The bus ride to rome was beautifully picturesque, with vineyards and loads of clustered towns atop of hills..with a castle and/or cathedral :) we got into rome and walked uphill a ways to find our hostel..it wasn't too bad, although it felt a little like a prison and gab had an old strange lady staying beneath her :S we just stayed in that night and ate dinner we'd bought earlier..and sorted out what gab would have to do to get her early flight the next day..
I got up with gab at 4 and walked her to her bus (goodbye for a couple of months!) then went back to bed..Elle and I decided to check out as neither of us had slept very well on the springy mattresses..so we stored our bags and went exploring :) we were meeting our tour in a couple of days so didn't stress about seeing everything too much..got out of the subway and were met straight up with the huge colosseum! Pretty amazing..walked around it, tried book an underground tour (ie a tour including the lowest level of the colosseum) but unfortunately they were booked out :( so we walked around some forum ruins (a place of old palaces, arches and basilicas...I had no idea there were ruins everywhere in the middle of rome, it was awesome!) and had lunch sheltered from the rain (found some random staircase and had our usual rice cakes/crackers with deli ham and cheese)..walked around a massive white marble monument (a tribute to the first king a united Italy, Victor Emmanuel II) then headed back to the colosseum and decided to pay for a guided tour..not the best tour we'd been on but we did learn some really interesting things..like they used to put wild animals in with condemned people and watch them too them to pieces..the place could hold 75,000 people..most gladiators were slaves..emperor Constantine liberated the Christians and stopped the slaughtering of them in the colosseum..then they took pillars and materials to build the Vatican City (which I find ironic, considering the christian blood that was shed at the colosseum)..etc! A very challenging but incredible place..we then walked around the more ruins of the ancient forum and palace which was pretty amazing..even Julius Caesars forum where governmental pursuits occurred..strange to think of the people that had walked where we were walking! We went to find a church that had ancient ruins in it (had three different layers from different ages) but the underground bit was closed unfortunately..so no underground ruins for us today! Caught the subway back to the hostel, picked our bags up and cooked tea..made our way to the campgrounds where we'd be meeting our topdeck crew in a couple of days..went to get my wallet out of my bag and it wasn't there :( had 250€ in it too..must've been taken in the 2seconds we left our backpacks to get our bigger bags at the hostel or in the subway :( pretty devastated..got to the campsite, I organised cancellation of my cards etc and Elle organised a doc appointment the next day as her bedbug bites (we're not sure where she got them) were so sore and itchy..not the greatest day..
Once again, today was a bit challenging..I got up and went in to check the hostel and the supermarket for my wallet..no luck so I eventually located the police station and waited around to report it stolen...meanwhile Elle was back at the campsite and having seen a doctor, washing absolutely everything in her bag in case she'd brought the bugs with her from somewhere..needless to say we ended up having a well deserved cocktail by the pool and pizza in the restaurant that evening!! Our last dinner traveling just the two of us :)
We got up and organised our bags to store until we met for our tour that afternoon and went in to the Vatican City super briefly..another country! it was really hot and we didn't have time to wait in the lines so we didn't get to see inside the cathedral or Sistine chapel :( nevermind, twas still an incredible sight from the outside..made our way back for induction and were very suprised to find that we were actually joining a bigger group that'd already been traveling for a couple of weeks..not ideal! Tricky to integrate ourselves..anyways the 'newbies' went into town to sightsee but we stayed back as we were buggered and decided I should do a thorough clean in case of bedbugs (wouldn't want the whole bus to get them!)..took ages to wash and clean every little thing..showered and met for dinner, didn't get a proper intro to the group or anything..bit intimidating meeting people but they were all really nice..we borrowed a tshirt as the theme that night was cross dressers..and we partied away with our topdeck group!
Had to get up super early as we had a big day of driving to get the ferry from Ancona to Greece..was expecting to have to introduce ourselves on the bus (as that's what everyone else had done)..but nope..we were feeling a little like afterthoughts! We also found out that they'd already personally designed, ordered and received the trip hoodies :( feeling a bit bummed, we boarded the ferry and found our rooms..settled in and just chatted to people..found everyone to be super friendly..payed for an overpriced dinner, played some poker and went to bed in our little four berth cabins! And so the topdeck adventure beings...
