Rome, Italy, Tues 01 Dec 09

Our last day in Rome. We had seen most of the big sites so we mainly spent our time exploring more of the city. We went back to the fountain Plaza again after dropping the apartment keys off so Nick and I could enjoy an Italian coffee.

While we sat and chilled Christy & Will had a look around the church which didn't turn out to be a great idea because Will had an allergic reaction to the lavender incense they were burning. He was ok, just had to get out of there really quick.

We walked down to the Vittorio Emanuele II monument which is a huge building and one that can be seen from almost anywhere in Rome. Funnily enough apparently the Italians don't like it, not sure why they've just got something against it and they and call it the 'wedding cake' or something. I think they have a few other nicknames for it.

It's also quite new which may be another reason it doesn't have a fond following, and when I say new I mean the late 1800s which is very new for Rome. It now contains the tomb of the unknown soldier and as such the entire building is a sacred monument so you can't sit anywhere on it and they're very strict about that. There is one guy just telling people off if they sit down and then there are a couple of guards stationed just to look after the tomb. Looked like a pretty boring job.

We had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant and found Rome's expensive shopping street (think Dior, Versace and every other designer name you can think of). We also saw the 'Spanish Steps' which lead up to another church and has a boat shaped fountain at the base, quiet pretty and a great spot to chill out.

We then walked up to the Piazza del Popolo and admired the big obelisk and fountains there. The obelisk is Egyptian and from sometime before BC even though it didn't actually look that old. The sun had come out so the Piazza was actually a really nice spot to chill out in.

Off to the side of the Piazza was some stairs to go up a hill to a platform which would look back over the Piazza and more of the city too. So we decided to head up there for the views. There were heaps of dodgy people around trying to scam tourists but the views up the top were nice and we could see as far as the Vatican.

We kept on walking and eventually reached the Tiber River so walked down to that (the river is a lot lower than the streets) and had a walk along the river. It's not the prettiest river but we got some nice views of the bridges.

We eventually reached the most famous bridge, the one that approaches Castel Sant'Angelo and we came back up from the river bed to walk along it. The bridge was beautiful with angel statues along it, made even better with the dusk setting. Castel Sant'Angelo (which is joined to the Vatican along a passage) has been a few things over the years including a fortress and castle. It was late so we didn't go in but was nice to see from the outside.

While we were on the bridge we spotted this crazy mass in the sky and it turned out to be hundreds maybe even thousands of sparrows flying around in various directions causing the most amazing patterns. It was beautiful to watch, I couldn't believe there were so many birds in one place. I'm not sure what would cause them to act like that. It's not something I've seen before.

That was our last stop as it got late and we had to make our way back to the airport and sadly finish up our trip in Rome, one of the most amazing cities I've been to. I wonder if I'll ever have the opportunity to come back.

Rome, Italy, Mon 30 Nov 09

Today we spent at the Colosseum and Roman Forum. The Colosseum turned out to be pretty close to our apartment so it was an easy walk down to it. We grabbed our tickets at the Palatine (cheeky trick to skip the queues at the Colosseum) and went to the Colosseum. An incredible place with so much history and amazing stories. It's incredible that there is still so much left and it's actually in quite a good preserved state.

After visiting the Colosseum we went back to the Palatine to do a walking tour of it and the Roman Forum. We got some audio guides too so we could learn some more about the place. It's the oldest part of Rome and is where Roman civilization was born. The Palatine hill is where the legend of Romulus & Remus (Roman Gods) being found and suckled by a she-wolf took place. The Forum is at the base of the hill and is where the ancient Palaces, Roman Parliament and Temples were.

You have to have a pretty good imagination at the Roman Forum ruins. Even with the audio guides it was quite tough to work out where everything had been. The guide would say something like, and see over to your left the remains of three columns.. that is where a large temple was housing this, this, and this.. and that sort of thing. But it was really interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't fantastic weather and we got rained out a bit.

Up the hill there were great views back over Rome and to the Colosseum. I think all the history of it fascinated me a bit more than the others, they seemed to get bored a bit quicker, or maybe it was the rain, either way they were really nice to stick it out so I could see it all. It really wasn't the nicest of days to be traipsing through old ruins but we got there in the end. But we ended off the day warming up in McDs so that was a good way to thaw out.

Since it's quite hard to make ruins interesting in a blog I have way more pictures than writing so I'll put the rest below :)

Rome, Italy, Sun 29 Nov 09

A way too early start this morning! We were going to the Vatican museums and were told queues are insane so we were up before 7am. The museums are usually closed Sundays except the last Sunday of the month when they open for free. We were a little worried about how packed it would be on a free day but figured since it was winter it was worth the risk.

We got in the line about 8:30 and the queue was already down the road and around the corner! And it grew longer every minute. It was a very cold morning too which didn't make it any easier. My legs felt like icicles. It got pretty boring standing in the queue too so we had to make up something to keep us entertained. Nick and Will decided the best way was to try and scale the wall to get into the Vatican... as you can see they didn't have much luck ;)

Thankfully once the doors opened at 9:30 the queue moved pretty quickly as people didn't need to pay, even then it still took about half an hour, I don't know what it must be like on normal weekdays.

First we stopped at a terrace with views of St Peters, it was a great place to stop and get some photos, we finally got our first group shot there with all of us. The terrace also looked over some of the Vatican gardens, not sure if they're ever actually used, but they were pretty.

After hanging on the terrace we then checked out the Pinacoteca art gallery which houses famous artwork from Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Perugino (and many others, their paintings were just highlighted in my guide book - I don't really know a lot about famous paintings).

My favourite was Raphael's Transfiguration painting It is quite famous and it was his last. I had never really known of Raphael's paintings (of course I knew who he was but couldn't have picked his paintings out) but after my trip to the Vatican I found I really liked his work.

After that we wondered through some of the other exhibitions and got ourselves thoroughly lost :) There were lots of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts along with various sculpture rooms. In the Egyptian section there was even an uncovered mummy which I found quite gross.

As we made our way closer to the Sistine Chapel the path became practically one way with so many people that all you could do was follow the crowds. It was hard with so many people as I was trying to read my guide book to match up artwork and murals (frescoes) without bumping or tripping over people and it wasn't easy. Some of the artwork in the rooms was beautiful. I really liked the Raphael rooms and his most famous fresco 'The School of Athens' was amazing. There is a picture of it a couple of photos below, it has lots of famous people in it, even a self portrait of Raphael and Michelangelo is in there too. It was fun using my guide book to spot them all.

After the Stanze di Raffaello we made our way into the Sistine Chapel. It was packed inside as you can imagine but the artwork was incredible. You can't take any photos inside as it is a place of worship.

My favourite fresco was The Last Judgment by Michelangelo on the end altar wall. It was amazing, so intricate. You can stare at it forever and find new stories being told. The ceiling frescoes were beautiful too, depicting various stories of the Bible and I had fun trying to work them all out. But your neck gets sore after awhile staring up. It was a breathtaking chapel.

Leaving the chapel it was a very long walk back to the beginning and my feet were so sore! We did a lot of walking in Rome. Once we left the museums we walked back around to Piazza San Pietro, the big open square in front of St Peters Basilica. It was a beautiful space with columns surrounding the square and a pillar in the center. There are two spots in the square where you can stand and the three rows of columns perfectly line up, that was pretty cool.

Another queue to get into the Basilica (security checks) but we were soon admiring one of the most beautiful churches in the world. I saw the Pieta, a statue by Michelangelo, depicting Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified and it's one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen. The rest of the Church is just as beautiful, with it's huge dome and magnificent artwork.

The high altar is incredible and there is a statue of St Peter whose foot was worn off from pilgrims kissing and touching it over the centuries (it's no longer accessible). We even caught a church service in one of the side chapels. The congregation walked through the church singing hymns before settling in the chapel near where we were standing. We stayed and watched for a little while but it was all in Italian so we didn't stay for the whole thing.

Christy and Will left to walk up the dome but I wasn't feeling well at all (I knew I was coming down with a cold - sore throat, achy body) and knew I wouldn't make it up all those steps so we went down to the crypt and saw the tombs of all the popes including Pope John Paul II who had a special area where people could pray and pay their respects.

We chilled out in the square for awhile before making our way back to the apartment for an afternoon nap. I definitely had a cold,my damn immune deficient body, I've been sick almost every trip we've had this year. Not fun! So we had a pretty quiet night really, sent the boys out to get us takeaways :)

Rome, Italy, Sat 28 Nov 09

We had a few days in Rome so decided having a look around and getting our bearings on the first day was the best idea. Christy suggested we do a hop-on hop-off bus tour. We did the full loop and got to see lots of places (beautiful plazas, gorgeous buildings etc) and get our bearings of Rome.

Of course we drove passed the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We also drove passed the Vittorio Emanuele Monument (see last day entry) and a mini Colosseum. We went up to the Vatican and saw St Peters Basilica and drove the edge of the Vatican.

We saw Castel Sant'Angelo and Piazza del Popolo (again see last day entry) and a few other things on the way. We knew we needed entire days for the Vatican and the Colosseum so we had booked in full days to see those sights and we wanted to focus on smaller things today.

After one loop on the bus we jumped off near the Piazza Navona, one of the main Piazza's (squares) in town. We stopped at a small restaurant on a side lane as we were starving and enjoyed some pizza and pasta (our staple diet for the next few days!). We then explored Piazza Navona's beautiful fountains and building facades. It was very busy too as there was a small market on.

We moved on to the Pantheon. Wow! What an amazing place. Built in the greek style it has been many things over the years including a temple and a church and is home to the tombs of Raphael and a couple of Italian Kings. The interior is a large circular rotunda which rises up to a dome with an oculus (a hole in the dome basically). So in fact there are holes in the floor and a slight decline so that the water will run away when it rains.

The oculus was used for ventilation and light and provides a sun dial effect within the building. I also found out that the height of the oculus is exactly the diameter of the interior circle. Pretty amazing stuff. The Kings tombs were guarded but Raphael's seemed to be the most popular. But ultimately it was the beauty of the place that caught my attention. The interior is simply stunning.

From the Pantheon we walked up to Trevi Fountain and man was it packed. You could barely move. I can't imagine what it must be like in summer. Trevi Fountain is Rome's most famous fountain and you can see why. It is beautiful, set in a surprisingly small square on the facade of a building. I think it does suffer a little from it's own fame, it was hard to really appreciate it with so many people around.

Christy and Will headed back to the apartment and Nick and I kept wondering around the little streets just soaking up Rome. We got back on the bus and jumped off at the roundabout we had seen on the first day. It was early evening but the Church was still open so we went inside and had a look around. It was called Santa Maria degli Angeli and although not one of the most famous churches in Rome I still found it beautiful and much more peaceful which made it very nice. I also got some great photos of the fountain all lit up.

We went out for dinner that night at a small restaurant down the end of the road. We happened to spot it the night before, and we were lucky because it was a blink and you'll miss it type place because it was down in the lower ground level.

When we got there it was full of locals and we weren't sure we would get a table but it was a good sign that we had come to a good place. The food was yummy although sadly Rome's pasta isn't as good as Milan's. I think the problem is in Rome its an entree so serving sizes are very small and it's rare to find one with meat in it (even a little bit of bacon or chorizo) so it doesn't quite hit the spot. But the pizzas were good.

Rome, Italy, Fri 27 Nov 09

Off to Rome for four days! What could be more exciting that that?! I think Rome has always been on my top list of cities to visit. So much history! We went with Christy and Will (our flatmates) and it was great having company for one of our trips.

We got in quite late but the train in from the airport was easy, finding the apartment office not so, but Will had a pretty good sense of direction. We got there in the end, got the keys to our apartment and headed for the metro. On the way we passed a beautiful church which looked out onto a fountain and another building which circled around the center roundabout. It was all lit up and looked beautiful.

So we were staying in an apartment and it was pretty cool. Rome apartments seem to have a similar setup, where there is a door on the street that takes you into a central courtyard which are surrounded by apartment blocks and then there are entrances to each apartment off that. We were on the first floor of one of those blocks. The door off the street was a bit of a laugh too as it was huge but then with a miniature door cut out of it for just people to walk through. Quite cool. Staying in an apartment was fun because you felt like you were living in Rome but the shower was probably typical of Europe and had two settings - boiling or freezing - and the Italians kept us up at night (or woke us early in the morning) talking really loudly and for ages in the echo courtyard so I had to resort to ear plugs but I still really enjoyed staying there.

Kew Gardens, London, One Sunday in November

I had always wanted to visit the Kew Gardens and one sunny Sunday in early Nov I decided it was the perfect opportunity to see the gardens before Autumn was over. The gardens are huge (about 300 acres) and contain both field and tree filled areas as well as conservatories and green houses. The gardens contain something like the largest collection of different plants in the world, and I can believe that.

The gardens are beautiful and a great place to spend a Sunday. We visited the conservatories with their amazing exotic plants and freakishly tall ferns. We saw the water lily house with an indoor pond and the most beautifully coloured water lilies.

We took a tree top walk amongst the golden trees (not as great as I had hoped, pretty short and the views were quite limited) but after it was fun to play in all the fallen leaves from the trees.

The most amazing thing was all the colours! Golds, yellows, browns, reds and even slight shades of pinks were displayed in the various trees around the gardens. It was beautiful.

Another greenhouse contained all sorts of great looking cacti, every type of carnivorous plant you can imagine and a beautiful room full of orchids. They had all sorts of other cool things as well but there was just too much to take it all in. It's an amazing place, and a great way to spend a sunny Autumn Sunday.

Lots of photos so some more below.