Rome

---

Rome


We had a 13 hour flight from KL to Rome. The flight wasn’t to bad, I was absolutely exhausted and fell asleep on the plane before it had even taken off, woke up about 3 hours later for dinner, took 2 sleeping tablets and woke up again 2 hours before landing in Rome at 630am.

After clearing customs we headed off to our accommodation. We had booked ourselves into a 5 bed apartment called “Appartamento Domenichino.” The apartment is small but situated in a very convenient location, and at only 145 Euro per night is cheap by Rome standards. Best of all, it is only a 15 min walk to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

Our first stop today was Rome’s greatest Amphitheatre, the Colosseum. The Colosseum was commissioned by Emperior Venpasian back in AD 72, and was used for deadly gladiatorial combats and wild animal fights. When the Colosseum was in its full glory it could accommodate approx 80,000 spectators. Today, you just can’t stop and marvel at the workmanship.

The next stop was to Travi Fountain were we tossed coins over ours shoulders into the fountain and made our wishes.

We also visited the Pantheon, Romes best preserved monument. The Pantheon is made on a circular base. The mathematical perfection of the dome is a testament to Roman engineering. The dome is as high as it is wide - 142 feet from floor to rooftop and from side to side. The interior houses decorative statues and tombs of famous people.

By about 4pm our legs and feet were aching from all the walking, and we decided to call it day. We stopped and picked up pizza for dinner. A slice of pizza and a side serve of arancino and patties, with eggplant and melted cheese, and a can of coke or small beer, cost us 7 euro.

Dinner done, we were all tired and headed to bed early.



Day 2 Saturday.


We woke up to surprise, surprise…. rain. Due to the extremely long queues we decided to make the Vatican Museum our first stop. We arrived at about 8am and waited a reasonable hour in the rain to get to the entrance. The Vatican is very beautiful and worth the short wait, however by the time we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, we were sick staring at the ceiling and looking at paintings. I tried to sneak a photo while in the Sistine Chapel, I got caught, yelled at, and nearly escorted out of the Vatican. In my defense, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, he was telling me to put my camera in by backpack, I thought he was telling me to go out the back, so I am trying to walk away and he is yelling at me more, in “International language”.

We soon discovered the Vatican stall holders’ no refund/exchange policy after attempting to exchange a set of rosary beads.

Lunch today was a family run restaurant, were the wife told us in no uncertain terms what we were to order, then she and her daughter had an argument in front of us. They were obviously trying to offload the cannelloni and salad as all family members strongly suggested to us on several occasions that this is what we were going to order.

After lunch we caught the train to the Spanish steps and the sinking boat fountain. We did a bit of window shopping and thought about purchasing a pair of 350 euro shoes (approx $700)

Last stop of the day was the Crypt of the Capuchins, below the church of Santa Maria della Immacolata, to see the bones of more than 4,000 friars and poor Romans who died between 1528 and 1870. The bones are all lined up in a series of 6 crypts, the crypt of resurrection, the crypt of skulls, the crypt of hips, the crypt of the tibia and fibia, and the crypt of the three skeletons.

We finished off the afternoon by having coffee standing up, in a proper coffee shop, and purchasing a couple of bottles of wine to drink later in the evening.

---

Comments

[Liz Armstrong]

Good to hear from you....
It looks cold!!!! Have you caught up with fran yet?