"When in Rome"

After yet another very scenic train ride from Florence, Tamsin and I arrive in Rome, and boy was it hot. The Rome train station seemed like a small mall as it had plenty of shops located underneath and even had its own supermarket which proved very useful. A short walk through what seemed like a pretty dodgy area and we where at our hostel. I am becoming used to sleeping on bunk beds but this was the first one that had no sides on the top bunk and I was very fearful of rolling off during the night. I did however manage to survive six nights without incident thankfully.
After dumping our stuff we jumped on the metro from the train station and headed straight to the Colosseum. By the time we arrived the sun was setting so it was casting an around shadow over the Colosseum which was very cool. Also at this time of night there are less souvenier hawkers and other tourists around. After a few "posing in front of the monument photos" we headed back to the hostel for "Free Pasta Weeknights" which turned out to be pretty good considering it was free. Definitely the way to go when you're on a tight budget.
Our first day of sightseeing consisted of us waiting forty-five minutes to catch the Sightseeing Bus then being taken on what seems like the most boring of all the Tours so far (and I think we got ripped off too). I don't recommend the Sightseeing Tours in Rome, especially since you can get to almost all the main sights by either bus or metro quite easily. We did however end up using it a bit like public transport as you can hop on and off all day.
Our first stop was a Monument to Emmanuelle Vittorio II (an Italian General of some sorts) which I have to say wasn't that impressive considering its size and the fact that the Italians demolished a whole lot of gothic and medievil buildings to build it. The best part about it was watching the staff blowing their whistles at anyone who couldn't read the signs saying "Do not Sit on the Steps". After some now mandatory Gelato (ice cream), we headed off to the Vatican. Although we didn't go into the City itself as shorts and jandals is deemed very inappropriate attire (despite the temperature), we did wander around St Peter's Square for an hour or so.
On our fourth day in Rome we jumped on a train and headed off to the ruined city of Pompeii. That day it reached a whopping 37 degrees and was possibly the hottest I have ever felt, at least it wasn't humid like at home or there would have been no show of making it round. Unfortunately due to the heat it was really hard to take in the vastness of the ruins but we did at least manage to locate the exhibit showing the bodies mummified by ash. Pretty weird feeling seeing thousand year old bodies encased in ash. The trip to Pompeii was definitely well worth it, just very very hot.
Day five consisted of a visit to the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. Both these places were very packed with like minded tourists but definitely worth the effort, even got to see Raphael's tomb at the Pantheon which i didn't expect. Our final day in Rome we decided lets walk around Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, which used to be the heart of the Roman Empire, on what turned out to be the second hottest day while we were there. The view from the top of Palatine Hill over the Circus Maximus (the chariot racing track you may have seen in Ben Hur apparently) was really cool and you could see why the Roman's set up camp here. As the ticket to the Roman forum also included discounted entrance to the Colosseum we took advantage of this and wandered around inside for awhile. Oh yea, don't buy drinks from the vendors around the Colosseum. We were charged €4 ($8) for a bottle of Gatorade each. Pretty much a complete ripoff! But aside from that we had a fantastic time in Rome and will definitely go back should the opportunity arise.

---

---