Stop 1: ROME
And nothing says ROME more than the
Colesseum!!
Okay so let's start from the very beginning..
Day 1Our initial journey was rather uneventful, everyone was excited (naturally, we're IN Rome!! How culd we not be??!?).. Once in town centre, got out d map, looked for our hostel with the map in one hand and my luggage in the other.. u knw, real touristy stuff~ then we found our hostel right in the centre of what appears to be a very appealing
shopping area.. i could feel my wallet itching the moment i set my eyes on it! =P
The door to our hostel was HUGE and as we walked inside the building, it looked really nice! Our excitement grew.. Little did we know, the
drama has just begun to unfold...
It started with the stupid tiny cupboard-size
elevator that was supposed to serve the function of making our lives easier, for which it did not! All of us
had to climb up the stairs with our REALLY heavy luggages to about the 4th or 5th floor, i cant remember... n this was post-exam period, meaning i havent been out of my chair, let alone the house for any exercise in weeks!
My unfit body was begging me to stop torturing it~Then as soon as we walked in, the reception told us, there was a problem with hostelbookers and they didnt receive our reservation!! So guess what? we were
homeless in a foreign country... I was really pissed.. i mean i jst climbed 5 flights of stairs with my luggage, and he's telling me this shit? So we argued a little.. then he gv us 4 beds for jst d night since they were unoccupied.. Sebah had to share with Aiman coz there were 5 of us.. AND they
charged us per head eventho they only had 4 beds to giv!! AND rus n i slept in a room full of
boys~ hahahaha.. there's a first for everything! I slept with a
towel covering my head (i didnt wanna wear a tudung coz it'll get crumpled n i'll hv to iron it in the morning) i think i woke up a few times coz i
culdnt breathe as the towel seems to prefer covering my face instead of just my head to suffocate me..
okay, so after we settled in, rus and i went to the other room to hang out.. we had dinner, or what we passed off as dinner: we had plain
white bread with boiled eggs (boiled the night before in Cardiff!!) and sumhow
Walkers crisps came into the picture.. hahahaha.. im sure since its Aween's 1st travelling experience with frens, she'll nvr forget her 1st meal!!
Eventho everyone was bummed abt not having anywhere to stay for d 2 nights we had left in Rome, we decided to not care and enjoy our stay anyways.. so we went out that night.. One tip for anyone going to Rome: the
Metro system SUCKS!! it goes around,
outside the historical area, but within it u have to
walk fr one place to another.. its a huge area too.. guess when the romans built their empire they didnt think of subways like the Londoners did.. Anyway, we went to
Spagna (the spanish steps) and
Trevi fountain dat night.. Trevi fountain is breathtaking... it SOOO gorgeous that even with LOADS of people around, u jst wanna sit there and stare at it.. but sadly, since we were there at night, the pics we took doesnt really do it justice.. after hours of walking around, we were all really tired seeing as we jst arrived.. so we headed back to our hostel n slept in a
boy-smelling room, for rus n i that is~ (not trying to be sexist or anything but d room smelled like sweat! urrgghh..) they turned out to be nice
Brazillian boys, we sorta got to know each other the next morning (seemed only appropriate, u knw having slept in d same room and all.. =P)
Day 2We set off to look for a
new hostel that morning. Sebah n Aiman found one online, so i used the phone in d reception to book and luckily enough, we found one with 5 beds for two nights! So d 1st part of our day was filled with us trying to look for our new hostel.. This new one was definitely
cleaner AND we were in d same room! Plus, the toilet was really clean WITH
hot water, the previous one didn't.. AFter paying, we left our bags n went to the
Colesseum.. spent hours in the queue.. Spent more time taking photos once we got into the actual thing... then lunchtime.. n we decided to eat out, i had the most amazing
seafood spaghetti i've ever had~ after lunch we headed off to the
Pantheon.. it was a long walk under the scorching sun n naturally, we stopped for photos along the way at any touristy looking building we came across.. hahaha.. so by the time we got to the Pantheon, it was close to 6pm.. and we were tired seeing as how we walked the entire day.. that night, we didn't go out.. we jst had Maggi for dinner (3packs for 5 ppl! im proud of myself =P) and then slept for d nxt day...
Day 3 - Vatican CityWe left quite early that morning to supposedly beat the queue.. Once there, we went to
St. Peter's Basilica 1st b4 the vatican museum.. since it was early, there really was no queue n we went str8 in.. joined in a free tour guide who told us lots of interesting stuff abt the basilica.. it was really fun! then after abt an hour the tour ended n she told us the tour in the museum isnt free.. so since we were cheapskates and we didnt really care THAT much abt history, we skipped it n went on our own.. the queue for
the Vatican Meseum was horrendously long.. we were stuck in it for almost 2hours!!! i culd've finished an entire movie~ once we got in, we went looking for sumwhere to sit n eat.. lunch for d day: white bread with ASDA canned mackarel in tomato (obviously brought fr Cardiff) but the museum was HUGE~ plus, the made it in a way that u HAVE to go thru the entire place to get out... we were SO tired, that Sebah even came up with a theory that they designed d place to keep every1 hostage! =P
The Sistine Chapel was d very last thing b4 exiting so we HAD to keep on walking.. after the museum, we went to get ice cream n then looked around in a flea market area near Vatican City..
then we headed back to our hostel.. since we were leaving Rome the next day, we were up for a last adventure.. our hostel person told us abt this place that served what she thought to be
the best pizza in Rome.. so eventho on the map it looked like a LONG walk after a long day on our feet, we were up for it! So we went. and right she was, it was simply AMAZING~ considerably cheap too!! definitely worth the walk.. btw, along the walk we ran into a group of
Korean tourists.. hahahaha... Rus n I were so excited to hear them speak their language.. some of the couples were really cute doing all those things u see them do in dramas! hahaha...
Day 4The day started with us packing up our stuff and leaving the hostel to catch our train to
Florence.. the walk to the train station was shorter than we remembered.. so we had a bit of time to spare.. Aween went to look for more
ice cream (man, was she addicted!!) i went around the shops... n we jst sat around till it was time to board the train.. and punctual as evr, the train came and we found seats enough for us to sit together.. as we stared out the window at the changing scenery, we prepared ourselves for a more adventure waiting for us....
to be continued.....
We head back to Florence for lunch and I had the most amazing Penne with cream n salmon sauce ever!! Then as planned, we headed for the central market area to have a look around the bazaar over there. It was SO tempting, all the handbags, t-shirts, leather goods.. I'm so proud of myself for being able to hold myself against temptation! =P We walked around till near sundown to have the last experience of Florence at night before retiring for the day.
to catch our train to Venice, our last stop for the trip...
