Roma (or Pizza, not sure what we love best)

Well it took bloody long enough to get there but jeez it was worth it. We'd spent 2 days on planes and in airports (including 8 hours sleeping on the floor of Dubai airport) and on arriving at our booked accom. we found that our room had been flooded and we'd been relocated to a hotel around the corner - an auspicious start. Our new dorm was pretty nice however (overlooking the British embassy, right near the central Termini station) and we still got the free dinner on offer at our original accom. The night we arrived it was pizza and beer night, sweet.



Our first job was to book us a train ticket to Nice so we'd know how long (or short) we had in Rome. It turned out we had 2 full days - and fill them we did. The first day we did the Pantheon, Spanish stairs, Trevi fountain, Colloseum, Roman Forum, Palantine, and a whole lot of other really old stuff. Everywhere we looked there were ruins, fountains, cars parked at weird angles and photo opportunities. We found the pantheon really impressive, although that might just be because it was the first really big thing we saw :)



We decided to join the queue and have a look inside the Colloseum which was expectably impressing. To imagine how it would have looked fully built and in action was impressive. We returned that evening to get some night-time photos (these, along with a whole lot of other photos are on Richard's camera. the contents of which was unavailable at the time of print). Our Colloseum ticket also allowed us into Palatine which was basically a big park and gardens with assorted ruins, and the Roman Forum which was spectacular. One of the highlights of the day, however, was the pizza we had for lunch in an unassuming little corner store in downtown Rome - probably the most amazing slices of pizza we will ever eat!!



Our second day we spent checking out the Vatican city and it's contents. We walked into the plaza in front of the basilica and our jaws dropped. Sarah's comment summed it up - "i've never seen such a big church". We wandered around for a bit, taking photos and generally in a state of shock before joining the queue. We'd been advised to join a guided tour and skip the line and the length of the line was only slightly shorter than the circumfrence of the plaza but the guided tours were fairly expensive so we settled in and took our chances. As it turned out the line was moving fairly quickly and we only spent about 20-30min waiting before entering the basilica. Inside was just phenomenal. It was too dark for photos but they wouldn't have done it justice anyway. The number of people inside was slightly overbearing but the building (roof, statues, shear size, dome, etc) was breathtaking. We did a lap in humbled silence then headed for lunch.

Post-lunch we continued our whirlwind tour and headed for the Vatican museums (again, some pics not yet available). There was no line to get in and we set out for the Sistine Chapel. We didn't actually possess a map of the layout which we thought may have been a slight oversight but turned out not to matter as everything was clearly signposted. It did mean however that we weren't aware the route to the chapel is slighly convoluted. We passed through room after exquisitely decorated room of statues, sculptures, ruins and artifacts. The rooms themselves were most impressive - especially the Raphael rooms which were decorated floor to ceiling with amazingly detailed frescos. The map room was also superb.

Once we finally got to the chapel we were ejected into a large, cavernous space crammed also as much with people as it was with paintings. It seemed we'd seen every painting before and although photos weren't allowed we snuck one of the Creation of Adam (flash off).



We were pretty tired from two days of non-stop walking and upon finding a quite side room we decided to lift our (and the statues') spirits slightly.



That night we dined at a cosy family restaurant (yes, pizza again) before jumping on our overnight train to Nice. We discovered when we boarded we had a whole compartment to ourselves so settled in for the 12 hour trip. Whilst on the train we passed up the coast through some pretty speccz towns such as San Remo and Monte Carlo - although it was either dark or we were underground for most of them so not much to tell!! Apparently there was some sort of strike in France (surprise) and the train had to stop at the border for us to change to a bus service. The bus service actually turned out to be another train, which we only discovered by accident, and so we continued to Nice. En route we decided that Nice was likely to have serveral stations - none of who's names we knew. On this note we'll leave you with the promise of more to come. So tune in next time for the next exciting installment of Richard and Sarah's Travelog!!!