Rome, prt, 2.

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Rome part 2.

Having explored the Vatican we met up with Kat and Lucy to go out for dinner and then on to the Trevi fountain, with the plan of having a swim in it in the middle of the night, foiled by the herds of like minded tourists and the police.

We had dinner at a lovely little bistro about 10 mins away from the Trev, where happy hour was every hour so long as you said "happy hour" which we did, pina coladas yum yum!

Then it was off for a swim with the four bottles of 2 euro wine with Trevor (the fountain). We were sitting drinking at the fountain with the herds of tourists when the rose sellers / photo takers kept coming past trying to make us buy, we didn't want any of what they were selling, but determined for a sale they kept up their banter even after one asking to be my boyfriend was foiled in his attempts after I told him I was a lesbian. Did this stop him? No of course not, he continued to inform us (in a feminine voice) that he was really a woman and invited us to check, which had us all in stitches, especially as he said he could get implants and shave. He still didn't make a sale.

Sadly neither the police of the tourists left before 3am so sadly we gave up and wandered off in search of another fountain or a bus home, which ever came first. It was the bus and we returned to the hostel trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake up the dorm, I don't know how successful we were.

Next morning it was off to the Colosseum (Colin, as he is affectionately known) where we happily informed the money grabbing irritating guides that as an English person I love to queue and so 2 hours (lies I tell you, lies.) in a hot line was actually my idea of heaven. We got into the Colin in about half an hour and started to wander around the base, confused as to why the floor of Colin wasn't flat, we later found out, after tagging on to a guide, that this was because the stage had fallen apart and what we were seeing was the "back stage" area where the gladiator and beast where kept before going on. We climbed up the side and sat at the top marveling at how large it was inside and the concept of 50,000 people watching for days as men and beasts were killed off was strange.

From Collin we went up to the Pantheon, and saw the amazing clock (essentially just a hole in the ceiling that let the sun in thus telling the time). Sitting in the cool for a while we saw a choir of people start singing and a pilgrimage of pilgrims appear and start praying in amongst the tourists sitting photographing.

Spanish Steps was next on our itinerary though it was not as easy as we had anticipated, eventually after much walking we found it, it wasn't that impressive and then on in the totally the wrong decision towards the Unknown Soldier, then back up to the hostel.

We spent the evening with Collin and the other dormies, with a bottle of wine, next morning we said good bye to the dorm and to Rome and headed down to Naples.

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