Rome Italy
Posted from Rome, Lazio, Italy.
We have just spent 6 days in the city of Rome and where completely stunned and in awe of it and it never became overwhelming as many people had warned us before. The first 2 nights where spend in a massive hostel / camping ground, which was 45 min by bus from the city center. As their wireless internet didn’t work for us we moved after 2 nights to an old Italian hotel in the city center. It cost us a lot more money, but we were happy to just step out of the front door and to be strait in it. We spend the next 4 days sightseeing by tripping around the city in a hop on hop off bus. One of the best ways to see a city like Rome since there is so much and I mean so much to see.
Out of all the great cities we have now seen, like Hong Kong, Saigon, Hanoi, Bangkok, Berlin, St Petersburg or Moscow Rome is the winner by a million miles. It has really funky alley ways that are clean, this city is dripping with history, and everything is really old but extremely well looked after. We have had the best coffee ever in Rome and food seems to be very cheap compared to the Cote d’Azu. Rome also feels very safe as their have a huge number of police on the street at all times of the day. We haven’t been able to work out all the different types of police here, lots seem to be traffic police others are security police and then there are the state security police, anyway many and most of them seem to have a smile for you, which always make you feel much more at ease as a tourist. Whichever street you decide to turn into in Rome you will find something grand and totally amazing. Rome is 2600 years old. Now that is really old for Australian standards, the new inhabitants of Australia have only been there for less than 210 years. It feels quite incredible to walk on Marble that in this old and wonder if the likes of Julia Caesar or Michael Angelo also walked on these at some stage.
Something funny I read toady was that Julius Caesar banned chariots from Rome city center 2000 years ago to ease congestion. They had a traffic problem already than, and you should see it today. Driving in Italy is quite an experience, so I suggest it should only be attempted by the most confident drivers and never loose you’re cool. You just have to buckle up and gently ease your way out into chaotic traffic.
We have been to the Leonardo Da Vinci museum, as well as the Pantheon which was an unbelievable dome which remained the world’s largest concrete dome up until 1990 apparently. The dome has an open roof or oculus as its called, so when it rains you can sit and watch it rain inside . Apparently Raphael the painter and the King from the 19th century Vittorio Emanuele 11 Tombs are also inside, but we didn’t learn about that till later. We could only walk around the outside of the Colosseum, since it was closed due to flooding. I really don’t think that it would have worth lining up for 1 hr to see the inside. Our kids enjoyed learning about the brutal ways the Romans used to pass their time in here. Up to 65 thousand people would come and see the gladiators do their thing or watch the public executions.
Another must see is the Vatican museum, which just blew me away. Maybe I had a special interest in it, since I studied art history for a few years at uni. I really didn’t want to line up for 2 hr, to than be able to shuffle through this huge maze of buildings. We ended up going with this tout outside the Vatican selling us expensive tickets for a 2hr tour but it was so worth it. We didn’t have to line up and the tour guide was great, it has the most incredible collection and possible the biggest and most extensive collection in the world. What can I say, please do yourself a favor and go and see Rome. So it’s time to pack our car and head to Naples, but we really want to see Pompeii.
