Rome, Italy

Rome

What a gorgeous city.  We arrived (by train of course), found our way to our pre-booked hotel got settled and headed off.  There was such a lot to see.   I had talked to Simon our last host and we had made a bit of a plan as to what to see in only a couple of days.  It was great, we had seen lots of big buildings with amazing decorations before, but these seemed bigger and more stunning.  It was really easy to find our way around and to visit some popular statues and buildings etc.  There were enough people around to confirm that you were in a city but not too many.  We walked for what seemed miles before coming across a neat Irish pub where our graving for a real ‘steak’ was satisfied.  After walking the streets of Rome, we got back to our little room around 10.30pm. 

Next day we were up and away to get an on/off bus ticket to see some of the outer city sights.  Basically it did a huge loop of the city with about ten on and off stops – great !  Our first stop was The Vatican City, it was Sunday so understandably the crowds in St Peters square were there for Sunday service.  Not too sure if he was the pope or not (i think not but anyway – it sounds better) but a robed priest stood at the window of a huge side of the main church and read the sermon.  He was so far away his head was about the size of a five cent piece.  There were thousands of people there and we were beginning to think this was a bad idea, but when the service finished only a few hundred seemed to stay and we lined up to go and have a look in the St Peters church.  We got to the end of the line and were about to be screened when Murray remembered he had his pocket knife so we asked where we could leave it and the policeman just shook his head and pointed to the rubbish bin.  So there was no way that knife was ending up in the bin, it was a bit special as Janna had given it to him.  We turned away a bit annoyed that there were no facilities to store anything.  So the kiwis got to thinking and came up with the plan to hide it somewhere.  Murray found the perfect spot and we went and lined up again.  Through the x-ray machine and heading for the church we came to another checkpoint and was told to leave our backpack in the save lockup area outside the church doors – why we couldn’t have done that with the pocket knife we will never know very bizarre.  Coming out of the lockup area minus our backpack the guards were now on a coffee break and people were walking through freely with backpacks and all straight into the church.  What the???????  It turned out to be worth all the drama’s for inside the church was amazing, it was huge, and we were allowed to take photos (unusual).  The art and architecture inside was beautiful and quite breathtaking.  The grand dome above the altar was 120 m high.  I think the main corridor in the church is around 190m long – just incredible. There were many tombs, and Murray said the “Railway companies could do with some of those long sleepers”. 

The road into the Vatican

St Peters Square and church in the background

Sunday service with priest in window top right hand, second window in.

A" long sleeper"

Inside - after we'd handed the pack in....

Retrieving the pocket knife

We retrieved the pocket knife and got back on the bus to head to another spot.  We walked through the streets lined with posh shops, cafe’s, went and sat in the sun on the Spanish Steps, which have nothing really to do with Spain!  They were built to link the shopping area with the high society people who lived above it.   We continued walking taking in all the sights and getting totally pissed off with the street sellers who would just not take no for an answer.  Headed back to the central station got the bus again and got off at the Colosseum – just in time for the gates to close.  We walked around it got some photos with some Romans and decided we would come back in the morning.  It didn’t matter because we walked back towards the city past all the street entertainers and the Roman Forum/Palatine hill area and back to the Piazza Venezia.                                   There are two guards here 24/7 guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier.  It was absolutely massive with statues and sculptures on the sides and entrance to the buildings.   We slowly headed back towards the city and then on to our hotel, it is really a pretty city with lots of gardens and park like areas, loads of shops, cafes and we felt quite safe.

Spanish Steps

Colloseum

Stand and surrender

Part of the Roman forum, with Pallentine Hill in the background

Very clever (but still clever without the paint)

You can just see the guards heads in the middle of the picture

As close as we could get to the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier

Next day we visited the Colloseum.   Magnificent! We got one of those audio guides so we knew what we were looking at.  Just to think, that in its day it sat at least 50,000 people.  It started to be built in AD72 and finished in AD80 – originally clad in travertine and covered with a huge canvas held up by 240 masts.  The arena was usually covered in sand, and you could still see the ruins of the underground chambers and the cages were the animals were caged and the gladiators that were waiting their turn for their fight waited.

The walls of the Colleseum - minus the marble covering which was removed and used for other buildings

Outside the Colleseum

Inside, showing the rooms under the arena for the gladiators and the animals

The rest of day was filled in with more sightseeing, eating and drinking.  Coffees varied in cost from 1.50 euro to 5.00 euro and quality was about the same range too but not always relevant to the price.  A couple of hours was wasted that afternoon at the Post Office to send a parcel home, most unhelpful people we have struck so far.

The next day, after a very speedy bus ride at 6am from the main train station to the airport we left Italy and headed for our next destination Vassara, Peloponnese, Greece. 

Arrivederci and Grazie Italy