We have just spent the last 4 days in Rome and it was a great start to the Italy / Spain section of the adventure. We had quite an early start on the Wednesday to get here. Had to get up at 3:30am to get a 7:00am flight from Heathrow....we survived and made it to Rome at about lunch time.
On the Wednesday we went to Piazza Navona and the Pantheon before we had to retire for an afternoon nap due to the early start. Hotel was in a great location that allowed us to pop back for a nap and head out again for dinner quite easily. On Thursday we headed to the Colleseum and got sucked in by an Aussie 'tout' to take a 10 euro tour around the Colleseum. We only lasted about half of it before we thought we would fall asleep. Our tour guide was 'Aldo' and he was about 60 and had a tan like you've never seen before. He was slightly informative but prone to rambling on and on and on... he would stand with his eyes squinched shut and just talk for 15 minutes about the same thing....the Aussie guy should feel bad for taking our money because it turned out that he was from Balmain and only lived one street away from Pete.
After the Colleseum we checked out the Palantine Hill area and the Forum - hooked onto a free tour by an American guy through the Forum that was really good. I think there may have been another nap in the afternoon before we headed out to dinner near the Spanish Steps in a restaurant that had a separate section for us English speakers... such is life. Went to the top of the Spanish Steps where we could see quite a nice sunset over the city and managed to avoid every single red rose that was trying to be shoved into my hand by the street hawkers. Then we went to Trevi Fountain which was super busy - I thought at night it would be quiter but not the case. Is quite pretty at night.
On Friday we went to the Vatican museums and suprisingly got in without having to wait at all. Made our way through to the Sistine Chapel which even having seen it before is still amazing. Then out and around to St Peters Basillica (if you are ever in the Sistine Chapel and you can take the tour group exit on the right then do it, if you don't it is such a long walk through the building and around the front to St Peters). We went up the top of the Cupola (330 stairs) but it was so crowded it wasn't really enjoyable and I think we spent more time waiting to come down the stairs than we did looking at the view. We headed out for dinner in the Pantheon piazza - we didn't mean to eat there but we were looking for a
place that was playing the Italy v Romania soccer game and just happened to find a place in the piazza that had an lcd telly face out so that people could watch why they were eating. Eight euros for a beer.... On the way back to the hotel we say this really freaking looking rat type thing swimming in the Tiber River - it was seriously weird looking, like a cross between a rat and an otter and it was about a metre long. It felt a bit like a Loch Ness sighting but we have good video footage!! Saturday was a bit more of a free day and we wandered up to the Trastevere area where there is an amazing view over all of Rome. Before that we went to Castel Del'Angelo which is an old fortress that is connected to the Vatican by a secret passageway.... oooohhhh... Have you read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown? It features highly in that book and now I've given it away if you haven't read the book. Oh well.
So overall Rome was good and a great way to start the trip - plenty of gelato and polpette (meat balls) was consumed. No losing weight on this trip. Next stop Siena. More thumbnails ...
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