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Thursday, 27th October 2011

Our final stop in Italy and for the whole of the Europe trip was the journey to Vatican City, home for the Roman Catholicism. Vatican City is actually located within the western part of Rome City, reachable via a simple Metro ride from where we stayed if not for the events that followed.

This morning, after getting our water supplies from the Conad Supermarket at the basement of the Rome Station, 3 of us were walking towards the Metro direction when we heard a loud commotion. Before we knew it, a group of some few hundred people came charging towards our direction.

Our natural reaction was two-fold :-

1) To give way to the "fastest runners" among the pack and retreat to a corner for safety since we wouldn't know where they were rushing.

2) Follow the rest of the crop and follow the signs to the nearest exit.

Later at street level, tired and panting after all the running, we stopped one of the locals and asked what had happened at the basement. We were told that there was a bomb scare at the Metro Station and the network had to be shut down for the day.

When we exit from the station, police sirens were everywhere and there were a lot of people on the streets. Long queues were formed at the taxi ranks and buses were filled to the brink with commuters.

After some discussion, we decided to hitch one of the pricey, 18-Euro tour buses, the Roma Cristiana to bring us straight to the gates of Vatican City safely.

The infamous queue that greeted us to St. Peter's Basilica was moving pretty fast this afternoon. Before long, we had combed through the interior and satisfy ourselves with our final church visit in Europe.

Lunch was at some relatively pricey restaurant within Vatican. Since we had underrun our travel budget, we were no longer too bothered with the prices on the menu than during the initial days of our trip.

After lunch, there was time to capture more sights in Rome including the Pantheon before calling it a day to our hotel.

Our final dinner in Europe was a hearty Korean dinner just across from where we stayed. Certainly, this was a pleasant way to round up our European campaign with the Asian food that we were most familiar with.


Paris / Italy Expenditures 2011

Air Tickets: $1,154.47

Railway Tickets: $292.50

Accomodation: $492.75

Travel Insurance: $46.93

Personal Expenditures: $1,164.05

Total Damages: $3,150.70

All prices in Singapore Dollars

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