Rome

Our last stop in Italy was mighty Rome. We drove the car to the drop off point on the outskirts of Rome and said out last goodbyes to faithful Modus. I hope he found a nice family after us.



Goodbye old friend...

On the way in we had an impromptu tour from a very proud Roman taxi driver. He took us in to our very centrally located hostel and we ditched our stuff, preparing for the mass of sightseeing that was to follow.

Our first stop was the smallest country in the world, Vatican city. We queued for about 1.5 hours, which is apparently not too bad. Vatican city and Vatican museum are massive. So much to see, we spent the whole day there and took in as much as we could.


The dome of St Peter's Basillica from the Vatican gardens.

Like Florence, every square inch of hallway and room is covered with stuff, this was one of our favourites.

Even the ceilings in the hallway are impressive

Raphael's 'School of Athens'. He cheekily painted himself in the corner in amongst the greatest philosophers and thinkers of the time.

Close up of School of Athens. Ben, can you pick the album cover?

The grand finale of the tour of the Vatican museum is Michaelangelo Buonarroti's Sistine Chapel. Michaelangelo painted an amazing 1,100m² of the chapel and the project spanned much of his life. The commission was very demanding, and Michaelangelo painted himself in the famous ceiling as a substitute for Jeremiah. He depicted himself as exhausted and burned out after years of working on the chapel. He summed it up like this....

"After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become."

We werent allowed to take photos inside, and the guards were really strict, but I managed a few stealthy ones. Thats my nose at the top.

After the Vatican Museum, we walked over to St Peter's Basillica in St Peter's Square. This was by far the biggest and most extravagant of all the churches we had seen.

The Square is enormous, hard to get an idea of it from the photos. All the people gather inside the two massive colonades that enclose the square when the pope gives an address.

St Peter's from the square

Me inside the colonade

Angie in the square infront of one of a pair of fountains, the basillica in the background.

The interior of the basillica is hard to describe in words. Amazingly extravagant. Lobster stuffed with caviar.

One of many shots we took of the inside.

The next day we focussed on ancient Rome, first stop, Colosseum. I took so many photos, here are a couple.

Looks like flocks of footy fans heading for a pie at half time at the MCG.

The Roman Forum is another major site in ancient Rome. This was the centre of Roman life in ancient times.

View of a part of the forum from above. Heaps of interesting ruins. The site was so expansive, by the end of the day we were dragging ourselves around a bit.

On the way home, we found a local game of footy, stopped and watched for a while.

The Italians are just as passionate about hack level footy as they are about the big leagues. We saw a few explosions at the ref, and a red card.

Day 3 and we continued touring the many sights of Rome. We wandered through the streets and took in the sculpute, fountains, piazza and churches, seemingly around every corner.

Elephant obelisk that Angie really liked.

The Pantheon, one of Rome's oldest buildings.

Ponte Sant'Angelo looking into Castello Sant'Angelo. The Castello is linked to the Vatican by a tunnel that was used in emergencies when the Pope had to flee the city.

One of the statues (Mum, your favourite I think) lining the bridge.

Piazza Dell Popolo where we sat and ate an oily can of tuna and some artichoke hearts for lunch.

The Spanish Steps. Heaps of Romans use the steps as a meeting place. All the good shopping is just around this area. One of Angie's favourite spots in Rome.

Steps again. We sat and had a few beers here and just watched the people coming and going. Angie is hidden in this photo a la where's wally.

Drinks at the pub next door on the last night. Em and Ricey you may remember the very fusty odours surrounding our table.

On the last day Angie and I hunted down a little building that I had studied at uni. It is well known for its perfect proportions. Took us ages to find.

Bramante's Tempietto.

Rome was fantastic, couldn't have possibly done it all in the 5 days that we had. The new parts of the city are just as cool as the ancient parts and we would love to go back for a weekend and just go shopping and eat gelato and stuff.

That was Italy, next stop, Istanbul, Turkey.