When in Rome....

Pronto & ciao from Roma!

Today is our 5th day in Rome and what a fantastic 4 days we have had so far! As we have done and seen so much since we have been here (and so that we don't bore you with too much detail), we have decided to put our experiences into point form..... so here goes;

• Flying from Prague to Rome on Smart Wings - after our overweight luggage charge with Transavia from Amsterdam, Stu and I decided to wear as much heavy clothing as possible to try and reduce our load. Leaving the hotel I was wearing jeans, boots, a singlet, cardigan and two jackets (must have looked like the michelin man) and Stu was wearing jeans, a tshirt and two jumpers! This was all well and good until we walked out into the 25 degree heat of Prague! Thankfully the cab (not a dodgy one this time) was air conditioned! Anyway we got to the airport to check in and they didn't even weigh our hand luggage - can you believe it? Time to strip off and repack! I love Smartwings already! Anyway after purchasing some Slivovice (local plum liqueur) we were soon on our way and flying over the snow capped mountains of the Alps!

• Arriving at the airport we were met by my lovely Aunty Babette and were soon whisked away to her beautiful family home in the town of Infernetto, south-west of Rome. The drive to the house was interesting; it appears that the Italians have no road rules what so ever. You really have to have your wits about you to drive here. As my Aunty said, she can only drive here because she has driven in Seychelles! Not only are the drivers bad, so are the roads; there are pot holes everywhere! We would later find out that these road conditions will make for a interesting bus ride to the metro station each day! Anyway thanks to Babette's skilled driving we made it to her house in one piece and were soon enjoying a glass of wine in the sun, while Uncle Perin cooked some kebabs on the BBQ! We were soon joined by the entire family for an Italian BBQ dinner and finally got to meet Nikki's husband Paolo and their beautiful baby Amelie (plus all of the dogs - Mocha the baby Pug, Coco the Pomeranian from Oz and Luna the Italian speaking Lab). All in all a lovely first day in Rome.

• Sunday - a day of rest (much needed after the full on tour of London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague). Waking up nearing lunch time we stumbled downstairs to meet the family basking in the hot Italian sun - perfect. Once we were suitably cooked we headed to the local supermarket to buy the ingredients for Babette's infamous Amartriciana and bruscetta! Yum! Once we were all stuffed the family went for a very Italian Sunday siesta while Stuart and I decided to walk to the beach at Ostia Antica. Hoping to dip our toes into the Mediterranean we soon discovered that the beach is covered in beach clubs, each with an entrance fee of 10 euro! Seeming as we had cash on us we headed back to the house, our feet still dusty and dry! My Uncle then took us to an art show/dinner at the home of one of his EFAD work colleagues! The paintings were amazing and very beautiful, depicted scenes from Africa and the Middle East! Sangria in hand we were introduced to a melting pot of people; French, Italian, Arabic and then there were the three American gospel singers! These guys did a few tunes accapella and blew everyone away. Not only were these ladies a complete hoot, we later found out that they were quite famous and had just returned from Oslo from singing at the Eurovision Song Contest! Amazing who you meet along the way.

• Monday - we were finally ready to brave the Italian public transport system and head into the city. After some directions from my cousins we learnt that we had to hop on the 070 bus to EUR Fermi (metro station) and then catch the metro into the city - easy enough right? Well the trick was that you couldn't pay for the bus trip on the bus nor anywhere other that in the city so we had to ride the bus without a ticket to the metro and hope you don't get caught! Argh! Lucky for us there were no inspectors on the way in and we were soon able to buy our week passes without drama. Anyway we finally made it to the Colosseum where our tour of the city began. Joining a tour group we bypassed the queues and were soon inside, marveling at its sheer size and history. It would have been amazing to see the Colosseum in its former glory but the ruin was just as breathtaking. Apparently the Vatican "recycled" a lot of the white marble that used to coat the current structure and used it to build St Peter's Basillica. From the Colosseum the tour moved on to Palentine Hill and the ruins of the Forum. After signing up for the Vatican tour the following morning, Stu and I continued our sight seeing with a visit to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Narvona.

• Tuesday - after our experience coming home on the bus during rush hour, we decided to leave home at 7:30am to ensure we got to our meeting point for the Vatican Tour in time. In Australia taking the bus during peak hour wouldn't be such a concern however in Rome there are no bus lanes so the bus gets stuck in traffic like everyone else. Anyway it was lucky that we left at 7:30am because we only just made it to the meeting point at 9:30am. Arriving at the meeting point and seeing the line for the Vatican Museum snake around the block made us realise that our tour reservation was worth it's weight in gold. We again bypassed the line and were soon inside learning all about the history of the Vatican and the art collections inside. There were so many pieces from the great painters of the Renaissance era; namely Raphael, Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Truly amazing to see these famous paintings and sculptures in the flesh. Check out our photos for a sneak peak into the Musei Vaticani. Our tour guide Jonathan was amazing and as we snaked our way though the museum he pointed out all of Michelangelo's inspirations for his most famous piece of work; the roof of the Sistine Chapel. Before we knew it 3 hours had flown by and it was time to say goodbye to our tour group, or so we thought... Jonathan then invited Stuart and I, along with our new friend Tania for lunch at a local cafe. What a fantastic afternoon that turned out to be! Bumping into another 2 from our group, we all sat together eating pasta, drinking wine and chatting. Before we knew it 2 hours had flown by and after a quick limoncello, impromtu "Happy Birthday" and portion of "fragolino" (strawberries) we swapped business cards and said our goodbyes. We will definitely be in touch with these guys! From here Stu and I strolled along the Tiber to walk off our lunch, seeing the Castel di Angelo and the many beautiful bridges that cross the river. After some random wandering we found ourselves at the Spanish Steps and the start of an amazing street of designer shops! I was in LOVE!

• I now hand over the reigns to Stu for the last chapter in our Roman blog so far..... Hi all relaxing morning, then we went into town to catch up with Zac for dinner and a few drinks. On our way to meet Zac, we were planning to get to the "Bone Church" which is the church from some weird sect of Christianity who believes that the body must remain within the church after death, so there are basically a few rooms of bodies in varying states of decay, and then finally when all the meat, hair and juicy bits are gone, the bones are used to make all sorts of trendy interior decorations, i am considering joining this Church, as i will save my family having to pay for a burial or cremation. I think my skeleton would look awesome as a plasma tv stand, or maybe it could be used to build some modern art installation? Anyway we arrived at the church at 6.01pm, one minute after closing time, so we will have to make a return trip to this place! We then went to Termini station to meet with Zac, and from there jumped in a taxi to the Jew Ghetto for some traditional Roman Jewish food, which was very nice, there were brains and tongue on the menu, but we opted for the more conservative Osso Bucco and Amatriciana.... and a few bottles of red! We then went in search of a taxi to start the trip home, a couple of buses later and two nearly burst bladders and we had made it!

• To view photos from Rome CLICK HERE or follow the link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=437377&id=664955104&l=5c77b51a8b