Roma

Glaring sun, baking concrete, scores of guys trying to sell handbags, dodgy CDs, oh and massive, stunning marble buildings around every corner... si, it is Roma.

Even after a long day of transfers from Budapest to Rome, the pull of the Colosseum was too much for us. Well-lit at night, it's still impressive. Were returned the next day to checkout the inside. It is certainly a ruin inside, some due to decay, but also to 'recyclers' wanting to use the marble from the great stadium to build the Vatican and the Pantheon.

As you can see (ın the future when Dean has tıme to put ın pıcs...), you can still get a pretty good picture, especially when you have seen the Gladiator. One of the impressive things about it was that they had lifts to lift the poor animals up into the stadium - this is in 84 A.D (very impressive, especially when staff at hostels tell you it is not possible to have a lift in a 16th century building, so yes you do have to carry that pack five flights!!!).

Our sightseeing took a little detour here, it was the 12th of June and coming up to 3pm. I had seen the Colosseum before but not Aus v. Japan, so we escaped the searing heat and headed for the pub. Needless to say, Dean and I left the pub 90 minutes later, pretty excited. Being in Rome, it was straight back to sightseeing (So much to see). So we headed to the Palatine Hill - it was the 'Toorak' (rich bit) of the Roman Forum. Great views and very cool. Dean will also want me to add that I was a little hypo on the hill after the win, so I have to admit I wasn't paying too much attention to exactly what everything was or exactly which year B.C/A.D everything was built.

Tuesday 13th was the one day we didn't have to visit the Indian embassy in search for a visa. Having a whole day free, we headed to the Vatican, wearing clothes to cover our shoulders and poor Dean in jeans, just to meet the dress code (is this really just penance for tourists in the blazing 35 degree heat????).

Seeing a crazy-long line for the Sistine Chapel, we headed to St Pieter's Square and Basilica. Both very impressive. Saw all the marble from the Colosseum made into many columns in the square and then awed at the Basilica - lots of impressive scultures, especially from Bernini. We then joined the que for the crypt, saw JPII's crypt then joined the que to walk around the Basilica's dome - 551 steps. Our tower-walking over the last two months has certainly prepared us for this one - even in our masses of clothes! The mosaics at the top were certainly worth it. Afterall this queing though, the Sistine had closed. So we would come back.

Now it was time to see some of Rome's fountains before spending a couple of hours people-watching on the Spanish steps - one of the highlights of Rome. Lots of locals and lots of tourists.

Apologies for the length of this entry, but afterall, this is Rome and nothing is small:)

Two more sites were the Pantheon and a massive soldier monument that I had somehow never seen on my previous trip. This monument was built in the last couple of hundred years but is in the old Roman style, it is so imposing and impressive.

15th June - headed back to the Vatican to see the Sistine... bugger it was shut that day!!!! Will come back another day. What to do instead... see some Catacombs. This is where the Christians used to bury their dead (saves the above ground space for more buildings). Pretty cool. No skeletons but we did find out that the Christians would have annual feast down there, hmm.
End of day and after three visits (involving at least an hour of queing per vısıt) in four days, we pick up our India tourist visas, yay!!!!

16th June - Our last day in Rome. We have tickets to Napoli on a train leaving at12:27, we have to see the Sistine.We get up early and arrive at the Vatican at 8:45 - the time the chapel opens. We walk around 1km to the end of queue.... and wait.... we see the queue start to double over on itself.... 10am it starts to warm up and we are stuck next to an American guy trying to sound smart to his wife, questioning why this chapel is so good and why people que to see it and paintings like Van Gogh's Mona Lisa!!!!!!! At 11, we still have at least a third of the way to go..... we look at each other and I realise that I am going to have to travel to Rome a third time to see this chapel.

Now food.... yumyumyum. More on that in Naples.