Viva Italia

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29 - 04 - 08

The flight over was pleasant enough, it could have been so different! My old man was giving me a lift this morning but the car was clamped when we woke up! Cost £600

Got to Rome and paid the 11 Euros to get me to Termini then had to jump onto a bus to get to my hostel. A nice easy process. Happy days!

1735

Well that fore mentioned bus journey seemed to take forever to get to the hostel and spent it all worrying bout a ticket inspector getting on as I had no idea where I had to buy a ticket from. When it did get to the destination, it took me forever to find the hostel; it was well buried away in the back streets. Anyways found it eventually, settled in and found out that I had a view of the police training centre! Nice

Worked out that the hostel was close to the Vatican so walked there. I wondered over to St. Peters Basilica; there was a huge queue with a break in it and I joined thinking it was the back, however, i had a big fat German guy shouted at me. With that I left and wondered into the Vatican museum as it would have taken me ages to get in and it was going to shut in an hour. Wondered round the Sistine Chapel, lots of pictures and sculptures but again I got shouted at for taking pictures where I wasn’t allowed. I sat down and chilled for bit watching the salespeople selling fake Prada bags

2215

Sitting here, chilling. Well that’s only because the hostel is quite small so there doesn’t seem to be many people here at the moment. 3 dorms of 6 beds; there’s no lobby area as such for people to meet and introduce themselves. There are 2 other people in my dorm, girls judging by the stuff on there bed and the mess.

All ive done is try to arrange where im going to next; which like everything I have attempted today has gone tits up. Wanted to go up to Pisa to do the Leaning Tower then onto Florence and Siena. Firstly, all the hostels in Siena were fully booked and then the regional trains take 7 hours to get to Naples; that wastes a whole day practically so ive decided to go straight down to Naples.

Ive had a crap day, wish it could be done all again, plus, I managed to get stuck in the toilet, fuck knows how that happened! Suppose it could have been worse and I could’ve get stopped by a ticket inspector on the bus!

30 - 04 - 08

Got up late this morning, quick shower and then I was off to St Peters Basilica; got there and there were some metal detectors which had been erected over night as they weren’t there last night. Turns out that there was a big mass or something there today. Walked over to the metro and took it to Termini where I jumped onto a sightseeing bus round Rome, was being dead lazy!

I jumped off at the Colosseum and in the queue I got chatting to a guy from New Zealand; we chatted about a few things including the state of the New Zealand cricket team and their showing at the cricket world cup. He was travelling with his wife and some of their friends. Anyways we wondered round with the audio guide which made the whole thing really interesting; it must have been a really impressive thing to behold when gladiators were slaying there victims back in the day!

They got off by the Vatican for a coffee so I said bye to them and then went on my own way. I carried on till 12 sitting on the bus, I got off at the stop for the Trevi Fountain but before i got there I needed to withdraw some cash; I went to a cash machine and it wouldn’t give me any cash I couldn’t understand this so I tried another cash machine and again no cash! A couple of other machines gave me no cash so I got on the phone to my bank and they put me though to the fraud team ... they informed me that Rome was a hotbed of fraud, which, I find hard to believe in relation to some of the places I go to for work! After finally managing to get some cash I wondered over to the fountain and sat there; I chucked some loose coins into the fountain and made a wish. I picked up an ice cream to ease my stomach pains. From the fountain I slowly wondered over to the Spanish Steps .....


From the Spanish Steps I walked down past Prada, Gucci and all those kind of shop and stumbled upon the Pantheon. I went inside and wondered about, took some photos. I sat down and grabbed a coffee in a cafe; relised that all I have eaten was that ice cream by the Trevi Fountain so I got a slice of pizza. Upon leaving the cafe I stumbled across an Irish bar that was showing the football this evening; thinking that a few beers may be required later on! Got back on the sightseeing bus and finished off the tour; I also took the opportunity whilst in Italy to find a sports shop where I brought an Italy rugby jersey (being half Italian). I quickly made my way back to St Peters Basilica to see if the mass had finished and thank god; it had! I paid the 7 Euros to climb up to the roof to see the great view across Rome

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