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. During the day, we were hot and a bit hungry so we stopped at a gelato place and asked for chocolate to eat in. It came out served as a sundae type thing with wafers etc and was huge, but they cost 7.50 euro each!! It was the most expensive icecream I have ever eaten, but it was really yum and all part of the experience.
Day three in Rome, we spent wandering around the city, visiting many of the Piazzas and also the Pantheon, which was a stunning building. The light coming through the roof as you walk inside almost takes your breath away.
We both thought that Rome was amazing and would love to come back again; hopefully tossing that coin in the Trevi Fountain works!! The sights are beautiful, both through the day and at night and there is just so much history it is fascinating.
The negatives of the trip were trivial, but the bus we had to catch to and from the metro from the camping ground was awful. It was always packed, you had to wait for ages and there was no air conditioning. We named it the “Sweat Bus”, it was disgusting having everyone sweating all over you because we were all squeezed in like sardines. We took our final ride on the sweat bus this morning and were glad to say goodbye to it!
I will write a separate post for the Southern Italy Adventure shortly. We are currently on the train to Florence, and it is only a short trip, so I am madly typing, trying to get this all written before we arrive.
Arrivederci!
Ange & Turls xx
PS: If it looks like a have had 10 shots of botox in my lip from the photos, don't panic, I haven't. I have had about 8 massive coldsores on my bottom lip at once and they are really giving me grief. They hurt like hell and look disgusting, so I'm hoping they will be gone in the next day or so. I have zovirax, but the pharmacies would not give me any medication, even natural stuff, without a prescription – I wanted to cry!
