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Published: August 13th 2007
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Rome is one of the most beautiful cities i have visited. There is so much history to it, it is mind-blowing. It is a place where the past is always present. I have never seen a city where the modern is built around the ruins of life that existed centuries before. My flight arrived in the early afternoon so i made my way straight into the town centre. First stop was the Capitoline which was known from earliest times to be the centre of all political, social and religious life in Rome. Situated next to this was the amazing Vittoriano also known as the monument to victor emmanuelle which sits majestically on capitoline hill. This monument is famously despised by locals who call it the typewriter, wedding cake or false teeth! Here also lies the famous tomb of the unknown soldier. Walked right around where i found a little cafe where I stopped for a much needed coffee. I sat out in the sun where i had amazing view of ruins in every direction i looked in.
I couldn't believe the number of tourists, well to be expected really but it just s was surpised to see so many tourists,
well to be expected really but it just seemed that there were more tourists than there were italians. Continued walking down the main road passing many ruins where i came into view of the breathtaking colousseum. It was so cool to finally see it after having seeing so many pictures. Decided to join one of the many tours which took us inside where it was explained to us about the history and the kind of happenings that took place in that time. It was interesting to hear about the bull fighting that went on. It was hard to believe that for the thousands of people thrived in this barbarous entertainment watching men fight to the death!! After having walked around the tour continued up the road from the colousseum to the ruins of an old palace. As the palace was set quite high on a hill the tour ended with the most amazing views over the ruins seeing as far back ast the monument to victor emmanuelle as well as seeing the tomb of napoleon.
As i was walking back down I met a girl from Singapore who was travelling with her parents and so we chatted away and
walked together with them to trevi fountain. It was starting to get dark so we had to race back. Trevi fountain was just beautiful with the clear blue water. There were heaps of people there and heaps of people selling flowers and wanting to take pictures. It is customary to throw a coin and make a wish. I walked back through the narrow streets which were so cute lined with heaps of little restaurants with table spilling out into the road. I was feeling pretty tired so decided to find a nice little restuarant to order some italian cuisine. I sat down ordered a beer and within a couple of minutes had started chatting to this guy at the table next to me. Turns out he was also from new Zealand. He was travelling on holiday with his girlfriend. They were both really lovely and what was supposed to be a quick bite to eat on my way back to the hotel turned into three and a half hours of hanging out drinking and having fun. Finally had to go only because i had to make the last bus back to the airport hotel. Typical of me i left with
no time to spare and raced back to the bus stop where i discovered my bus was nowhere to be seen. A few minutes later i find out my watch is like five minutes slow as the last bus had already left!!
I had no other way of getting back to the hotel but to catch a taxi. I had seen a million taxis during the day but of course when you actually need one, there were none in sight!!! Then I realised I didn’t have enough cash and that the taxis didn’t accept credit cards. So here i am walking around half pissed at 11:00pm at night in desperate need of an ATM machine. Finally i managed to find one, withdrew my money and finally managed to flag down a taxi. The ride back to the hotel was a good forty minutes away which made it the most expensive taxi ride of my life!!
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