Alas a day in Roma!!! One of the most bustling and beautiful cities in the world. Renowned for its Marguerita Pizza, Expresso, Historical ruins and well, the romance.
The day entailed an Italian tube experience to begin with! The tube in Rome was worlds apart from the complexity of the London tube. If only London was this easy! We caught the train to the Colosseum as a group... and everything went uphill from that point onwards. There was an extensive queue outside the Colosseum but thank goodness for our prebooked tickets there was no wait, no queue - well for us! - so we strolled right in and revelled in the beauty of the renowned historic landmark.
It was a whole lot more exciting than I had though it would be to be honest. It was just amazing. After all these years, they were still standing and still remained one of the most popular tourist attractions in Rome. A must-see that's for sure! After taking a few pics, we decided to move on and explore what Rome had to offer...
We stepped outside of the Colosseum and the heat became even more noticeable. Overwhelming. We all were regretting our 'appropriate Vatican attire'; in my case; the jeans. Not too happy about that decision.
We then joined on to a small group of contiki goers who wanted to head to the Vatican without the guided audio tour - which was well, a ripoff to say the least.
We started our journey- Lauren, Katie, Lee, Hayden, Jeremy and I - by heading to a rather romantic destination that Lauren and I had missed on our first night in Rome (due to our misinterpretation of meeting times and ultimately getting lost) -- The Spanish Steps.
En route to the steps we passed the Trevi Fountain again. My heart flipflopped again. Ahhh it looked just as beautiful the following day. Not gonna lie - Lauren and I were ridiculously obsessed with it.
The steps on the other hand were also... Just gorgeous. So so many tourists were sitting there eating their lunch and crowded around the stunning fountain. These steps were so much more romantic than the good ol' Parkinson Steps at Leeds University.. It was getting very hot at this point and we were all craving some Italian cuisine - aka pizza. Again. How can you resist really? Best Pizza in the world just around pretty much every corner... Bliss.
We soldiered onwards. Despite the tube recommendations and the fact that we all carried a day pass... we decided that walking was both healthy (work off that pizza) and allowed us to really get lost in Rome - on purpose. We passed countless little souvenir shops along the way and before we realised it we were surrounded by VERY expensive Italian fashion stores on the via condotti; i.e. Louis Vetton, Valentino and the rest is too painful to recall... If only. Its a hard life being a student.
The promise of lunch inspired us to keep on walking. We were trying to hold out until the Pizza restaurant that Garai had recommended but in the end we just couldn't wait. We stopped at a little cafe and indulged in well-priced Italian cuisine. I had a fantastic lasagne actually. Was well worth it. Oh how I miss the gorgeous Italian tomato sauce... Nothing could beat that.
Next stop: The Vatican. And wow it looked incredible from the bridge as we crossed. St Peter's Basilica stood boldly in the distance, as magnificent as ever.
I was particularly excited for the Vatican, but very anxious about the huge queues - especially since it was only three days before Good Friday and Rome was chaotic enough! We got to Peter's Square; saw the massive line, got almost conned into an even more expensive walking tour of the Vatican, advertising of at least a 2 hour queue to even enter into the Vatican... But oh was she wrong.
I am not sure if I would call waiting in the lovely Italian sun in a twenty-five, yes twenty-five minute queue should be considered long. We were all stoked when we passed through the 'Musee Vaticano' entrance. We ventured in excited to see, as most tourists are, the real deal: the Sistine Chapel.
The history that swallowed me whole was just unbelievable. It was hard to believe that this really was the Catholic center of the world. This tiny little country. Kinda wanted to see Bene but hey, maybe next time!
After bumping into the rest of our group on the audio tour, looking as bored as ever, grinning a little meanly, we headed through the museum. And wow were there SO MANY MUSEUMS. It was just silly.
Every corner there were these signs that said: Sistine Chapel this way, hinting that it was closeby.
At least an hour or more later, after passing through stunning works of art, intricately detailed ceilings and being pushed and shoved by a stupid amount of tourists, we got there. And then the camera died. Funny that.
The Sistine Chapel was just beautiful. The history it encapsulated was overwhelming. I spotted the michelangelo painting on the ceiling and was feeling rather content with myself.
No photos were allowed but everyone seemed to be clicking away. I thought at first that it was a touch inconsiderate, but then before long Lauren and I were joining in and took a couple of snaps inside for memory's sake.
We exited the Sistine Chapel fairly quickly and ventured off to the main exit. Along the way we ran into the official souvenir shop and I bought a couple of postcards and the official Vatican stamp to send to my Nana and the fam. As we were heading around the corner, we realised that unlike the huge line of people waiting - still - in St Peters Square, we could walk right into St Peters Basilica. So we did.
It was just massive. It is the biggest church in the world I suppose. We saw the legendary hole in the roof of the domed roof and all took a photo of the sun shining down on us.. felt rather spiritual.
After attempting to absorb its beauty we decided that we were all rather exhausted and craved gelati, so we left the Vatican and wandered down the main street just outside of St Peters Square.
With our gelati in our hands, we were feeling a whole lot better. We wandered to the meeting place, at the station and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. That was when I discovered POCKET EXPRESSOS!! I was beside myself with excitement as I had been told just how amazing they were and that I had to buy some. So I bought 5 packets. A little overboard but ohwell. When in Rome.
After dinner, we all pulled on our I <3 ROMA t-shirts and headed to the disco bar. A few too many drinks later we were all signing away on each others t-shirts little messages. As the night progressed the messages seemed to become more and more inappropriate. It was pretty entertaining the next morning waking up to some 'lovely' messages... attempting to read some of the drunken scrawl and try and decipher who the heck half of the messages were from!
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