As we are about to leave for Florence tomorrow, I am beginning to contemplate how the second phase of our journey has been. To be honest, I think that many of us were quite willing to leave the grotty streets of Athens for a different city. For an equally large number of us, Rome was a city which had to live up to very high expectations. Speaking for myself, it has certainly not failed to live up to these expectations at all.
After a somewhat relaxing and tranquil ferry ride across to Italy, and after using an Italian train toilet which, to my horror, emptied itself directly onto the track, we arrived in Rome on Tuesday evening ready for bed. Having anticipated that 'Youth Hostel' meant a repulsive dump full of bandits and infectious diseases, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a dry, warm bed and a clean bathroom.
The next morning we launched straight into our tour of Rome's major sites, including some of the most beautiful churches in the world. Other highlights were the Roman Forum Trajan's Column. The latter is a depiction of many scenes, some separated by pictures of trees, on a sort of comic strip which winds its way up the column. We briefly visited several museums (in which I forgot to turn off my flash – whoops) before moving on to Hadrian's Villa in the afternoon.
An amazingly vast private residence, the Villa provides an excellent way to spend an afternoon; our wander exposed us to a huge variety of structures and some fascinating history. We concluded the day with a night tour of the Colosseum and everything we had seen during the day, which look surprisingly different at night.
Thursday was our big church exploration day, and the interior and exterior of seemingly every church in Rome is mind-blowingly beautiful. The variation of each is just as astounding, and just as we found ourselves thinking that one church's splendour was unbeatable, Mr Buckingham would rush us off into another even better one! My favourite was St John Lateran Basilica; the combination of breathtaking paintings and sculptures, along with a humungous dome made it a true standout. We learnt that the front doors had been pinched from the Senate-House at some stage.
Other events that day included a visit to the Pantheon, a temple which is rectangular on the outside but circular on the inside. The Pantheon also possesses the world's largest unreinforced dome.
On Friday, we were yet again blown away by a trip to the Vatican, and more than an hour's queuing was soon forgotten in the amazement of the paintings of the Sistine Chapel and the other artwork in the museums, including a seemingly perfect painting of Raphael. In the afternoon we visited St Peter's Basilica, which is probably the best church we have seen. The colonnade around the outside, designed to welcome people in, is constructed so cleverly that if one stands at a certain point, the several rows of columns line up and look as if they are one.
Saturday morning saw us use the metro to go to Ostia, an ancient port city of approximately one hundred thousand inhabitants, and we spent a great two hours exploring the ruins. In the afternoon we visited the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and St Paul's Without the Walls.
On our last day before heading off to Florence, we visited Naples and Pompeii. The Naples museum was a highlight in an otherwise filthy and generally unpleasant city, while Pompeii was simply fascinating, and the preserved state of the structures allows a great level of exploration to be carried out.
In summary, Rome has been a fantastic leg of the trip; it is a city truly with something for everyone. I must stop blogging now, as we all need to pack and go to bed!
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