Roma Roma Roma!

Yeah, we're in Rome. Cheers.
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Wow - I am totally in love with this city.  The moment we wandered off the Bus at Termini station, I was in love.  Cobblestone streets, cafes and Vespas as far as the eye can see.  After being in Spain, Italy is an absolute breath of fresh air for me.

We've been here for 5 days, and everyone has been amazing.  The first two nights we stayed in central Rome, about 5 minutes north of Termini station in a brilliant hostel called The Yellow (which, when i come back, i will absolutely stay in).  The first night we came in, expecting to get a good nights sleep and head out to the Vatican the next day, but instead we got our arms twisted to go out on a bar crawl with a heap of other travellers.  Apparently I kissed one of the hostel staff members on the dance floor at about 4am, but the details are fairly sketchy there, so i'm not going to make any confirmations ;)

Old stuff. Its everywhere.
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The next day we managed to drag ourselves out of bed at about midday, had a couple of stiff italian coffees and some pizza (which, by the way, is the best pizza i've ever eaten.  Its plentiful and incredibly cheap, and weve eaten basically only pizza and pasta the whole time here in roma).  Our one big hit was to get to the Sistine Chapel, and we'd heard so many excruitating stories about queues that we were a bit worried about going there at 2 in the afternoon.  but being the intrepid lads we are we thought we'd brave the queue, and to our surprise it was only about half an hour long (and about 500 metres).  The Sistine Chapel is absolutely breathtaking, and my absolute highlight here in Rome.  I'm not normally one for visual art, but the frescoes by Raphael and Michaelangelo are just incredible, and we spent a good 3 hours roaming the halls and gazing at that incredible ceiling.

No question, if i was god i'd want to be hangin here (St Peters).
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The next night Roma was playing Manchester United, so we made a beeline for the nearest Irish pub and watched the game.  We met a couple of american girls travelling in the bar, who have been studying here in Rome for the last few months, so they became our impromptu (drunken) tourguides for nighttime rome.  So after the game (which Roma won, much to the merriment of the locals) we wandered, seeing Mussonlini's palace (which is a totally boring building, but amazing to see the window that he made all his speeches to the Italian people from), and the Trevi fountain at night time, which almost topped the Sistine Chapel.  Apparently during the day its just covered in tourists and flash photography (which i'm starting to dislike more and more), but at night it was lit up magically, and there was only a couple of other couples there, so we spent about an hour gazing at it... just beautiful.  After that it was across to see the Colloseum at night, which is simply out of this world.  Getting back in again at about 5am, which i'm pretty used to these days.

The best park in the world.
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The next day I was up at 8am, couple of stiff coffees again (brill) and out the door.  We had to move Hostels, because Roma during holy week is absolutely packed out.  The place we moved to is in a little town called Ostia, about 45 minutes west of Rome central, and its on the beach (score!).  Its a great hostel, we think an old mental asylum (seriously), but great still.  Weve had heaps of day trips into rome, taking in the Colloseum, Pantheon, Vatican, St Peters Basillica (wowww) and the ancient ruins.  We've done all the touristy sight seeing things, been snap happy with the cameras and have absolutely loved every second.  I feel like i could spend another two weeks here, sitting up on Palatine Hill with a bottle of wino blanco, just gazing upon the Colloseum and the ruins.  Its all just so amazing.  Needless to say, i'll be coming back here :)

Raphael's 'Philosophers' fresco in the Vatican
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We're heading up to Florence today to stay with some Americans we met in Barcelona, so we'll have some local knowledge behind us as we take it in.  I'm going to try to upload some pictures of Roma on this dodgy computer, so hopefully you get to see some :)

Love Lee

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