Ciao Roma
16th May 2013 - 18th May 2013
Rome, The Eternal City
We arrived in Rome after a hefty train journey from Sorrento on the Eve of Clare's 31st birthday. As we knew our hotel was somewhere near the Vatican we cleverly (or so we thought) purchased a 48 hour hop-on-hop-off bus trip, which one of the stops was The Vatican. So we hopped off and then circled round Rome for the next hour trying to find the hotel....which was located at the top of an incredible climb.
The morning of Clare's birthday we had decided to jump on the tour bus again, take in the full glory of Rome and then hop off at the sites of interest.....after an hour of waiting at the bus stop we were informed that the bus company (101) had gone on strike and would not be working at all today.
So began our trek of Rome.
On our way to see if we could complain and get some form of compensation (or another ticket for another bus ride) we decided to take in some of the sites.
Vittori is one of the most fantastic buildings I have ever seen, The Trevi Fountains are beautiful, The Pantheon awesome, and many many other buildings and columns that seem to be on every street corner. I can recommend a city break in Rome (although it is hardly a break with the amount of walking if you want to see these impressive buildings).
We arrived at the Colosseum around lunchtime and it is VAST!
That is pretty much all I can say about the largest Ampitheatre in the world, it is just a huge arena, a majorly impressive sight.
A quick stop of a drink and then we carried on towards our main goal of the day....the bus terminal. When we arrived I did a little complaining that seemed to get through to the right people and 20 minutes later we had a 24 hour bus pass for another hop-on-hop-off bus....and we did just that.
I think the most impressive building in the whole of Rome for me, and I think Clare felt the same ,was The Vatican. Not only did it mean we were nearly home after a full days of trekking, but there is an awesome Ice Cream Gellateria near by and yes, it is an awesome site (The Vatican, not the ice cream shop)
So here stands complete another challenge from my 40 before 40
I am so happy that I had the experience of Rome, and would definitely go back....for longer
But more than anything, I am so happy that Clare enjoyed her birthday and she is always happy to travel to these destinations
For some pictures from our day around Rome, please click here.
I do have to mention the staff at the Majestic Palace, San Angello as well.
This is the second time we have been there and the staff are fantastic. Vincenzo, Danilo, Guiseppe, Linda, Maria, Antonio, just to mention a few all make our holiday perfect.....and the food is awesome
Thank you guys
The 3rd Largest Ampitheatre
On our massive excursion (5 hour trip down to Matamata - see Visit Tatooine) Clare and I decided to take in a historic monument on the way back.
El Jem host the third largest ampitheatre in the world. This was a little taster to prepare us for the Roman Experience to come.
The Ampitheatre in El Jem was partly the setting for Gladiator (the bit in Africa)
The most pointless Ampitheatre
Back in 2011, we took a weekend break in Chester. Little did we know that Chester has it's own ampitheatre and they are very proud of this. We spent most of the morning looking for it, until we realised we had walked past it quite a few times as the ampitheatre in question isn't there anymore, but they have a lovely picture of one!
Still, a great weekend along the "Walls" and centre.
