Rome 24-26 July

Rome

Loved Rome! We spent three nights there and  still didn't get to see all we would have liked to. The 24 hour open top double decker tour bus pass was well worth it as we got the earphones to listen to the guided tour and could jump on and off whenever we wanted to see something. Our main stops were the Colesseum, Paletine Hill, Forum, Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps & Via del Corso (main shopping street). We did not get to see the 'Mouth of Truth' or the Pantheon, so I guess we just have to go back one day! 

The Vatican was a full day and according to our tour guide has so many exhibits that if you spent an minute on each one it would take you 25 years to see it all. It drips gold and wealth but the art work and frescos in the Vatican are just spectacular. To see the Sisterne Chapel in real life is so much better than the best photos and the Church itself with sculptures from Michelangelo and the other amazing greats was beyond words. We also went down underneath to see the tombs of the popes, saints and cardinals. Pope John Paul III's tomb has candles burning around it all the time. St Peter's crypt was pretty special.

It was worth paying the bit extra to have a tour guide take us around all the sites. At the Colesseum, Paletine Hill and Forum our tour guides were excellent. I was pleased to learn that the guides had to have quals in art hist, archeology or similar, they really knew their stuff. Mel said she learnt more in our 3 days in Rome than in a year of history at school. We saw the earliest Etruscan ruins (c. 600BC) and heard the story of the founding of Rome through the fable of Romulus and Remus.

Modern day Rome is busy and crazy on the roads. Our first experience with bureaucrats of Rome was just plain comical, until I thought I might end up locked up!We 'inherited' a laptop left on the train by a young woman and I went through a comedy of events in trying to get this to someone who cared. It was not easy, and I even had police tell me to 'GET AWAY'. As soon as we walked out of the train station we experienced the crazy traffic in Rome. At a traffic light intersection there were motorbikes squeezed against the curb next to a car that was jammed next to a double decker tour bus, that was jammed next truck that could not move until the cars on the other side of the road moved and no one was going to give way. Horns were blaring everywhere!  There were some great shops and as with everywhere we have been in Italy, it was fun just walking around and seeing the sites. It stuns me that there is no regard for access for people with disabilities. The streets are old so there is not a lot of footpath room but there is no modification to help people with a disability. You see wheelchairs on the road taking on the cars and buses, because they don't have room on the path and there are steps everywhere and no ramps.

Filling water bottle at Spanish steps - Italy and France have great reserves of underground water and you can find constantly flowing fountains of fresh clean water to fill up your bottles -saves paying for it!

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Statue in Vatican

More modern art in the Vatican garden

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Under the Arch at the Forum

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Statue of Ceasar in the Vatican

The food was ok, but not as fresh and inviting as Tuscan fares. We did feel like a change so had a sneaky Chinese meal. Unfortunately I think that was what gave me a case of Bali belly which made the tour of the Vatican a bit tricky the next day.

Tomb in the Vatican

Us outside Colesseum

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<>Trevi Fountain 

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Spanish Steps in Rome

Trevi Fountain - Neptune in Centre

Colesseum - this area was covered by  a floor &amp all the little rooms are where the lions, tigers, ostriches, horses, etc were keptThe Great Adventurers inside the Colesseum

Mel & Me @ Trevi Fountain

Etruscan home c. 600BC on Paletine Hill, under current ground level

Piazza Venezia - Monument to Vittorio Emanulle II - known as the 'Wedding Cake' building this is a more recent architectural addition to Rome (1885). It is not a well liked building by the Romans as it is stark white in comparison to the soft colours of the ancient buildings was built over ancient and medieval buildings. Mussolini used this as his entertainment palace and made speeches from here.