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So Rome wasn't built in a day…doesn't mean you can't SEE it all in a day…at a pinch! We arrived in Rome from Siena on Sunday afternoon & checked into our hostel (Mosaic Hostel) without too many dramas. The hostel itself is pretty nice but we've had a few issues with the staff i.e., they wanted us to pay all in cash even though that's not specified on the booking because they'd gone over their personal quota for card payments already that day…they also refused to give me change for a $20 note when I went down to pay for towels, because it was an inconvenience to them, so he made me count out my shrapnel instead…& then they asked us to leave our rooms by 8:00AM each day (fortunately not a problem anyway for us early risers) because they had some sort of inspection, which apparently involved them coming in & rearranging our stuff (where the hell have my pajamas gone??). Hmm…that aside we had a wonderful whirlwind visit of Rome! We spent Sunday afternoon in a local park with lots of locals enjoying the sunshine. We lay under the trees & read our books & enjoyed not doing much of anything.
Then Monday we attempted to see pretty much every great sight in Rome in one day. We were up at 6:30AM, left the hostel by 8:00AM, spent 3 hours in the morning in ancient Rome looking at the Colosseum & other really, really old stuff nearby, had an hour for lunch, a 4 hour tour of the Vatican city including the Sistine Chapel & St Peter's Basilica, then a 2 hour tour of monumental Rome during which we visited the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, & the Spanish steps, along with a bunch of other sights that all kinda blurred into one by that stage. We finally got home around 8:30PM & collapsed into bed…exhausted…a full 12 hour day of intensive, non-stop sightseeing! So yeah, it is technically possible, although if you have the time & the money to space it out a little more I'd definitely recommend it, because although the tour guide for our last tour through monumental Rome was great, my brain had kinda gone all mushy & overloaded by that stage & I really can't remember as much about those sights as I'd like to!
My favourite part of the day was definitely going to the Vatican, & it was really worthwhile having a guide too. We had paid in advance for two tours back to back, so all we had to do was show up at the Vatican museum entrance, look for a guy with a sign & the rest was all sorted out for us. There was no waiting in line for 2 hours for tickets, then waiting in line again for an hour to go through security. We got skip the line passes so we just got to go right on through! Considering we had such limited time in Rome it was definitely worth doing it this way. Strangely enough when we went through security screening Esther's bag got searched & they confiscated a jar of pesto…but I had a sharp knife in my bag that I carry around for cutting up apples, bread rolls etc. & they didn't say anything about that. Hmm…tight security! :P
We got to go through the Vatican museum & look at lots of famous pieces of art, sculptures etc. & having the guide there to explain everything, point out the most important pieces & tell us interesting stories about the history of the Vatican just made it so much more interesting. It really is an incredible place - the ceilings in every single room are covered with exquisitely detailed artwork, & even the marble on the floors is like art in itself. It's like every single surface area is a piece of art! And the Sistine chapel was just amazing…We spent about half an hour outside beforehand with the guide explaining interesting points about various aspects of the paintings i.e., who was depicted in each, how the stories of Moses & Jesus were paralleled along each side of the wall, how the underworld God is depicted with the face of the Pope's secretary because at the time he had wanted to punish Michelangelo & tried to convince the Pope to have him locked up, and that was Michelangelo's way of getting back at him for criticizing his artwork! It was really good to have it all explained beforehand because you're not allowed to make very much noise when you're actually inside the chapel, so it's much nicer just to be able to stand & look. We also visited St Peter's Basilica, which is just incredible. Our guide, Giovani, knew SO much about EVERYTHING & could answer absolutely every question that we threw with him, so it was definitely money well spent :)
In the evening we went on the tour of "monumental Rome" & we were just so grateful to be able to sit down in a minivan for a while after walking around for the past 9 hours, while our guide Luca talked passionately about the history of Rome & it's various famous sights. Luca fancied himself a budding photographer & insisted on taking many pictures of each of us in front of every single monument, at various interesting angles…he would crouch down on the ground & hop from side to side counting "1…2…no no wait, wait!" about 5 times before he'd actually get to the number 3 & take the photo. Unfortunately Luca's ideas about photographic genius didn't quite match up to reality & he seemed to have a particular talent for capturing closed eyes & double chins. But he would spring up enthusiastically, telling us "Look, look at this! I have a gift! Look at this photo!!" & very proudly show us a badly angled photo where I had my eyes half shut & we were both in mid smile because by the 5th countdown you really have no idea when to actually expect the photo! :P Nonetheless, he was a very entertaining, passionate, & knowledgeable guide, and he made our evening in Rome, however exhausting, a really lovely one :)
We stopped by the grocery store on the way home to get some food, dragging our feet, & finally collapsed into bed, barely speaking, just managing to eat & brush our teeth before we both passed out into a deeeeeeeeeeeep deep sleep. Seriously looking forward to some relaxation time in Positano by the beach tomorrow! But, it does prove that if you are REALLY determined, you can see all (well, OK, most!) of the major site of Rome in a single day! ;)
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