When in Rome....

Trevi Fountain
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Today Peta and I flew out of Stansted airport to Rome flying with dodgy brother's airline 'Ryan Air'. After arriving in Rome we found that the directions to our hotel were from a different airport (where normal planes fly into) so we caught a bus into the centre of Rome - which apparently is nowhere near our hotel and then dragging our backpacks around and whinging about how heavy they were we tried to work out where the hell our hotel was and how the metro worked so we could attempt to get there. After about 20 mins we subsided to getting a cab - I think the cab driver saw us coming and charged us 40 euros to get there!!! We didn't care though, we just wanted to get there in the end!

Pam, Peta, Danielle & I at the Colloseum
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We finally arrived at the hotel (which was in the middle of nowhere!) we had our first 'Contiki' meeting where we got to meet the rest of our tour and our crazy dutch tour guide! We caught the Contiki bus into the centre of Rome and went on a mini walking tour before finding some dinner and catching the bus home to prepare for day ahead.

18/12/05

It was an early start the next morning with an awesome breakfast at the hotel and then a journey into Rome where we had a jam packed day of sightseeing. After joining up with a couple of other fellow 'Contikians' we visited the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, and after making a wish at the Trevi Fountain we found our way to the Pantheon and then onto Piazza Navona to meet the rest of the group. Apparently in Rome you can drive wherever you want and park wherever you want!  You need to hold your breathe while crossing the road in hope that you don't get hit by anything!  A truly beautiful city though with so many things to do and see!

Roman Forum
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19/02/05

Today after another awesome Roman breakfast we visited the Vatican City, after queuing for about 45 minutes with about a thousand other people we finally got in! The place is absolutely amazing and the architecture of the building is brilliant. We made our way to the Sistine Chapel where the guards were hushing everyone as you aren't meant to speak in there or are you allowed to take photos. Peta and I just had time to check out St Peter's Cathedral before we had to meet the group to move onto Florence.