The Journey
Back on the bus at 8am and straight to Ancona, a ferry port and gateway to Croatia and the Greek Islands. There wasn’t much else there, and thankful, we moved on quickly. We passed through an area that was affected by an earthquake earlier in the year, and saw some buildings destroyed, and a tent city, that people had been living in for almost 7 months.
We had a funny moment on the next part of the bus ride, when the guide, Coops (from England), and the driver, Matt (from Wales), sang most of Queens greatest hits, to the delight of everyone one except Gwen, who was in the front seat. More on her later.
Campground, Food, Attempted Early Night
Much like Venice, our accommodation was a camp ground a little out of town. I wasn’t too fussed about it, as it was the cheapest accommodation I had booked so far. I was paying 8 euro a night for a shared ‘tent’, which was pretty much a cabin with canvas walls. My only complaint was that there weren’t any power points in the rooms. The toilet block made up for this however, and was amazingly over the top. It had aircon, background music, a fountain in the foyer and was immaculately cleaned.
Countryside & Raised Freeway in Italy
We settled into the campground, and used our welcome dinner voucher, which offered discount pasta and pizza. We joined another Busabout-er at one of the tables, her name was Gwen, and she was from Perth. She had been on the first ever Busabout season, 16 years ago, and three times since. Now Busabout doesn’t have an age limit, but it is generally for 18-30’s. Gwen was a little out of that age limit, at the ripe old age of 77. It was pretty impressive for a 77 year old to be traveling on her own, let alone on Busabout with people a third of her age.
I attempted to get an early night, but got a text message from Kate, one of the kiwi girls, giving me shit for staying in, so I headed to the bar to protest. The beer was pretty cheap and after a few, we hit the dance floor. The DJ was located right in the centre of the square shaped bar on a raised platform, which we all found pretty amusing. It meant that he was the centre of attention, and was unable to take requests, very Italian. Some great songs were played, but mostly it was crap. We got kicked out at 2am, and after a few dramas, hobbled off to bed.
Walking Tour Begins
Walking Tour, More Food & Rest
After a pretty large evening, a ‘sleep in’ was called for. Around midday, a number of us from Busabout headed into the city for the walking tour. The journey took us on a local bus to a station, then onto the Rome Metro, arriving eventually at Circo Massimo. The tour began, and we were shown the location of one of the largest stadiums ever constructed.
From there we walked past the Mouth Of Truth, a large stone that was an ex sewer cover. Legend has it that people would stick their hands into the mouth, and it would act like a lie detector. If they were lying, their hand would be stabbed, if they were not lying, they could walk away unscathed. Realistically, there was a guy behind it that would make a decision and act accordingly, so now it is a gimmicky tourist attraction.
The Mouth Of Truth
We continued on, past one of the many forums that the Romans used as trading points. In each of the forums, temples would be constructed, to pray to the gods of that particular trade, or just for general victories. The buildings were over 2000 years old, and as our guide pointed out, most of the architecture was ‘borrowed’ from other cultures, such as the Greeks.
Our next stop was the Teatro di Marcello, an old building that was originally an amphitheatre, but was now apartments. It was strange to see that these ancient and quite important buildings were recycled into apartments and not fenced off and preserved. We moved through the Jewish Slum, and our guide explained that the word ‘slum’ was not regarded as a negative word. It had some nice looking food, and we agreed to try and come back.
Teatro di Marcello (Now Apartments)
We passed the cat sanctuary, which was located in a collection of temples unearthed when a new shopping centre was planned. This site I found particularly amusing. They had dug down to put in the foundations, found a few 2000+ year old temples, left it unearthed, and then when they had a cat problem, allocated the site for the feral cats to live in. Quite strange.
The Dome @ The Pantheon
Our next stop was the Pantheon, home of the second largest dome in the world, and to this day they cannot figure out how they constructed such a giant dome. It also has a large hole in the centre of it, which is the only light source for the giant room. This was the part I was interested in. It was originally used as a Roman temple, but has been used as a Christian church since the 7th century. It was pretty impressive.
We had lunch at a local café, with gelato for ‘lunch desert’ and moved on to our next stop. We were heading into the latter part of the tour, and wrapping back around the ancient city to finish near the Colosseum. We passed the Monument of Emmanuelle the II, which looked like a giant parliament house, and the window that Mussolini used to speak from. Eventually we rounded a corner and there it was, the Colosseum.
Geordie In Front of the Colosseum
I didn’t feel a great connection or anything to it, but the fact that I had seen its picture in so many movies, and travel shows ect, meant that to see it with my own eyes was special. The tour guide finished off, and we were left to wonder around it. We were advised to take an afternoon to see it and the roman forum, so we headed back to the campground via the Metro and the Bus.
Vatican Tour
The next morning, we set out early to join the tour of the Vatican. We got rather essential coffees, and met our guide outside a church, near a metro station and headed into the Vatican. We stopped on the way at a café, to exchange our tour vouchers and eat some breakfast. Then after a short walk with some entertaining police officers, we entered Vatican City.
Crowd In Front Of St Peter's Basilica
Apart from the security check, and thousands of crazy Christians, it just seemed like a large square to me. Nah, I’m kidding, it was a pretty cool thing to be in a place of such importance. Our guide pointed out the features of the square as the papal address continued in the background.
Without realizing, we missed half of the English part of the address, but we did hear the man talk. Everyone of course had a competition to try and see who could get the best photo of him. I got the closest, thanks to my cool camera, but still couldn’t make out terribly much. After the address had concluded, we walked out of the city, and around to the entrance of the Vatican Museum.
The Pope... I know, he's far away
We then spent the next hour and a half wondering through, with expert commentary, and the highlighting of a few funny elements. It was an amazing museum, stocked with paintings and tapestries and sculptures. The highlight was at the end of the tour, The Sistine Chapel. We entered and I was instantly blown away. It looked like a photo, every detail was so perfect, and the thing that kept going through my mind was that it was hand painted.
Spok Is At The Vatican?
We had a rather funny experience whilst in there. A Japanese film crew had done a deal with the church, and paid 3 million euros to have the whole thing cleaned and repaired. In return, they owned the photo and video rights to the chapel. As such, no photos are allowed, and of course, we took photos, much to the anger of the “no photos” man, who almost kicked out Kelly. I didn’t get busted, thanks to my stealth, and my handy bag.
The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
We finished the tour, and thanked our guide. The one thing left to do was St Mark’s Basilica, the main church of the Vatican. It was an impressive thing to be inside, but after two hours of museum, we were all a little drained. I ended up doing some cool photography, and people watching. Kelly and I took it in turns to take each others photo, which was oh so touristy. We then met the Kiwi girls out the front, and headed off to find lunch and an amazing gelato bar that the girls had uncovered the night before. This involved a Metro ride, but was worth it in the end.
St Mark's Basillica
After dining in a rather nice, cheap, authentic restaurant, it was time to join the tourist trail again, and visit the Trevi fountain. Kelly took my camera, and managed to take the best photo of me tossing a coin, with the coin in mid air and me hosting a cheesy smile. I was quite content, but my afternoon only got better, as we purchased the best Gelato I have had so far.
Colluseum Dissapointment
Geordie @ The Coloseum
We decided it was time to revisit the Colluseum, and once again boarded the Metro. Unfortunately for us, we took quite some time to locate the actual entrance, and missed the last entry by 15 minutes. I was originally guttered at missing my opportunity, then realized that I had had an amazing day, filled with unique experiences, like tricking the photo man, awesome food, and seeing a cool ninja turtles graffiti train. It also gives me an excuse to return.
Ninja Turtle Train
We ended up wondering up the hill, and stumbled across a wedding in a small church. On the way back down, we took the opportunity to take some cheesy tourist shots in front of the Colluseum before boarding the Metro home. It was back on the bus in the morning, and off to Siena, a small Italian castle town.
