Florence to Rome

17th december 2006 florence->rome

From FLorence to Rome

well an early start, much earlier than a lot would have liked.... woke up to the sound of the fire alarms going off at 4:30am..ignored them, until we hear banging on doors telling people to get out quickly.. that there was in fact a fire... so grab some stuff and go out the doors, it's all smoky and some people are freaking out... so we head down the 8 flights of stairs and group together outside... i might add it's freezing cold and raining!

laugh at a few peoples attire... karen was the best dressed, in skimpy shorts and a barely there top... and might i add absolutely freezing...some were so tired they tried to sleep on the steps...stood there for about 10mins, as no one at reception would talk to us... not that we could understand...no tour guide or driver to be seen...eventually the alarms stop, about 30mins later... seems someone was smoking in the rooms... so we head back upstairs and go back to bed...

got up at 7 for breaky loaded up the coach then got the biggest talking to about the events of last night... which was the result of the two south african boys (one was 17!) smoking pot in the room, then getting the idea that knocking on a random door, then spraying the room with the fire extinguisher was a bright idea!!!

hence the smoke and the thick fog in the early morning... cause of course they were just down the corridor...they got ordered to pay up 120 euro's to replace the extinguisher..funny thing is that half the bus slept through it all as with the driver, and guide!... go the drunken deep sleep...

got dropped off at the edge of florence and dave lead us into the main part of the city along the river arno and into the piazza della signoria, where we were free to look around until our tour at 11,

we headed straight to the arcadia to go see the original statue of david... it actually was rather impressive... we walked straight in, but others had to wait for a good 45mins to even get in...we all took our illegal photos... hahaha not even half obvious us all standing in a row, with cameras out and aimed directly at him!

headed back to the square and had a look around past the duomo a large church that no building in florence can ever be built higher than. there was a bit of a street parade, with people dressed like court jesters throwing flags...looked around at the little markets all over the place, all selling the same things!

went and took part in the walking tour... the guide was just a little to into describing every aspect of every statue...and if you've been to florence... there's a lot of them! it was nice though to have someone tell you what you're looking at... not that you'll remember it! but at the time... they were having this strange competition off the bridge, that involved hitting golf balls off the bridge onto floating pilons in the middle of the canal... and it was all being filmed live... strange!

had a gret lunch of gelato...and headed back to the coach... lucky as it just had started to rain, headed up the hill to take part in our group photo... with florence in the background... and considering the fog, it was hardly a great view nothing like having a phot taken by a weird italian woman shouting at you in italian, while hanging from a lightpole like a monkey!

took another 1.5 hrs to get to rome, where we were thrown off the bus into the cold, for a walking tour... lead by dave..who once again managed to lose about 30 people! have to say that the colosseum all lit up was amazing, and it had a huge xmas tree all lit up out the front... walked up to the trevi fountain....lots of people forcefully trying to sell things..they'd come up and try cram a rose into your hand, to try make you pay...

had an italian dinner of pasta in an alley way, right on the side of the road... just off from the markets...lots of people out and about, and loads of christmas markets out everywhere, selling some interesting things. arrived at the hotel about 10;30 and warned about the village of gypsies that live in the carpark...

hahahaha pretty much told not to go outside, and that we should stick together, as they were known to be violent, and to take everything off the bus, as if they saw anything on there, they' break i and take it all!

lol needless to say there were some people so freaked out about the gypsies!!!!

and from then on everyone was a gypsies... not sure how the fasination of gypsies came from but it was entertaining.

18th December 2006 free day in rome

up bright an early again, to be on the coach by 7:20, dropped off at the local metro station (ponte mammaloo) where we caught the tube to the vatican city where with only a few attempts at pick pocketing...(one lady got her hand half way into rowies bag before anyone realised, and then when they said something, this well dressed lady was like woopsie... hahahaha

funny thing is that what do they do if they're caught... they cant go anywhere... they're just left sitting there looking at you!) joined the already growing line waiting to enter the vatican city..got our attractive ear pieces for our guided tour and got to jump the que at 9am when it opened...had the funniest guide.... who was about 70 and would just yell cooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikiiiiiiiiii  at random times... even mid speech if he felt no one was paying attention, or if he'd lost people... or felt they might want to wander off!

it was

coooooooooontttttttttttiiiiiiiiiikiiiiiiiiiiifollow the right guide,not the left one!

(the motto of the tour from then on!)

the vatican city was amazing, the artworks on the ceilings and corridors alone was just spectacular, and just kept getting better and better till you reached the sistine chaple... (where i have to admit, i ould have loved to have taken pictures... but actually for once took note of the no photo's... and didn't take any...) easy to see why it took him 11 years to complete it all... there was just so much detail put into every little section. from there you came out near st peters basilica, wich in itself was amazing...the buildings are huge, and have such high ceilings, it makes you wonder how these are still standing so many years later

handed back our radios... and set off to explore rome...managed to navigate thanks to kev back to the pantheon, and saw it in daylight,then down to the coloseum... definitely a favourite of mine....loved i ttook trillions of photos too!

the boys wanted to check out where the chariots used to race, so we headed down there, and have to say were disopointed when after walking for ages realised that it was just a park, with what could have been a dirt track in an oval shape in it no signs what so ever

hahahaha abby and brent decided to be the chariots and had a race, ending in a puddle when they both tried to cheat and landed in it!

kept walking and spent about 45mins looking for the mouth of truth, with according to the map was jut next to the park,... yeah we went the wrong way but just as we were giving up we found it...put our hands in and lived to tell the un exciting tail!

caught the metro back to the station, and got picked up by the bus... lol they decided to pick us up rather than let us loose amongst the gypsie colony!

met for dinner at 6 and got to walk up the road to a little pizza restraunt, where we were served undercooked pasta.and a rotten apple for dessert.... (i'm sure they must think contiki people will eat anything!)

got to bed for the first time before 12... only cause the boys drank the bar out of beer and they closed early!