Memories of Rome...

Rome 2007

Memorable Moments:

Gladiator re-enactments, standing in the Coliseum, arms outstretched shouting ‘Are you not entertained?!’ The look of horror on Jamie’s face as if to say ‘I am not with this mental person’

Arriving in Rome with a journey planner consisting of trains, which were on this particular evening closed due to engineering works

Finally arriving at the hotel (all be it 2 hours later than planned) to discover a problem with our room, and we were to be moved to a different hotel in the direction we just came from…

Alarm not going off and sleeping through missing breakfast and half the first day…   

A very lengthy walk to see the Circus Maximus stadium, which turned out to now be a park.

Dragging our suitcases around narrow cobbled streets, fighting through tourists just to find a fountain, before we flew home

Waving at the popes window as we went past in a horse drawn cart, pretending he was there waving back

Tentatively putting our hands inside the mouth of truth, the ancient lie detector, watching people pretend to get their hand bitten off!

Architectural genius:

The Coliseum.  Epic, huge, unbelievable really.  Absorbing historic info imagining how they built it and what it would have been like to be in the crowd.

The Roman forum, historic now crumbling buildings preserved for thousands of years

The Basilica in Saint Peters Square, a grand, intricate palace full of art and sculpture.  The square itself rather epic, fit to bursting with tourists and a very long queue to access the basilica.

The towering Corinthian columns of the Pantheon.

Culinary Delights:

This is going to sound ridiculous but at one point we could not find somewhere to eat.  When we eventually did we found a little restaurant where nobody spoke English, we asked for pizza (thinking surely they will have pizza, it is Italy after all) response was ‘no pizza’.  We did have an amazing messy calzone from a van vendor outside the coliseum though.

Ice cream everywhere, delicious traditional Italian ice cream in parlours, yum!

What the Weatherman says: (February)

Wintery crisp air with the warmth of the sun on our faces and bright blue cloudless skies

Arty Fartyness:

The Vatican Museum elaborate from floor to ceiling, works of art, paintings, sculptures, tapestries.  A maze of a museum brimming with art you could spend days in there and still not see everything. 

The Sistine Chapel, breathtaking, trying to crane your neck to see the entire ceiling and take it all in.  Frescoed by some of the most famous painters ever to have lived.  Something you just have to see to experience, it cannot be explained.

Graffiti everywhere in Rome, in fact it’s quite a run down city mingled in with these amazing sights, not at all as grand as TV makes it out to be.  But I guess everywhere is a bit like that really there are plenty of dingy spots in London…

Walkometer/Exhaustion Rating: 8/10

Steps, steps, more steps, *looks up* see’s a seemingly never ending stairwell into the sky…there were a lot of steps.  Although trying to see the entire of Rome and the Vatican in a little under 3 days was somewhat ambitious.  For a slightly less exhaustion factor take your time…