Advertisement
Published: October 20th 2012
So it's randomly saturday!!!
Not sure how it's happened but I have been in Rome for 6 days now!!! First six days I've spent in one place in the last six weeks!! I am very happy to finally be able to sit still!
So this morning we headed to two places we've been waiting to see all week!! We'd wanted to do them on days where we would have the morning to ourselves! Unfortunately, we didn't think about that fact that it would, of course, be a tourist frenzy on a Saturday!!
Campo di fiori was small and curious. Very cute, touristy and massively overpriced. To be perfectly honest I found it a huge dissappointment! After the size of the markets we'd seen in Amsterdam and the stunning and unusual markets of Sarajevo, the Campo di fiori left lots to be desired. Having said that, this has been my first and only disappointment of such an amazing city which has left me breathless at every other turn.
Our next stop (foolishly) was Vatican city, wonderful to approach but not so wonderful to see the queue! Despite the 26 degree heat we had dressed for the vatican but thought that was no excuse to stand in the sun and queue!! So we dragged ourselves in midday heat, jeans, boots and all to the castel sant'angelo! It was really fantastic, at a discounted price for under 25's from the eu and a shared audio guide which cost us 1.50 each we could not go wrong. Getting to see such an impressive and interesting place really reminded us where we were and just how much culture we now have 8 weeks to soak in.
After the castel we walked along the tiber river to trastevere a gorgeous little part of the city covered in small side streets, cafes, ice cream shops and restuarants. We stopped for some lunch, decided to visit a few of the local churches and struck gold!! Whilst sitting outside the Santa Maria of Trastevere by a gorgeous fountain we were serenaded by a fantastic female musician playing the chello. Whilst this was going on a couple of drunkards were having an almost brawl in the piazza. Along come two policemen and a sketch that would not go amis in Laurel and Hardy took place!! Between the crowds cheering the haphazard policemen for attempting to chase the couple out of the square and then the same crowd booing when the police approached the chellist (presumably to attempt to move her along), we thought that we had experienced the ultimate spontaneous moment in Rome.
After this we decided to head to the church of santa cecila after reading the saints curious story in one of our guidebooks. The courtyard to the so called patron saint of musics church was stunning in a baroque style less commonly seen in Rome. We entered the church only to be once again seranaded by a pianist who was warming up for a concert she would play in that very venue later that evening. It was absolutely the best moment I could possibly imagine in Rome, especially on our first weekend and it just brought home exactly where in the world we are.
Im absolutely loving rome and can't believe how lucky I am to be here, now I just have one day to get my head down, learn some more Italian and get prepared for work on Monday!!!
xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0641s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ellie Coleman
non-member comment
JO!!!
Sounds you are having a super amazing time, we are all so very proud of you, and how far you have come. You lucky Gal... I am very jealous indeed... Look forward to hearing more in your blog. Good Luck for Monday you are going to be great. All my love... Ellie (Squareroot of 81!) xxxxx