Finally decent internet at a hostel. Italy sucked for internet, so getting anything done was difficult and uploading my photos was basically impossible. But now I'm in Vienna and everything in the German speaking countries just seems to work the way they should. Now though I have to remember back about 3 weeks to when I got to Rome.

I can't really remember exactly what time it was when I got to Rome, but my hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the train station, so I headed straight there. After getting checked in I decided to just wander around the area, mostly around the train station, to see what shops were there and things to eat etc. I actually looked up a Sony store to see if perhaps I could replace my laptop, but after finding it closed I remembered it was Sunday. So I decided I would just walk to the Colosseum. It was probably something like 5pm at this point.

It was maybe a 30min walk to the Colosseum from the main train station. I could have taken the metro, but I kinda wanted to just walk Rome for a bit. As I started to get close to the Colosseum but could not yet see it I was starting to get excited. This was probably just about the number one thing I wanted to see on this entire trip. When it finally did come into view it was kind of a mix of amazement and disappointment. Amazement because of just how huge and amazing it is. Disappointment because the whole quarter of it which was facing me was covered in scaffolding. The amount of scaffolding required though did kind of add a bit of perspective to the size of it. I spent probably half an hour or so just walking around it. I already had tickets to go inside booked for Tuesday (2 days from then). Then I walked back to the hostel.

Monday was a day where not a whole lot got done. For some reason I was really keen to get a new laptop, I was just really missing it. So I looked up a few more Sony resellers and went to look. Due to having a decent sleep in I didn't reach the first place til about 2pm, and it was of course closed due to siesta time. So I walked to the other and got there at about half 3 only to find that they closed at 1 and didn't open again til 4. Everything bloody closes during the bulk of the afternoon every weekday, so annoying. When I finally did get in they had the exact model laptop I had stolen, only it had the Italian keyboard. It was even cheaper than I paid for it, but I knew it would just be too damn annoying with that keyboard so I didn't bother. That night I had dinner and some quiet drinks with my roommates; a couple of Aussie guys, a kiwi and a Norwegian girl.

Tuesday was the big day. The day I would finally see what I came to Rome to see. I got to the Colosseum bright and early, well for me anyway, about 10am. The ticket I had was one which took you both to the 3rd tier and down into the dungeon. To be honest I'm not sure either were worth the extra cost. They didn't really let you walk in the dungeon, just go down one level and look through it, which wasn't much more than what you could see from the 1st tier anyway. The 3rd tier was only one small area, not all the way around. It did offer amazing views, but not really all that more amazing than the 2nd tier. I'm not sorry I did it, but if I were to do it again I wouldn't pay the extra.

Not sure what I can really say about the Colosseum other than it was f***ing awesome. Pretty much everything I hoped it would be. I must have spent a good few hours inside there just not wanting to leave. But I did have other things to do today. My ticket included entry inside the roman forum and Palatine hill.

The roman forum was of course the ancient centre of the city. Where all the important stuff happened. There were plenty of ruins of temples and such. A few columns including the tallest Trajan's Column. All in all it was pretty awesome. Palatine hill was where the palace of the emperor was and a few other houses of important people. A few of the highlights to see around here was part of an old aqueduct and a stadium. After a couple of hours of this I headed over to the Circus Maximus. To say this was disappointing would be an understatement. There is literally nothing there but a huge oval field where it use to be. No real ruins to speak of.

I'm not sure if it was this night or another, but at some point we discovered that the hostel around the corner (which apparently is the highest rated in Rome) had a much better bar and restaurant. So we ended up spending a lot of nights there. Pay of the cheaper accommodation at our hostel but get the better nightlife and food at theirs. Worked for us.

Wednesday was the day I had a ticket to go see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. The ticket I had actually had a time on it, something like 9am I think. So that's about when I got there. I originally walked in the wrong entrance however. Turns out that to get to the museum and Sistine Chapel you go around to the side of the Vatican. I walked in the main entrance. And it was packed. The main plaza area was absolutely full of people. Some guys were giving speeches. Big signs were saying that entrance to St Peter's Basilica was reserved for people of some pilgrimage, which annoyed me. But then I saw the Pope. Driving through the masses waving. Eventually I did figure out where to go, about an hour and half later than the time on my ticket said, but they didn't seem to care.

The Vatican museum is pretty damn impressive. The church has stolen a lot of cool s*** over the years. Room after room of awesome artifacts from all over the world. Some of the Egyptian stuff was especially awesome. Some 6000 year old hieroglyphs and proper intact mummies. Was cool. Many of the rooms were amazingly decorated too, especially the roofs. Which lead to an interesting conundrum actually. By the time I reached the Sistine Chapel (pretty much the last place you get to) I had seen so many amazing roofs that it just kinda blended in. I mean, it was amazing and all, but I can't help but think it would have been more amazing had it been the first room I saw.

I ended up wandering around the museum twice and back to the Sistine Chapel again. Partly to make sure I had seen everything and partly because I just felt like I needed to see all those other roofs again and the the Chapel again, just to really see how special the Sistine Chapel is. It was on this second visit I managed to snap a quick pic. They were really harsh on not taking photos. People patrolling around would actually take the camera/phone off you and make you delete the pics if you were caught.

I didn't bother going back inside the Vatican to see if I could actually get into St Peter's after this, but I probably should have. I was in no rush though, I had a good 6 nights or so in Rome. Though the next few were pretty chill, I had now seen most of what I wanted to see in Rome.