We arrived in the early afternoon and promptly got completely lost as we tried to find our way to our hotel. Having been on the road for so long our confidence got the better of us and we set off without a map, but unfortunately it seemed the force was not with us and we eventually had to ask some other tourists with a map for directions.

When we finally made it to our hotel we were given a map and the man on the desk marked out what we needed to see and a walking route etc. By the time he was finished we could hardly see the map for all the blue pen and realised if we were to see all of it we'd have to start now, so we set off for the Colosseum and Roman Forum.

The Colosseum was extremely impressive. Wandering around you did have to use a fair bit of imagination to picture it in its hey day but none the less just its sheer size filled you with awe. Up to this point we had both been feeling pretty tired with travelling but coming and seeing a site like this helped give us back some energy.

After the Colosseum we went to see the Palatino and Roman forum which was included in our entry ticket. We started we the Palatino which we really didn't know quite what that was. What we found was a massive area of archaelogical ruins from around 100AD onwards. We soon found out we were on Palatine Hill and what we were walking through was the imperial palaces and homes of the wealthy citizens of ancient Rome. The sheer size of it was huge, you couldn't tell where one building ended and another started it just seemed like one large residence. As the whole area had been covered with earth most of it was still underground and in parts you could look down and see more than 3 stories of a building with passageways running in all directions. Palatine Hill overlooked the Roman Forum which would have been the center of Roman politics, and while alot of it is not standing anymore you still got a good impression of its size.

The following day we started early and headed for the Vatican. Our enthusiasm was quickly deflated when we arrived and saw the queue for the Vatican Museum. It took us 15min just to walk to the end of it and we were there before it had even opened! Thankfully it moved fairly quickly and 1hr 20min later we were finally inside. We headed straight for the Sistine Chapel. It was impressive and worth the wait. With so many images it was difficult to take it all in and you really need to sit and take it all in but with the 1000s of other people it just wasn't possible. After leaving the Museum we headed to St Peter's Basilica and were met by another huge line.Unfortunately our patience for lines had run out and we had to be satisfied with looking from the outside.

We made our way back to our hotel via the Spanish Steps - which we walked up then wondered why we bothered to do that - and the Trevi Fountain which definitely is more impressive and beautiful in real life.

We really enjoyed our time in Rome. Before arriving here we were a little apprehensive as we had heard this was one of the worst cities for crime etc in europe but fortunately we had a really great experience with no hassels. We now leave Rome for Naples.