Italy summer trip - ROME

We arrived late at night in Rome and went straight to the hotel in order to get a good nights sleep to awake bright and early the next day for when the walking would begin. Our first day in Rome was exciting, tiring, interesting and enjoyable. We headed out early in the morning to beat the crowds and to beat the hot sun. Thankfully it wasnt too warm as we were wondering around the streets, and not so thankfully it did rain! First stop the Collosseum! 

Collosseum from the roadside

Me and Ash inside the Collosseum

The Gladiators trying to get money (they ask to take your picture in order to get the money, very annoying)

After visiting the Collosseum we made our way around the other tourist sights and ruins in the area. The next stop/pause was to see the arch of constantine which is between the Collosseum and the Palatine Hill. 

 Arch of Constantine

National Museum of Venice Palace - its was once the seat of the embassy of the Republic of Venice, France and Austria and then returned to the Italian State

Stadium Of Domitian on Palatine Hill

View on top of Palatine hill

Where the love of bread and olive oil began :)

Ash filling up our water bottle (Great having free drinking water everywhere)

As the day went on we definitely needed a lot of water, Paul was leading the way around Rome and was doing a fantastic job. It was great to finally see the sights of Rome after all these years of hearing about it. Unfortunately though the Trevi Fountain seemed to be a bit harder to find... So when we did find it, it was GREAT and really fantastic too see.  

Ash outside the pantheon

Trevi fountain (finally)



Ash telling the anoying rose guy that he is ruining her picture...

After an exhausting day sightseeing and many blisters we decided an early night sounded good. The next day we went to Vatican City! We arrived early in the morning, well what we thought was early, and there was already a massive line of people trying to buy tickets to get in. As we were lining up Paul got bombarded by people trying to sell tickets and tours. At first we werent really listening to them and we were prepared to wait it out, however we got a good deal and decided to take a tour around the museum and Church. 



 Outside Vatican museum



Inside the Vatican museum 



Being naughty and taking a sneaky photo inside Sistine chapel

   

Ash outside St Peters basilica (very sunny!)

Me and Ash in front of St Peters tomb

Huge picture of Pope Benedict XVI

After walking through villa borghese (which is a massive park area) we saw a number of people having a lot of fun on the tandem bikes so we decided to have a go and it was sooo much fun! Needless to say it was a nice way to end the busy sightseeing day.  

Ash on the pedal car



Paul on the pedal car with a nice view of Rome in the background

Our last day in Rome basically consisted of picking up our little car which we named Ed! and this started the interesting adventure of driving in Italy!

Ed! The little race car...