Mona Lisa Hostel Rome

We had an early morning flight over to Rome and arrived with a whole day ahead of us. Found our hostel (the Mona Lisa - very nice, staff are so friendly) We went a little mad and seem to manage to walk most of Rome that day. Seeing the Trevi fountain, Pantheon and Colosseum to name but a few places. Although we had seen lots that day we managed to not really go in anywhere because of bad timing, so the next day we got up early to go to the Sistene Chapel and St Peters only to find that the Si...

Rome is exhausting, there is too much heat, too many people. Roma also seems to be engaged in a perpetual war with its tourists. Prices are jacked up around all major sites, like the 2 euro bottle of water that costs 30 cents in supermarkets. Guide maps for museums and famous sites are virtually non exist, and despite their steep price audio guides give little info, all so that the visitor would hire a guide, and thus create job for the locals. Entrances can be barely marked, hidden rather fa...

Woke up at 7 a.m. and left London at 9 a.m. taking the National Express to Standsted Airport. I was a bit nervous about taking the coach after news of the crash in Aberdeen. The words, "carnage," "limbs," "bodies," and "blood" have stuck thanks to the paper. Was asleep the whole coach ride to the airport and the plane. Don't know why, but I have a tendency to sleep during transportation. So, both were a smooth ride. Arrived in Rome and took the coach to Termini station. Was lost for two hours...

We got back from Rome at around 2am UK time, 3am Rome time, this morning. After four days of walking and taking in magnificant Rome, we were absolutely trashed - my Auntie says we don't have enough stamina :P Maybe she's right...Anyway, while we were away we couldn't write blogs so we did video blogs for our first three days. We missed the last day cause we were so exhausted and rushing around everywhere so didn't really have time. To accompany the video blogs I will give a brief rundown of o...

So Florence was really pretty. We walked all around this afternoon. We saw the "fake" david. this really cool bridge that they sell gold and silver on. We also so the duomo and the baptisery. Lots of amazing museums, but we didnt bother going in any of them. There was a cool market with this statue of a hog called "the little pig". If you rub his snout it ensures a fast return to Florence. The building of the duomo and the church in front of it were amazing. It blows my mind that people could...

A full day spent in Rome walking for hours has me thinking im gonna have to duck tape my tennis shoes because they are about to fall apart. Today we started off by going to The Colloseum and man is that place huge. We kept referring to the movie Gladiator...thats for you dad and Kim. Its crazy to think about all that went on there. We also went to Palantine Hill and we had a guide named Mia that told us all about how Rome was started there and the tale of Venus...the god of love and Romulus a...

So yesterday was our "food day". We went to the area that is known for its authentic itialian food. It was a beautiful sunday with clear blue skies. We spent the day going from restaurant to restaurant sampling breshetta, meats, spaghetti, and wines. Jaime even was bold enough to try duck. It was all amazing!! Our new Aussie buddy spent the whole day with us and we have even convinced him to come with us to Barcelona!! He is actually stationed in Afghanistan and they gave him 2 weeks off so h...

Day 21 We woke up and ate breakfast and found a café to buy snacks for our tour of the Vatican City. We paid 35 Euro's for the tour guide but let me tell you, it was well worth the money. First off you get to skip the line, and that's worth the money right there. At the time we went it was wrapped from the museum entrance around two corners and almost into St. Peters Square. Once inside the museum we were given little radio headsets and our tour guide was given a microphone. This allowed us t...