When in Rome....

For some reason a lot of the pictures are displaying sideways... I can't be bothered fixing it so tilt your head if it bugs you ;-)

We left Florence at midday and had a 3 hour bus ride to Rome. After checking in to the hotel we headed straight back out to do a walking tour.

The metro took us right to the Spanish steps which were smaller than I expected. There was a fountain at the bottom with a boat statue to commemorate a flood in which a boat was left washed up in the square.

Down the road from the spanish steps was the first McDonalds to open in Rome. Apparently when they were opening it, there were huge protests from the locals and they would give out free plates of spaghetti bolognese in protest. It doesn't seem to have had much of an impact as the McDonalds is still there - although the sign for it is very discreet and it would be easy to miss if you didn't know where it was.

Next stop on our walking tour was the Pantheon, which actually looked quite plain from the outside. There are holes in the exterior which we all initially thought were bullet holes, but it turns out it's from where the vatican removed the marble casing at one stage when they needed money.

The dome is pretty big - something about it being the biggest un-reinforced dome in the world or something, which I guess is impressive. Inside was gorgeous with statues, paintings etc.

Next it was on to the Trevi fountain, which was absolutely packed with tourists. The fountain was gorgeous but for some reason I expected it to be in a bigger square - it was surrounded on all sides by shops and businesses. We did the obligatory throwing in the coins - one for our return to Rome, a second for true love ;-)

To the right of the fountain is an area where you can fill up your water bottle from the aquaduct. Legend has it that if you drink water from that fountain you become a virgin again.

After the fountain it was time for dinner and we went to a little place nearby. So far I had not been impressed with the Italian food, and this meal was no exception. I ordered some kind of creamy pasta dish - it was pretty much all pasta and no sauce. At least it was filling.

By this stage it was getting dark, but our walking tour continued. Next stop was the Colosseum which looked great all lit up in the dark.

We also walked past various ruins, the details of which escape me now. I know one of them was the 'cat place'. There is allegedly over 200 cats living in these ruins, although when we were there we only saw a couple. The cats are looked after by some nuns.

Finally it was time to catch the subway back to the hotel. A few of us weren't really tired so we kicked on at the pub down the road - which the locals weren't too happy about.

Next day (friday) it was an early start off to the Vatican. Milly had already seen the Vatican on a previous trip so she took off to do her own thing, while the rest of us went inside the museum. We were met by an English guide (whose name I don't remember) who had so much enthusiasm that she couldn't stand still for an instant. She was constantly jumping around as she was describing the various pieces of artwork. She was fantastic.

Right at the entrance was a statue, "Laocoon and his sons" which was a replica of another one further inside. She told us to make note of it to see if we could spot the difference. I don't think any of us could, but when you have the 2 side by side the difference is pretty obvious.

When they found the statue the arm was missing so when they 'restored' it they had to guess what the arm should look like. It was Michelangelo who advised that the arm should be going behind the head, but they restored it with the arm stretched outwards. The actual arm turned up later and Michelangelo was proven to be right, although a lot of replicas still show the arm in the wrong position.

The number of priceless paintings, sculptures, tapestries and other objects in the vatican is amazing. Not only the objects themselves, but the walls and ceilings of the museum are richly decorated.

Our guide was fantastic, not only at explaining some of the works of art, but also giving some great background information about how the piece was obtained. For example, this piece by Leonardo Da Vinci was found in two parts; one part was the lid of a box in a second hand shop, and another in a shoe makers shop where it was the cover of a stool.

There was also the obligitatory freaky stuff - a guy getting disembowled, another guy getting strung up by his feet.

Finally it was off to the Sistine chapel. Our guide sat us down and gave us an overview first (since there's not supposed to be any talking inside the chapel. It was interesting stuff about how Michelangelo, a sculptor, came to be commissioned to paint the ceiling instead of a someone known for their painting/fresco skills. Also about the various images within the painting and what they represented.

We got into the chapel which was pretty crowded and despite the guards loudly yelling out "Shhhhhhh!" and "Silenzio" people were still talking and chatting on phones which was quite annoying. We also weren't allowed to take any photos inside the chapel. Not because it would damage the artwork, but because the images are now "copyrighted" which is ridiculous!!

Anyway, we spent quite a while in there just marvelling at the brilliance of it all. I was actually quite moved *sniff*. We then headed on to St Peters Basilica which was massive, and of course richly decorated. Milly had been in there earlier while we were doing the Vatican thing, and had a bit of a religious experience.

Milly had also climbed to the top of the Basilica up a really narrow staircase and got a fantastic view of the city.

After I'd done with St Peters it was time to leave and meet up with Milly at the obelisk in the middle of the square.

The reunion didn't last very long. The others headed back to the museum entrance while I went to the souvenir shop, planning to meet up with them back at the entrance once I'd grabbed a few things. It didn't exactly go according to plan - somehow we missed each other, and since I didn't have my phone with me (or so I thought) I had no way of getting in touch with them. Undeterred, I decided to go ahead and explore the city. I knew the others were planning on getting some lunch then heading to the colosseum so I figured I'd just catch them there.

I ended up walking to the colosseum from the vatican, stopping at a few sites along the way. Once I'd reached the colosseum there was still no sight of the rest of the tour group, although by this stage I had found my phone hiding in the bottom of my bag so was at least able to get in touch with Milly. She'd had a similar day to mine having ditched the others to go exploring. I was still in line to go inside so we made plans to catch up later for tea.

The queue for the colosseum was huge, but it was worth it. It was pretty amazing inside.

I wandered around for about an hour, then headed off to meet Milly at the Spanish steps. We compared notes about our days as we headed off in search of food. As previously mentioned my impression of Italian cooking had so far been less than stellar, but that was about to change. Rotonda restaurant near Trevi fountain. Write that down. Despite the initial shoddy service (we were actually about to walk out because they took forever to take our order), they more than made up for it with the food!

I got the lasagne, which was almost orgasmically good, and Milly paid 2 euro more to get a lasagne, steak, green salad (lettuce) and some kind of dessert. It's hard to describe exactly how good this lasagne was, but I made a point of doing something of a 'lasagne tour of Italy' after this meal and didn't find anything that came close. Not only that, we were serenaded by one of the waiters - "DJ Claudio". Good times.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to get ready for a night out. Well, for the others it was - I decided to have a quiet night in and try to fend off the cold I could feel coming on. Well that was the plan - the others decided to have a few 'quiet' drinks before heading out, which soon turned into a few louder drinks with pizza, which turned into a bit of a patio party.

They did still end up going out, just much later than expected.

The next morning we left Rome, bound for Venice.