Italy - Rome

  Rome, Lazio, Italy
Saturday, October 11, 2008

It has taken AGES for me to get around to the other half of my Italy blog, (like 6months!), but it is finally here.

So Mum and I left Venice in the afternoon on the Saturday the 11th of Oct 08. We caught the train from Venice to Rome which took about 4 hours. Got into Rome when it was dark, so grabbed some food, found the hotel and crashed into bed.

On the Sunday morning, we were up early and at the Colosseum. Managed to get onto a tour reasonably cheaply and we were in. It was MASSIVE!!! Absolutely amazing how advanced they were in those days and we still struggle to build stadiums!!! It started getting really quite hot towards the middle of the day but it was perfect picture weather.

After lunch, we wandered through Capitoline Hill and The Roman Forum. Amazing that so much was still preserved there and the fact that the greats like Julius Caesar and Anthony had walked these same avenues. So after a full day of pretty much walking, we had a early night and a quiet dinner in a Italian Restaurant. Expensive!!!! Decided to stick to McD's after that.

On the Monday morning, up early again and off to the Vatican. After lining up in St Peter's Square, we were into St Peter's Basilica. It was cool inside and every wall space was full of marble effigies of long dead people. I did notice, that the majority of them were of past popes and very few of Christ himself. There were lots of people though, many were religious having made the pilgrimage here and it was impressive.

Down in The Catacombs, there were the remains of all of the popes and the latest pope had a line of people crying in front of it waiting to walk past his coffin!

We decided to make the effort to go up inside the dome as we had come all this way. A lift ride to cut out about 200 steps took you to the beginning of the rest of the 330 odd steps to the top. Part way up, you could stop at the cupola inside the dome and look down onto the crowds inside the basilica. It was pretty amazing. The detail even up at this height was superb. Then, you finish the walk to the top. An absolute killer! Mum only just made it. But we would recommend it to anyone going because the 360 views at the top of Rome were absolutly stunning!

After making the massive walk down to the bottom and having some lunch in a cute side street (where the pasta was more like microwavable packets from home), we headed to the Vatican Museum. The amount of paintings and statues were phenomenal. Nothing like what you can get back home. But what really blew me away was the Sistine Chapel. Absolutely Amazing. Never seen anything like it. Sat for at least half an hour in awe. The Last Judgement was awesome. Would recommend this to everyone.

That evening, we wandered over to the Spanish Steps and watched the sunset. Very romantic but I was with my Mum. Then off to the Trevi Fountain which was also very nice. Then back to the hotel for bed.

On the Tuesday, we did lots of wandering looking at various churches and we stuck our hands in The Mouth of Truth in Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Supposedly if you told a lie with your hand in the sculpture, it would be bitten off. Luckily I am a good girl and my hand came away intact as did Mum's.

Then we strolled along the river Tiber and visited St Bartholomew which was a hospital on an island in the middle of the river Tiber. Then the rest of the day we visited numerous churches which were on corners like New Zealand has dairy's and England has pubs. We did a loop back to where we started and walked the length of the remains of the hippodrome.

We finished the day by visiting The Baths of Caracalla.
This was cool. There were still some tile mosaics remaining and there was barely anybody there so it was a change from the crowds in central Rome.

On the last day, the Wednesday, we did some more wandering hoping to see some catacombes, but when we got there, they were shut! Gutted. We did our souvenir shopping and just relaxed until we left for the airport, and home.

I would recommend trying to eat cheaply and using the Metro as it gets you close to all of the major attractions. Dont worry about the amazing amount of graffiti on the trains, it appears to be normal. Most people spoke English enough to converse with you. And the time of the year that we went was good. Hot enough for t-shirts and shorts, but not too hot that you just want to stay in the shade. I got a slight tan too! The museums are best for cooling off in as they are mostly marble.

Well, until the next trip!