Day 2: Rome

Campidogilo
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Our flight left for Rome from Luton Airport at 6:30am, therefore my niece and I took a two-hour bus ride from Oxford to Luton airport at 1am.  I was already up for straight 36 hours by that time.  Very tired, but I pressed on.

Rome - eternal city: a city I have read, watched, and heard so much about and is closely tied to my Christianity faith.  So again, I didn't really rest during the 2-hr flight.  As the plane approached Ciampino airport,  I was quite marveled at a magnificent view :  mountains of various heights with silky layers of clouds romantically cuddling them.....  NATURE!!!

Rome... surprises its visitors literally at every corner of the streets.

Aerielview as we approached Rome...
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Prior to our touch down, the flight attendants were selling bus tickets on behalf of Ryanair for 7 euro per person from Ciampino airport to Termini Station in Rome.  Ryanair sure knows how to make money apart from the airline industry.  My research on the public transportation in Rome convinced me there was a cheaper way but lots of people bought them.  Ciampino airport seems to be the smallest airport I have ever been to.  There are definitely rooms for improvement, especially its toilet facility.  :-)

Santa Maria M... Church...
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Surely I was right.  For the exact same service, it cost only 5 euro.  But I knew better.  Straight away I looked for sign to get two bus tickets from Ciampino to Anagnina Metro which cost 1.25 euro each and then from Anagnino took the subway to Rome's Termini station.  In total, it cost 4.50 euro for both of us instead of 10 or 14 euros.  And the duration for both methods are about the same, since the metro is always quicker than the bus in a congested city like Rome.

The Finnish girls and I...
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The sizes of Termini station and of the central bus station in front of the building explains the traffic condition of Rome and its pollution level.  Both my niece and I would definitely avoid city like this had it not been its ties to the ancient history dated thousands of years back.

Rome stressed me the most in our entire trip planning because of its notorious pickpockets, its wealth of ancient sites and art museums.  So much to see within such a short time.  With a map in hands, we quickly grabbed a bite and then headed out to see the ruin sites, including Colosseum and the nearby areas.

Coloseo.... a HOT day...
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Along Via Cavour, we walked past Santa Maria Maggiore, a huge cathedral building.  This was the first ancient building we saw in Rome.  We just took a picture of it.   Somewhere along the way we were kind of lost that we tagged along with two Finnish girls to get our way to Coloseo.  Our exchange of information made the heat more bearable.  The direction to Coloseo from the Termini is a bit tricky than what it appears on the map.  After a few flights up and passing some winding path thru S. Pietro in Vincoli and restaurants, lo and behold, the humongous ancient stadium-like building suddenly appeared before us.  The combination of the Coloseo and the ruin sites next to it was indeed breathtaking.

Inside Coloseo
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I can't fathom how the ancient people built such a grand scale of stadium without the modern tools.

We strolled through the piles of ruin for hours.  It definitely requires imaginations to picture grandeur buildings out of these ruins.  We exited through Campidogilo.  Standing in front of the Campidogilo, I searched for Mermetime Prison, where St. Paul and Peter were prisoned 2000 years ago.  To my disappointment, I could not find it.

Next to Campidogilo is Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, the glaringly white building, making it highly conspicuous amidst the generally brownish buildings surrounding it. It was built to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy.  Since it was closed for renovation, we just took a few pictures and continued on to Fountain Di Trevi and Spanish Steps.

Ruin sites
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The fountain is a fantastic work of art that is much more than a mere sculpture. It is a true wonder. The light and shade effects on the marble and the sound of the rushing water are indeed very captivating.  But we lingered for only 20 minutes for two reasons: 1. too crowded. 2. needed to move on to Spanish Steps.  I did see people throwing coins over their shoulders, wishing to come back to Rome again...  Due to the overcrowded factor that finding a spot for pictures 300 yards from the fountain becomes a challenging task, we gave up trying to squeeze thru the thick crowds to the front for throwing coins..   Furthermore, it was getting dark...

Ruin sites
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We pretty much lost interest in anything that requires climbing steps by that time; unfortunately Spanish Steps is one of those.  We stopped there purposely only for pictures.  Nothing more and nothing less.

From there, we took a different route back to our hostel.  A good 30 minutes walk, including up hill and down hill.  Felt quite sorry for my niece, since her feet already got blistered.  We were surprised with lots of sculptures/monuments along the way home....  Rome...  surprises its visitors literally at every corner of the streets.  The ancient buildings/arts intertwined harmoniously with the modern ones.  Amazing........

Ruin Site
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A LONG DAY....

Eventually I got my first 7 hour sleep after being up for approximately 60 hours.