🇮🇹 Colosseum and The Vatican

Well up at 1am! So, so hard to re-adjust our body clocks to Roma time. We will definitely need coffee today, lots of it!  We headed out early that is around 7am, after falling back to sleep at around 5am to shop with the locals for some fresh produce at Mercati Esquilino. The market was only a 5 minutes walk from our apartment. We tried really hard to use our very limited Italian. Bella (beautiful – that is me), una (one), scuzi (excuse me), prego (you’re welcome), por favore (please), grazia (thank you). We got everything we needed to do a roast tonight. Rob’s cooking of course.

We hit the Metro again. Still don’t like the escalators and trains all covered in graffiti. Good thing is lots of security and we have waited no longer than 5 minutes for any train. Trains extremely packed today as Roma is getting very busy due to Jubilee tomorrow  which is a National Holiday.

COLOSSEUM

We are not tour people as everyone knows Rob and Kim can organise anything underwater but we had to do the Colosseum tour which took us down underground to where all the animals and gladiators would have been housed before a fight and then up to the third tier of seating in the arena. Great tour as only had about 14 people in it. To think it only took 8 years to build! Two words to describe the Colosseum would be Mind Blowing. If you love history this is the place to be.  Over 2000 years old!

VATICAN

We then headed over to the Vatican. On the way we had some more amazing pizza. Pizza here really only has one topping on it but it tastes great. Less is more is all I can say about the food here. Eating out is also very cheap. Rob and I ate lunch out for around $12-00 that included pizza and wine. You cannot go wrong with that. The lines were massive for Vatican and I at this stage didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. But thanks to Rob we have pre-booked our ticket and our line moves quickly as I say bye bye to those people who will be standing waiting for hours to get in. After going through high security measures which involves bag and body scans we finally arrive at our destination with a sea of people moving through room after room of marble statues, 500 year old tapestries, painting and wall to ceiling murals. Your mouth just drops open as you walk in awe looking at what has been created before us. It is too much for our minds to take in but our favourite art works were the murals on the ceilings and the tapestries.

Our feet and bodies are so sore and tired as we have just experienced sensory overload so we retreat home to enjoy a home cooked meal. I have nicknamed Rob my Nav-Man as he quickly guides us home through streets I cannot pronounce. Rob says to me are you upset with missing out on seeing St Peter’s Basilica as the lines were just too long to wait in as people are coming in droves to prayer. I could never be upset as I am with my best friend and life long partner. Thanks Rob for everything you do for me. I love you lots.