Day 15: Rome in a day

One of the days I was most looking forward to! And an excellent day. First of all, as I mentioned in the previous entry: ROMA PASS is worth it. 34 euros, okay in the end I doubt we actually "saved" money by getting it, but it is SO WORTH IT because for the first two museums/archy sites you skip queues. Our first destination of the day?

COLOSSEUM obviously.

Stolen off a Roman soldier

We got there before ten and there was already a massive queue to queue in the massive queue for buying tickets. Literally! Us Roma Pass holders had our own lane - no waiting whatsoever. Hurrah!

I felt a true historian in me at the Colosseum. I actually felt emotional about standing in this great historical site, built and used so long ago... I bought a cool guidebook showing differences between the Roman Colosseum (then called the Flavinian Amphitheatre, or something like that) and today. There was loads of info on boards in the inside bit, a nice cool welcome whenever you got tired of the heat outside. Like a map of the Roman empire and its major cities that still exist now. Etc etc, so cool.

After the Colosseum we ate very very much less than average over-priced sandwich-type things from a very bored and stressed man at a stall trying to keep up with a Chinese lady asking the price of most things on display.

Then we wandered off to some other cool ruins. Still a bit unsure what they were, but they included temples, a stadium, places where the athletes practised (nude), a forum, a few churches... (Did you know basilicas were originally used as banks?)

Colosseum from the ruins

There were also random bits of "modern art"

View over to the other side

Very pretty, and me and CC happily listened in to numerous tour guides at the Colosseum as well as at these ruins - especially the last dude with a massive group of tourists was EXCELLENT - do all foreign guides speak SUPER FAST?? Did you know that at the Colosseum there was a hole under each marble seat, just so... "let's say it like this, there was no risk of you missing a single moment of the acts"... ?

After the ruins we found the next place the guy at the hostel had circled on our map - some massive war victory, er, building. Building is not the right word since it's so much more than that but I honestly don't know what it is. IMPRESSIVE tho.

Altare della Patria (thanks google)

Then we got tired and went to sit at a café. I decided to be healthy and order a "fruit salad with ice cream". It turned out actually to be "ice cream with fruit". But it was SCRUMPTIOUS om nom.

OM NOM

Gradually we headed northwards, visiting the pretty fountains of Trevi (PACKED, full of guys trying to get you to have a picture taken by them for five euro), the Pantheon, and another pretty square. Ended up at Castle Sant'Angelo, from where we then headed off to the Vatican.

For a change, CC was dressed inappropriately for the Pantheon

Me with my Italian guy

In San'Angelo

From San'Angelo

The Vatican wasn't too impressive - if you want to go inside St Peter's Cathedral you need to go in the morning, and we had already decided we'd rather do the Colosseum. Cool to see it from the outside though, and all the nuns! (No pope tho, unfortunately)

Vatican

Had a nice dinner (gnocchi al pesto again, I love them), a long sit and chat at one of the numerous Piazzas, and then headed home, shattered but very happy!

This was quite a quick summary of what we did in Rome, since I am quite late in writing these entries. It was cool, and everything I expected. I loved the fact there were loads of old cool buildings, and I think of it as a more liveable city than, for example, Paris, which I love but not to live in...

AWESOME BAG

Tomorrow - bye bye Italy!

Bizz,
Emmzy
xxx