arriving at rome's train terminal
the funky hostel we stayed in rome. it's called maian, and the decor looked really familiar.....seemed to be mostly from ikea. the landlord was a very nice guy too.
bf acting spastic
colosseum
our first stop, the colosseum, the roman amphitheatre that saw many deadly gladiatorial combats and wild animal fights. aiyo, people in the past had no internet or tv, so they watch such fights for entertainment. i must admit i was a little disappointed when i first saw it, cos i expected it to be plain white! you know..like in postcards?? haha..
but still..even after years of neglect and weather, it still retained its grandeur.
the construction is just amazing...
my reflection
the arch of constantine
everywhere in europe there are arches to commemorate this and that. this one is to commemorate emperor constantine's victory in AD 312 over his co-emperor. after doing a little reading up on rome's history, i found out that rome was once upon a time ruled by many crappy emperors until this guy came along and kind of unified the roman empire.
palatine
the palatine, used to be where all the roman aristocracy lived and emperors built their palaces, but now this place is just dominated by ruins. but hey i think it's one of the nicest place in rome! there are wild floers everywhere and the view is just...wow..
Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II
this was built to honour victor emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. it's made of pureee whiiiteee marblee! WAH!
trevi fountain
ok i SERIOUSly dont understand what is the big deal about this fountain..sculptures like these can be found everywhere in rome. but this place is always crowded. really..there are always people sitting around and staring at the fountain..for what reason i've no idea.
the central figure of the fountain is neptune, and he is flanked by two tritons.
the spanish steps
was a little disappointed when i saw this again..cos the steps werent white!! they looked totally white in guide books and postcards. sigh sigh, technology these days.. the steps are..light brownish in colour. where are the roses??? ok nvm, it's still a romantic place nonetheless hehe. above is the church of trinaita dei monti.
the steps overlook via condotti and many other streets, which is where all the prada, dior, and lv are located. another place swarmed with tourists like us.
the Vatican City
towering walls that surround the Vatican City, separating it from the rest of Rome
the queues were CRAZY. we went at around 9am and there was a long long queue outside already.
outside the vatican city at st peter's.
it's supposed to be the mother of all churches, beautiful design inside, unfortunately the lighting was very bad, and it was quite impossible for us to capture the beauty of the place with our cameras. we also climbed up many many many narrow, spiraling flights of stairs all the way up to the dome. it was quite scary at some points in time..claustrophobic! it's simply amazing how they are able to construct a passageway all the way to the top at the time when technology was not so advanced. a wonder creation of mankind... the photo in the centre is what we can see when we are up in the gallery next to the dome.
at the top of the dome, overlooking the city of rome, or was it the vatican city?
the panoramic pic of the vatican city
we know that singaporeans have been here because...
at ground level back again, me taking a photo of the dome.
jump jump!
the vatican museum
the largest museum in europe! takes 5 hours to finish walking the entire place!
statues wannabes
michelangelo's masterpiece - the very famous sistine chapel. taken illegally! aiya but everyone was doing it haha..doesnt look very nice here eh..but trust me it's much more impressive when you see it for real! it took him 4 years to complete it!!!
spiraling staircase to the exit of the museum
Bridge of Castel St. Angelo
the tiniest bus i've ever seen!
byebye rommeee..
that's it for italy! took me damnnnnn loooonnnnnngggg to get all these photos up!
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