Rome

The train to Rome, in our first class carriage, was really hot! About an hour in, the air conditioner broke, so we were sweltering. We got to our accomodation about 5pm, then headed out to find something for dinner. We are staying at a cheap hotel, Stargate Hotel, the room looks nice and is clean. The beds were kind of weird, 2 bunks that look like they wind up like a car jack. We have had a few problems with the room, only made worse by very poor customer service from the reception staff. Our fridge doesn't work very well, the drain was blocked and took them ages to clean it, and the communal kitchen which is only open 3 hours a day, has only one bowl and pot.
Rome has been really hot, mid to high 30's each day. The other thing is its been really hard to get any decent tourist information. We are managing though.
Saturday, our first day, we headed to the Colosseo, this was an amazing old gladitorial stadium, built 2000 years ago. As seen in the movie Gladiator, parts of the stadium have collapsed and others restored and preserved. We took a guided tour and heard all about the history of it being built, the games and how it has since been stripped of all the marble iron in the middle ages. The tour also included a guided walk through the Palatino. This was anoth old ruins area of the city, just next to the colosseo, where the wealthy once lived, before it was turned into palaces for the roman emporors. It is all just ruins now, but with the stories from the guide, you could imagine how the ruins would have looked thousands of years ago.

Sunday we had planned to take it easy, everyone was a bit on edge due to the problems with the hotel, the heat and being a bit tired after all of our travels. We slept in a bit then headed out for breakfast, we have found a cafe with cheap coffee and they had cooked fresh croissants today! We then took the train to the Barberini train station. Not a great start to the morning, we couldn't see the fountain that was supposed to be in the piazza. Like it was in a movie or something, a split second after we asked some security guards where it was, a bus that had been parked on the side of the road drove off, to reveal the big fountain and sculpture... Stupido Turista!!!
We then wondered in a semi random direction, saw some tall Egyptian monuments and headed to the Pantheon. This is a very old church, again built about 2000 years ago. It was very nice and had a hole in the roof to let in light. Apparently a number of emporers and Raphael the TMNT are all buried under the building.
Next stop was Campo de Fiori, where we had hoped to find an art market. Sadly there was no market to speak of, so either it is somewhere else or it is no longer there. From there we continued on, over the river, to the Trastevere area, another nice little area of rome. Poor timing, we were there in the middle of the day on a Sunday, so most things were closed, but it ws som nice streets. We may head back for dinner at some stage. We then continued to walk in the heat for way too long, not really seeing anything but a crappy flea market. We had seen some really nice pizza by the slice earlier in the morning, but by lunch time couldn't find anything! The highlight of the afternoon was when Christine walked into a bin, because she was looking in shop windows! We then took the train back to our hotel to cool down before cooking some pasta for dinner in the dodgy kitchen.

Monday morning the girls got up early and headed out to have a day of free time and shopping. This left the boys in the hotel room to have a sleep in! Christine was looking at buying another pair of shorts and some italian art works for us to keep for when we have a house to put it in. This was not so successful, although she did come back with a dress... and baby clothes, I take her to Roma, and she buys baby clothes... mumma mia!
In the mean time Damien had to organise some more accomodation for rome and do a few other things. The boys ate pizza for lunch but really just bummed about doing nothing. The afternoon was then spent resting in our room, the girls had a rest also.
For dinner we headed out, on the bus, to Trastevere, the area we had walked through in the hot sun all afternoon the day before. The girls looked in a few more shops before we had dinner in a little pub. An early night and a tidy up of the room.
For breakfast we headed back to our usual spot, a small cafe with cheap coffee and fresh baked crossiants. Sadly after breakfast we had to fairwell Ben and Steph. We then headed to our new accomodation, a bit out of Rome but right on a Metro line. Were staying at Yellow House, a small hostel 10 min from town. Its heaps better than we were, and we have a weekly train ticket so the travel doesn't worry us. It has a kitchen, decking, basic breakfast and internet.
After checking in we headed back into town, and spent the day touring some of the fountains. We started back at Campo De Fiori, and found the food market this time, as well as two nice fountains. Then Piazza Navona, which is a long rectanglular area with a couple of fountains, one of which is really amazing. Its also from the film Angels and Demons, although we haven't seen it. After Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps we headed up to Pincio Hill for views of the city, and a relax in the gardens. The gardens were nice, no central park, but had fountains, the grass a bit dry, summer here.
We returned to the Spanish Steps for a free guided tour of the city. This was good, we had seen most of the sights, but to get the commentary was good. The Spanish steps are actually pretty cool. We also ended up in a small convent and chucrh in the middle of the city. Trevi fountain and the Pantheon were some of the other stops, before we ditched the tour in favour of gelato. Im getting a bit sick of gelato to be honest, plus its not cold enough and melts everywhere before you can eat it! On the way home we bought a bottle of Vino and some bruchetta ingredients, mmm.

We were a bit late last night so after a sleep in on Wednesday, we headed back to Piazza del Popolo whicj is a big oval shaped piazza with 4 smaller fountains all connected. Very cool, not so cool were the guys pestering us to buy a rose. I think christine had a curse put on her family, when she repeatedly told one to 'get lost'. He just started saying all this weird stuff in some language, but we made out mother, father and brother.
We then spent the afternoon in Borghese park. We had more bruschetta on a lawn for lunch. Its a nice pak with fountains, monuments, a zoo, museums and a lake. Would be nice in spring when it was a bit greener.

Our last full day in Rome and in Italy was a big one. We woke up early and headed to the Vatican city. The day didn't start so well, Christine had some trouble getting money out at the bank (turns out she has benn spending more than she thought), and the staff at the Vatican Museums gave me the shits, they pretended they didn't have floor plans or suggested itineries (as mentioned in Lonely Planet), meaning we had to pay for the audio guide!
The Vatican City itself was lovely. Small but nice. In some strange way it reminded me of Rodeo Drive in L.A. as both were quiet first thing in the morning, looked a bit exclusive, wide roads and palm trees.
We spent most of the day in the galleries, which were phenominal. Unlike most of the galleries we have seen, this had a wide variety of pieces ranging from complete galleries of Egyptian art (which really fascinates me for some reason), Greek & Italian sculptures, Classic roman art as well as modern, maps and tapestry. This was a nice change from wandering for hours looking at the same style which all starts to blend in to one another.
The highlight of Rome for me was the Sistine Chapel. The whole chapel is painted. from mosaic floors to basic but detailed curtain paintings in the lower sections, to the detailed and colourful murals of the biblical stories on the walls and the roof. The Last Judgement which takes up one complete wall, as well as the Michangelo paintings on the roof were stunning, and my favourites.
We then headed to St Peters Basilica which is a massive church, again with original paintings and sculptures. This was also very impressive to see the amazing detail that goes into these churches.

After a long day we headed to the nearby Trastevere area for drinks and dinner again. The service was funny, they wouldn't let us sit on the end table, which clearly wasn't reserved or in use, but then when we ordered, Christines Lasagne arrived within about 30 seconds (Damiens pizza took about 10 minutes), we hadn't even finished our bruschetta, which we had ordered previously.
After a last Vino and a last pizza we went for a walk along the river, where there were some more touristy bars and markets. We saw an otter eatting a loaf of bread in the water which was cool. We then had to have a last Gelato, followed by a last sensation of feeling sick!