Fly me to Rome please

I drove myself back from Malmo yesterday!!! It's my first time doing a 2 hours plus drive and I was panicky about it. Thank God for bringing me home in one piece.

I'm sooooo glad to be back in 20 degrees Karlskrona because Rome is simply too hot to survive in. After much rest, I finally found time to upload pictures of my Rome trip. Very siong ok, the blogger interface can only can upload max 5 pictures each time. Imagine how long I took to blog this.

Ok here it goes.

We drove to Copenhagen Airport to catch our early morning flight. It was kinda scary to drive in the middle of the night. We hit the roads ard 2.45am. It's super foggy with no overhead lamps along the road. We hit a seagull and it left a wing-print (u know like fingerprints but theirs are wing print) on the windscreen. I hope it didn't die.

Crossing the bridge to Copenhagen airport

This is the sky at 4.30am.



Woah! Didn't expect to capture this picture with my lousy camera :)


While waiting to board in the airport transit.
And this is GW having ice coffee early in the morning. Sure lao sai one lor.


Please open the gate, I wanna sleep on the plane!!!


THEN WE ARRIVED ROME FIUMICINO AIRPORT WITHIN 2.5 HOURS VIA TRANSAVIA

There are 3 terminals in Fiumicino Airport. We wanted to purchase our Roma pass in the airport but took a long time locating the Tourist Information Counter. (We asked for directions 3 times.)

Ok anyways, we got our Roma pass and it costs 23 euros each. With the Roma Pass, the first two sites/ museums we visit is FOC plus free metro and bus transportation for 3 days.

We thought it was a good bargain since we planned to visit the Colosseum (11 euros) and the National Museum (10 euros), and these already add up to 21 euros. A single way metro ticket will costs you 1 euro and since we didn't wanna walk everywhere in Rome, we will definitely use alot of Metro.

There is a 32 minute non-stop train service from Fiumicino Airport to the Roma Termini. It's called the Leonardo Express and costs 11 euros per person. We looked at each other with our eyes opened wide.

SO EXPENSIVE! Can Eat Buffet in Singapore leh!

So we took the alternative way by riding the 40min Cotral bus service outside Airport Terminal A to metro station EUR Magliana and from there another 10min metro ride to Roma Termini.

Though it takes a little longer this way but it's so much cheaper! Only 2 euros each for the Cotral bus service and metro is covered under the Roma pass.

FYI: You can't buy Cotral bus tickets in the bus, so make sure you get them from the Tabacchi stores in the airport.

This is the Cotral bus we took to EUR Magliana metro station.

Don't expect much for Roma transportation facilities. It's like Singapore SBS Bus 20 years ago with no aircon and very chui seats.

Remember to validate your bus ticket with this yellow machine.

The metro also very chui. No aircon again.

The hotel we stayed for 3 nights was awesome. It's called 38 VIMINALE STREET and is located directly opposite the Opera house. Hotel room is small but very clean and has a 40 inch plasma TV!!! Aircon is working super well (very important in Rome during summer) and we have to turn it off in the middle of night because too cold. There is a mini fridge and safe deposit box in the room as well. We freshened up and were ready to explore ROME!

I'm really fascinated by the hotel lift. It looks like some ancient machine built 500 years ago. GW said the lift cannot afford to break down. I got curious and asked why.

And his reply was: The people who can repair this are all dead liao.

It's like we are entering a narrow wooden wardrobe to another world. NARNIA!!!!

We were famished and settled our lunch at a Restaurant around 50 steps from our hotel. He ordered this 12 euros seafood rice which was totally tasteless.



My mushroom pizza came in a very big portion which I cannot finish.

Coke saves my day!


It's very hot in Rome (i know i mentioned many times already) and we can get dehydrated easily. And it became our routine to have a large Coke from Macdonalds everyday before heading back to our hotel. Coke gave us the strength to move on.



Ok so after lunch, we metro-ed out way to the Colosseum. It's only 2 stops away from Roma Termini station. The Colosseum is right in front of the metro station and it's beautiful beyond description!

GW approached a local to help us take a picture and it became the joke of the day. We laughed so hard when we saw this. IT'S JUST US ONLY, NO COLOSSEUM!!!! (picture updated)

Then we got another tourist to help us and it was so much better.

This is the oval shaped arena where the gladiators fought to live. Here you can also see the "basement" where they held prisoners and animals.

The place marked with a cross is where the emperor sits

Quickly took a picture because he complained the railings are very hot



Hello! I'm leaning on one of Colosseum's brick pillar!



We took the elevator to have a higher view and a nice tourist offered to help us take this picture.


And another one.



Arch of Constantine
It was built to honour Emperor Constantine who legalized Christianity back in A.D 312.


I think we took over 100 photos at the Colosseum.



Couldn't stand the heat and we hid in between pillars for shade.



I noticed GW always stand still with arms down when taking photos. So i asked him to be innovative abit, can change to some other poses or not. He then balanced the map on his head and called it a new pose.



Gladiators outside the colosseum for photo-taking.



Bought a 500ml bottled cold mineral water outside the Colosseum.
Costs 2.50 euros and we finished it in 5 minutes!



Sat down outside the Roman Forum and thinking if we should check out the Forum today or go back hotel and enjoy the aircon. Then i saw this uncle sketching the colosseum beside us quietly.

There's a supermarket beside the Opera House, and we went to buy some bottled water to bring back to our hotel.

There are so many different brands and we didn't know which to choose. And the cheapest one is only 26 cents!!! I think I can start a living in Rome by investing on a good refrigerator and selling bottled mineral water outside the Colosseum. Imagine the profit margin i can get!

Spizzico Pizza!!! IT'S NICE!

Armed with an umbrella and a big bottle of mineral water, we began our 2nd day of exploration in Rome. Everything is going to be fast and furious for us since we planned to cover quite a number of places today. First destination: Baths of Dioceltian near Piazza Republicca.

The roundabout at Piazza Republicca



Entrance to Baths of Dioceltian. Free!


The interior.

I don't know if we are goondu or what, but we were expecting a very big swimming pool inside. We wandered around and see no baths at all leh. Anyone who've been there can enlighten us?

If i'm not wrong, this is a musical instrument right?


Next on the list to visit: Rome National Museum



When I saw this sculpture, I thought she was trying to scratch an itchy area which she could hardly reach. I then read up about it, my guess was not quite right but it's close. She was shot by an arrow on her back and she's dying to pull it out. Interesting.

a Greek goddess





This is very impressive, don't know how they can carve these details


The discus thrower. GW's favourite.

Look closely. Do you think his "little brother" resembles a shrimp?

This is my favourite room. Check it out

All 4 walls were painted and it's like a paradise!

We then marched down to the basement to see the ancient coin collection. Cannot imagine how many pieces of these they have to carry in their pocket to go market buy fish. So bulky.

Studying a coin with the magnifying aid

Looks like a delicious giant chocolate coin.

Drooling over the gold bars

Jewellery. Is this the si dian jin (四点金)during those olden days?

Spent like 2 hours in the Rome National Museum and then metro-ed to Spagna Station to see the Spanish Steps.

This is Spanish steps. No, we didn't climb the steps. Can die.

Window shopped abit

I saw something really nice in this store. Heartpain and didn't want him to spend this kinda money but he also thinks it's nice, die die also want to buy it for me. WAH! HAPPY!



Fountain of Trevi. Alot of tourists here (especially tour groups), we quickly took a picture and ran to hide under the shelter.

We never throw any coin inside lah.

Next up: The Pantheon

Me outside the Pantheon, and half of the Egyptian Obelix.

Inside the pantheon, sat down and rest for a while

This is the temple's only light source on the top of the dome

Our lunch was at some random restaurant nearby. I checked out the menu and saw Coke and Beer selling at the same price so I thought might as well order Beer lah.. more wu hua (worth it) what. It's a fatal decision man!!! After drinking the beer, my face turned all red and I was feeling hotter than before! Next time better Mai Geh Kiang ok!

I then stole GW's coke to drink.

Poor GW. His 11 euros linguine was quite sucky.

Walked to Piazza Venezia.

The Capitol Hill

We then started walking to the Palatine Hill from the Capitol Hill. It looks quite straightforward on the map but it wasn't! We got lost totally.

Then I spotted a drinking fountain by the roadside and cheong towards it. It's as good as discovering a water puddle in a desert. It tasted so good, not like there's a taste but its the very shiok feeling when the cold water splashed on your face and triggered down your throat.

Found Palatine Hill and we started climbing steps. Sian man, alot of walking and climbing in Rome leh. And this sick weather doubles the sian-ness.

My advise: Avoid Rome during summer at all costs.

The Palatine hill used to have palaces on it and members of the royal family live on this hill.

This is the stadium.

Nice view

Then it's rocks and bricks, rocks and bricks, rocks and bricks everywhere.

This is the palace's main courtyard, the bricked octagon in the middle was a sunken fountain.

I think this was the private wing of the palace.

And i just wanted to take a "Hello! I'm on palatine hill" photo and leave this place.

Initial plan was to visit the Roman Forum, but we both were too exhausted to continue this fast and furious tour so we skipped the Forum and headed back to our hotel.

We were sick of pasta and pizza so dinner was at a Chinese restaurant, followed by ice cream at Macdonalds. We need to recharge ourselves for next day Vatican City tour!

3rd day. Woke up and had mac donalds for breakfast. We wanted to check out the pyramid before heading to Vatican City and this was what standing before us when we exited from the pyramide metro station.

DIAO RIGHT??? We were expecting something more happening than this very pathetic triangualr thingy by the roadside lah

Anyway, we metro-ed back to the Termini and changed to metro line A, then dragged our feet along the Vatican wall for another good 15 minutes to reach the Museum. It's very siong to walk under this kind of extreme weather with no shelter nothing ok!! But somehow, the thought of seeing Sistine Chapel pushes us, just like what Coke did to us.

Costs 14 euros each to get into the Vatican Museum. I'm too lazy to upload all 36748372 pictures here. And if you've ever had the chance to visit this place, you will know my lousy camera pictures are doing no justice to it.


If I'm not wrong, this fountain was from the Tiber river

Couldn't stand the heat, so head back indoors for some aircon



At the Ancient Egyptian room.

This is the mummy of a young woman in a wooden coffin.

And her organs were stored in these jars

Finally i see a statue with fig leaves covering the private part



The Long March totally exhausted us.
Spotted a bench and quickly cheong to rest our feet for a while


Already lost and don't know where we were, and he's still acting cool.

SISTINE CHAPEL

After being shuffled around for an hour, we finally got to Sistine chapel, the place which caused neck strains for almost everyone. The room was painted not only on the walls but on the ceilings as well. We sat facing the wall depicting the Last Judgement. It's really beautiful.

I really admired Michelangelo for doing up the whole Sistine Chapel all by himself.

Photography is not allowed in the sistine chapel but the tourists simply bo chup the guards and were happily snapping away (a handful were using flash somemore!!!)

I slipped on my cardigan since we are not allowed to bare our shoulders in the Chapel.

It's kinda dark in there so I had a picture with the flash. Cannot make it.

Without flash, also cannot make it.

The ceiling. It tells the story of Genesis.

Can you recognise the scene of this painting?

It's the garden of eden, adam and eve facing temptation and expulsion.

Out of Sistine Chapel, and we have to walk through a long gallery before we can get to the souvenir shop

I like this room but too bad the area has been blocked off so can only take a picture from here.

View of St Peter's dome from one of windows along the gallery

Browsing

I was wondering why GW was standing at the same position in the souvenir shop, then i realised he's enjoying the cold air from the AC.

The spiral stairways brought us out of the museum

Please do not eat at the self service restaurant opposite Vatican Museum's entrance.

This lunch costs us 45 euros, the most expensive meal we had in Rome.

Try walking a few blocks down instead.

The queue to St Peter's Basilica was a huge turn off

This is St Peter's Basilica.

Free to enter, but will cost $$$ if you wanna climb up to the dome. Strict dresscode is enforced here, no bare shoulders and miniskirts. I witnessed a woman being refused to enter because she was wearing a sleeveless top. No room for negotiations.

St Peter's Square

Took a timer picture with the gorilla pod.

The weather was really hot lah.
We hid under the Bernini columns for the shade, and hesitating if we shd join the queue.

We gave in to the weather. I must say the church is HUGE and very cooling.

The main altar of St Peter, it's directly under the dome.

Bernini was the one who designed the 7 storey high, bronzed canopy for the altar

The Apse.

This reminds me of our rome hotel lift.

The South Transept. On the left is the painting of Peter crucified upside down. And yes, that's the exact spot he's been crucified 1,900 years ago when he came to Rome to preach God's message.

The Swiss guards were chatting away all the time. They went ahead with the request from a young attractive blonde lady who wanted a picture taken together with them. But when another black lady did this, they simply asked her to stand aside. Haiss, typical human.

Went back to hotel around 6pm to bathe and freshen up before going out for dinner. And I almost freak out when I saw the news on weather forecast.

SO MANY SUNS! PREPARE TO BURN!

Fountain of Trevi in the evening. Beautiful.

But it's like 24 hours flooded with tourists lor. We found a Chinese restaurant nearby, serving very cheap 4 course meals. Costs 8.80 euros per person only!!! But the aircon in the restaurant not working lah, we were sitting directly under the aircon but still can perspire like mad

The Four Rivers Fountain at Piazza Navona, near Barberini Metro Station.

The Colosseum by night.

Relax. Enjoy the breeze. Enjoy our last night in Rome.

He came to rome for the colosseum.

We need very steady hands to take a decent picture with the colosseum, we took a few and turned out blurry. Then we saw people peddling tripod stands outside the colosseum.

We bargained hard and got it for 15 euros. The only picture we had with the tripod stand, because my camera ran out of battery. HAHA!!