Woke up earlier than usual at 9, as we had to get the train to Rome today! Got all our stuff packed, and set out on the road. After a ten minute walk, we arrived at the train station, and as our train did not have a platform assigned yet I went outside for a fag. Some gypsy tramp sat down next to where I was standing with her dog and started talking to herself. I paid no attention, and then she went mental hurling racist insults in italian at people as they walked past. Classy.
Florence - Rome
After a while our train was given a platform, so we fired on. Someone was sitting in one of our seats, so Pett just sat in the seat opposite rather than causing a mutli-lingual slagging match. There were a lot of tunnels on the journey, so there wasn't much scenery to see. I decided to use this time to write yesterdays blog, in anticipation of getting an internet connection when we arrived at the hostel, to upload it. The train was only an hour and a half, so it wasn't long before we were in Rome.
When we got out of the station, I knew vaguely where I was going as I'd been to this hostel before with best bud Rory Penman, so we fired to the hostel to get checked in. We were a bit early to get our room keys etc, so we dumped our bags in the luggage room and set off to explore Rome. As Napoleon said, "an army marches on it's stomach", so we decided to get a kebab for lunch before we went anywhere.
With our bellies full, our first destination for the day was the spanish steps. As we walked we seemed to become part of an incredibly annoying american family, so we decided to cross the road to get away from them. We came upon the spanish steps from behind (steady now) so got to see the full spectacle from above. Very nice.
Our next stop for the day, was the Trevi Fountain. We wandered through some back streets, and finally found it. It was absolutely heaving with tourists, so we didn't spend too long there, just enough time to snap some pics and throw some coins in the water, to ensure our return to Rome. Unfortunately I forgot about throwing them over your shoulder, so we will probably have to go back and do it right.
Next stop: Pantheon! Again we wandered through some small streets until we found the Pantheon - the oldest church in Rome. We had a look inside, and it was quite grand. The oculus in the roof is awesome though, and makes the place very unique.
Again we were on the move, this time to Piazza Navona. More winding wee back streets, and again we found it no bother. We had a wander around the Piazza, checking out all of the artwork, and finally settled down for a wee seat in the shade, right beside Bernini's famous Fountain of the Four Rivers (of Angels and Demons fame). the fountain is pretty awesome, with four staues representing the four great rivers of the world (at that time) and an egyptian obelisk in the middle. Smashing.
We had some more time, so decided to walk to the Vatican and get that done, to give us more time tomorrow. We headed for the bridge of angels, and crossed to the Castel Sant'Angelo. This was originally built as the emperor Augustus' tomb and is a pretty impressive building. After this, we walked towards St Peter's Square in the Vatican. The square itself is mighty impressive, but St Peter's Basilica is quite incredible.
We stopped to fill our water bottles from a water fountain next to the square (I was worried it may burn my insides as I'm a non-believer, but it was actually quite tasty) and decided to head for the metro to get back to the hostel. Before heading back into the hostel, we stopped for a coffee at the place across the road. The boy in charge seemed to be raging when he found out we didn't want any food. Sucks to be him. He made us wait for ages though for the coffee, to the point where I was almost ready to bolt. Twat.
We got back into the hostel and checked into our rooms, and decided to go for a Chinese for tea. On the way into the town, we were stopped by the Carabinieri (who acted more like the Gestapo) who asked to see our papers. What? Why would I carry my passport around with me, in a country which has a notoriously bad reputation for thieving off tourists? He accepted my drivers licence, and some boy wrote down loads of details from it. Weirdos.
We walked for ages trying to find the Chinese restaurant I had been to before, but couldnt find it. We walked so far we actually found the Colloseum, so headed back up the hill towards the station. We were so hungry, we decided to just go in the first Chinese we saw. The food was ok, but not a patch on the one I was in last time. When we were finished we walked back towards the hostel, and passed the restaurant we had been looking for. Oops.
When we got back to the hostel we headed for the bar, and watched the footy on the telly. At one point, some boy decided he didnt want to watch the footy, and turned it over to some spanish soft core porn. The place was a bit shocked at what was occurring, and before long the big man from the reception desk had had enough of this and put the footy back on.
I retired to bed earlier than usual, as I was knackered from the long walk we had done today. Only a few sights left to see tomorrow, on the last full day of my travels!
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