When in Rome.....

Rome
The day started off normal enough..we all got up early to go do some touristy stuff with the rest of the contikians.

First on the agenda was to visit the Roman Forum followed by the Colloseum.
We arrived at the forum excited and eager to see what the Roman civilization might have been like.  I won't ellaborate much on the ruins because frankly I wasn't paying much attention. LOL. While the place looked absolutely amazing, if the tour guide hadn't been there it would have looked like just a pile of old rocks randomly scattered around, with a bit of structural buildings here and there. OK. I'm not doing the Roman forum any justice soI should shut up about it now and leave that to the history buffs.Hehe. 

As we exited the forum through some overgrown hedges we came upon the Colloseum in all its glory. I was awe struck of its sheer size and how it managed to withstand the test of time, considering the brunt of the earthquake it took.

We made our way inside together with our tour guide.  Again, I didn't pay attention to her as I took in my surroundings, because come on, the colloseum is practically synonymous with gladiators i.e. Russell Crowe...or was it Gerard Butler so what else is there to know?  Very ignorant of me yes but whatever.  Anyways, we spent a bit of time exploring the colloseum and taking pictures. Once we made our way out of the colloseum we were hounded by hairy middle-aged men in gladiator costumes pulling us in to get a picture taken with them.   Nissy and I ended up doing it and they demanded for 10euros for the pic! yeah in your dreams dudes! i handed them 2 euros and Nissy unfortunately forked out 5!

The Vatican

We then made our way into the State of Vatican city - the smallest country in the world within the city of Rome, where we came upon St Peter's Square.  We walked into the massive beautiful St Peters Basilica which houses the famous reinassance art by Michelangelo - La Pieta.  Our next destination took us to the Vatican museum which led us to the breathtaking Sistine Chapel. I was absolutely mesmerized and couldn't stop gaping at the mavelous work of art before me.  Each painting and carvings were intricately designed and it was just absolutely stunning.  I really was gobsmacked.  Photos were an absolutely no no but I managed to take in some sneaky shots.  There were swiss guards everywhere and we had to very quiet. Everytime the place got a bit too noisy the swiss guards would call out a "Shhh!" and a hush would engulf the whole chapel.  It was quite remarkable and this would go on and on.