Positano, Italy, Day 4

7:30am Early start this morning.

8:30am Checked out and paid off the hotel bill which took forever. Cost was 360 Euros and an additional 12 euros for city tax, 4 euros a night... I had a really bad feeling we were not going to make it in time for the train.

8:35am We rushed off to Termini station and had to queue up to get our tickets validated, that took about 5 minutes. We then rushed off to the platform to catch the train to Naples. Made it in time with 2 minutes to spare. We were really lucky not to miss the train.

9am till 10:10am Sat in the comfort of our seats and watched the scenery go by....

10:10am Arrived at Naples station. There was an man there who we assumed worked for Giovanni, who was our driver from Naples to Positano. Turns out the man who picked up our luggage was some random guy who hangs out at train stations, "helps" people with their luggage and expects 10 Euros in return. Giovanni gave him 5 Euros and told us the real deal on who these people are. Opps.

At Naples train station

Our ride

Naples has a lot of garbage. Seems like it's built from garbage. Going further outfield the scenery changes drastically like night and day. Rolling hills and houses built on the slopes of mountains. The south is simply stunning.

12ish Arrived in the hotel, checked in. We're living on the -2 floor. That's right. Minus 2. The floor goes all the way to -5. The hotel is on the top floor, level 0. Our room's on a slope. If you look upwards above the balcony you don't see anything other than sticks of bamboo and the sky.

Positano, view from the top of the hotel.  Positano is a small town located on the Amalfi coast.  Much of its economy is tourism.  With such great views you can see why!

Roadside shop

1pm Walked about, took photos, explored and had lunch. Starter was sautéed shellfish (mussels and clams) and mussels in white wine, garlic, cherry tomatoes, olive oil and crusty ciabatte. Mains were seafood (clams mussels prawns octopus) pizza and the restaurant's specialty pizza (fried eggplant in a parmagiana style with basil tomato and mozzarella). We couldn't finish all of the pizza and had it takeaway.

3ish pm Walked on the beach. It's mainly stones. Very different to what I think of beaches usually. Also did more exploring. There's a limoncello shop which apparently makes the best limoncello. The same shop sells all sorts of things lemony which includes perfume, soap, oils, etc. We also went to another shop and had samplings of different limoncello. Strawberry, blackberry, cream, rockmelon. The lemon one's still the best. Blackberry tasted like wet socks, even smells like that too.

Taken at beach level

That's the beach behind us

It just smells so good!

One of the many walkways that form a maze of shops, these are littered everywhere and literally form the town

4pm Walked back to the hotel and made bookings for Capri for tomorrow and Pompeii on Saturday. Then proceeded to get some water and other drinks and sit in the balcony for hours.  This is the view from the balcony attached to our room.

7:46pm I'm still sitting in the balcony. Will upload this at some point. Internet costs 5 Euros an hour here. :)

11:10pm Time for sleeps.... dinner was leftover pizza.

Other ramblings

1. There was a girl following us yesterday in the vatican taking pictures of me, that was rather strange.
2. Bangledeshi person yesterday who couldn't guess where I'm from. Usual guesses, Korea, Japan, China.. blah
3. My idea of pizza has changed. Marinara pizza isn't marinara pizza here, it's tomato with cheese. Risotto that Lauren had didn't really taste like risotto it was more of a fried brown rice. Also the pizzas here are rather exceedingly simple with only a few toppings. But perhaps that's the way it should be.

Rome, Italy, Day 3

8am Breakfast. Tea, toast and butter.

10ish Set off for the vatican. Weather was good in the morning, there was sun whereas the previous two days were cloudy. We caught the train from Termini to Ottaviano San Pietro. It was the first time we'd caught public transport in Italy. We used the Roma card and couldn't figure out that you had to tap it instead of inserting it like a normal ticket. No matter, we arrived at 10:40 and the pope was there giving a talk. We wanted to go into St Peter's basilica but that was closed until 1pm. So we hung around for a while, caught some Pope on telly and took some photos. The square has its own border patrol. You have to go through security before you're allowed through!

Walking from Via di Porta Angelica to St Peter's

The pope is giving a talk behind me on the left, to the right is one of the many pope screens.

11:15am Time for lunch. My stomach is now Norwegian, what can I say. In case you didn't know, I have lunch at 11am in Norway.

Ravioli with spinach, tomato and cream

12ish We caught a train back to Termini then to Colesseo where the Colosseum is located.  There was a lengthy queue outside for the tickets but good thing we had the Rome pass and just walked straight in.  The Colosseum is named after the colossal figure of Constantine which doesn't exist anymore. During a time they had 170 days of holidays a year in Rome. That period in time was full of Colosseum "entertainment".

Inside a train on the way to Colosseo station

That's also a train with bonus graffiti

Introducing the Colosseum

Arch of Constantine behind

Inside, on the 2nd floor, North entrance

Side view from the 2nd floor

Who should we kill next hmmmm.... these guys were set up outside the Colosseum.

View from the 2nd floor

Ground floor

Floating head ;)

3ish After the colosseum, we headed back to the vatican via Metro but not before first stopping for gelato.

4pm After lengthy queue and passing through vatican border security again, we entered the hallowed halls of St Peter's basilica. Just in time as well, it started pouring rain.

Interior.  You could walk closer to the back if you said you were there for mass.  I had to zoom in to take this photo.

Interior

One of many pope statues and figures in the interior

A flight of 537 steps and 5 euros took us from the foot to the summit of the dome. There were a lot of people and I felt like a sardine in a can. Great views at the top!

Dome

We were right at the top of the dome when the following photos were taken

7:30pm We had dinner close to where Piazza Navona is, took a walk from St Peter's even though it was raining.

Starter

Lauren's main course, chicken stuffed with some vegetables and a bitter tasting cabbage on the side

Pasta with 4 different types of cheese.  I had ordered something else but the english to italian translation was completely off. :)  The pasta was still really good though so I'm glad I had it!

9:45pm Walked to Piazzi Di Spagna, Spagna station, back to Termini then walked home. I'm really buggered, a total of 19418 steps today.  Time for bed now close to 12am...

Tomorrow we're off to Naples and Positano. Gotta get up early in the morning.  Some random Bangladesh guy asked where I was from today as well, he guessed China, Korea, Japan.  All fails!

Rome, Italy, Day 2

8am Woke up, had a shower, and breakfast.  I'm not a big eater in the morning.  Had a croissant, a mandarin and some coffee.  The coffee didn't go down too well.

10am We took a walk along "Via Nationale" to "Mercati di Traiano" (or Trajan's Market) which is a large complex of ruins in Central Rome. It was built in AD 100-110. We were here for hours, it's immense.

Large building along "Via Nationale"

All subsequent photos are taken in Trajan's Market.

 View of the corridor along the Great Hall

Cupids, check out the detail!

Some fancy art that's not Roman.

Incomplete statue of a Roman figure.  Many of the sculptures are incomplete.

View of another corridor

In the Great Hall facing one of the rooms

What the broken Roman's pose could have looked like...

This was taken on the 2nd floor of the Great Hall at the balcony

This was taken on the 2nd floor of the Great Hall at the balcony

This was taken on the 2nd floor of the Great Hall

View from the military garden which is outside and above on the 2nd floor

Roman well

More Ruins

A small part of the large hemicycle

Trajan's column with "Piazza Venezia" in the background, taken at the large hemicycle

Large hemicycle

Another photo before we leave, this is taken at the Great Hall

2pm Lunch was at "Via 4 Novembre", a pizzeria. I had some pasta that looked like hokkien noodles but it tastes like it was made from potatoes. Similar to the gnocchi that Lauren had.

Checked out a nearby shop, look at all the colourful pasta! I need some of that back in Norway. There's such a wide variety of pasta here.

3:40pm Arrived at the "Fortana di Trevi" (or Trevi Fountain), the largest Baroque fountain in the city and apparently one of the most famous fountains in the world. There were a lot of people.

4pm The Pantheon is a temple to all the gods of ancient rome. It was first built between 27 and 25BC. The current structure was built in AD 118.

Outside the Pantheon

Fountain just outside the Pantheon

Raphael's tomb in the Pantheon

More amazing Roman artifacts within the Pantheon. There's so many photos I wish I can upload all of them!

5pm Gelato time at Gelateria Giolitti. There was a long queue but it was worth the wait as you can see.

5:26pm Walked back to the Pantheon then to the "Piazza Navona" which is a huge city square. In the middle houses the "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi" (Fountain of Four Rivers) with two other fountains on either end. The one on the southern end is called the "Fontana del Moro" and the one on the northern end is called the Fountain of Neptune. There are also many shops along all sides of the square and a lot of people. That seems to be a common theme around here. :)

A shop selling sausages near the Pantheon

View of the "Piazza Navona"

"Fontana del Moro", the building to the left is the church "Chiesa Di S Agnese in Agone"

Behind me is the "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi"

"Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi"

Fountain of Neptune

There was a lamborghini exhibit which I was pleasantly surprised. A gold lamborghini. Nice. This was just outside the "Santa Maria Della Pace", a church close to Piazza Navona.

Gold lamborghini!  Me heart!

6:50pm We took an accidental turn off to "Palazzo Di Giustizia". At this point we turned back because it was getting dark. And we were hungry for dinner.

Graffiti along the street

Nice touch of planty green

"Palazzo Di Giustizia".  You can see a bridge just ahead.

7:44pm At the "Piazza Venezia" which is close to Trajan's market and shown in earlier photos.  Getting close to being completely dark at this point.

8:54pm We finally decided to have dinner along "Via Genova", another pizzeria.

Dinner is served! Sausage pizza, mushroom pizza, and two different salads. I ordered limoncello and Lauren had some red wine.

11pm Or thereabouts. Arrived back in the hotel. It's now 2am and I should go to bed. Blogging is hard work, and uploading these 40 photos took me at least an hour and writing took another hour!

Other ramblings

1. People think I'm Japanese.  Today having dinner the waiter thanked me by saying "arigato" and yesterday someone said I was Japanese at restaurant "La Famiglia"!  This has happened in Australia, Iceland, Italy, and pretty much everywhere that I've been to.
2. The taps where you wash your hands are powered by foot pedals.  I was wondering how to operate them and a little girl had to help me.  That was embarrassing.
3. Steps taken today 16756, number is probably closer to 18-19000 since I didn't have my backpack with me for several hours and my mobile phone with the pedometer wasn't in use.
4. The buildings here are simply immense!  The work and time taken to build them must've taken thousands of man hours.  The photos I've taken don't convey how huge the buildings are.  They must be seen in real life to be fully appreciated.