WOW! Rome is an absolutely incredible place to be. seemed a bit dodgy when we walked out of the train station but our hotel was nice enough and the pizza once again cheap and awesome. we had an extremely early night as we were all buggered but got up early to do everything that Rome had to offer.
off we set on the bus to the Vatican City. a country on its own accord, it was incredible. when u walk in u are awestruck by the utter immensity of St. Peter's Basillica. I will never get over the absolute magnificence of these European buildings. St. Peter's was amazing inside, it is the home of a sculpture done by Michaelangelo when he was 25 of Mary holding Jesus and has the list of all the Popes in history. It took us ages to work our way around the building and to eventually find our way out and when we did we walked around the city to find the Sistine Chapel. Of course we were only really there to see what everybody knows, Michaelangelo's painting of man's fingertips touching God's but bloody hell I swear they took us around the country 5 times before we got there. there were so many people around and it got really stuffy but by the time u reach the chapel u realise why it is u came. the paintings were incredible and it was a surreal moment in my life once again.
our legs were already exhausted from walking florence the day before but we trudged along towards piazza nuvona. on the way we found a cafe with cheap pasta and OMG it was incredible. we had the perfect italian experience in a beautiful cafe. with our tummies full we made it to the piazza which is famous for its beautiful fountains.
next was the pantheon, a building that is as wide as it is high and was built 'before Christ'. the dome has a massive hole in it and also houses Raphael's tomb. the thing we were really looking forward to though was a particular gelati store...over 100 flavours and even more that were mousse and frozen yoghurts! i think ive found my haven. next was the trevi fountain, something i was really looking forward to. jessi and i threw our 2 coins, the first to return to rome and the second to make a wish. (keep ur fingers crossed for me!) the next tourist spot was the spanish steps at the piazza de'spagna. nearby was a cafe where casanova, goethe, wagner and keates all drank coffee (not together though) we wanted to go in but the waiters were in their tuxes and we figured if we were going to get a coffee there we would have to share it between the 3 of us and it would still be too expensive.
so off we trotted once again, having already walked half way across rome, towards the colosseum. by this time i was hitting the wall again and again and going slightly crazy but then i saw piazza venezia and spotted the colosseo and was utterly excited. nearby were masses of roman ruins and i felt like i'd hoped into a time travelator. the colosseum is absolutely huge and we walked all the way around, meanwhile running away from the scary sleazy men dressed as ancient romans.
more and more walking and before we knew it we had walked all the way from the vatican city (far west rome) back home to the hotel (far east rome). we had dinner at the station and prepared ourselves for the 11 hour train trip overnight to nice.
ciao to italy, mi amore!
