Euro Trip with my dear (Day 7)

DAY 7

We only had a few hours to sleep before catching our train at 4.00am to Rome. We had to leave this lovely city and the comfortable hostel :( they even asked if we needed anything as breakfast before we left.

There were few ppl waiting for the train... Tired... Good thing that the train arrived in time. But hell, the train's corridor was filled with baggage and even ppl sleeping! As that was a sleeper train, the train was divided into numerous cabins... We entered into one of the cabins, n there were a few ppl in it already.. There were 8 seats (or 6 seats? could not remember) 4 facing 4 (or 3 facing 3) seats. The seats can be lowered so that 2 opposing seats can b made into a bed... There was a lady who i thought was pretending to not notice tht ppl r coming in n she continued to sleep, refusing to give up the seat for other ppl... After quite a while, as ppl tried to get her up, then only she reluctantly get up to make space for others...

It was an uncomfortble trip, can't really sleep, especially for a light sleeper like Sin May.....
We finally arrived in the city of Rome after 5 hours of train....

We decided to have breakfast first before continuing with our journey.. We wandered around the train station n found this Italian-Middle Eastern snack shop... The food looked tasty, but the taste is not as good as it seems.. Not cheap as well...

After breakfast, i bought a map n bought 2 daily travel tickets for both of us.... I heard from my friends that Rome's subway is quite convenient... But hell, subways were closed bcoz of a strike. Nvm, we'll take bus. Then we waited at a bus stop under the bloody hot sun for a while, with us some backpackers n an Italian lady... Way too long for a bus to come, n we did not c buses going around... The Italian lady called the bus company n told us that the bus drivers are on strike. Public transport down... No good! Damn it, y strike now? Y even buses? Frustrating...

Then i remembered seeing hop-on-hop-off bus tour companies pulling business along the street. Well, tht is our only solution for transportation, n it was quite convenient as they will bring us to most of the tourists hot spots... So we bought the tickets, n waited for our turn to board... Another half an hour wait under the sun... Bought ice cream n cold water to cool the temperature...

Sin May wanted to sit on the open roof top for better view... But soon we regretted... My cacat 1 pound umbrella was mercilessly crushed by strong wind in Scotland n it couldn't stop the heat of the sun to hit us hard.... sighs, look how dark i got back then...

Rome is a very old city, blending ancient buildings with modern architecture harmoniously, at least it does not look as fake as Malacca.... Shame on Malacca..

OK, so the hop-on-hop-off bus travels around the city and stops by the main attractions in the city. There were around 10 stations. We could not afford to stop at each station, so we selectively go down at places we would like to visit.

The 1st stop, the Colosseum. It is amazing to see the famous Colesseum right in front of my own eyes, a magnificent building survived after centuries of war & disasters...

2 Gladiators eyeing to woo some naive/innocent tourists

Arco di Constantino - built to commemorate the triumph of Constantine I

Some very old looking ruins...

The territory of the once Great Roman Empire...

Our 2nd stop was a random 1... we did not know what to expect also, we juz reached a church, saw many ppl queueing to enter, so we stopped by. I remember seeing this stone face somewhere, i think it's some fortune telling machine.. I did not know what is the history of this until i googled today... The Mouth of Truth or La Bocca della Verità in Italian, legend says it was used as a lie detector, ppl who told a lie while placing his/her in the mouth of the sculpture will hv his/her hand bitten off.... No wonder ppl r queuing up to put their hand into the mouth of the sculpture...

Inside the church...

The outside view of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin

A fountain and a shrine like building...

3rd stop. In a random alley, lost while finding the Pantheon.... Finally found our way after asking 2 handsome mat salleh brothers...

Sighs, everything was under renovation in Europe during the summer... We only got to c half of the Pantheon. I am still amazed at how Romans managed to blend the ancient buildings in the modern city so well... It does not feel weird to suddenly bump into a millenium-old building in the modern streets of the city...

After we found the Pantheon, we tried to find our way bck to the bus stop to wait for the bus to the next stop.. But we could not find our way bck to the last stop, instead, I led Sin May to the previous stop - The Piazza de Venezia (Venice Square)... zzz.. At the round-about near Piazza de Venezia , the obvious symbol of the winged lion of Venice..

Took some pics, n we waited for the bus under the steaming hot sun... Felt terrible....
Next stop, Piazza San Pietro (St Peter's Square)... Hoped that we would have chance to go into Vatican someday, not on tht day though....

After a brief stop there, we moved on but we did not get down from the bus anymore... Kinda exhausted coz of the hot weather... We shall go to Rome again someday in the future when it's not too hot.....

We returned to the starting point, near the train station... We walked in n out of the train station, trying to decide what to eat... Finally we had McD as lunch, n I went to get a refund for our unused day-travel-pass (due to the strike by public transportation workers) n tried to find the bus stop for our bus to the airport...

We arrived early in the airport, (luckily, coz i had a stomach ache n desperately need to get to a toilet)... Finally, back to the city tht Sin May like most (for now) - London....


(to be continued...)