SUNDAY 17th JUNE 2012

ON TO ROME

Stopped off in Florence on our way to Rome, had a look at some lovely leather goods and gold jewelry, before having a couple of hours to wander about this old city! The churches and old buildings were amazing, but it was extremely hot and we were quite glad to get back on the coach!
Got to Rome in the late arvo and went straight to the Trevi Fountain and jostled in the extreme heat with thousands of tourists to get a photo and throw a coin over our shoulders for a wish. We then had a guided walking tour for an hour or so looking at the major buildings and ending with us having a pizza at a little cafe for dinner! Tried the Local Chianti - urgghhhh!

After dinner we headed off to our hotel which is located about fifteen kilometres out of the city, a nice hotel with good air conditioning!




MONDAY 18th JUNE 2012

ROME

Today we got going early to beat the heat and did a tour of the Colosseum!
What an amazing place! Such an unbelievable structure, it is impossible to think that it was built so long ago! We had a great guide and despite the intense heat we marveled at gladiators gyms, their preparation cells and then under the main surface of the stadium all the holding pens for the animals and gladiators alike!
According to the guide up to ninety animals a day were killed, and who knows how many gladiators! Pretty horrific when you think of it!
From there we went to Vatican City and did a tour of the Museum and then the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica!
Luckily for us we had priority passes as the queues were stretching for hundreds of metres. - all the keen Catholics standing in the blazing sun!!!! One big advantage of being on a tour is that you get priority access to everything!
It still took us ages to get in, but looking back on it the wait was well worth while! The Museum with all it's paintings and tapestries alone was awesome, despite being shoulder to shoulder with the many thousands of tourists in there! At the time the heat and the crush gave me the horrors but I'm glad I have seen it! A fortune in money has been spent over the ages on such opulence you wouldn't believe! Hard to really justify it against the myriads of poor and underprivileged who worship so diligently!
The Sistine Chapel was a bit of a joke really - we had been told to make sure knees and shoulders were covered and definitely no photos - so what did we see as we squashed our way into the big hall???? Tourists snapping off shots every few seconds, singlets, short shorts and any sort of clothes you could dream of! What a crock! All for money!!!
So this is the Chapel the Pope actually prays in, and where they pick a new Pope??? No reverence in this place, trust me!!!!
The Basilica was a beautiful place - again the sheer size and luxury of all the marble etc. was hard to believe - but still no one gave any sort of respect to it! There were small side chapels where locals were praying, thankfully these were off limits to the tourists!
Then it was back to the hotel for a freshen up and off to a restaurant in the city where we had a good meal and a lot of laughs with one of the waiters, who made a great show of giving roses and kisses to a few of the ladies - he was a real cool Roman - and then he gave Rohan a wig and did the same to him!
Another late night but a lot of fun!