Rome was awesome. We had perfect weather (it was super bitey under the sun, but at least it was sunny!) and we stayed in the perfect location in a beautiful old apartment right next door to the Vatican City which made exploring the cobble stoned city on foot a treat.
Rome has no modern/high-rise buildings (we heard that nothing can be taller than the highest church, which isn’t very high), this makes for a place that looks like it has never ever changed with the times. The traffic is insane and no-one seems to follow any sort of road lines which makes the entire city feel like a huge bumpy (due to the cobble stones) race track where the aggressive driver wins every time as they undercut anyone and everyone in the corners.
Parking is just as insane and it explains why nearly everyone owns a tiny Smart car (they’re allowed to park them 90 degrees to the curb too). We saw so many cars just hit the car in front or behind in order to get into our out of a park, scratched and dented bumpers are the norm.
The language barrier was tough as most people we spoke to couldn’t speak any English. We tried our best to speak some Italian, that combined with some finger pointing and hand gesturing worked AOK.
What I took away the most from Rome was how ancient and historically significant everything was. Just standing in, and being allowed to touch the columns of the Pantheon (originally built in 27 BC) made me feel completely insignificant and the visit to the Vatican City had more of an impact on me than I expected. It seems like each and every little back street leads you to a site or building of huge significance.
Rome’s airport also had a train to take us from the gate to the main terminal (albeit a lot less modern that Singapore’s one!).
Our apartment was on Via Giulia, which turns out to be a famous little street in the historic centre of Rome.
When we got to the apartment the guy with the key wasn’t there yet (same with Barcelona but that’s another story!), so we walked down the road (with luggage!) to a little cafe.
As expected, it was great coffee. Turns out the locals don’t often sit down for coffee, instead they choose to stand at the bar and have their coffee with a pastry. If you sit down and have it, it costs you twice the price!
It wasn’t long before our guy rocked up with the keys, to our surprise it was a lovely little fully furnished apartment. The artwork on the walls were insane, especially a huge monoprint of Ancient Rome above the dinner table.
When walking around the block on the first day we found an open door on the street which lead to a very dark space inside, we weren’t sure what was in there but it was somehow very strangely inviting, turns out it was an amazing church which had a lot of skulls on display (unusual for a church right?). Every church we went to on the trip Mum lit up a candle and made some prayers for us which was nice.
The Castel Sant’Angelo was just around the corner from our apartment. The building was used as a fortress where the Pope of the Vatican City could retreat to during war (which happened a few times apparently when the Vatican was taken over by various forces). It’s now a museum which displays work which were nowhere near as fascinating as the building itself and the view to be had from the very top of the castle was amazing.
Smart car parking 90 degrees to curb.
The Piazza Navona was close to our place too. We had our 1st Pizza in this square, pizza was good of-course!
Fountain of the Neptune at the Piazza Navona.
The Pantheon, perhaps my fave building in the whole of Rome.
The huge dome above which has a huge circle opening at the top which allows the light to flood in, very beautiful. The hole at the top of the dome let’s the rain in too and apparently it’s an amazing sight to see a column of rain splash in from the top and hit the floor.
Inside the Pantheon.
Tiny little cars EVERYWHERE.
Another tiny little car.
Public bicycle service, why don’t we have this already in Sydney?!
Amazing little restaurant we found in a little side street at the end of our street. They have a web site!
A shot I took from our balcony of a guy below replacing some cobble stones.
We bought fresh foods from a local street market and deli and we feasted hard every morning on cooked meals and take away coffees.
The Spanish steps and fashion district where the girls (well… Mum) was tempted to spend up on Italian labels such as Gucci, Prada, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana.
Ferrari engine in the Ferrari shop.
Colnago bike for Ferrari and F1 car in the background.
Another Colnago + Segway.
Killer 3 wheeler!
Crazy random cafe filled with huge sculptures.
Eating is a gamble and we chose right with this kooky little cafe near the Spanish Steps. It had a ‘horn’ theme happening with many interesting sculptures on display.
One of the many beers we consumed that we’ve never had before.
One of many killer pasta dishes (at the end of our Rome trip we were totally pasta’d and pizza’d out!).
Trevi Fountain. Standing 85 feet high and 65 feet wide, it’s the largest Baroque fountain in the city.
Richie and Jamie throwing a donation into the fountain. It’s said that if you do this you will one day return to Rome.
Tight parking is the norm.
This new M3 outside our apartment (you can just make out Richie entering the apartment after another night of great food and booze) had a lot of parking bumper damage all over (so sad).
Suga and I outside of the ancient Roman Forum (now mostly rubble).
Richie.
The Colosseum. We had a very American tour guide booked for the day, she annoyed me a little but some of the stuff she had to say was amazing. It’s been estimated that about 500,000 people and over a million wild animals died in the Colosseum games. Amazing stuff and yes it was hard to delete the imagery that Gladiator the movie had burnt into my brain.
Inside.
The Colosseum and to the right you can make out the Arch of Constantine.
Cheese! Our meal near the Colosseum.
Fresh pasta FTMFW.
Outside the Vatican City. BMU RPRSNT! The Vatican City is it’s own country (it’s the world’s smallest country, fascinating huh?!). Our tour guide was a young American guy, he was awesome and made the entire visit a lot more understandable to me personally.
Richie and Jamie.
Me, mum and my sister Jamie.
There’s an amazing collection of insane artwork in the Vatican galleries (arguably of the highest historical, scientific and cultural importance in the world), most of it behind locked doors but what is on display is truly inspiring. Here are 3 Raphael paintings, the real deal and absolutely beautiful to see in real life.
Dead green Jesus.
Halls and halls of sculptures.
Lady men were well documented and apparently a treat for couples on wedding nights.
Huge hall of Tapestries was impressive not that tapestry is my thing but I appreciate the insane amount of work that went into these celing high artworks.
Hall of maps.
One of many decorated ceilings, unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the famous Sistine Chapel which Michelangelo painted.
One of many amazing paintings by Michelangelo.
Detail of the above painting, stolen by Guns’n’Roses album cover art below.
Guns’n’Roses album cover art.
St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. The largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people.
Suga + God’s rays.
Me.
The font size on the above ledge is apparently 3 times bigger than the one on the bottom ledge to give it visually the same size when viewed from the ground floor.
Dome detail.
We were lucky enough to catch a service too, which was kinda uncomfortable for me, but still interesting.
Michelangelo’s Pieta. The real deal. It’s an insane sculpture which has a great Michelangelo twist to it. He’s depicted Mary holding a dead Jesus, but Mary’s massive in size which suggests her holding a newborn Jesus.
Rome (and Paris too, we’ll get to that later in the week!) had a lot of Egyptian Obelisks which were gifts from Egypt (hey great way to mark new land, just give every country a huge gift from your culture!). This one marks the square in the middle of the Vatican City entrance and had it’s iconography shaved off and the Sun God Ra statue at the top was replaced with a cross.
The Vatican City tour made us thirsty, we had so many beer stops. My brother-in-law Richie’s fun to drink with for sure!
At night all the touristy places come alive with artists in the streets and tables from cafe’s sprawling out onto the footpaths.
I waited a while to watch this thing move, but it never did.
The castle at night, alive with a lot of great stalls selling food, beer, old records, gifts, you name it.
We got to check out a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit too. How awesome is his Canon drawing?
He also created this machine designed to get you close to your enemies (ie: an army tank).
And check this invention, the modern day ballbearing bicycle headset!!!
And perhaps the biggest shock of all, he had plans for a bicycle!!!!!!!
Detail. I’ve read elsewhere since that this might have been a hoax?
Another church we found just wondering the streets.
This one had a dead dude in it (like some others). A real body, preserved and on display.
We tried to have McDonalds in every country (as we wanted to do the Pulp Fiction “Royale with Cheese” and “Mayo on Fries” thing in Paris see). Mc Tasty this one was called, the oil on top of the burger bun was enough to make me feel sick.
New Alfa Mito, 1st one I’ve seen in the flesh, in Italy nonetheless!
Cool little shop in the Jewish ghetto.
“Water is life” as the Romans used to say, the entire city has water fountains (of all different shapes and sizes) which supply safe drinking water to the people.
Random graff.
Random graff. This building was plastered with eggs.
Beers at the Castel Sant’Angelo.
Voldemort?
Suga has a foose team at work and she’s been crazy into it lately, turns out Richie is super into fooseball too and they both went crazy when they realised there were tables at the fair going on outside the Castel Sant’Angelo.
Baked goodness.
Deli.
Italian for your little stallion.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pics of 2 more amazing places we visited, one was the catacombs and the other was the Capuchin Crypt beneath the Capuchin Church (1645). The bones of 4,000 Capuchin friars, who died between 1528 and 1870 in this crypt were nailed to the wall and arranged in patterns: cross, floral, arch, triangle and circle, as well as forming objects. A large clock is composed of vertebrae, foot bones and finger bones. The single hour hand represents the idea that time has no beginning or end.
Barcelona tomorrow and Paris still to come!!!