Europe Trip Day 2

We arrived in Rome at about 8plus in the evening. Temperature was a cool 17 degress.


Checked into Excel Roma, a 100 year old hotel that exceeded our expectations! Heard quite bad reviews about European hotels being very small and lacking many amenities. But this hotel was good! even came with free wireless service.


Exterior view of the hotel...


So we started our tour the next morning! streets of Rome.


First stop was the Colosseum. Only had 30 minutes there and there was a long queue to enter, so we skipped the interior and explored the outside.


By the way, we met this man dressed in gladiator costume, and he wanted to charge us 5 Euros for posing in our photo. haha, we took a quick snap and walked away from him quickly... didn't pay :P


Then we went for lunch at an Italian restaurant. everyone was anticipating authentic italian pasta but it turned out to be a great disappoinment! the pasta was too sour, our fish main course was stale and the dessert was weird too. anyway, didn't find it impressive so I shall not post any photo.

oh, here's our S$3.60 bottle of mineral water. haha wonder why he's so happy about paying such a hefty price for water.


yay! next stop was vatican city :)


The museum was packed with tourists...


beautiful paintings on the ceilings as we made our way to the sistine chapel


Finally made it in the sistine chapel! but no photography was allowed inside. They were quite strict on this rule and I saw several tourists being reprimanded by the guards. periodically they will "SSSSSHHHHHHH" really loudly to remind tourists to keep quiet and keep the tranquility of the chapel.

I managed to steal a shot inside. Michelangelo was an absolute genius. He painted the story of creation from the Bible on the ceilings of the chapel. If i remember correctly, this project took him 15 years.


Next, we hopped over to St Peter's Basilica, where one of Jesus' disciple - Peter was crucified upside down. Michelangelo did another famous sculpture of Mary cradling Jesus after he was crucified. they shielded the sculpture with a glass panel because 30 years ago, a mad tourist went in to hack Mary's face with a hammer...


Taken outside St Peter's Basilica. The open square where thousands of Catholics meet the Pope for mass.


Moving on, we passed by another landmark, the Roman Palace. People of the past seemed to love huge and tall monuments.


There are just too many things to see in Rome! we were at the Trevi Fountain. It was really the biggest fountain I have seen in my life. Couldn't get a decent shot because there was just too many tourists... I reckon I should visit Rome during winter in future and enjoying my tour without heads bobbing around in my photos.


Then we walked to the spanish steps. group photo here :)


a few of us decided to tackle the steps. we climbed to the top and had an aerial view of the city.


It was evening by the time we finished these sites. Adjourned to a chinese restaurant for a nice warm meal. Next day, we will head to Pisa & Florence :)