Rome

after i left Florence i was a bit worried, i felt that maybe Italy wouldn't live up to the expectations i had of it. but some of the train ride down to Rome was quite nice and i saw a few of the little villages i had in mind. but after being in Rome my faith was restored, well not religiously, but in Italy. i think i liked it a lot more than Florence, it has some beautiful old buildings and i think the streets have a lot more character and some of the Piazza's are great. i did a fair bit here but i won't bore you with all the details (as i'm sure i sometimes do) but i'll tell you a few highlights.

i suppose a good place to start is the hostel. because the hostel we stayed in Florence was so good i figured this one was going to ok because it was recommended by the last hostel. turns out i was wrong. well, i didn't think it was too bad, but i'm a boy and i think sometimes i'm totally oblivious to things like this. but Ash went and had a shower and when she came back to the dorm and i could see from the look on her face i was going to get an ear bashing. she threw a bit of a tantrum and said the showers were horrible. i found it really hard to keep a straight face to be honest its pretty rare for her to really lose it, and shes no princess so what she was saying was true, the showers were pretty rank. but i persuaded her that we should stay here becuase from what i'd heard about Rome, not many hostel here are that great. she soon got over it and i got a laugh out of it. actually the staff were pretty rude too and they had a creepy cleaner who always seemed to be peering around corners i even had a go at one of the staff members for being so unhelpful, and thats saying something, usually i wouldn't say a word. but on the positive we did meet some cool people at the hostel. Kim and Sam who were an aussie couple in there 30's who were at the tail end of there honeymoon around Europe. they were really lovely and we cooked together a couple of nights we were here. (oh, by the way they weren't staying in the dorm on there honeymoon they were in the other section of the hostel.)

when your in rome you have to see the Colosseum. its such an amazing structure, its no wonder that its in the 7 wonders of the world. i did a tour of it and i found out some awesome facts. the Colosseum was built because they had a Emperor called Nero that they didn't like very much. he had a man made lake where the Colosseum stands today, and when he died to forget about his reign, they drained the lake (it saved them from digging the foundations) and built over it an area for the people of rome to forget there troubles by watching men hack each other to death, sounds relaxing, doesn't it? and get this, the guy who loses the battle is made to smile before he is killed.

when you see the Colosseum these days, its a bit of a shadow of its former self. there is only one half of the other layer remaining, i thought maybe it was from a natural disaster like an earthquake, but i was wrong it was from the people and artists of rome. when Italys religion changed to Catholic the Colosseum wasn't used any more so they allowed people to take what they wanted from it to build there homes, statues more churches. because the other layer was marble, it was well sort after, hence theres only half of it left.

actually, another strange fact is before italy was catholic they were pagen and would burn catholics as torches to keep the Colosseum lit up at night. but i think the most ironic bit is, after the Colosseum stopped getting used it started filling up with soil (it went right up to the second teir) anyway, it turned out it was the Vatican that paid for it to be repaired. go figure.

oh and you know how they say 'Rome wasn't built in a day', i tell you i think they did a pretty good job when it came to building the Colosseum, they did it in something like 8 years! i think thats pretty quick when you think about it

and now for a bit of a rant. on my tour of the Colosseum, i had a few American tourists on it. now i want to start off by saying, just about every American i had met up to that point i had got on really well with, i still keep in contact with some of them. the people on the tour were from Georgia which, going on there accents, is in the south. i dunno if that was the main difference but they were the rudest people i have ever met in my life. they did a number, and said a number of stupid things, but the straw that broke the camels back was when one of them, pulled out a texta and wrote his name on the Colosseum then gloated to his mate about it, i nearly died! i couldn't believe that they had just heard the guide say this is one of the 7 wonders of the world, and to respect it and look after it, and then he pulled out a texta and defaced it. and to top it all off they were in there 50's, you'd think by then you would have some sence. i'm kicking myself now i didn't say anything. i mean imagine how he would feel if i wrote 'Trent was here' on the White House. it was disgusting! for the people reading this, i don't want you to get the wrong idea about Americans because as i said, the majority i've met have been awesome. and its probably got nothing to do with them coming from America, there are idiots in every country, but i just needed to vent.

you know, on the way to the Trevi fountain, i have to admit, i was thinking, how good could this be, its a fountain, its 10 mintues of my life i'm never going to get back. but actually was pretty good, impressive in fact. something that was kinda overated are the Spanish steps, i heard they were featured in the Audrey Hepburn movie 'Roman Holiday', but i've never seen it, i think maybe you would like them if you had seen the movie. otherwise in a word, rubbish. theres not even a good view at the top.

being the good little catholic boy i am i just had to visit the Vatican city. i actually never knew that the Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. it was actually a good day to visit because on wednesdays Pope 'eggs' Benidict does a service kind of thing, so i got to see him. i have to say i'm not much of a fan of this pope, i don't think i'm the only one, i think for a lot of people the jury is still out. in my opinion hes got big shoes to fill, Pope John Paul II was pretty bloody good. but also i heard that recently he made some offensive comments about homosexuals. i'm sure it did get things for numbers in churchs, seriously 'eggs' get with the times.

the grounds of the Vatican are quite beautiful, the church don't look like they are struggling too much, and they have some great art work in the galleries and of course there is the Sistine chapel, which is nothing short of amazing. i learnt that the first panel that was painted was a bit of trail and error becuase when Michelangelo painted it he realised that he had done the figures too small and you could hardly see them from the ground looking up. its pretty amazing but kills your neck after a while. i think the best part was 'the final judgement' which is painted on the back wall of the church not on the ceiling. once Michelangelo finished it, a preist said to him he didn't like it because he thought it was 'too busy'. Michelangelo was furious and as pay back he painted the priest into the painting but in hell, with the snake wrapped around him biting him in the parts! the priest was really ticked off so he went to the pope to get him to tell Michelangelo to paint it out. the priest said 'if Michelangelo had painted you in heaven i could've done something about it, but since your in hell, even i can't help you'. if you don't want to go to the Vatican i reckon the church that gives the Sistine chapel a run for its money is the 'Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio' its roof is quite amazing. i kind of reminded me of those magic eye books, becuase as you walked around the roof played perspective tricks with your eye. brilliant!

St Peter's Basilica is HUGE, but i wouldn't really rave about it, big doesn't mean better. i personally couldn't leave the Vatican without a bit of blasphemy, even if it was under my breath.

to give you some idea of how catholic the Italians are, they broadcast a service live on TV every sunday in a different church each week. speaking of television. i never thought Australia was really that conservative until i came overseas. to be honest i think most of Australia would flip if they started putting page 3 girls in newspapers. i'm not a prude by any means, but here in Italy even i've blushed a few times. there late night TV is out of control, every channel is nude central, you can't escape it, i wouldn't be surprised if they read the news nude too.

Capitoline Hill is quite interesting legend had it, its where Rome was founded by 2 brothers, Romulus and Remus who were found in the river by a wolf and raised by her. to put a long sotry short the two brothers had a fight, and Romulus killed Remus hence thats why is called Rome. its all rubbish of course but its a nice story. anyway, the area surrounding is full of old ruins, i think it might have been where the Palace was at one stage. its kind of interesting but after a while it becomes rubble, still its pretty crazy to think of how old it is though. something interesting in the Capitoline Hill area is the Arch of Titus, which is like a big arch way they built when the romans were victorious over the Jews. as a sign of respect you can't walk under it these days, but supposidly a important trumpet was stolen during the war and the jewish people what it back. there are two stories floating around, Italian government say they down have it and believe its lost. but another theory is its somewhere in the Vatican. i smell a rat, but i couldn't help but think, this kind of thing sounds right up Dan Brown's alley, did i hear someone say 'the trumpet code'?
something i thought was kinda funny is they are trying to build another underground line in Rome but contantly run into problems because whenever they dig they find something and the experts get called in to inspect it, its taken them something like 2 years so far and they are no where near being finished.

not far from Capitoline Hill is 'Bocca della verita' which means 'mouth of truth', its famous becuase of its role as a lie detector. it was believed that if if you told a lie with your hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off! luckily butter wouldn't melt in my mouth (isn't that right Nanna) and my hand is still in one piece.

now for some day to day observations. i had heard that the Police here are quite lazy but it was almost laughable at how lazy they actually were, i always caught them having a smoke or having a laugh with another police officer. supposidly they don't get paid very well so the locals don't really mind. but considering how lazy they are, there mad about sirens, i don't think you can go 3 minutes without hearing a police siren, there probably in a rush to get work so they can knock off for the day. i also heard the police target tourist a fair bit and get you to pay your fine on the spot to them, something tells me the fine doesn't make it back to the police station. i didn't experience this so i dunno if it really true or not. traffic in Rome is a nightmare. i heard about this too, but you really have to experience it to believe it. i think the road rules over here are there are no rules. no lines on the ground. no giving way. absolute chaos! i thought about hiring a Vespa for a bit of fun, you know the whole when in rome thing, but i dont think i would've come back alive. i don't really understand why they rush on the road, they dont when there off them. something i found a bit of a shame about Rome was the amount of litter. there river is totally choked with the stuff and the colour of it is like a lime green. yuk! on another note completely i've had 'Italian Spiderman' in my head the hold time i've been here. i can't take credit for it, my mate Gabe showed it to me ages ago, but its pretty funny, click here to check it out. the story behind it is pretty cool. it was done by some Australian uni students for an assignment, they put it on youtube and got heaps of hits so they kept doing episodes and it became a bit of a youtube sensation.

oh, i got a hair cut while i was here in Italy, the barber was hilarious. he didn't speak much english at all so it was kinda hard to explain what i wanted. as he was cutting away he kept saying 'milano, milano' and 'kaka, si?' i just smiled as i had no idea what he was on about. at the end of the hair cut he grabbed a newspaper and said 'Kaka' and pointed to a photo of a soccer player. i think he was trying to say he was cutting my hair like him but i don't think it really looks like it at all. it looks a bit nerdy at the moment but it always does when you first get your hair cut, give it a week or two and it will be fine.

looking over what i've just written i've realised that maybe i have bored you with the details, sorry about that, scary thing is i saw more than what i've written about. anyway, taking the good with the bad, i really enjoyed Rome, some might say I came, i saw, i conquered, i brought the T-Shirt. next Naples!