When in Rome...

Welcome to Rome

The Colisseum in all its glory

Imagine when it was whole! They used it as a source of material for new projects, still in old times of course, like Michaelangelo's Pieta. Early recycling?


...Melt like the tourists do!
It is very very hot in Rome, each time I hop on the bus with my giant backpack I feel like I'm going to become a puddle on the floor. Each day is scorching here, so sun lotion and sun glasses are essential. As I've been going southwards, naturally it has been getting hotter. I don't know how the priests put up with wearing a full black cassock (I've seen a few! And Clare, some of them are very handsome). Nuns have it easier all dressed in white.

Nuns having their photo taken

Going to Mass in Piazza Minerva
Yesterday I arrived in Rome via Eurostar and stayed just on the outside of Central Rome near Piazza Lodi. I took a bus and visited the ancient part of the city known as Palatine Hill, some of which dates back to 200AD and from which you can see the oldest obelisk in Europe, which was built by the two Pharaohs Tutmosis.

Trajan's Column

Saw the Colisseum twice during the day as I backtracked to return to the hostel and so saw it lit up from the inside while the sun was setting. Rome is fascinating because there are remains of the old city everywhere, there are areas where there are permanent fences surrounding open excavation and also for conservation.

Old and new side by side

Dusk
Not to mention the public transport weaves itself in and out of the old aqueducts. I also went to the Vittorio Emmanuele II monument in Piazza Venezia, which is flanked by two soldiers and two flames; Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori, and the Pantheon.

Gladiator at the Colisseum

Victor Emmanuele Monument with soldiers

They call it the Wedding Cake as it's a popular kissing spot. So sometimes you have a couple at the top just like figurines.

Today I shifted into the old area known as Trastevere across the Tiber river, on the same side as Vatican City. It's an ex-monastery, but a modern one, now a hostel for women only. Rooms are named after constellations and there are posters of Suzanne Vega and Kate Sheppard on the walls. Many books on feminism, empowerment of women and lesbian fiction on the shelf, it's definitely not a nunnery anymore. Spacious and clean with a cafe-restaurant downstairs and very central.





The birthplace of Romulus and Remus









Area Sacra

There's a cat sleeping on the platform under the roof. Penthouse apartment?

Castel St Angelo, 10min walk from Trastevere

Hopefully this evening I will find Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Just trying to keep cool, so I will probably go to the free exhibition on Renoir close to Museo Capitolini. I really should go to this museum but with so many museums where I am visiting it is getting expensive and I will go and enjoy the Vatican Museums tomorrow instead. Unfortunately I found out that Pope Benedict gives audience only on Wednesday (and you require a ticket) so I won't see him in person.

Piazza Navona

Campo de Fiori

Thank you everyone for saying hi to me! I love it.

- Mum, you should ask Michael if he graffitied his name on a Parisian metro train. I saw his last name, Buble scrawled over the door of one. Tried to take a snap but didn't come out. Did you see a Tassie Devil yet? (I am dying to know!)

- Aunt CY, I bought a mask from the Boldrin brothers in Venice, a simple half mask with playful eyes in a tarnished gold/silver which fit my face well. Trying very hard not to get it crushed in my backpack.

- Tiff, it's amazing that I get to eat so many courses and so much cheese and yet my trousers and skirts are now showing off my windmill underwear when I'm not careful to hitch em. Plus the beginning of abs. I definitely recommend the European budget tourist diet. Lots of water, traditional food, stairs and walking, no diet or gyms!

- Annette, congrats to Jordan and Bronwen! And please please take photos of Midwinter Festival, I love that time of year in Dunedin. It's been so much fun following the trail of the masks in Northern Italy.

I've got to organize the next leg of my journey now, so I'll use the rest of my internet hour to find accommodation in either Pisa, Siena (unfortunately probably booked because it is so close to Il Palio) or Genoa. I will definitely be in Nice on the 24 and 25th of June, staying at an ex-monastery called St Exupery. I thought this would be a good place to turn 26 as St Exupery is the name of the author who wrote the Little Prince, also it's rated the top hostel in France. From there, probably to Barcelona and some small trips to use up the rest of my travel days, maybe to Bilbao, or Carcassonne and Toulouse.

Postnote: On 23rd of June will travel to Pisa and stay there one night, then to St Exupery on the 24th.