Rome

I arrived in Rome with no where to stay. I rocked up at the main train terminal and walked to the hostel I'd been hoping to stay at who had told me just to "turn up". They had nothing, and told me I could wait for cancellations, so I went around to corner to a laundry/internet cafe and got 15 mins free email while they did my washing. Finally I managed to get a bed, and then spent that night chatting to Christina from Mexico in the lounge area.

The dorm was big - 12 beds, and the showers were absolutely tiny. I had to develop a 2 plastic bag policy to deal with having a shower and not getting my clothes wet!

The next day I went with 2 guys from my room to the Vatican, where the queue for the Sistine Chapel was so big that we wouldn't have made it in before it closed. So We saw St Paul's, the dome, and wandered around Rome, including having gelato in a square next to a fountain - how Roman Holiday ;^)

That night we went on a Pub Crawl.. yes I went along with all the youngsters and did a touristy pub crawl of Rome. It was pretty average I have to say, and this was even before I was sick of evey Italian man trying to ask me out, but at the very end we went to a late night night club where all they played was hip hop music, and I spent the night dancing with a great guy called Tony whose Dad was an Italian and who's mum was an Indigenous Australian, so that was heaps of fun.

The next day I went to the Parthenon, the mouth of Truth, Circus Maximus and the Colleseum. Italy was just queues and queues of tourists. I have never seen so many tourists... to the point where I'd just get my map out because I didn't care anymore. Even to see the Mouth of Truth (a 100m distance) took over 45 mins!!

The next day I got up early and went and queued for 2 hours to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. It was truly amazing, but a bit hard to appreciate when it is just jam-packed with people, and they have to keep blowing whistles to stop people lounging on the floor to look at the ceiling.

Finally I saw the Roman Forum and the Palatine, before heading home to pack, and then out again to see the Trevi Fountain at night.

Disappointingly (as you'll see later) I got my photos burned in the afternoon before going to the Trevi Fountain, so that was the last point at which I had photos on CD when my camera was stolen... sigh