Monday November 1st 2010Rome  In the morning, we headed to the Colosseum to join yet another line. We were stoked to find out that our British passports meant that we got a reduced fare (thanks dad!), much to the disgust of the American travelers behind us :P It started spitting in the line and once we were finally in the Colosseum, it was definitely raining. Luckily we had Samme’s semi-broken Primark umbrella to save our cameras so we could still get photos. We spent ages trying to work out how on earth to get to the lower levels, one of many blonde moments we had on this trip i’m sure. It was so awesome to be inside such an amazing ruin. Unfortunately, although our tickets also let us into the Roman Forum, it started raining harder and harder so we headed back to our B&B to try to warm up and dry off. We told our B&B owner that we would be having to leave super early in the next morning so he brought us in our breakfast basket so we could take some with us. Very nice of him :) We changed, and by this stage you should know that Samme had very cleverly brought along two pairs of shoes, both of which were breaking… so, using a bit of Kiwi ingenuity, she put some plastic bags on her feet before putting her boots on, a very good idea in theory!  and also incredibly hilarious… So we braved the thunderstorm and headed out again and took the metro to the Spanish Steps. We then wandered along, using my trusty offline maps app to the Trevi fountain again. It was awesome to see it again in the daylight, the water was such a pretty colour! This visit, we decided to throw coins in like the cheesy tourists we are!   We then headed to find the Pantheon, wandering down some gorgeous little Italian alleys on our way. One, though, was not so lovely, and put Samme’s carefully constructed plastic bag socks to the test… Biggest puddle I have ever seen in my life. Was actually more like a small pond. It was our only was forward though so we were forced to go through it. Poor Samme! Once we were through we headed to the Pantheon and sadly, not only was it under construction, but also, it closed at 1!  But they do say you can’t see all of Rome in one trip so I guess thats something I can look forward to seeing next time! After the Pantheon we headed to the Piazza Navona which was very pretty, and took a few pictures there. Along the way we also got some postcards sent and stopped off in a McDonalds to get a chip packet for Thomas! We then tried to head to some shops, but my brilliant directional skills somehow lead us to the Vatican instead (seriously, take a look on the map and see how far the Vatican is from Piazza Navona!) By this stage we were exhausted, but lucky for us, our “detour” meant that we got to see St Peters all lit up in the dark and it was so beautiful. We decided to get dinner out there because we were starving by this stage and knew we had to leave super early in the morning. We both had gnocchi and it was delicious! After that we headed back to the B&B and packed up so that we’d be ready to leave early in the morning.

Monday November 1st 2010
Rome 

In the morning, we headed to the Colosseum to join yet another line. We were stoked to find out that our British passports meant that we got a reduced fare (thanks dad!), much to the disgust of the American travelers behind us :P It started spitting in the line and once we were finally in the Colosseum, it was definitely raining. Luckily we had Samme’s semi-broken Primark umbrella to save our cameras so we could still get photos. We spent ages trying to work out how on earth to get to the lower levels, one of many blonde moments we had on this trip i’m sure. It was so awesome to be inside such an amazing ruin. Unfortunately, although our tickets also let us into the Roman Forum, it started raining harder and harder so we headed back to our B&B to try to warm up and dry off. We told our B&B owner that we would be having to leave super early in the next morning so he brought us in our breakfast basket so we could take some with us. Very nice of him :) We changed, and by this stage you should know that Samme had very cleverly brought along two pairs of shoes, both of which were breaking… so, using a bit of Kiwi ingenuity, she put some plastic bags on her feet before putting her boots on, a very good idea in theory! 

and also incredibly hilarious…

So we braved the thunderstorm and headed out again and took the metro to the Spanish Steps.

We then wandered along, using my trusty offline maps app to the Trevi fountain again. It was awesome to see it again in the daylight, the water was such a pretty colour!

This visit, we decided to throw coins in like the cheesy tourists we are!

 

We then headed to find the Pantheon, wandering down some gorgeous little Italian alleys on our way. One, though, was not so lovely, and put Samme’s carefully constructed plastic bag socks to the test…

Biggest puddle I have ever seen in my life. Was actually more like a small pond. It was our only was forward though so we were forced to go through it. Poor Samme! Once we were through we headed to the Pantheon and sadly, not only was it under construction, but also, it closed at 1! 

But they do say you can’t see all of Rome in one trip so I guess thats something I can look forward to seeing next time! After the Pantheon we headed to the Piazza Navona which was very pretty, and took a few pictures there.

Along the way we also got some postcards sent and stopped off in a McDonalds to get a chip packet for Thomas! We then tried to head to some shops, but my brilliant directional skills somehow lead us to the Vatican instead (seriously, take a look on the map and see how far the Vatican is from Piazza Navona!) By this stage we were exhausted, but lucky for us, our “detour” meant that we got to see St Peters all lit up in the dark and it was so beautiful.

We decided to get dinner out there because we were starving by this stage and knew we had to leave super early in the morning. We both had gnocchi and it was delicious! After that we headed back to the B&B and packed up so that we’d be ready to leave early in the morning.