Pizza, Pasta & The Pope

Trip Start Apr 26, 2011
1
9
17
Trip End Jul 01, 2011


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Flag of Italy  , Lazio,
Tuesday, May 17, 2011

When we arrived in Rome, we went straight into a 3 hour walking tour with our Topdeck travel guide. First stop was Fontane Di Trevi, I threw a coin over my right shoulder for good luck, and drank from the Vestal Virgin spring (supposedly gives one back there virginity - interesting!) We walked to the Pantheon and had a look inside. This was actually a replica of the original that was burnt down in the Great Fire of Rome. We walked past the Roman Forum, which is a massive area of ancient ruins from thousands of years ago. And of course we then went and saw the Colloseum. We didn't actually go in because we came back the next day to see it properly.

The next day was a Wednesday and for anyone that know much about the Pope, you will know that this is the day that he makes an appearance and blesses everyone. So we got up pretty early and went to the Vatican City - smallest country in the world with a population of just over 800
Fontane Di Trevi
Fontane Di Trevi
. To live in Vatican City you have to be employed by the church. They have their own radio station, tv station & even their own postal system.
We had a tour guide take us for a 2 hour walk around the Vatican Museum and explain the significance of a few different art pieces, then went on to the Sistine Chapel which was kindly decorated by Michael Angelo! It is a silent chapel, so as soon as you enter, your not allowed to make any noise, and there are guards there to enforce that rule! Also not allowed to take any photos unfortunately...

We walked around to St Peters Square to get a glimpse of the Pope do his thing! He came out on his pope-mobile and cruised around the thousands of cheering Catholics. The people were seriously going crazy from excitement. Personally I didn't think much of him! Once he got off his little golf buggy thing, he got up and there were a few bible readings in 7 different languages and he did a little blessing, but it was fairly boring so we left.

We went to the Colloseum and had a good look around. It is quite run down, obviously from being so old, but also from road traffic and alot of earthquakes over the years. It could seat about 55,000 people back in the day. The Roman leader of the time would invite all the commoners for a free show once in a while to distract them from how bad their lives were under his rulership. He would provide entertainment (Gladiator fights, Plays etc.), serve them free food and alcohol and this would keep them happy for a while.

We were pretty tired from walking all day, so we  caught the metro back to our Hostel and chilled there for the night.

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