Italy - Rome
Well, this is completely off topic, but today's pictures are still being loaded in another tab and I decided to use my time wisely instead of just staring at the screen, willing it to go faster. The wifi is really slow today for some reason so let's go back to my unfinished Italy trip.
From the Vatican City, we drove back to Rome and came past this huge marble building that was a monument of some sort.
Piazza Venezia
We finally managed to go to a supermarket on our fourth day in to buy water but mum obviously has different ideas. We ended up buying ham and olive oil (famous there), liquor, pasta, fruits, practically the whole supermarket.
It was quite interesting though. We went to quite a big branch so there was a lot to see.
This is the famous fountain in Italy, the Travi Fountain, where legend says if you throw one coin into the fountain, over your shoulder with your back turned against it, you would be able to return to Italy. If you throw 2 coins, you would get married and if you throw 3, you would get a divorce (don't ask me why, it works that way in the legends and stories)
We didn't manage to get a single one in - not because we did not try, but because it was so crowded, we couldn't even get close to it. We also jokingly wondered if the coins landed on someone else's head (opps!)
We continued down the streets, buying a gelato along the way in. My mum bought this flavor which we have never heard of before (and I told her not to because it looked like faked flavors with a bright purple syrup coating) and it ended up tasting like cough syrup (at least to us). We were pushing the back and forth because neither of us liked it in the least.
It took us quite a long walk and a few detours to finally arrive at
The Steps where basically people stop amidst all the business and just hang around. It was really crowded.
With the Steps as our meeting point, we were allowed time to go shopping on our own. Italy is quite famous for its leather products, so we mainly focused on getting those. It took us quite a while but we managed to find a good shoe shop where my mum bought lots of shoes for herself, for my brother and my father. I, on the other hand, opt to get a real leather jacket instead. I got an olive one for 149 Euros.
After all that shopping, we had to walk down a very long way to get back to the tour bus. My memory's kind of hazy on this especially without the next pictures to guide me right now (they are in my hard disk and I'm too lazy to get it right now). So until then, ciaos! Hopefully I can get the other pictures of today's activities up soon. I took tons today so it would take me some time to sieve them out.
Labels: Italy, Pictures, Rome, travel
Italy - Colosseum
It just occurred to me that I am leaving for NY in about a week and I'm still not done with posting about my Italy trip (it really shouldn't have taken me this long to actually realize that, but I'm a lazy ass like that). So here I finally am, posting on one of the highlights of the trip - the Colosseum. Well, to start off the day nice and bright, we have my mandatory sky shots. I really liked this one because the clouds were flowing over the mountains almost looking like water with the mountains as a barricade. It was the first time I've seen something like that and it was quite amazing to say the least.
We were driving from Naples back to Rome and we stopped by some stopovers along the way. Speaking of stopovers, there was this one stopover (I can't remember which one) where there was a bus with a seagull stuck in the engine vent. It looked so disgusting and I just tried to avoid it as best as I could but everyone seemed to like pointing it out to me. There were quite a few that were snapping pictures as well. The worse thing was the seagull was completely beheaded because of the engine and I happened to be walking back to our bus when the driver of the other bus decided to get the seagull out of the vent. It was quite a disturbing sight. And no, I couldn't bear to even snap a shot of it. 
Let's be very honest here. I can't remember where this is. I remember we were allowed to go free for like half an hour to literally walk that the street and back up again. There was a hard rock cafe at the end of the street to buy merchandise and stuff but I can't even remember ever going to hard rock cafe in my entire life, so I can't say I am a fan. Despite all that though, I have to emphasize once again how beautiful the architecture is around here.
We finally reached the Colosseum after another short drive and some walking from the car park. Yayy!!
Unfortunately, a portion of the colosseum was under reconstruction. They usually do this portion by portion so most of the time there would be somewhere of the arena having a certain reconstruction.
Here are my obvious attempts at trying to snap pictures without the construction in the way which led to corner pictures haha. Though the blue skies gave me more credit to making the pictures look nicer. And as mentioned, there is my habit of taking pictures against the sunlight. I really don't know why; I just like it when the sun rays are down in the picture. It probably does spoil my eyes when I was taking those pictures though.
The tour guide went to get the tickets and then we were on the way in. Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all for the queue to move along and even to get the tickets. It moved quite smoothly and we got in pretty fast for such a popular tourist spot.
On the right was supposed to be a statue of a man riding a horse but it got destroyed so all that is left is the bodies of both the man and the horse.
And we're finally in! The details of the entire place just amazes me especially because it was made so long ago in the past. The stairs there are really steep and uneven though, so it was a little dangerous if we don't pay attention and you get really breathless after climbing them (or maybe I just need more exercise).
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| The last spectator seats remaining in the arena; everything else got destroyed. |
I came to Italy mainly for 3 things: Rome, Vatican City and Venice, because books mainly speak of these places. Being the bookworm I am, I started thinking of scenarios that happened in the books while I was looking at the place. So I was thinking of gladiators, and killings, imagining them happening at that exact same spot and how those maze looking things held animals and people in before battles.
Not many people do die from these battles though, because killing another gladiator meant compensation to the keeper, so they are usually spared from death.
Some artifacts in the colosseum.
Once again, I really marvel over the details of every single thing they make. Those designs of the pillars for example
The Arc De Truimph which was unfortunately also under reconstruction
I didn't listen to the story because we got a little lost because we were buying some souvenirs LOL.
Vatican City was probably my favorite site in the entire trip.
Labels: Colosseum, Italy, Pictures, Rome, travel
Obviously in construction at the moment... or maybe forever because I'm lazy like this ;)
Visit Montana, Yellowstone National Park