Rome

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Rome marked the end of the trip for Clare, and the beginning of my solo trip for the next two months. We had extended our stay in Positano by one extra day, and we were very lucky (but got a good lecture from the owner) that the next hotel allowed us to change our booking without penalty. This left Clare with one evening to see something of Rome before flying home, so off we went exploring.

We caught a bus down to St Peter’s square and had a brief look around before wandering back into the city and finding the Trevi fountain, and then wandered down to the Coliseum. Being able to touch the walls of a building still standing strong after nearly 2000 years was pretty cool.

The next day, I took Clare to the airport, and then went back and shifted my bags to the hostel. I went back to St Peters basilica and had fun photographing the inside of the church, as the light coming in from the top of the dome was playing some nice shafts of light across the floor. Did I mention that this place was big? I mean Really big? It made the one at Florence look like the local one around the corner from your house.

I also paid up to climb the dome here too. A very worthwhile thing to do, rewarded with great views over Rome from the top. There is a series of little windows in the very steep dome, and one brave soul called Vicnoli Farpi was keen enough to shimmy down to one in the year 1930, and scratch his name in the metal roofing. Perhaps he didn’t get to finish the job, and his name was actually Vicnoli Farpistupido…

One thing to be said for the Romans is that they like their monuments to be supersized. The walking map I got from the hotel marked each monument or sight to see as a small drawing where it was located, but it appears that it was a scale map. The monuments really did seem to be so out of proportion to their surroundings. Kind of, umm, monumental in size.

I only had a short time in Rome too, as it turned out. After months of planning this trip, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to see the Greek Islands on a tour, or go it alone. I figured I’d choose closer to the date. As it turned out, I’ve been too busy enjoying the trip, and the tour had closed, so I spent the most of Sunday in Rome on the internet making plans for Greece. Hopefully I’ve organised something better…

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Comments

[cytmon]

Really? You are kidding.