It's the bane of my existence. When there's none you just accept it and move on. But when it says that there is internet and it almost works a few times but really doesn't work then you spend hours trying to get it to stay connected so you can just send this one email or check train times. If only you could accept that it is not going to work and stop trying you could move on. Make a new plan for getting train times and go do something else. But then it says connected and you can't help but think maybe this time it means it. It's really irritating. But now I am writing this offline and you may not see it for 2 more days because that's how long I'm at this hostel with it's not very impressive internet.
So I made it to Rome. Very exciting. I got up fairly early on the 2nd and headed to the train station over an hour before the train was leaving because I thought the station would be very busy what with the holiday. Turned out I was wrong. No queue for tickets at all and I had to wait an hour for the train. But I didn't want to risk missing the train and I'd had some long lines before. Got into Rome, found my hostel and went to be a tourist. I visited the trevi fountain and the spanish steps and the mausoleum of augustus and the piazza navona and campo de fiore and trajan's column. I didn't start until about 3pm so by the time I got to trajan's column it was dark out. So I headed back to the hostel for some dinner.
The 2 girls in my dorm were getting up very early the next morning to try to get to the vatican before the crowds. They planned to get up at 6.30. I was planning on doing the vatican that day as well but didn't want to have to rush all the way over there in the morning to try and avoid lining so I decided to put my trust in the lonely planet which said that lunchtime was better than mornings. But I didn't get back to sleep after they left so I ended up getting up before 7.30 anyway.
I headed to the Roman Forum first because one of the girls had given me the very useful tip that since you buy one ticket for both the colosseum and the roman forum you can skip the massive lines at the former by starting at the latter. Good advice because there was no line at all into the Roman forum at 8.30am but the line for the colosseum at 10 was huge. And I walked right past it.
The Roman Forum was really interesting. There is so much long term history there. From back when it was a republic to when Christianity was the official religion that area was used for all sorts of important things. I wandered around in there for at least an hour and a half. There is just so much to see. Then I headed out past the arch of titus and the arch of constantine to the flavian amphitheatre (colosseum to you). It was pretty impressive in terms of scale and there is a lot of history there but I saw a much better preserved amphitheatre in Nimes and didn't really feel like I needed a whole lot of time at this one. So I did the loop and took some photos and headed forward the vatican. I got to st peter's basilica just after 11.30 and had to wait about 15 minutes to get through security. It is a pretty impressive building. There's something to see everywhere you look. And those guard guys have the silliest uniforms I've seen so far. And I've seen some odd ones. Though mostly just in the hats. There are some very strange uniform hats out there. But these guys are stripey all over. And kind of poofy (I'm referring to the shape of the clothes there. No other meaning intended).
By the time I came out of the basilica at 12.15 the line was a quarter the length it had been when I went in. I went around to the vatican museum, getting there at about 12.30, and there was absolutely no line at all. Thank you lonely planet. I was through security and bought my ticket in under 5 minutes.
So I made it to Rome. Very exciting. I got up fairly early on the 2nd and headed to the train station over an hour before the train was leaving because I thought the station would be very busy what with the holiday. Turned out I was wrong. No queue for tickets at all and I had to wait an hour for the train. But I didn't want to risk missing the train and I'd had some long lines before. Got into Rome, found my hostel and went to be a tourist. I visited the trevi fountain and the spanish steps and the mausoleum of augustus and the piazza navona and campo de fiore and trajan's column. I didn't start until about 3pm so by the time I got to trajan's column it was dark out. So I headed back to the hostel for some dinner.
The 2 girls in my dorm were getting up very early the next morning to try to get to the vatican before the crowds. They planned to get up at 6.30. I was planning on doing the vatican that day as well but didn't want to have to rush all the way over there in the morning to try and avoid lining so I decided to put my trust in the lonely planet which said that lunchtime was better than mornings. But I didn't get back to sleep after they left so I ended up getting up before 7.30 anyway.
I headed to the Roman Forum first because one of the girls had given me the very useful tip that since you buy one ticket for both the colosseum and the roman forum you can skip the massive lines at the former by starting at the latter. Good advice because there was no line at all into the Roman forum at 8.30am but the line for the colosseum at 10 was huge. And I walked right past it.
The Roman Forum was really interesting. There is so much long term history there. From back when it was a republic to when Christianity was the official religion that area was used for all sorts of important things. I wandered around in there for at least an hour and a half. There is just so much to see. Then I headed out past the arch of titus and the arch of constantine to the flavian amphitheatre (colosseum to you). It was pretty impressive in terms of scale and there is a lot of history there but I saw a much better preserved amphitheatre in Nimes and didn't really feel like I needed a whole lot of time at this one. So I did the loop and took some photos and headed forward the vatican. I got to st peter's basilica just after 11.30 and had to wait about 15 minutes to get through security. It is a pretty impressive building. There's something to see everywhere you look. And those guard guys have the silliest uniforms I've seen so far. And I've seen some odd ones. Though mostly just in the hats. There are some very strange uniform hats out there. But these guys are stripey all over. And kind of poofy (I'm referring to the shape of the clothes there. No other meaning intended).
By the time I came out of the basilica at 12.15 the line was a quarter the length it had been when I went in. I went around to the vatican museum, getting there at about 12.30, and there was absolutely no line at all. Thank you lonely planet. I was through security and bought my ticket in under 5 minutes.
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