Rome

Our next stop was Rome. The overnight train from Zurich provided a comfortable and peaceful sleep with a 'rocking cradle' effect. I almost dozed off the moment i laid on the bunker.
Fortunately we managed to reserve a twin sharing cabin which appeared crampy enough. Can't imagine sharing this space with several others. (It's supposed to be able to sleep 3 per cabin) The carriage came with a sink, towels and breakfast. But of course it came with a price.... 140E to book per person, that's on top of the 100+ Euro we had to pay for the Europass per day. (Almost 400 singapore dollars per person just for the ride...But at least it provided the transport and overnight sleep.)

Small twin sharing cabin

Carriage comes complete with sink, mirror, towels. But please bring your own wife and toothbrush

We reached the Roma Termini (Rome train station) and along the walls were familiar graffiti, stuff we only see on TV. Wonder how many people will be caned and jailed if this was in Singapore..

Fine art along the railway walls

Our hotel was some distance away from the Termini and we therefore had to transfer to the metro to reach it. The metro is almost like the MRT, but the underground stations were not air conditioned (they don't need air-con anyway, given the climate) and neither were there doors at the platform.

Metro in Rome

The hotel or should i say apartment was on the fifth level and fortunately there was a lift in the building. (Looks like most European bread and breakfast accommodations are flat owners converting their homes into budget hotels.) The lift was more manual and automatic as you have to open 2 doors on your own to get in and open them again on your way out. Lift was tiny as well and we managed to fill up the whole lift with just us and our luggage..

2 X manual doors to open before getting into the tiny lift

Rome can be toured on foot. We visited several churches and museums but i guess there were only a few attractions that left a deeper impression in me. One of them is of course the colosseum. Where gladiators brawl to their deaths in front of excited (or sadistic) crowds.
The exterior of the colosseum appeared just like any stadium, just that it's built with stones and appeared older. Going into the colosseum itself did not really gave us a 'Waaa!!! So nice ah!!' kind of feeling either.
Well, guess it's special because of it's history ba..

Colosseum's exterior: Huge and well... 'stadium looking structure'

Interior: not the wide plain arena i expected like the show 'gladiator'. Maybe the fighters play hide and seek and ambush each other using the walls?

We went on from the Colosseum to the Palatine hill which supposedly is the origin for the word Palace. Cos it was the place the royals of Rome started to live in. The Palatine hill was one of the 'must see' in guidebooks, but after walking around for like 30mins and trying to find our way out, I got a little sick of seeing ruins. Really nothing fascinating but broken stone walls and sand. Maybe i just can't appreciate them. Fortunately the Roman Forum (sort of the city center in old Rome) provided good salvage. Also a 'must see' ruin, the forum brightened up our day somehow as the way it was preserved gave us a sensation that we were really walking along the streets of old Rome. It felt like a town which could have been bustling with activity and people. The columns were legendary and so were the arches and small churches nearby.

Roman Forum: Have to be there walking on the street itself to feel it: the sense that this was a bustling town full of activity and people.

Roman columns

Rome is also famous for its fountains. According to books: they managed to get a lot of water via their aqueducts and therefore can afford to built beautiful fountains for leisure. Just walk around Rome and you'll chance upon a fountain surrounded by sculptures of gods/heroes very easily. The Trevi fountain is still my favourite, given it's size and the beauty of the sculptures. There are even seats around it and people just love to sit around and stare at it for hours. Many will also toss coins into the fountain over their back... supposedly will help them return to their eternal life (whatever that means)

Trevi fountain: trickling water, splendid sculptures.. Really a hit with tourists

Fountains in Rome do not merely serve to beautify the area, they keep you alive as well!! We almost didn't believe the hotel owner when he told us we just need an empty bottle to walk around Rome as there are lots of drinking fountain around. But he's been living there for years, don't believe him also cannot.. Rome is cooler than Singapore but still one of the hottest town we've been to in this trip. The fountains were really energy boosters as they somehow found the right temperature for the drinking water and you'll feel thoroughly refreshed after a mouth full. And best of all? It's free!

Fountain fountain on the wall

Probably the only thing in Rome we should have done was to walk around at night as the city is
decorated with spotlights on their attractions and supposedly places like the Trevi fountain will be beautified like 2 folds by the lights. But somehow, we sleep at about 8-9pm while in Italy (maybe because it's already 2-3am in Singapore) cos we'll be super tired by then. Also the many advise from guidebooks to beware of pickpockets in Rome kept us away from the streets at night.

The Trevi at night (taken from someone's Flickr)