:: rome 11/07 ::

early evening arrival to ciampino - another one of these cheap, outskirted airports that ryanair and other el cheapo airlines fly to. we were led onto a coach bus that costs 8 euro to get into town and then told we would be waiting an hour and a half for the bus to leave. grabbing back the cash we somehow ended up on a regular bus which took us to the last metro station on the line and after some stress related to not having exact change we rode the metro to termini and found our hotel room which was nearby.

due to some of the poor conditions of places we stayed, i have felt compelled to write reviews on bootsnall.com. our hotel sucked ass and i actually put my back out bending my head over to try and fit into the toilets - long story short, the toilet/bathroom was built under a staircase.

aching back, map in hand we ventured off to to see the sites. the coloseum was interesting but years of being lied to by hollywood meant I was a bit dissapointed with th reality - i have to admit i was expecting it to be in better condition. walking through the forum was great, laura commented that it would be great if they could put up some sort of holigram to show you what the buildings would have looked like in their prime - i thought this was a smashing idea as you could see the ruins and also get a glimpse of life as it was without destryoing whats left behind.

a lot smaller than i was expecting, we navigated most of the sites quite quickly, although being led on a free tour of the basilica meant we had to venture back a second day to see the sistine chapel, which closes quite early for a multi-million dollar tourist attraction - and i have to be honest, i thought it was just that. many of the works in the vatican museum were in my opinion better than the chapel itself, but these works of art don't really get noticed as you are hearded like cattel through the museum into the chapel and then heared oustide again.

being ripped 30 euro for a piss poor attempt at anti-pasta made me lose my temper - it was just extortion. the rest of the food we found was well priced and really tasty.

did the spanish steps and the fountain and felt even more like the hapless tourist. rome was just too touristy. with more time i am sure i would have been able to get of the beaten track, but then why go to rome if not to see all that touristy stuff? catch 22 really...

funniest was the cafe around the corner where we ate from quite a bit - everytime i walked into the shop he would greet me with "american - boston- massachusetts" even though i told him every time i went i was australian - i think he really wanted to meet someone from boston....

next stop - greece.