7th - 10th October
4 nights
-------------------------

Wow, wow and another wow... Rome! another amazing adventure!

We stayed here for 4 days, decided that 2 just wasnt enough in such a huge city full of culture and history, we had 2 extra days so we decided to extend, and we were all happy we did (and so were our backs)

The place we stayed was pretty cool...a hostel near the main train station. They had "spagetti night" every 2nd day and they would make us spagetti and we would all go upstairs onto the terrace and eat and drink €1 beers, pretty good way to get to know the people in your hostel. We met aussies and kiwis mostly (geez, what a surprise) and a few americans. We decided to go on the "Homers pub crawl" with "canadian" (i called most of the people i met by their countries cos i think i forgot some names!) and we had some beer and a bit more beer at around 4 pubs around central rome, pretty cool! we did it again the 3rd night we were there, was pretty fun! met heaps of people, the first time a group of german students who were crack ups! and the other night an aussie we called "the goodie" because of the shirt he was wearing, man he was a funny one! cracked us up and we had heaps to talk about after these pub crawls! hahaaa - "brass monkeeeey the cheeky monkeeey!!" and lets not forget BEER POWER!! - seriously, these germans are crazy, entertaining, but crazy, hehe

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - a beautiful building with the grave of an unknown soldier. Huge white building where the security is huge...i couldnt even sit on the stairs and i got told off by a cop!

Colloseum - umm, hello peoples, WOW! this time it was opened - the last time I came here they were rennovating and I nearly slapped a couple of nearby italians for that (get the anger out somehow! hehe) but yeah, I bought a €10 ticket (worth it, and you can get into the Palatine ruins with the same card as well) and went by myself and boy, what an amazing feeling. I had read about the Colloseum a lot and knew a bit about what they used to do in those times. What amazed me was how they pumped so much water through their aquaducts in those times and flooded the colloseum arena so they could have "sea battles"!! amazing technology for back then, even though it would take about a day to get the water in and out, but in those times extravagance for the romans was a must and they believed entertaining themselves was very high on the list of priorities!

Vatican City - A very impressive little State. Sam and I were in awe of St Peters Basillica and couldnt believe how truely amazing it really is, we were inside for about an hour! the number of statues inside the Basillica...i dont know how they did it in those days, they must have recieved help from some Invisible but definatley there power...

Sistine Chapel - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! i have finally seen the all famous Sistine Chapel! i have studied this in school and read about it in travel books and researched it on net and hey! now I can say i have seen it (and taken illegal photos of it as well) the Chapel is used only for when they are selecting the next Pope...and how Michael Angelo could do such a thing and to finish it in 4 years? this beats ALL contemporary Museums that we have nowadays, you know they ones that are full of huge white canvases with 3 or 4 red dots and a blue streak across it, and they claim its art...umm, yeah, of course, and so is the tissue that was used to wipe your nose on, thats art too then! *grrrrrrrrrr*

Palantine Ruins - I went by myself to have a look around as I had read up on these runis before I got to Rome (actually, before I left Sydney!) I thought that the last time I came here with contiki we basically saw all the ruins of the Rome but the Palantine Hill we had completley missed! gorgeous ruins and marbled columns...I walked around for at least 2.5hrs and saw the whole thing. Basically, the Palatine was where all the kings and noble people used to reside. The founder twins of Rome, Romulus and Remus (i think thats their name!) had built their Palace here (before one of the brothers killed the other) and this was seen as a very important area in those times and everything was built around this area

oh! i just found some info on the net about the Palatine Hill, im going to copy paste it in, its more for me than for you so sucked in...
----------
The Palatine Hill (Latin Palatium) is the centermost of the seven hills of Rome The Seven Hills of Rome east of the Tiber form the heart of Rome. They figure prominently into Roman mythology, religion, and politics; the original city was held by tradition to have been founded by Romulus on the Palatine Hill (Collis Palatinus). The other six of the Seven Hills of Rome are the Aventine Hill (Collis Aventinus), the Capitoline Hill (Collis Capitolinus), the Quirinal Hill (Collis Quirinalis), the Viminal Hill (Collis Viminalis), the Esquiline Hill (Collis Esquilinus), and the Caelian Hill (Collis Caelius). The now-famous Vatican Hill (Collis Vaticanus) is west of the Tiber and is not one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
----------

Trevi Fountain - We went and had a look all of us together because Trevi fountain is just an amazing sight. It is a fountain built on the outside of a government building. Basically, the story behind it is that it was named after a girl called Trevia who had shown some thirsty soldiers a fountain outside the city of Rome and an aqueduct was built from the fountain to the current place of the fountain. The main figure in the middle is Neptune and on either side of him are 2 horses, one is calm, easy to manage while the other is putting up a fight and is being held back by one of Neptunes "buddies".
These 2 horses represent the 2 completley different moods of the ocean

Pantheon - An old huge building that was later converted to a Church (requested by the people of Rome) as a place to go for protection. It houses the bodies of the rulers and 'important' people, pretty interesting place actually. The huge hole in the roof is the only source of light to the inside of the building and remains open all the time, even when raining...

Spanish Steps - Climbed up these steps with Daniel (Sam sat next to the fountain at the bottom - geek) was a great view from the top. These stairs were built infront of the spanish embassy

Mouth of Truth - Everyones heard about this! its an old drain cover which is now housed in one of the cutest little italian Churches near the Tomb of the unknown soldier. I took a walk there by myself and was soo lucky to get into line to have a photo with it because I was the last one out of the Church! apparently, if u put ure hand into the mouth and tell a lie, it closes its mouth over your hand...hmmm

The weather in Rome was pretty hot! we were expecting cold cold and cold like the rest of europe but it was the complete opposite, but at nights it became windy, i think i got a bit sick because of this...but all in all Rome would have been one of ALL of our favourite places...we all agreed on this...had a great time and a great rest and met some great people!