After a pretty ordinary train trip (what a relief) we arrived safely in Rome. Our hotel was just down the road from the train station = dodgy characters but not so far to go carrying our heavy backpacks. The Pensione Dino (sounded really Italian to me!) turned out to be okay, although we weren't used to paying up front and in cash - we were worried he was going to stitch us up, but all our stuff has been in our room when we've come home from a day of sight-seeing. And he was really nice and warned us about pickpocketers on the metro and buses (so we never did the metro and bus). So we let him away with it.
Rome; gosh, what can we say - it's busy, big, and beautiful. All you can hear day long is honking car horns and speeding scooters. Although how they know where they're going or what lane there supposed to be in is too difficult for us to work out - we've yet to see lines on what've turned out to be three lane roads! But despite it's confusing streets and our constant "let's get out the map" we've managed to find our way to most of the famous sites and have enjoyed getting lost in the many piazzas.
We walked through the city to see the Colloseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. We were walking down some random street (well okay it was just down from the Colloseum so must be famous) and bumped into a lady that Matt used to work with in Queensland Treasury - small world! So a big hi to Lynn, John, and Bella!!
Rome; gosh, what can we say - it's busy, big, and beautiful. All you can hear day long is honking car horns and speeding scooters. Although how they know where they're going or what lane there supposed to be in is too difficult for us to work out - we've yet to see lines on what've turned out to be three lane roads! But despite it's confusing streets and our constant "let's get out the map" we've managed to find our way to most of the famous sites and have enjoyed getting lost in the many piazzas.
We walked through the city to see the Colloseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. We were walking down some random street (well okay it was just down from the Colloseum so must be famous) and bumped into a lady that Matt used to work with in Queensland Treasury - small world! So a big hi to Lynn, John, and Bella!!
Also met up with Jo, a friend of mine from soccer, who treated us to the best gelato in Rome - it was delish! And who showed us her favourite Pantheon and took us for a tour (albeit a 2 sec tour!) around her 'typical Roman apartment' - tiny!
And today we visited the Vatican City for St. Peters and the museums - 1.5 hours after entering the museums we finally got the Sistine Chappel which took our breaths away! Unfortunately we couldn't take photos of the ceiling but we do have some photos of the other museums before we get to the Chapel.
And because there's so much to see and do we decided to hop on an open top tourist bus for a day. And there was English commentary this time, score! Although I have to admit I was getting a bit lost with all their history. It's all very impressive but too much for us to take in at one time.
Tomorrow we head for a night at Venice - Matt is busy trying to find accommodation, we've heard its quite expensive in Venice so we may have to treat ourselves to a 3 star hotel - woah!
Oh and Matt got his hair cut Roman style - it was all too much though, so we fixed it right up - see before and after below - hilarious! :)
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