Rome & Vatican City

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Rome

Started off by catching the train to Rome. I was quite surprised that there were signs and videos on the train warning you to be careful of pick pockets.

One of the guys from tour fainted at the train station and had to go home. Stink buzz for him. I think it's probably from too much drinking, so I wasn't sympathetic at all.

First up an Imperial Walking Tour including the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.

The Roman Forum

We started off at the forum which kicked ass. Our guide was an elderly lady who to be completely honest was fucking boring. She told us some really interesting information every no wand again, but to be honest the majority of it was just her repeating herself or going too in depth on things that were irrelevant. She also had us standing in the sun for the majority of the tour which wasn't very pleasant either as there was no where to use the toilet or get water.

One thing that did amaze me was that the remains of the Roman buildings were mainly built out of brick as I had imagined the forum to be completely covered in marble. This is because the Romans would build the structure of buildings in brick and then cover them with marble to make them look pretty. Kind of like putting wall paper over the outside of buildings, except with marble.
I always thought that it must've been expensive to build all the buildings out of marble.

I really enjoyed the Forum, but do kind of wish I had done it by myself without the guide though as we didn't have any time to explore by ourselves.

The Colosseum

Next up, the Colosseum. This was one of the places I had wanted to go to my entire life so I was really glad I finally got there.
The line was crazy big! Thank god we were in a group and could cruise quickly up the side. Take that you line waiters!

We got into the Colosseum and the guide continued to talk about stuff that no-one really listened too as it was incredibly hot and we hadn't had a water or toilet stop. I actually sat there thinking of ways to decapitate her as I was sick of hearing her talk.

The way the Colosseum was built it allowed lots of wind to pass through, which was nice as some parts were significantly cooler.
Entry to the Colosseum in medieval times was free, but you would enter through separate gates depending on things like class or ethnicity.

The floor of the Colosseum wasn't on so you could see all the underground passages. Unfortunately we were pressed for time as we were going to see the Vatican city so I didn't get much time to explore by myself after the MC Bore-a-lot finished talking.

Vatican City

Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, but I would much rather call it the biggest art museum I have ever seen. There's seriously not all that much to write about it except there was shit loads of amazing art. We walked for about 3 hours before we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel and although it was amazing, walking for 3 hours with no air conditioning, no food, water or stop offs it got very tedious. Like, it was cool, but I probably wouldn't do it again.
I thought Michael Angelo's painting was going to be the only thing on the roof in the Sistine Chapel, but it was only a small piece of what was actually on there (unfortunately you couldn't take photos).

After looking at the roof in the Sistine Chapel, we excited through the group exit (which we weren't meant to do as we didn't have group tickets...we like to live life on the edge) which took us past the massive line and straight into Saint Peter Basillica. The guy in front of us got stopped so we managed to race on through without being in a group. Schneaky schneaky.

St. Peters Basillica is basically a crypt for dead popes. I saw Pope John Paul's grave (who died in 2005).

Food... FINALLY

Finally we got out and went in search of food. We at at this restaurant which ripped us off. We only ate there because we were completely starving. They bought out a loaf of bread which they charged us 7 Euros for as it had 7 slices. We ate about 2 slices, so I stole the remainder of the loaf when we left. Fucking pricks.
I walked around for about 10 minutes with a loaf of bread in my hand looking for a homeless person to give it to, but eventually gave up as we didn't see one.
Heh, that's quite weird. The one time I want to see a homeless person and I can't find one.

Train Ride

We managed to get the train on the way home. We were thinking "Wow, that was a shitload easier then I thought" until Jen pointed out that she thought it was an express train and that we had already passed 3 stops. By this stage we were all ultra tired and thought she was fucking with us. We then noticed that the ext stop was 3 stops past our stop in the middle of fucking no where. Literally. There was crop fields and hay bails out there, no city at all.
All we could do was laugh about it and get on another train back. Turns out there's only one express train per day and we just happened to get on it.

Got in 5 mins before dinner.

That's me.

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Comments

[yup its me again cos im living vicariously through you.]

i took photos of the sistine chapel ceiling cos im the mad rebel, the guards yelled at me heaps in italian. i does not care! every part of that damn building (vatican) is amazing cos all the ceilings are beautiful! There are so many different rooms, like the one where you have to walk along that thing suspended outside to get into it and its like the lamest smallest room hahaha.

[Gloria Mason]

Wattup
Hey BVCT (blueveincustardthrower) just read your last few blogs and wow, you've done some mileage - nice stuff dude. You crack me up with some of your character assassinations (MC Bore-a-lot) - just classic. Everything here is ticking along - not sure if you heard but LC leaves next week to join Vector - good career op for him so I'll have a new boss in the coming months - recruitment underway. Other than that, pretty much the same ole stuff just different days. Take care dude and holla out if you can. Cheers G