Rome if you want to

Rome is famous for many things, mainly due to its rich history. I went in with ideas of what I wanted to see but not really knowing what to expect. Well if you knew what to expect why would you do it? By the time my plane landed I had worked myself into a bad mood as reading my Lonely Planet guide I began to realise the time I'd allowed for Rome was not going to be enough to see what I wanted to. This was added to by the Italian posers on the plane who no matter the light conditions refused to remove their designer sunglasses. I went looking for my Hostel trying not to look like a lost tourist which is always hard when you're a lost tourist. On the way there a guy came off his scooter riding down the street, apparently it was his fault so I didn't know how to feel. I thought this must be a crazy town, which it is, traffic wise. You cross the road at your own risk, whatever the light colour and the number of scooter corpses abandoned by the sides of roads indicated that what I saw was not uncommon.


I walked into my Hostel room with the direct intent to get out as quickly as possible and go see as much as I can before the day comes to an end. Instead of introducing myself to the others in the room, I just tried to unpack and get out of there. Luckily I was sharing a room with some really lovely people. Chris from Korea is one of those people you could never get angry with he was so nice and one breakfast time he said I reminded him of Elvis, so he is immortalised for the best compliment ever. On the other side of the room was Lauren from, would you believe it, Adelaide. Serendipity is probably the best way to describe it. I walked into my Hostel room and ten minutes later walked out with an instant friend with whom I shared the rest of my time in Rome with. Traveling by yourself is ok, but it sure is a lot nicer to share the experiences with someone who is on the same level.

Do I need to tell you?

Rome can be a bit weird in the way it seems to contradict itself. They use to kill Christians here as part of their stadium entertainment yet became the centre of Catholicism. The Vatican is filled with riches yet the streets are lined with beggars. You try and haggle with a street seller and somewhere in the conversation he's trying to give you 50 euros. Add to that the fact that we wanted to do the same things having Lauren around made me relax and just enjoy Rome for what it is.

Roman ruins

Rome is filled with sites of Roman ruins, at times they take you back to a time where an Empire ruled and many modern concepts were born. Other times t looks like a rubbish dump that won't ever get cleaned up due to its historical significance.

The greatest range of the Roman Empire

The Tiber river

The Tiber river is not mentioned as an attraction of Rome, but turned out to be a great spot for walking and was quite lively with bars restaurants and various other establishments. One night we came across a stage setup especially for Tango dancing. The other nice thing about it is it is actually clean, surprising for a big city.

The river by night

The first day we started fairly late in the day and everywhere we went, we went on foot. The trouble with walking in Rome is that the streets are twisted, short and poorly signed. Just because you have a good map does not mean you can find your way around. Even using the best of my navigation skills it took ages to find some of the biggest attractions of Rome. We knew we weren't the only ones because we kept bumping into other lost tourists along the way.

The Trevi Fountain is crowded...

... but really beautiful at night.

From the Hostel it seemed no matter where we wanted to go, we always ended up walking past the Coloseum. The second time I had to take the picture below.

Roman cops, old and new.

On our way to the Pantheon we came across another vacant lot/ancient ruins site. Looking at it, Lauren noticed that there were a lot of cats.

Not what it seems

I noticed it to and didn't think much of it until I saw the sign which I still don't understand.

I was under the impression that cats were anything but an endangered species, perhaps even too many. Yet here is a whole block dedicated to there protection.

Send your donations now!

The world's smallest country, Vatican City.

The extravagances of the Holy See is quite astonishing, its centre piece is Saint Peter's Cathedral, the world's largest church. Apparently the Statue of Liberty can fit under its dome its so big. A reason that so many of the ancient Roman ruins are in such a bad state is during the renaissance period, all the sites were raided for their marble and whatever else was of value to help build churches.

Inside St Peter's Cathedral

The undisputed story is that St Peter was killed in the square in front of St Peter's Cathedral and his bones lie in a crypt underneath the church.

The resting place of St Peter

The other amazing attraction of Vatican City is the Vatican Museum. Filled with the treasures retrieved during the age of the Roman Empire and religious artworks commissioned by the church.

Gallery of Maps

The most impressive site for me was the Gallery of Maps. A 200m long room covered with maps of the section of Italy running from South to North with the West on the left and East on the right. Painted hundreds of years ago it is almost satellite accurate and the accompaniment on the ceiling is pictures depicting miracles that occurred in those areas.

Italy, everyone's favourite boot shaped country.

The Vatican City tour was an intense session of history and art, so we headed down to the river for some cold beverages and a sit down. Our next move was across the city up to Pinzio Hill to get a beautiful view of the city.

Lauren and Rome

As the sun came down we went in search of somewhere nice to eat. We found a nice area and what looked like a reasonable place to get some real Italian Pizza. I was a bit surprised what the waiter brought out to us.

Pizza in Rome

To put it into words it is a quarter of an artichoke heart, a quarter of a hard-boiled egg, two black olives (with stones) and some ham and mushrooms. I expected real Italian Pizza to be different, but not in an abstract art kind of way.

I'll just close with a thank you to Lauren who helped make Rome an adventure and not just another sight-seeing tour.