Roaming Rome

Wow. Rome is stunning. I cannot believe my eyes or ears at the sights I saw over the last two days and the mythical stories behind them. I did not know what to expect from Rome but I have been blown away by the Ancient ruins, humongous sculptures and gorgeous fountains that are scattered throughout this beautiful city. I wish I had more time here, there is so much to see.

So when we arrived in Rome on Friday, we drove around on the bus for a bit and our tour manager Kelly gave us a lot of information whilst on the bus. She then took us on a walking tour but walking tours are illegal in Italy unless you have had special training and a licence. Therefore, we followed her around but dispersed when there were police and tried not too look too much like a tour group as one of her colleagues was once fined 500 euro for taking a  Contiki group on a walking tour.

We saw so many sights on Friday I cannot remember the name of most of them so I'll look them up and try to label the photos below correctly. We also had a delicious dinner, I had pesto Gnocchi and then my second gelato for the day :)

Victor Emanuele Monument

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

Fountain in Piazza Novona

Yesterday was a really long and hot day. We went on two walking tours; one at the Vatican City to see the museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica and another to see the Forum and Colosseum. Contiki trips are such a good way to see things in a short amount of time, we got to skip the enormous line for the Vatican City and go straight in, same with the Coloseum.

The Vatican City was incredibly beautiful. It was so picturesque and the paintings and tapestrys were amazing. Particularly Michelangelo's famous paintings in the Sistine Chapel which took him 11 years to complete.

Outside the museums

Hall of maps

St Peters Basilica

In the square 

By the time we got to the Forum and Coloseum, we were hot, sweaty, dehydrated and tired. However,  it was still a great experience seeing the ruins and hearing the gruesome stories from Ancient Rome. After the tour, we headed back to the campsite and Hannah, Abby, Shayna and I bet on what time we would get back and the prize was first shower, which I won :).

Forum ruins

Oldest triumphant arch in Rome for Julius Cesear 

Coloseum (gladiator arena)

After cooling off in the shower (the pool was closed for the day), we went up to the bar to buy shirts for the "I love Roma" party, where everyone wears a "I <3 Roma" tshirt and we use markers to sign each other's shirts for a souvenir. The party was at the bar/club at the campsite which was a pretty cool place, it had a pool table, table tennis table, dance floor and burger bar that ip bf at 1am. We had a good night and now I feel like I know almost everyone on the trip.

Ready to party

Now we are halfway to Sorrento!