| I moved to my new accommodations today. This was a bit interesting since the
lady who had the room didn't speak that much English. The room was in a large
apartment. There several rooms in the apartment. They each have their own private
bathrooms and the only common space is the hallway and a small room with
a table and a TV, so it's really not much different than a hotel room. I was
not too impressed with the first room the lady showed me. I guess it would
have worked, but not for the price she was asking. Given my lack of Italian
and here limited English it took a while to communicate that message, but
it was done eventually and she showed me a much better room down the hall
which I took. The room comes with a breakfast, the only catch is that I
have to walk about 4 blocks to where the lady owns a restaurant for the
breakfast.
Once I got settled into my new place it was time for some site seeing. The
first on my list was Vatican City, mainly St. Peter's Basilica. I didn't have
time for the Sistine Chapel, but I may go back for that. An older Australian
couple I met two nights ago said the line up was huge, so I'll have to see
if I'm up for that. On my way to Vatican City I stopped in at the Pantheon
and passed through a few other sites like Piazza Navona. There is so much
to see that I didn't even bother to try photograph much of it.
After my first full day in Rome I definitely agree with others who say
the place is intense. It's kind of what I expected Hong Kong to be last
December, but it wasn't. The streets are narrow, packed with a ton of people,
and filled with traffic. And, what makes matters worse is you often have
to walk where the vehicles drive because there are many cars or scooters
parked too close to the buildings. I couldn't imagine what it might be like if there
wasn't the law that only allows the locals to drive their vehicles every
other day. Both Paris and Arles had plenty of scooters, but they are nothing
like Rome. They are buzzing all around you like bees around a bee hive! They
have lines marking the center of the bigger streets. But it seems they're
only a guide as cars and scooters will do everything possible to maximize the
throughput of the streets, go as many lines wide as they can, often using
up some of the on coming lane and sidewalk to squeeze through tighter sections
of the road.
The city buses in Rome are much smaller than back home, almost half the
width and a third the length. I guess that's so they can navigate the
tight streets.
Here's few photos taken along the way to Vatican city.
Trajan's Column.
Victor Emmanuel Monument.
Pantheon.
Notice the big beam of light shinning in from the top.
The beam of light did a good job in lighting up one area
of the inside.
I would be interesting to visit this place at different times
of the day and year to see different parts of the inside
lit up by the beam, like this area for instance.
Piazza Navona.
St Peter's Square, the Obelisk, and St Peter's Basilica.
Inside St Peter's Basilica. This place is massive!
I did the long 500+ step climb to the top of the dome. On the
way up you get to stop at the bottom of the dome on the inside,
which gives you a great view of the inside of the basilica. You
are however behind screen, so it's hard to take pictures from
there.
Looking from the top of the dome out over St Peter's square.
If you look closely, you can see the roof of the Pantheon,
the Victor Emmanuel Monument, and the Coliseum.
A close up of the Victor Emmanuel Monument and the Coliseum.
A close up of the Pantheon and the Victor Emmanuel Monument.
Part of the Vatican City grounds.
The Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel is in the bottom
right of the picture.
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