Okay, I need to offer some warnings before you read this.
1) this is the most eventful day of my life for both good and bad reasons
2) it is so eventful that I will be using headings as this will be long
3) this will be long, you will need coffee and lots of it, maybe popcorn, sleeping bag and a change of clothes. Also maybe an electronic bookmark, so if you have to live your life at some stage before completely reading this, then you can leave and return.
4) I am still hungover from getting home at blank o'clock so could be jibber ish (autocorrect makes that two words, interesting much?!)
5) there are plenty of warnings, oh and it will be long, in case you didn't read the warnings.
6) if you are short on time, skip everything until you get to STEVE'S PIMPN NIGHT OUT, that is the real event of Rome.

The following will be in chronological order, otherwise I won't cover everything (which I know I won't anyway as there was so much).
METRO TRAINS
So we all get the train into town. It was, unfortunately, peak hour and 50 people cannot fit in one carriage so we spread to multiple carriages. Luckily everyone is in clumps, so if you get off at the wrong place or miss the stop, you are not left alone and you have someone else to blame for getting lost. Anyway, we all safely arrive. We are at the walls of the Vatican.

THE VATICAN
First question (well Vatican question). I get that you are entering another country, so you need metal detectors, but what is the point if no one is looking at your bags through the system and you don't need to empty your pockets, and nothing is detected? First Vatican fact: the security was introduced because of one man. For the purpose of this story, we will name him Moe. Moe decides one day he would like to visit Michelangelo's first ever sculpture, when he was 23. Michelangelo I mean is 23, not Moe (I don't know his age). Second fact (even though I haven't finished the first fact yet): this sculpture was controversial in the 16th century as it depicted Mary holding the body of Jesus, yet Mary was far too young looking and what is worth was sitting with her legs apart. OMG scandal, Today Tonight was called in at the time but Anna Koren did not think it was worth while. Where was I? Oh, yeah, so Moe decides to walk into the Vatican with a hammer and decides he wants to....hmmm.....edit the 500 year old sculpture with his hammer. So he got to Mary's nose and Jesus' foot. So now there is apparently security, even if it appears pointless. First fact done.

THE VATICAN: THE MUSEUMS
Anyway we met our tour guide (Steve was not keen on getting a 1000€ fine if caught guiding us) and she took us into the museums. Wow is an understatement. It was purely amazing, stunning, beautiful. I can't believe how blown away I was. I am usually so indifferent to art, but the history behind everything drew me into the art. The sculptures, the paintings, the tapestries were wonderful (struggled to find an adjective I hadn't used already). It is amazing to think that we walked past 500 pieces of art work in an hour (probably) and paid attention to 5% of it, although even the most ordinary piece of work would be the centre of an exhibition at any other art expo around the world. Apparently the Vatican holds 40% of the world's art pieces. I'm not surprised since the museum is more than a kilometer long. Highlights include the roof that is painted to look like it is three dimensional stone, and the tapestry where Jesus' eyes follow you no matter where you stand (imagine if there were contact lenses that could do that, being at a club will probably make everyone think you are stalking them), also in the same tapestry the table faced left when you were on the left side, and also followed you to face right when you were on the right side. Crazy.

THE VATICAN: THE SISTINE CHAPEL
We moved onto the Sistine Chapel. We had been told about the history of it. Michelangelo was asked by a pope to paint the roof. At this stage, he had never painted and was a sculptor. He had some experienced painters with him, although he dismissed them after a couple of weeks. He was 28, I think, when he started it. The funniest thing about it, is one of his critics who really didn't like the fact that everyone was naked (which makes sense, because if you are standing in front of god, surely you would be in your natural state, as he created you, if you believe in that lol). Anyway when he painted the wall he put this man's face in hell on one of the figures. Take that! Although several popes later, and they did decide to cover everyone with loincloths.

Anyway I didn't know where to look. I stared at the back wall for 10 minutes straight, just trying to take it in. Then looked at the roof and walls for another 10 too. I think there are only two places in my life I would stand in one place for 20 minutes, either at the train station if I had just missed a train (unlike the tube of course) or at a bar if I am getting cheap drinks. Anyway there was so much to take in. My next was seriously sore from looking up to the roof. Anyway we then left here and walked into St Peter's Basilica.

THE VATICAN: ST PETER'S BASILICA
This would have to be the most amazing and spectacular church in the world. And for very good reason. I can't do it any justice so I am not going to write much. Other than to say it is so extravagant. Even the pope's altar is made of bronze and sat 60 feet high. We also looked at some of the mummified and waxed remains of previous popes too. Crazy. Me head was spinning trying to take in the sights and the information all at once. From there we walked out the front to St Peter's Square, another amazing sight too. Interestingly the obelisk in the square is Egyptian and was taken from a temple in Egypt.

THE COLOSSEUM
As a group we took the train to the colosseum. Which only got its name recently when they melted down the huge 100 foot bronze Colossal statue which used to stand out the front. Our tour guide here left a lot to be desired. I'm no your guide, but walking into the Colosseum, a place we all have waited years to see, and sitting us down to talk to us for 40 minutes in a location where we couldn't see anything, is not cool. I did learn a few things though:
1) the Romans believed three things would bring you happiness. Good food, good sex and good toilets. Fulfill those three things and you will be happy. All these things also we're better when shared with others. Food is always much better in company. Sex on your own is not as fun and with someone else (maybe not everyone will agree lol) and they also believed socializing on the toilet. Strange.
2) next thing I learnt. Many hand gestures were started by the Romans. Eg the OK signal made with your thumb and pointer making a circle and other three fingers pointing up, meant ready for battle. Also thumbs down meant death to the criminal fighting the gladiator (although life was not thumbs up). The two finger salute you give someone you don't like, meant I want to shoot you with an arrow, as those fingers would hold the bow back. The middle finger originated as a way prostitutes on the street would tell people they were open for business, and because of that became a signal done in jest to take off a prostitute. So next time you give someone the finer, you are telling the world you are open for business, not being rude.
The colosseum itself, was incredible and to think that Romans had the same design concepts for a 60,000 people stadium as we have now. Apparently it could be evacuated in 15 minutes if needed due to design in the number of stairwells. The tour was not amazing, and then he told us his theory that civilizations that have evolved all had slavery, and it was necessary for evolution, hmmmm are you surprised that we left. Anyway we then checked out the old forum next door.

Almost forgot, the colosseum was first built as a political propaganda tool. It was free for all Romans to attend and held such extravagant events there to demonstrate the power of the roman empire. They would have a political speech to start and end the day and include public executions too. One such extravagant event was a fight between 20 African elephants and 100 lions. Could you imagine something of that magnitude? Crazy.

THE FORUM
The logic behind the roman's design of everything was so far ahead of their time. It was very easy to imagine today's businesses and people using these places 2000 years ago. Obviously you need to be creative, but it certainly wasn't hard. The forum is really just a set of ruins, but extravagant in its own way. We then moved to the Victor Emmanuel Monument.

VICTOR EMMANUEL MONUMENT
This monument has angered many Italians as the cost to build it was monstrous and almost single handily sent the country broke, especially at a time money was getting tight anyway. We took the elevator to the top and view was (insert new adjective, as I'm being too repetitive). The photo attached is from the top of the monument. Best view I have seen of Rome (if we had time to climb the stairs at St Peter's basilica then it would've been as good.

SPANISH STEPS AND DINNER
Spanish steps was cool, but I hadn't heard of them. Lots of the guys didn't know them, but lots of the women did. My conclusion, they must be used in love movies! This whole time myself, Amy, Corrina and Brenton had been traveling together with cameo appearances from Juliette, Lee, Dan, and Alex. We met up with Nicole, Emma and Sean at the drunken ship (and effort to find in the first place) and went found a restaurant overlooking campo del fiori. Amazing meal, so many laughs. Anyone looking would think we were all old friends. Best lasagna I have ever ever ever had, and also we tried tiramisu, because that's what you do in Rome. And it was good.

SCUBA STEVE'S PIMPN NIGHT OUT
9pm and we all met up as a group. The only requirement so far, was we all needed to be in a "I <3 Roma" t-shirt, so we went as team purple. We waited in one of the piazzas for one of Steve's mates to take us to a club. 20€ unlimited alcohol, dangerous, yes. Steve's mate rocks up, gold chain, dark fella, Afro, big coat on and woman by his side, pimp much?! Anyway then we are taken into THE DEATH TRAP! This is not the name of the club, but it should be after 6 injuries including Mel going to hospital to get stitches in her head.
LOGIC QUIZ:
1) When you offer unlimited alcohol will people get drunk?
2) When people get more drunk do they dance with more or less coordination?
3) When people dance with drinks, and they are drunk, will they spill more or less of their drinks?
4) Is polished floorboards on a dancefloor a good idea (please note there is a correlation between this question and earlier questions)
5) Shoes that, girls in particular, go out in have lots of grip and can be used to go hiking?
Okay, put all this together, I think everyone fell at least once. In no particular order, one guy slipped and smashed his back on a groove on the wall and looked like he had been lashed with a whip 4 times, another girl broke down in tears when her knee turned the wrong way while slipping and then smashed that on the ground (she went home immediately), another girl faceplanted while dancing and had grit all over her face and was taken to the bathroom in tears. The worst was Mel, she was getting down from being on Warwick's shoulders and he slipped and she hit her head on the wall. She left soon after, and then they realized her white blonde hair had crimson streaks through. She needed to go to hospital but I'll come back to this story.

I need a breather, this is so much effort and I have been writing this blog for 2 hours now.

Okay, on with the show. We were taken to Rome's biggest nightclub around 11.30 but it was too early so we couldn't go in. We went back to the other bar where Steve was told off for leaving and then us coming back. Eventually upon leaving the club, as we left in different clumps we were having lots of trouble finding a cab. We had a group of 9 people and myself and Brenton took charge to get us home. We have to send out a special thankyou to the police officer who informed us of the taxi strike, and not send a thankyou to anyone who should've informed Steve of this (at this point he had gone to hospital with Mel, and they couldn't get her to hospital due to the taxi strike too). It took us over 2 hours and 4 locals help for us to finally get one taxi. Luckily he let us all in and charged us 10€ each, he would've made a mint but we didn't care. Finally back at the hotel and there were still about 12 of the 50 people still hadn't made it back. we sent our cab to one of the groups with the instruction, "Go to Termini, find Australian woman Corrina". About an hour and half the taxi returned with Corrina and the last 4 people. The only person missing now was Ben. But he made it back soon after. We could go to sleep. The day was over. The most eventful, amazing, stressful, hilarious day I have ever had. Amy and I succeeded. We kept saying in the lead up to this trip, that we need to do something so we can say "When in Rome". We succeeded in this, and far more. WHEN IN ROME!
Now I can sleep on the bus, oh s*** no I can't baby singing Aya Aya Yippy is going to come on in 10mins. Fml!