When in Rome…Eat Gelatto!

29 07 2008

Another day in Rome..and we needed it as this city is HUGE!! Todays mission was to check o the centre of the city…and try out some of the Gelatto!!

We began exploring the centre of the city in the morning checking out the local shops and ‘high street’. Soon we found ourselves at the world famous ‘Spanish Steps’!! On arrival thats all you really see. Some steps and thousands of toursists sitting on them!! Never to be the one to miss out on such an experience we grabbed our packed lunch and joined the tourists on the steps for some lunch…oh the life of the budget traveller!!

We then went from being budget travllers to being travellers with a shitload of money….well we pretended anyway, as we headed down the botique street of Rome packed full of all the designer labels. We visited many of the stores…(not Cartier after our terrible experience in Milan…but that’s another story!!)

Before long we were struggling with the 35 degree heat so headed for the ‘best gelatto’ in the world!! It was quite a claim made by the store but we were up for the tasting challenge!! We dug into a chocolate merange (with real bits of merange!!) and sweet plum. It was fantastic, so much so five minutes later we were back in the door and trying out the grapefruit flavour!! So far this was the best in the world…but didnt have the biggest selection, that was tommorrows mission!!

We ventured around the corner from San Crspinos Gelatto and checked out the impressive ‘Trevi Fountain’!! As the title suggests it was a massive fountain…quite impressive really. Back in the day the water in the fountain was the best water in Rome…now its not. You can though fill up your water bottle to the right side of the fountain as this water is still fresh mineral water!!

We continued our city walk of Rome, visiting the Pantheon – a huge dome like building housing the grave of the painter Rapheal. The doors of this building were the largest we have ever seen…stuff trying to open and close them!! Then we checked out the artists that had set up camp nearby to see if they could compare to the ones we saw in Barcelona…most of them didnt. In fact we witnessed one guy see the portrait that he had done…and his faced dropped, it was terrible. An awful excuse for an artist had ripped this poor guy off…still funny for us to watch though!!

Soon we were hungry so the cheap traveller in us kicked in and we headed back to the hostel to once again make the most of the free pasta dinners, im sure we’ll hate Pasta soon!! With nighttime approaching we thought it would be nice to once again see the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, but in the evening! So we headed off through the darkening streets to see the sunset over the Spanish Steps, before sitting on the edge of the Trevi Fountain to chuck a coin over our shoulder into it. This now means that one day we’ll return to Rome, and im sure with all the money in the fountain we could soon pay for it!!





Pope Spotting!

28 07 2008

This morning we jumped on the metro to head to the worlds smallest country…the Vatican City!! Our first stop was the Vatican Museums home of the ‘Sistine Chapel’!!

The que was long – winding around the corners of the walls of the Vatican. Lucky for us this que did move quickly and before we knew it we were inside the buildings!!
This museum was HUGE!! Had different rooms inside, one containing Greek Antiques, A Map Gallery, a Tapestry Gallery.

Before heading to the ‘Sistine Chapel’ you were able to walk through the old apartments of the pervious Popes with paintings by Raphael all over the walls including his masterpiece ‘School of Athens’ and ‘Disputation on the Sacrament’. All very amazing!!

Soon enough we headed into the fanous ‘Sistine Chapel’. You all know the story, but still it was amazing to be in such a massive building with such a famous pieces of art!! It was also cool to see Michelangelo’s ‘Creation’ (taking four years to complete) and ‘Last Judgement’ (which he came back and did 24 years later).
It was also a challenge getting a snapshot of this building – but Jax was cunning and we walked away with some fantastic shots inside which we’ll post once we sort through our thousands of photos!!

Soon we found oursleves in back in the Vatican City – it was amazing!! The city has its own Post Office, Radio station, Newspaper and Army of Swiss Guards!! We sat in the famous St Peters Square and ate our packed lunch looking at St Peters Basilicaand the balcony that the Pope always seems to be on!! Sadly we were told that the Pope was on summer vacation (who knew…the Pope has holidays aswell!!), so our Pope spotting days were over.

We did decide to head inside St Peters Basilica, where we had to cover up even in the hot Rome heat. Inside was amazing – the biggest cathedral we had ever seen!! Inside was Michelangelo’s ‘Pieta’ statue (done when he was 23 and the only work to carry his signature) and also desinging the dome (at the age of 72). Inside also was the beautified body of the last Pope, in a glass casket – which was random to see!! All in all this was amazing!!

The day didnt stop there – Jax grabbed one of our guide books and headed back to our hostel…on foot!! We walked the same trail that the newly elected Pope walks to this day (some of the streets very small and dingy!!) On the way back we walked past what locals call the ‘wedding cake’…and huge building that provided quite cool views over the city!! Finally we made it back to our hostel in the east of Rome.

We got down to 3 euro today (after paying for the museum) but finally got money out…phew!!

That night we attended a FREE Pasta Party at the hostel before hitting the sack after a massive day in Rome…we just another massive one planned for tommorrow…








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