A Roman Holiday

Day two of our short visit to Rome started with breakfast on the run at Termini station and it was good - Nutella Brioche (croissant with Nutella inside) and freshly squeezed orange juice. We had lots of sightseeing on our plate today so no time to waste.


We found the station a little overwhelming when trying to get tickets for the Metro. Luckily while we were standing in the line for the regional train tickets (stupid!) we spoke to a man who told us that Metro tickets are downstairs.  So we finally got ourselves a ticket each and onto the train to the Cappuchin Crypt. I had read about this crypt when researching Rome and I was really intrigued. The crypt is built from the bones of 4000 monks and in total there are over 750,000 bones adorning the walls and roof. It was really creepy but also really fascinating. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside the building so I have no evidence I'm afraid.


We wandered over to the Spanish Steps which gave us a good view of Rome from the top. Whilst walking down the steps we came across our first "dodgy Romans" - there were men everywhere trying to sell us roses or umbrellas or woven bracelets. Very annoying so we quickly took our photos and moved on. A walk down Rome's most famous shopping street, Via Condotti, had us resisting the urge to pull out our credit cards. If you're looking for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Armani  and Burberry then this is the place to go.

Sneaky photo of the Sistine Chapel

Ash was pretty keen to visit the Vatican (me, not so much). So we jumped on the Metro again (which is ridiculously easy to use) and made our way there. We were thoroughly harassed by tour operators on the walk from the station to the Vatican and after hearing that it would take us 3 hours to get into the Vatican ourselves we finally gave in and paid 40 Euro to get priority access and a guided tour. In theory this was a great idea, however we waited an hour for our guide to rally up more people to join the tour. I shouldn't complain though because our guide, Grant, was brilliant. He knew just about everything there is to know about the Vatican (doing an art history major at university helped!). There was some stunning sculptures in the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel was certainly impressive. Grant explained that the reason you are unable to take photos of the Sistine Chapel (besides damaging the paintings) is because the Nippon company owns the intellectual rights to the paintings after they paid to have them restored. I found this really intriguing, but it still didn't stop Ash from sneakily take a few pics. The final stop on our tour was St Peter's Basilica which was beautiful but I think I didn't really get a chance to take it all in as my feet were absolutely killing me. I had stupidly worn a pair of ballet flats which weren't the most supportive of shoes so they were causing havoc on my feet. We quickly sent a postcard to the parents and grandparents from the Vatican post office (the fastest postal service in the world) and headed back to the hotel so I could give my feet a much needed rest.


While resting my feet we also rested our eyes which resulted in an unplanned 2 hour nap. When we woke it was 8.30 and well past our dinner time. We ventured our to find somewhere for dinner, but were unable to find any ATM to get cash out. We had converted money before leaving Australia but it was fast running out. Between us we had only 30 Euro, but every ATM we went to wouldn't accept our cards. This caused us concern but we were also starving. So instead of wandering the city late at night we decided to grab some dinner and try the ATM's again tomorrow. Pizza for dinner was good and our waiter was hilarious - telling us he didn't have a girlfriend and he wanted to give us his phone number. Mind you, we was about 50!




Our final day in Rome was destined to be busy - we were visiting Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum before making our way out to the camping grounds to start our TopDeck tour.


We were relieved to find that we could withdraw cash from the ATM at the train station (which hadn't work last night - weird!), but before jumping on the Metro we got our brioche and juice again for breakfast (think I might have become addicted to them). We managed to spend 4 hours walking around Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum but those 4 hours just flew by. There were so many ruins of palaces and houses to explore, I'm sure we only scratched the surface.


Next stop was the Colosseum which I was pretty excited about. Whenever I think of Rome an image of the Colossuem pops into my head so to be actually standing in front of it was surreal. Once we got inside we grappled with the other tourists to get the best position for photos. While seeing the ruins inside the Colosseum was good, I think the real magic of it is in its size which you appreciate more from the outside.

Ash and I inside the Colosseum

Remembering that we hadn't thrown a coin in the Fontana de Trevi on our first day in Rome, we made a quick detour back to the fountain. We both threw in one coin each which is supposed to mean that we will return to Rome one day (I certainly hope so!).


We were supposed to be at the camping ground to start our tour at 5. So we quickly grabbed our bags from the hotel, jumped on the Metro and arrived at the grounds at 4.30, only to find a note from our tour leader telling us to meet back there at 7. This 2.5 hour wait gave us a good chance to have a chill out on the grass under the warm Italian sun. We had been go, go, go for the last 2 days so I relished the opportunity to relax and read my Triple J magazine, while Ash worked on her tan.


We met our tour leader, Billy and the rest of the tour group (all 40 of them) for dinner before getting  a proper introduction to most of them at the bar. I crashed out early while Ash partied on (and danced on the bar, I hear) until 1am. I found out that there were three Courtney's on the tour - this was going to get confusing! Tomorrow we are on a ferry bound for Greece.   

Highlights of day 1 and 2:

• Discovering Nutella Brioche (where can I get my hands on these in Perth?)
• Marvelling at the size of the Colosseum
• Being surprised by the number of bones within the Cappuchin Crypt