Four days in Rome is not enough time to see and do most things in this ancient city! We’re currently sitting on a train to Ancona where we’ll catch an overnight ferry to Split, Croatia, both happy to have a bit of rest after four full days of walking around Rome, battling crowds, heat, and trying to process too many giga bytes of history that our brains can handle. It was nice to be in a western country again, although it came with a price tag! We had a rough plan on what to see and when, and everything was so close we could walk most places, catching a metro home once at the end of the day when our feet were so sore and we had had lunch at 5.30pm.
The architecture and churches around Rome were amazing, especially when you consider how old they are, some 2000 years old! The main thing you notice is how big the buildings are, many with huge statues or pillars or arches. There seemed to be a church nearly every block, which made them easy to see when walking round the city, and was a great escape from the cold wind and rain we had on our first day. Every church was obviously different from the next, but equally amazing when you first walk in and glimpse size and art and sculpture involved. Each had colourful detailed paintings on the roof and walls plus or minus gold, bronze or marble letterings, facades, pillars etc.

The last three days were hot (29deg) but with lots of fountains and drinking taps spurting cold water it wasn’t too bad. We visited the Colosseum and did an underground tour where the animals were kept, went to the Roman Forum and Palatine hill where Rome was founded – all quite incredible but so much history to take in!
On Sunday there was a huge police presence around the city for the swearing in of Italy’s new prime minister. There were quite a few journalists and crowds forming, luckily we didn’t hang round as we later learnt there had been a shooting by some guy trying to shoot politicians but shot two policemen instead. We thought we’d pop by the Vatican and try see the Pope do his Sunday blessing at midday. We arrive at St Peter’s square at 10.45 and it was already full!! We managed to get up to the start of the square with a good view of the main window, while being pushed and shoved from all directions by people who were dead keen on seeing the Pope too. 12pm came and went, ( so did three ambulances to assist people in the square), the curtain moved but the pope didn’t arrive. People from the front start to push back toward us in order to get out so we went with the flow and back out as well – we later found out he was doing mass somewhere else….thanks for updating your website Vatican City!! I can’t imagine what it’s like in the square during the conclave, Chaos!!!
The Pantheon was another highlight, the worlds largest unsupported concrete dome, 2000 years old, built as a temple but has been a church since the 7th century. It has an 8.7m oculus in the roof, and there are 200 tiny holes in the floor to drain rain that comes in.

We had reserved tickets online for the Vatican for yesterday but decided at the last minute to join a tour through the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel to skip the lines and avoid having to read lots of history boards which becomes tiring and boring. Luckily we did as it was so busy inside! We passed security and there was barely room inside to move sideways, its a wonder they let so many people in at once (22,000 people a day, 20 euro each) they must have a pretty good fire plan (and bank balance)! As you could imagine, the Vatican State was huge, beautiful, and interesting with its own police, guards, currency, petrol station, postal service, army, newspaper etc. We also saw some Swiss Guards who are responsible for the Pope’s security. 900 people live in the city, but only 500 are residents of the state.
The Sistine chapel was absolutely incredible with the beautiful paintings by Michaelangelo, each with a meaning or biblical-based story covering the whole roof and some of the walls. The atmosphere in the chapel was dampened by the Vatican Police parading across a small stage at the front, trying to verbally and physically enforce the ‘no talking/no photos’ rule, subsequently removing the feeling of being in a Holy or sacred place. We finished our Vatican tour 3 hours later than anticipated (hence the late lunch) but trooped on to the humongous but magnificent St Peters bascilica (119m high) and gazed at the many statues,monuments and paintings present. We caught a lift half-way up the top of the basilica (My knee starting to have a grumble) and walked the rest of the 300+ steps to the top through windy step narrow corridors. The view at the top was spectacular!!! We walked all the way down, became nauseated with the twisting steps, exited the Vatican State back into Italy, and bought a much needed 4 euro coke (ouch!)! Then high tailed it to the nearest place for a mushroom, olive and puchietto pizza! On the first night we happened to find a cute restaurant run by an Italian family with good food (including delicious Tiramisu)and service, which we returned to on our last night as many other cheap-ish restaurants were run by Indians and didn’t seem nearly as authentic.We generally ate pretty well while trying to save $, and didn’t quite oblige to the appetisers and multiple mains the Italians usually have when they eat out. Overall, brilliant pasta dishes esp lasagne, and pizza’s weren’t bad either. We enjoyed the wine but I still prefer my NZ savs and pinot’s!!

One thing we’ve noticed is the large umber of people who smoke Italy, not just one/hour but chain smoking ++ . Not very nice when you want to sit at the train or bus station or cafe etc and have to breath in their unfiltered cigarettes – yuck!!!

Our huge achievement in Rome was getting our Mongolian Visa’s in less than 24 hours – see separate blog for that story! Woohoooo!

Now we’re waiting at the bland ferry terminal in Ancona, cloudy cool day with not much to see. We have to check in 1.5km away from the dock where the ferry is – random! Wondering if we should’ve booked a cabin for the overnight ferry ride – from memory it cost as much as a nice hotel in Rome!