Gee.. my title is so.. catchy.. haha... Anyway, the adventures are back after a long break....

Day Four - 12 Dec 05 - Rome/Vatican City
Well, after a disturbed night's rest, we awoke to a rainy morning and headed off to the Vatican Museum. And when we got there at 10am, we found a long queue formed up outside the museum already! It went all the way down the street from the entrance and round the corner! An unknowing Singaporean might wonder, "wah! got free stuff ah! okok, i must queue also.." ;p


So anyway, the Vatican museum was HUGE... it was quite similar to the Louvre in some ways... Although after a while, I got quite overwhelmed by all the exhibits, because there were halls after halls after halls of stuff... And when we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, which I think was the main draw of the museum anyway, I must say I had what was quite the opposite reaction as when I saw David... I think the management must have thought it was quite amusing to squeeze tourists into a chapel to stare at the ceiling...

After that overwhelming experience, we set off for St Peter's Basilica, which is of course the largest church in the world..

Kenny at St Peter's Square, in front of St Peter's Basilica. It really was a huge church, with a really high ceiling and a beautiful dome in the middle designed by Michelangelo.

The body of Pope John Paul II was also on display in the Basilica. A great man, he was...

Thereafter, we tried to "enter" the Vatican City, I mean it's the smallest sovereign state in the world, with its own currency and post office! How cool! But, we were stopped by the Swiss guards who were guarding the entrances.. Apparently, it was a "private" city.... Hmmz... Passports?

So we decided to head to the Coloseum instead, but because it was winter, they had closed early, and we had just missed the last entry.... and we decided to roam the streets of Rome instead... visited the Trevi fountain, the famous Pantheon and the main shopping streets... Nothing much worth mentioning though...

To end off the day, I just thought I'd include this picture:
captioned: Gladiators are human too! ;p

Day Five - 13 Dec 05 - Rome
Let's just say we had a rough night with the Finnish boys. They came back at 11pm and started packing and make a hell lot of ruckus packing. After I told them to shut up, they kinda started speaking in hushed tones... But they being drunk, and I think most people can testify the ability of a drunk person to speak softly is quite the impossible. And worse, while 4 of them left the room, the remaining 4 were huddled on TWO beds, under the blankets, wearing ONLY their briefs/boxers! I honestly don't want to know what they were doing. After telling them off a couple more times to go off to the bar if they were not gonna sleep, they finally got the idea and went off... BUT only to return at 2+am to fetch their bags to head off to the airport, in the loudest voices and in the slowest fashion. Buggers.

Ok, so we awoke feeling quite tired, which warrants me having 3 shots of espresso for breakfast. Went off to the Coloseum again.

Kenny at the Coloseum. (As you can tell, by this stage of my travels, I am quite good at my self-portraits already... ;p) I thought it was quite interesting to know what the Coloseum was used for previously... all the bloody gladiator fights... to know that tens of thousands of people had fought to their deaths in the arena.

Kenny at the Palatine.

After the Coloseum, we visited the Palatine which is some remains of a very early settlement, beside the forums. Or something along those lines... ;p I enjoyed the Roman forum more though.. The grandeur of the Roman columns, the temples, the arches... I can hardly imagine how it was like at the zenith of the Roman empire...

Kenny and Gullnaz at the Roman Forum...

To end the day, I bought kebabs for dinner which I had while we took the train to Naples and ended our journey in Rome. And I am definitely beginning to love kebabs in the land of Pizza & Pasta.... haha..

Naples.. here we come!