Rome

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So we arrived in Rome at the Termini Central Station safe and sound without any explosions! The Army and Polizia presence was quite strong which was a good thing. We walked to our hostel according to Google Maps which seems to always take us the long way. Along our walk to our accommodation the inevitable happened. Sarah's suitcase broke. Well not entirely but the wheel is now missing its rubber cover having decided that it was sick of being dragged around Europe. So with that we carried the suitcase to our hostel. We arrived around 20 minutes later and checked in. This hostel lived up to the sort of "Good one, Bad one" trend that we seem to have with accommodation. This hostel was definitely a lot better than the one in Venice as we were only sharing the bathroom with one other room and the breakfast was amazing. As soon as we checked in, we pretty much ran to the restaurant down the road as we had both had about one piece of toast all day and it was fast approaching dinner time. After finally putting something in our stomachs, we walked up the road and found a laundromat. We put on two loads of washing and then went to go do some shopping. We came back and collected our clothes and then headed back to the hostel.

The next morning we headed downstairs for some breakfast. And some breakfast it was! Chocolate croissant, banana, peach popper (yeah I thought it was disgusting too!), and some toast with nutella. Amazing staff too. They gave us a map as all the good hostels do, and showed us where to go and tried the best they could to help us find a bag repairer for Sarah's now injured suitcase. After breakfast we headed towards the Colosseum and stopped at a small church to see what was inside. Just as we thought, church pews, a cross and paintings of Jesus. We then headed towards the main attraction. The Colosseum is absolutely amazing. You have not seen it until you see it in Rome, pictures just cannot do it justice. We went inside after about an hour and a half of waiting in line and were absolutely blown away by how well some things were preserved. The other thing that amazed me was simply how big it was on the inside. We spent about 4 hours wandering around the inside of the Colosseum and chercing out the museum inside dedicated to Nero. This guy was pretty big back then, as he was one of the first recorded Emperors of Ancient Rome! After leaving the Colosseum we tried to find a way into the Ruins and Roman Forum which were well... Ruins from back a few thousand years ago! After failing to find a way in we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hostel. We then thought we would hit up the local Hard Rock Cafe as they always put on a good feed! I thought it was just up the road. Wrong! It was a sign I saw for the cafe that was telling me that it was half an hour walk away. So we got walking and finally arrived. However, once we got to the waiter to ask for a seat he said we would be waiting an hour and a half because they were ridiculously busy. So we waited, and waited, and waited and finally we were seated. By now I had seen my favourite dish come walking past me about 4 times. This was none other than the hickory smoked ribs! So when the waitress asked me what I wanted, the answer was definately ribs. She said sure no worries and came back to tell me that there wasn't enough ribs left for a serving. I was heartbroken. She came back a few minutes later to offer me a dish of meat with a side of ribs. After eating massive meals at the hard rock, we were literally in pain and had to make the half hour walk back to our hostel. Once we got back we headed straight to bed

The next morning we had our packed breakfast again and decided to see this art gallery that Sarah had spotted on our mission to the Hard Rock the night before. We went in and paid our €5 for entry and wet downstairs to see what this place was all about! As soon as we got out of the elevator this lady bailed us up for our tickets which we put in our locker as no water or bags were allowed. So we went back and got the ticket and she didn't even ask again! To be honest I wasn't too keen on the museum. The reason being that most people in or visiting Rome considering themselves Christian or Catholic or whatever. I consider myself 100% Atheist. It was a little weird being in a museum where every picture was Jesus or Jesus and Mary! After we left the museum it was pretty dark overhead but for some reason we didn't take umbrellas. Sure enough it came down in buckets. Of course this was the first day in months that I had decided to take out my SLR camera! So camera tucked under shirt, we hightailed it back to the hostel. By the time we got back to the hostel, we were absolutely soaked. It looked like we had been swimming. Thankfully the camera was alright. My bronchitis which had developed over the last few days, was flaring up like nothing I had ever felt. After drying off and getting a fresh change of clothes, we headed back down the road for lunch in case the rain decided to come back! I was unable to finish my lunch as the bronchitis was starting to take its toll and probably not a good idea taking the antibiotics several hours before on an empty stomach. So after this we headed back to the hostel for some rest.

Our next morning in Rome was dedicated to finding a replacement wheel for Sarah's suitcase or just someone who could fix it. We went to a shoe repairer hoping that he would be able to fix it and although he spoke very very little English, he was very helpful and told us to go to a place down the road that sold suitcases. We went in and the guy told us that if he could fix it, providing it was a specific brand, it would cost €50. So we said thanks and decided to leave it be and get on with our day! We decided to make the trek into the Vatican and caught the metro in. We got off the train and an Aussie lady caught our attention selling tours of the Vatican. Very good salesperson this lady was. Started by simply asking if we were going to the Vatican and told us to go the other way as it was less touristy and quicker. She then got us talking about a tour of the museum and the main church, St Peters Cathedral. So we followed her and paid €35 each for a 2 hour tour of the museum, the Sistine Chapel, and the courtyards outside the Vatican. The museum was simply amazing but just too big to see in one day! We managed to see all the main things like the Sistine Chapel that had it's roof painted by Michelangelo. After our huge day our touring around the worlds holiest city, we headed to a little restaurant as we were starting to develop a habit of not eating and seeing everything! We jumped back on the metro and made our way back to the hostel. After a few hours of well deserved sleep, we walked to a little restaurant down a few streets and got a takeaway pizza. That night I had a shocking nights sleep and very little as I didn't actually sleep until 4am due to my bronchitis being a genuine pain in the arse.

Saturday came and as I had slept until 10:30, we found a pizza restaurant a few streets away that does a pizza on turkish bread. Very, very good meal. After lunch we jumped on a bus and used it as our way of seeing the city... for free! No one else seemed to be paying so we didn't, plus you don't want to distract the driver now do you! We jumped off after about an hour at the Pantheon which is just basically a church with pillars our the front. Impressive nonetheless and it even had one of the 12 Egyptian obelisk that Rome had "acquired" from Eqypt during its many raids and wars of the early AD era. Next we made our way to the Piazza Navona. This was awesome as it had a huge palace with three massive fountains out the front with plenty of market stalls! On the way back to the hostel, we found a small japanese art exhibition which was really well done. We then walked a few more streets and nearly fell over around the next corner. We turned down a side road and were confronted with this massive white palace. The Palazzo Venezia is simply amazing. It is incredibly white and about as triumphant as anything I've ever seen building wise. After we made our way back to the hostel, we headed out to dinner at the same restaurant that we had dinner the night before and had a great meal!

Sunday morning came and it was a great surprise to have Kylie and Tonez call me. It was really good to catch up and it led to a skype session with Bobbie, Kylie and Tonez. After that we decided to relax so we went and had lunch. After lunch we got some more supplies from the shops. Ice tea, water and what not. We then went back to the hotel for a veg session before heading back out for dinner a short while later. After dinner it was Gossip Girl for Sarah and Hells Kitchen for me and then bed!

Monday arrived and after breakfast we headed back down towards the Colosseum and found our way into the Ancient Ruins site that I told you about before. It was really interesting as it showed where the emperors lived and worked. After this we headed for lunch and then back to the hostel. After a little veg session at the hostel we headed to the Irish pub down the road for some dinner. Sarah got raw chicken (no it wasn't ordered that way) and i got carbonara. We called the waiter over and explained the chicken situation and he didn't really seem to care and I explained that it was ridiculous that he couldn't cook chicken. Maybe I have been watching too much Hells Kitchen haha. He then said that someone else had the same thing and he ate all of it. Well sorry mate, serving someone chicken like that, I'd be amazed if that guy lived after eating a plate of soft squishy chewy pink chicken. You don't have to go to culinary school to know that that's not cooked!

Our third last day in Rome came and we decided to see a museum and learn a little more about the ancient history of Rome. The museum was amazing and spanned 3 buildings, and had some amazing artifacts inside! After we saw the museum we made our way to the river and to see a few of the landmarks there. Unfortunately they were just more of what we had already seen and we decided to give it a miss.

We awoke the next morning and did Skype with the Wadleys which was really good. After an hour and a half, we headed out to get things done before we left for Sicily the next morning. We attempted to post another box of souvenirs home but after waiting nearly an hour and being told that the office was out of international parcel stickers we got the shits and left! We then went and put another load of clothes on and went to the doctors. At this stage my left eye was still half blind because it was so blurry. This all started in Venice when something flew into my eye. So we went to see the Opthamologist who was so helpful. He ran half a dozen tests which were really painful because most of them involved him blinding me with light. After half an hour or so he had determined that I have an infection in my Cornea and had to take special drops to get rid of it for a month! Yippee. After this we headed out for dinner. We then packed our bags and got ready for Sicily tomorrow!!!

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