I can't believe I am actually in Italy :)

Trevi Fountain

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After a long boring 20 hours on the plane, I arrived in Italy at 6am this morning (Italian local time, which is 8 hours behind Australian time). From the airport, I caught the train into Rome with my ridiculously heavy 18.5 kilogram backpack plus my day pack. I definately over packed & can only wear it on my back for about ten minutes before it feels like my back will snap in two - I am going to try to down size tonight.

My first impression of Rome was - god dam it's hot, I am not sure what the temperature got to excatly, but it was at least early forties. Quite a change from the Melbourne winter I have had for the last 10  weeks. My first observation, riding from the airport was the gorgeous windows they have on most of their buildings (I have included a photo as an example), so cute.

Bridge going over to Vatican city

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Being in Italy, does not feel real at all- I am waiting for it to hit me, it hasn't at all yet. It seems to have happened so fast. I spent most of today walking around the city, my feet are killing me - they are not used to exercise (if I keep this up, I might be able to get rid of some of my winter padding).

My hotel room is a two minute walk from the Colleseum & is in walking distance to every thing else. So far I have seen, the Colleseum, the Roman Forum (seeing all the ruins, just blew me away - more so than the Colleseum), Trevi Fountain (which is just beautiful & is in the middle of a gorgeous little piazza surrounded by shops) & a whole lot of museums & gorgeous old buildings. I did a tour on a double decker bus with an open roof, which took me all around Rome - including the Vatican city. The city is covered in tourists & I am happy to report, that I have not yet seen any dodgy gipsies. I feel extremely safe & not at all threatened but I am definately not letting my guard down just yet.

Colleseum

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The Italians as a whole seem a little bit arrogant & don't at all hesitate pushing in a line in front of people but all the ones I have so far dealt with face to face are extremely nice & helpful (eg my hotel hosts, shop assistants, taxi drivers). Italians are crazy on the road, they only seem to follow road rules that suit them & are constantly running red lights. Plus driving on the right hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car is going to take some getting used to.

I have now pretty much retired for the night, I am very exhausted and want to catch up on some sleep as I missed out on heaps on the plane. Tommorow, I am going to see if I can do a 10 day tour through other parts of Italy - before I start my course in Florence. Enjoy the photos, I had heaps more that I took but didn't want to bore you all to much so picked a few of my faves. There is quite a lot of the Roman Forum, the photos don't do it justice though - enlarging the photos by clicking on the first one, then scrolling through them - will give you a better idea. The Colleseum pretty much looks like all the photos you've ever seen - was a little dissapointing really. Stay tuned, Ciao xoxo